Just like any other business, the healthcare sector is more saturated than ever before. Patients are exposed to a variety of options when it comes to finding a healthcare center or hospital near them for medical services. In addition, every other healthcare organization is focused on creating awareness in a bid to capture a share of the market. How do you cut through the noise to ensure that you are not only heard, but patients stay loyal and that you attract new ones? Here are 8 marketing strategies that you can consider for your healthcare organization.
1. Use your online presence to build relationships
It’s now almost obvious that having an online presence is important for any business. It is critical that your target audience find you online when they search for matters about healthcare. However, just being able to find you isn’t enough. Patients are keen on giving business to health organizations that they know and trust. Use your online presence to build relationships with patients and build trust. Engage your patients online by providing answers to their questions and listening to feedback. Figure out what makes your healthcare organization stand out and use that to build trust in your brand.
2. Optimize for mobile
So many people are turning to mobile devices for their ease of use and portability. They use their smartphones to search for medical information or find a hospital near them on the go. Optimizing your healthcare website for mobile ensures that your target audience can easily access it on their mobile devices. In addition, it increases your visibility across a wider audience group.
3. Leverage the power of text
Your patients are bombarded with so many messages every day. It is likely that your messages get lost in their inboxes, patients block them out, or they simply ignore them as any other promotional message. However, text messages rarely fall into these categories. Recipients are likely to read them within seconds of being received. This makes it an effective platform to send important information about your health organization to your patients. Just be sure to stick to useful information so that your patients can easily share their text messaging details with you.
4. Utilize internal marketing
Recruiting your employees to be brand advocates for your healthcare organization remains one of the cheapest forms of marketing. Most people rely on recommendations from family and friends to consider a healthcare provider. If one employee can tell 5 people about your organization, that is a good number of potential customers. For this reason, find ways to increase internal marketing for your services to encourage brand advocacy. You can also encourage your nurses to take up a course in nursing administration. Nurse administrators are involved in the running of the organization besides patient care. This makes them a valuable element in the marketing of your organization. Remember to recommend resources such as Osmosis guides to help them study and pass their exams.
5. Ask for positive reviews and testimonials
Reviews and testimonials play a key role in influencing a purchasing decision for many consumers. Likewise, patients want to hear about experiences from fellow patients before deciding to book a visit with your healthcare organization. However, patients will not automatically leave a review or consider giving a testimonial unless they are motivated to do so. Work on your customer experience to ensure that your customers are delighted enough to want to recommend your services to other people. Then request them to leave a review on your website.
6. Consider influencer marketing
Influencer marketing provides a perfect opportunity to place your brand message in front of millions of people. Besides, most people are willing to try a service that their favorite celebrity has recommended. Just be sure to find reliable and credible influencers, and then design a marketing campaign that they can buy into. You can also target individuals who have built a name around certain medical conditions or diagnoses. These individuals have drawn an audience that has an interest in that niche. Utilizing their services gives the opportunity to leverage these audiences.
7. Experiment with content marketing
We are living in an era where most people have woken up to the importance of their general wellbeing. Information that provides insights, knowledge, and answers to their questions is likely to resonate with many people. You can start creating valuable content in the form of blog posts and videos and posting them on your blog and YouTube channel. However, keep in mind that creating content is one thing, and having your target audience see it is another thing. In addition to researching common questions and concerns that patients are seeking answers to, ensure that you research on the most searched keywords. Use them in your content to increase visibility.
8. Use paid ads
PPC ads are set to appear first on search engine results pages when users conduct a search about healthcare. Even if your website doesn’t rank number one in search results, paying for PPC ads gives you that opportunity for people to see your healthcare organization’s website first. You can also use paid ads on other platforms such as YouTube and Facebook to increase the odds of succeeding.
Conclusion
Marketing in healthcare organizations is important for attracting a diverse patient audience and remaining profitable in the competitive medical field. However, marketing for healthcare organizations faces unique challenges such as HIPAA compliance, and local medical board advertising regulations among other ethical issues. Marketers need to implement creative marketing strategies while keeping in mind these restrictions. Consider using the above-suggested strategies to share honest messaging to get results.
