We live in a digital world where most of your patients do online research before visiting your practice. For this, you need effective digital healthcare marketing, and the effectiveness is measured by the leads driven into the marketing funnel for revenue. To have successful digital marketing, you need to reach your target audience via different channels and messaging tailored for engagement. Below are the best practices that will reap you good results from your digital marketing.
- Decide on your budget
The first and foremost thing is to allocate an amount to be spent on digital marketing. Discuss with your marketers to determine when and how much they wish to allocate to an online channel. To maximize your return on the money invested in marketing, make use of healthcare CRM and reach out to more patients digitally.
- Be on mobile
Mobiles are the favorite of more than 80% of people for browsing the Internet. Around 70% of consumers make use of the click-to-call feature on mobile websites. Therefore, you need to have a mobile-friendly website. Be sure to have a responsive design. Also, healthcare apps can bring good business to your practice by engaging more people.
- Use PPC and social media
For promotion of your practice, your marketing strategy should include online advertisements targeting search engine-based and AdWords. Pay-per-click (PPC) is the most popular tool for lead generation. Along with Google, paid ads on social media pages help you approach target audience basic demographics, location, etc. Google Analytics helps you identify lead sources and quantify the ROI across sources.
With the vastness of social media, it is imperative to be present on all social media platforms. Whether millennial or baby boomer, all are on social media and follow it religiously. So you need to be active on these platforms to showcase your thought-leader personality. Share your writing with people to grow trust in your practice.
- Use content marketing
Content rules when it comes to engaging existing patients or potential ones. It boosts the conversion rate of your website through services like blogs, assessment, patient forms for scheduling appointments and viewing reports, etc. Use different forms of content such as infographics, blogs, images, webinars, etc. to involve people in your content.
Video is an important part of content marketing. People are highly influenced by informative and helpful videos and make their purchasing decisions accordingly. Videos involve auditory and visual powers. Here the ROI is calculated based on the percentage of people who viewed the video and visited your practice after watching the video. Have a compelling call to action at the end of the video for higher conversion.
There are some basic tips you need to remember while working on your marketing strategy:
- Try new things: Don’t be afraid of failure. Experiment with new strategies and channels to explore changes in the healthcare industry that will benefit your business.
- Win people’s trust: For patient engagement, it is a must for you to establish trust. The journey of trust begins with an online search of your practice until the final day of their treatment. Create connections with patients through your quality care, staff and service that last for years.
- Watch your competitors: It is important to track your competitors’ movement that keeps them on top. Get actionable strategies for your practice based on competitor analysis. Also, regularly check their social profiles to see how they attract more patients.
- Be responsive: The healthcare industry is very dynamic and you need to keep up with changes that bring both challenges and opportunities. You need to be responsive and accept the changes in trends and patient behavior. Also, respond to patients’ reviews on social media or other review platforms. Whether positive or negative, respond to all reviews, but politely.
Collect data from all marketing sources for a holistic look. Trace the customer journey to know which channel helps you get the most conversions and where you aren’t receiving a justified ROI. After all marketing efforts, your services and promises are the real pillars behind the success of your practice.