Marketing remains an inseparable aspect involved in creating a successful brand. Good marketing helps to gain the data and metrics needed to learn more about a target audience. In truth, a targeted marketing strategy developed from customer data is one of the best strategies for creating multiple streams from partitioned audiences.
No industry is excluded from the superpowers of marketing, not even the healthcare sector. The dynamic evolution of society has inevitably impacted the healthcare system, making healthcare marketing an indispensable element of health institutions. As time goes by, hospitals, health systems, and various other medical practices must adapt to meet changing needs in order to stay competitive. This is achievable through specific strategies, such as healthcare marketing.
What is healthcare marketing?
Healthcare marketing is the process of creating, communicating and offering healthcare information. It incorporates a tactical plan employed to reach new customers, take them through their healthcare journey and keep them involved with a healthcare system, service or specific product.
Today’s competitive healthcare climate makes it essential for medical institutions to employ marketing, from hospitals to pharmaceuticals, solo practices, care centers, medical product manufacturers, and more. In doing so, they implement various specific and targeted efforts to foster the development and engagement of their brands. However, all efforts focus on specific performance indicators relevant to the industry and return on investment.
How does marketing work in the healthcare industry?
While various fields employ marketing, the philosophy and strategy used in other areas can hardly be applied to healthcare services. Healthcare presents certain features that are not present in other industries; so there is a need for marketing approaches specialized for the healthcare industry.
Healthcare marketing is a multidisciplinary field as it integrates various methods, scopes and strategies from different types of marketing. The effectiveness of a healthcare marketing strategy involves a comprehensive assessment of patients’ needs and the provision of new services they are yet to request. It might seem like a complex process; however, healthcare institutions engage in marketing to:
- Enhance patient experiences.
- Keep customers engaged with tailored and relevant outreach.
- Empower customers to make healthier decisions.
- Generate more revenue.
- Build their brands.
- Improve online and offline reputation.
- Evaluate productivity and re-evaluate strategies.
- Increase their customer base.
Benefits of healthcare marketing
The healthcare industry has become much more competitive than most people realize. Previously considered a volume-based industry, healthcare currently prioritizes value and focuses more on quality, patient-centric care. So, there is a need to constantly communicate value through different channels, including websites, social media, SEO, paid advertisement and email, video and content marketing. Here are some reasons that healthcare institutions should invest and implement marketing strategies:
- Expand healthcare reach
Effective healthcare has gone beyond physical institutions as several patients turn to the internet for healthcare solutions. The internet also offers the opportunity to learn about an institution and its services through reviews and social media posts. In fact, a study by the Pew Research Center suggests about 77% of patients explore various medical information and solutions through search engines.
Needless to say, healthcare institutions should go the extra mile to improve their services. However, healthcare marketing should also be prioritized as it offers an opportunity to reach a wider audience across various channels. Healthcare institutions with a comprehensive online presence can potentially attract more customers in today’s world.
- Make your brand stand out
It’s no surprise how saturated the healthcare industry is, yet the sector is projected to continue to grow. So, it’s almost impossible for businesses to survive without tactical marketing efforts. For a brand to remain relevant, it must prioritize healthcare marketing.
Effectual marketing involves examining patients’ needs and devising means to address them. Offering value-based healthcare gives your brand a competitive advantage. Additionally, healthcare marketing improves strategic advantage, which helps to attract more customers and grow the brand.
- Establish leadership in the healthcare industry
A brand’s ability to establish status and leadership in the industry helps to attract new opportunities and make progress business-wise. Establishing authority in an industry goes a long way towards demonstrate how competent a brand is in a particular niche. This holds true in the healthcare industry, with marketing being vital in establishing authority.
It takes consistency in a series of effective marketing and personal relations strategies to become a leading healthcare brand. However, when achieved, it improves the perception and trustworthiness of a brand while increasing the prospect of being picked as patients’ preferred choice.
