Most healthcare practices understand they must have a marketing strategy in place to attract and retain patients. Not only this, but organizations also need to move at a breakneck pace to keep up with the speed at which new trends in healthcare marketing are emerging, especially since the beginning of this year when shifting to digital tools and strategies have no longer been optional.
Here are some of the top marketing trends that can help healthcare providers to remain effective in 2020 and beyond:
- A change in content marketing tactics:
It is of great importance to deliver relevant and updated information to the patients based on their needs. This would help to engage and build a strong relationship with them by offering high-quality content. As per a recent survey conducted by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, 43% of respondents said that they find it reassuring to hear from brands they trust at the time of this pandemic, while another 40% said that they are eager to learn what brands are doing in response to this pandemic. Therefore, for retaining patient’s trust and adherence to your brand as well as increasing your brand value, it is important that you work to reassure your patients about the steps you are taking to keep them safe, inform patients and the public about their safety precautions, remind patients not to delay care and let them know what they can expect to experience at a physician office, hospital, urgent care or other care site as part of your marketing strategy. Beside the usual content, many organizations, thus, have been generating the latest information about COVID-19 through articles, videos or paid Ads.
- Video marketing arrived several years ago but has seen a slower adoption rate across the board by physician practices as a consistent part of their marketing strategy. Since 2020, videos have become the most influential form of healthcare marketing as the audience responds well to visual content. An interesting video with a powerful message can engage the targeted audience and ignite their emotions which in return helps to grow patient volume faster. Leveraging a video marketing strategy will help healthcare organizations to maximize their reach and sales. According to the statistics submitted by Wyzowl in 2019, 89% of businesses that invested in video content marketing reported a good ROI (Return on Investment) and thus video marketing have gained extreme popularity this year.
HiliteMD, our secure HIPAA compliant telehealth platform, has over 2000 patient education videos in stock and provides the option of customizing videos that are branded as well to propagate your brand awareness, reputation and marketing level.
- Non-Organic Ads (Paid Ads) that has been trending on social media platforms in 2019 have become popular in 2020. They can either be in the form of Display Ads or Search Ads.Google Ad words connect ads with potential searchers precisely seeking what the organizations provide, drive more traffic to the website to maximize the ROI. Currently, healthcare providers and practitioners are dependent on organic social media as a part of their marketing strategies. Posting images, videos and articles on Facebook, Instagram or other social media platforms aids in building an audience and generating brand awareness.
- Paying more attention in audience segmentation:
Consumers are constantly on the receiving end of advertisements and sales pitches. Video and other digital advertisements interrupt their social media feeds, their video entertainment, and the content they read. In this environment, the key to any successful healthcare marketing strategy is to stand out by giving consumers the advertising experience they want — and they want personalized marketing. In fact …
Therefore, for your messages to stand out, your healthcare marketing ideas must be relevant to your patients’ experience. Although your patients likely have things in common, they may vary by age, gender, and interests. By segmenting your patient audiences, you’ll be able to personalize content and messages better. Here are some ways you can put your audience segments to use:
- Email marketing:Create email lists for your patients based on things they have in common. It could be as simple as a reminder for when they should be coming in next. You can also allow patients to opt-in to specific types of communications. For example, if you’re an orthopedic surgeon, you can allow patient-athletes to opt-in for communication about injury prevention.
- Digital advertising: Unlike traditional advertising, you can now target specific audiences with your advertisements on search engines and social media. On Google, you can target people in specific geographic areas who are searching for the care you provide. On Facebook and Instagram, you can also target specific age groups or people with similar interests.
With HiLiteMD, beside digital advertising, high-segmentation can be put to use with your brand name on patient education videos, provider introductory videos or any informative videos for targeting potential patients.
- Investments in marketing technology:
More than half of all patients list convenience and access as the most important healthcare factors influencing their decision making. Thus, facilitating patients’ abilities to connect with the providers at their practice have been a larger healthcare marketing focus in the new year. Most practices and providers have opted for online scheduling and telehealth to keep their practice competitive.
According to 2019 Definitive Healthcare data, only about 33 percent of inpatient hospitals and 45 percent of outpatient facilities offered telehealth services to their patients. Since then, a continuing interest in convenient care options and the COVID-19 pandemic have spurred a rapid industry-wide increase in telehealth implementation. Now, about 75 percent of U.S. hospitals are using telehealth and telemedicine systems—a 42 percent increase from 2019 usage. HiLiteMD, along with its many services, offers telemedicine and telehealth visits that can be recorded. We make it simple by using patient video-conferencing, online scheduling to increase patient satisfaction remotely.
- Adapting new tools for reputation management:
Modern consumers are more involved with their healthcare decisions than ever before, and increasingly, they’re relying on online reputation to choose their providers. Eighty-eight percent of consumers read reviews for local businesses and the majority of patients have listed online reviews as the most influential decision-making factor when choosing a provider.
Reliance on online reviews has been trending upward and has continued through 2020. Successful online marketing is not complete without a review of your online reputation.
In 2020, all healthcare practices has been monitoring their reputation. Patients say they are most likely to read patient reviews on Google, Facebook and Yelp, respectively, so these websites are an ideal place to start. Healthcare marketing software can also help compile all of your patient reviews in one place and assist in requesting feedback from your patients.
HiLiteMD, with its various tools, manages your reputation and brand value both online and offline to attract new patients. It manages patient satisfaction to boost your healthcare business. Two of our main components involve:
- Survey- Use proven surveys or customize your own survey to obtain answers and provide a feedback loop from patients.
- Video Messaging- Capture patient testimonials, introduce physicians-care teams and service overviews to bring branding and messaging to a whole new level.
- Greater investments in SEO:
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is likely already part of your healthcare marketing strategy as 77% of the health seekers use search engines for medical-related information. However, with the onset of the pandemic, the searches have surged and luckily if you use HiLiteMD you are covered. Some SEO strategies that you need to invest in that can make you rank top on search engines are as follows:
- Link building: Link building has become more prevalent in 2020, and it is essential to develop a strategy that establishes quality links.
- Mobile optimization: A large number of website traffic is from mobile devices today. However, most healthcare marketers’ are yet to optimize and embrace mobile-friendliness fully. If you want to rank top on Google in 2020, consider mobile optimization of your site. It will enable you to stay connected with on-the-go patients.
- Voice search: The use of voice command is becoming a popular way of searching for content on the web and it has been predicted that search by voice will make up 50% of all searches by the end of 2020 since it is convenient and faster for patients. Therefore, if you want to stand out among your competitors, consider adopting voice searches now more than ever.
- Active blogs: Sites with active blogs attract nearly 70% more leads. This is not surprising because when you have high-quality and relevant content on your health website, it will attract more visitors. To rank higher on Google, try embracing this SEO technique.
Healthcare marketing is a priority and it is very important to stay up to date on the top healthcare marketing trends that are working in the medical space amid the pandemic to stay in the competition and grow your healthcare organization. But in between a busy patient schedule and running a business, it can be hard to find the time to revisit your strategy. HiLiteMD provides a unified one-step solution for you to stand-out in the competition and connect with your targeted patients with minimal effort using patient engagement automation.
For more information, please contact us at info@HiLiteHealth.com or go to our website at https://www.hilitehealth.com.