Healthcare marketing is a vital component for growing your practice sustainably. Without a strategy, there wouldn’t be a high influx of patients, and even loyal followers might stop using your services one-by-one.
The healthcare industry is evolving fast.
In the past, the industry was based on volume and the physician was at the center. But now, it has become an industry focusing on quality and places the customer at the center. At a given moment, there may be several practices in an area that are providing identical healthcare services to their patients. To stand out, you must adopt healthcare marketing strategies. Marketing can not only show how different you are from other practices but also why you’re better.
Here’s why healthcare marketing matters.
Helps Meet Regulations and Improve Patient Experience
Even though providing a great experience to their patients has always been an ethical concerns for healthcare practices all across America, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services has turned it into a financial imperative too. The HCAHPS survey is the first standardized national survey that measures a patient’s experience with a healthcare service.
Apart from producing objective data about a patient’s care, this survey also rewards healthcare systems and practices that focus on increasing their practice’s engagement and experience levels. HCAHPS results are also directly linked to a Medicare reimbursement and it has direct impact on whether healthcare practices gain or lose payments.
Even though a survey like such aims to improve patient experience levels in the healthcare industry, a patient’s journey begins with you long before they’ve stepped in to your facility. In an industry which already has a limited number of marketing avenues, first impressions are everything. Very often, a patient is going to have their first impression of your business while looking at a piece of your digital content.
Strengthens Bonds
Besides, there is a lot more to healthcare marketing than blatant advertising. Marketing is also an effective way to bridge a gap between a patient and a healthcare professional. Regardless of the fact that you’re offering a healthcare service, people want to create a bond. With a healthcare marketing strategy, a healthcare practice can show its patients a more human and personable side. That way, your brand is going to seem welcoming and friendly.
This makes a patient want to seek your services while enjoying the experience at the same time. As a result, they’ll avoid going to a practice they don’t know anything about.
Provides Immediacy With Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
How a patient chooses to interact with your healthcare marketing services depends completely on their specific needs. It may be possible that a person in your vicinity is proactively searching for primary care physician or a dentist. Or they might be looking for an urgent healthcare facility at the time of an emergency.
In other cases, people may be anxiously searching for an answer for the symptoms they’re experiencing (these people are also called cyberchondriacs). Regardless of the reason, people use the Google search box to look for solutions for the specific problems they have. If you aren’t taking out time to understand what your patients are looking for, you’re missing out on some strong leads!
Improving your healthcare practice’s patient acquisition strategies will directly translate into a more streamlined way of communication that focuses on the relevant channels. With the help of PPC, a healthcare practice can use targeted ads across specific channels and for particular geographical locations. For instance, an emergency care facility may invest into Google ads for a set location to increase the number of patients that visit every day.
PPC offers immediate results and consistent visibility. This helps your practice acquire new leads quickly. Ultimately, your paid advertising efforts will ensure that the users within your vicinity are able to find your healthcare practice regardless of where they are in their healthcare journey.
Healthcare Marketing Helps You Build a Reputation
Reputation is key for any healthcare practice. Digital marketing specifically can ensure that new patients who seem interested in your business can find all they need to know about your business instantly. When these patients have visited your practice, they can share the experience with their friends and help your reputation grow. As your healthcare service matures, this can become a strong selling point for any patient who is trying to pick decide which doctor to visit.
Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) For Your Advantage
Digital marketing is one of those rare industries that lets you track your interactions in real-time. Even the smallest of facets about your online presence like the content you post, your web copy, and your appointment form can influence what your patients think of your practice. When you use the right data, you can uncover what your patients are interested in and the strategy they use to search for the information they want to see.
This is where a refined SEO strategy comes in to play. By using the relevant keywords and posting content your patients want to read, you can effectively land on the first (or first few) search engine result pages (SERPs). For instance, a person trying to look for cardiology practice might search for questions related to the heart or the cost of an open heart surgery.
With the help of SEO, you can organize your website in a way that it lets patients access the information they want to read easily. It focuses on the users’ online experience, which is why you need to focus on website loading speeds and mobile optimization too. While SEO does not promise immediate results, it can ensure that your website stays relevant for a longer period of time.
Wrapping Up
Quite simply, effective healthcare marketing helps you save lives a lot more easily since the people in need always know how to get in touch with you. And while you may excel in providing quality healthcare services, healthcare marketing, on the other hand, isn’t everyone’s ball game.
That’s where we come in.
At Purple Tie Guys, we believe in stellar healthcare marketing strategies. Our healthcare marketing professionals are specialists at breaking down complex medical jargon into plain language that is understandable for every reader who wants to learn about the services you offer. Whether you’re opting for search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, or even website development, we promise we’re going to give you a stronger foothold on the digital landscape.
Additionally, Purple Tie Guys is a Google Trusted Agency endorsed by the Southern Medical Association. Call us today on (256) 585-6425, or click here to read our frequently asked questions!