- Improve patient engagement
There is an increasing switch to patient-centric healthcare across the industry. This involves increasing patients’ engagement in their healthcare and fostering long-term relationships. Like every other business, healthcare services have become interwoven with emotions, and patients are more likely to have a positive sentiment based on their first impressions.
As such, medical institutions that deploy marketing strategies have increased engagement and form better connections with patients. These institutions employ various channels to communicate with patients regarding healthy living, medical consultations and scheduled visits. In summary, marketing improves patient engagement by increasing retention, building trust and earning extended loyalty.
Healthcare marketing strategies
Management is essential for every healthcare institution; so, every successful brand must employ specific marketing strategies. Developing these strategies takes skill and knowledge of the industry and target audience. For instance, professionals can develop competency in healthcare marketing through healthcare management programs. These programs help build critical thinking skills for adapting and resolving various business scenarios.
Thankfully, marketing is not a new aspect of healthcare, and several effective strategies have been widely publicized for maximizing the impact of health systems. Here are some healthcare marketing strategies that can be effective for any institution:
- Create a quality digital experience
As humans, we prefer institutions that offer several alternatives. So, an effective marketing strategy must prioritize a patient’s digital experience and create multiple channels through which they can access your health system. These channels could include specialized websites, third-party listings and various online engagement centers, to mention a few.
Successful institutions often employ patient journey mapping to outline the path a patient is likely to take after interacting with a health system for the first time. This practice helps to recognize specific actions that result in continued engagement and the actions that might make a patient quit the system. A medical institution would want to create multiple paths, determine which generates the highest engagement and improve upon those paths.
- Provide consistent quality
In an industry as critical as healthcare, consistency helps to build trust and efficiency. Patients will not choose an institution or service they do not trust or are unfamiliar with. So, developing a solid brand through consistency and fostering brand awareness is vital. Consistency covers healthcare quality and effective marketing processes.
Healthcare institutions should recognize the unique aspects of their brand and include other factors that could attract patients, such as innovative technologies. Brands should use marketing campaigns to spread awareness. Promoting a brand’s achievements is a sure way to build trust among customers, and this should be done consistently.
- Personalize patient care
Personalized healthcare or precision medicine is an evolving field in which physicians employ assessment tests in developing tailored treatment plans for patients. There are several medical conditions, and symptoms of these conditions manifest themselves differently in different people. So, healthcare must be personalized for it to be effective.
Despite the personal nature of healthcare, several marketing strategies have not integrated personalization. Successful brands use the data from modern electronic health record systems and customer behavior data from customer relationship management (CRM) software to recognize needs and behaviors that are unique to specific customers and patients. With this information, they can offer personalized services to targeted patients.
- Employ the best marketing channels
Healthcare is extensive, and marketers employ several channels to reach new audiences, from paid search to social media, websites, display advertisements and organic searches. However, these channels are costly, and the sheer number of marketing channels to choose from can become overwhelming.
While there might be several channels, it’s not mandatory to employ every one of them, and figuring out the best channels to use has never been easier. Healthcare institutions can employ business intelligence (BI) solutions, such as AI-powered software that collects, analyzes and reports data for effective decision-making. These BI solutions will assist in recognizing the most influential marketing channel based on geographical areas, personalities and service lines.
- Evaluate the market
The ever-changing state of the market makes it paramount for businesses to understand its dynamism and the factors that cause these changes. For instance, an immediate market might change due to new competition looking to change existing models. Understanding the dynamism of a market can also be streamlined through advanced BI solutions operating on a large warehouse of healthcare-relevant data. These solutions foster effective decisions based on the market share, customer needs and present competition.
Healthcare marketing is a dynamic scene with vast possibilities. It provides abundant opportunities to expand your reach, upscale your practice and become a household name in the healthcare industry. However, for brands to achieve meaningful results, effective marketing strategies must be employed.
Aside from the strategies listed, other techniques are also used for marketing a healthcare organization successfully. However, healthcare marketing techniques should be selected based on internal factors and the operation of a brand.