The healthcare industry is rapidly growing but it is still very hard to penetrate. There are a lot of barriers to entry that make it even harder. Medical marketing is the simplest answer to this.
For most of us, the idea of marketing and promoting our business isn’t exactly a favorite pastime. It can seem like a never-ending cycle of work. But medical practice marketing is more than necessary with growing competition for survival.
In this Covid pandemic, several people transitioned to seek medical information and consultation online. A Pew Research Center report says “72% of internet users said they looked online for health information within the past year”. So it has become necessary for doctors, hospitals, and practitioners to use this as an opportunity and build an online presence before they get knocked out by the competition.
This blog will cover the different aspects of medical marketing, proven strategies, and more.
What is Medical Marketing?
Medical marketing or Healthcare Marketing is a specialized branch of marketing for doctors, health practitioners, hospitals, and healthcare networks. It is focused to Attract, Convert, and Retain healthcare consumers by smoothly passing them through a comfortable healthcare journey. It includes the implementation of sector-specific and target-oriented new-age digital marketing strategies.
Medical marketing helps you to:
- Attract, and bring in more targeted patients.
- Provide relevant information to patients on time to keep them engaged.
- Helps by providing timely follow-ups leading to better conversion.
- Helps retain patients, improving loyalty and trustworthiness.
- Generate better leads, leading to an increase in revenue.
- Have an edge over competitors.
11 Proven Strategies of Medical Marketing for Doctors
As a part of the medical industry, it is important to understand the different approaches you can take to reach your target audience. You will want to make sure you understand everything about the medical industry and how you can capitalize on it. This can be done through medical marketing, which can help you get in touch with potential patients and encourage them to choose your option to help them.
Make a Patient Persona:
Creating a buyer’s persona is very important in digital marketing. It helps to reach and target customers better. In medical marketing, it is necessary to know your patient, what are their needs, their location, and their budget. When a patient finds a match with what they are looking for it helps in better conversion.
Google My Business:
It is a simple and most important step. It acts as a brochure/ catalog for your business. The patient can go through the services and can reach out to you via displayed phone number and mail. Also, easily reach your location using Google maps. Set up your google my business account. It is a most important strategy if you want to show up when someone searches “Doctor/ dentist/ surgeon near me” on Google.
Build Responsive Website:
Well designed and responsive website is the one that is required to provide a better user experience to the patients. This step is optional and can be implemented once you get going with other strategies well. You can even create a Free Google site to start with via Business Profile on Google.
Search Engine Optimisation:
This forms the core of Medical marketing strategy. SEO involves (Search Engine Optimisation) using the right keyword, titles, and phrases such that Google can understand your website to rank you better. You can use relevant and pertinent healthcare-related search terms that people are looking for on your website, Google my business, social media accounts, and directories.
Build Social Media Presence:
Presence on Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin is highly recommended. This helps patients know you better. Also, you can provide relevant information and updates that can increase loyalty and patient retention.
Video Marketing:
The most in trend way of marketing these days is Video marketing. Making short knowledge-based videos would help patients know their potential. Video testimonials and reviews from successfully treated patients can simply increase the trustworthiness among current and future patients. One can use Youtube, Facebook, or Instagram for the same. Videos can be shared through Whatsapp and Emails too, redirecting patients to social accounts and making them follow.
Email marketing:
Though the most traditional method of marketing, email marketing is the most efficient and proven way of marketing. Collecting email ids of patients during registration and then sending them regular mail through automation is the strategy here. Also, one can use emails to send prescriptions and reports via email.
List on Business Directories:
This helps you with visibility and showing your organic results proving your business legitimate. Business directory services are designed to help business owners to create or enhance their online presence. The services can help you boost credibility, increase website traffic, and drive leads and sales to your business.
Ask for reviews:
Getting reviews is the first step to getting more customers. Reviews are probably one of the most important types of content that you can publish to your website. Did you know that consumers are more likely to do something for you if you ask them to? It’s true. And the internet is a great place for us to do so. We can ask for reviews for our business online, which helps us get more exposure and have more trust from our consumers
Google and Social media Ads:
Google has a unique position in the social media world, with an estimated 1.2 billion users on their email service. They also own Youtube, which is the second-largest search engine in the world, claiming over 3 billion users – that’s approximately 1/2 of the planet’s total population! Google is a powerhouse of advertising space and can be used for a social media campaign. Its simple integration with its other tools such as Gmail and Youtube makes it a fantastic choice for small business owners who want to connect with a large audience while keeping costs low. One can even use Facebook ads to highlight their services to a target audience.
Track Your Efforts:
Do you know what your medical marketing campaigns are doing? How many people are they reaching? How much traffic are they driving in? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you are missing out on a lot of information. The biggest reason why you would want to track marketing campaigns is to see how well they are working. If you are a small business or have a limited marketing budget, you want to make sure that your money is being spent in the best way possible. If you don’t track your marketing campaigns, you won’t know if you are making the most of your budget.
How do you do medical marketing?
Medical marketing is a specialised digital marketing which you can start implementing by defining your services and the target audience. Further you can follow the strategies discussed in this blog.
Do doctors need marketing?
Yes. This pandemic has made huge number users come online and use digital services. And so Medical marketing for doctors is vital to make sure their services are visible online to the patients which can be then availed offline too.
How is Medical marketing different?
Medical marketing is different from general marketing such that it focuses on specific niche market (health sector) and targeted customer (patient) needs.
Conclusion:
The healthcare industry is one of the most competitive industries in the world and it is becoming more competitive every year. To succeed in the healthcare industry, you need to be able to market your business to potential new patients. Medical marketing is the most productive solution for this. Here are eleven proven strategies that will help you market your medical practice and see good results.