6 things successful healthcare brand marketing strategies have in common

Healthcare brand marketing nurtures the relationships between healthcare organizations and their consumers. Branding is a marketing strategy that elevates the brand as a whole, promoting its healthcare services as evidence of the brand’s personality.

But do patients really care about a medical practice’s “personality”? Over 56% of customers remain loyal to brands that “get them,” and organizations earn 65% of their business from loyal customers. Executing a healthcare brand marketing strategy that aligns with your patients’ values will win their confidence.

Are you ready to generate internal and external loyalty for your healthcare organization? Keep reading to learn how to develop a healthcare brand marketing strategy that inspires patient engagement and builds trust.

Healthcare brand marketing energizes marketing teams and wins patient loyalty

Burnout in the healthcare industry is pervasive and may affect your communications team. The marketing grind can lead to creative blocks and unmoving content. If you want to inspire your healthcare marketing team, help them fall in love with your brand.

Branding is especially important in the healthcare industry because patients are notoriously fickle. Over 40% of patients say they aren’t loyal to their healthcare providers. These patients return to healthcare organizations spuriously, and they’re likely to abandon providers after only one negative interaction.

Healthcare brand marketing can reignite your patients’, community’s, and marketing team’s excitement about your organization’s work. You provide services and healing that make your community a better place.

Promoting your unique assets puts that front and center.

6 steps to better healthcare brand marketing

Developing a brand strategy is an excellent way for businesses to stand out in the healthcare industry. The benefits of healthcare branding include the following:

• Consumer loyalty
• Awareness about your organization
• Motivated employees

Patient loyalty, brand awareness, and excited employees lead to better business for your healthcare organization. And when your business is doing well, it means your community is doing well, too.

If you’re ready to develop a healthcare brand marketing strategy that works, get started with the following six steps.

A strong healthcare brand marketing strategy amplifies the assets that set a healthcare brand apart from competitors. The best way to create that kind of marketing strategy is to begin with marketing competitor analysis.

Ask the following questions when studying competition in the healthcare industry:

• How is my competition using social media to reach patients?
• Which of my competition’s posts (and on which platforms) get the most engagement?
• How easy is my competition’s website to use?
• How does my competitor’s website design make patients feel?
• What type of content is my competition producing, and which of its assets get the most engagement?

Evaluating your competition’s marketing strategy as a whole might be overwhelming. Focus on one campaign at a time to get the most valuable results. Save time and reduce your workload by recruiting a healthcare marketing agency to conduct a competitor audit.

Your logo, tagline, and color palette are not the most critical part of your healthcare brand marketing strategy. Those aesthetic elements accentuate your business’s value, but your most powerful asset is your story.

Gather materials for your healthcare brand story from these sources:

• Patients. Study patient surveys to learn what your consumers actually think about you. Use their words to create marketing materials that align with your target audience’s values.
• Employees. Think of your employees as customers, and survey them, too. How do they feel about working at your organization? Your team knows your story intimately because they are creating it alongside you.
• Services. Your healthcare practice offers unique patient care. What do your services say about your brand’s impact on the community? How does your brand make your corner of the world a better place?
• Content. If you have existing content, use that to identify your brand’s tone and personality. Analyze your best-performing content to understand better what resonates with your target audience.

You have an enormous amount of branding material at your fingertips. Skillful healthcare marketers can turn the data from these individual segments into branding materials that set you apart and inspire patient loyalty.

An effective healthcare brand strategy is a living, multifaceted project that you’ll continue to refine as your business evolves. Develop your healthcare brand marketing strategy by looking at your communications processes and design.

Your marketing processes and designs should align with your patients’ needs and your brand identity. Patients should feel like you care about them when they enter your website, especially since this is where you make your first impression most of the time.

Can patients schedule appointments online and outside of business hours? Are patients able to access their medical records on their smartphones? Do your actions deliver on the promises your brand makes? Automating key marketing processes and using a consistent, attractive design are foundational for effective branding.

By the time a patient calls your clinic or schedules an appointment on your website, they’ve already done a lot of research. In fact, 69% of Millennials get their health information from the internet instead of doctors. Patients don’t trust the healthcare industry, which means now is the time for you to leverage your medical expertise.

Promote educational video and blog content breaking down the conditions your target audience cares about most. Make your social media more relatable by showcasing your outstanding team of medical professionals.

One goal of healthcare brand marketing is to win patient loyalty, a scarce and valuable asset in the healthcare industry. That requires empathizing with your target patients at every stage of the customer journey.

Use marketing analytics software to understand the ways patients interact with your website, ads, and social media. The insights you get from your research will help you convey your brand story in a way that responds to your patient’s pain points.

For example, if a heat map shows that your website visitors spend the most time on pages that talk about telehealth options, you can create content and ads that emphasize the value of your virtual services.

The people who work at your organization are more than just employees. Every person who helps you run your business—from your specialty surgeons to your housekeeping staff—is a brand ambassador.

The real question is, do you nurture your employees this way? Use your healthcare brand marketing strategy to inspire your team. Deploy internal marketing materials like consistent motivational messaging, targeted campaigns, and automated marketing to lift your employees’ loads.

Today’s healthcare professionals are experiencing tremendous burnout. If you want to retain your talent, use a brand marketing strategy that turns employees into brand advocates.

Use social media to support your healthcare brand marketing strategy

In healthcare marketing, a brand represents a healthcare business’s values and services. However, the way a patient experiences a brand is also a part of the brand’s identity. You can improve the way people experience your brand by meeting them where they’re at.

So, where are healthcare consumers today? They’re on social media. Almost 90% of Americans use social media to get health-related information. Use your healthcare brand marketing to place your organization in the vanguard using social media to improve public health.

Compelling creativity is essential to any health-specific marketing plan

The American healthcare industry is vast. It’s comprised of over 6,000 hospitals, 200,000 private physician clinics, and 180,000 dental clinics. That doesn’t include the many niche virtual and in-person healthcare services you’re competing against. If you want to stand out in the healthcare industry, you need to develop a brand story that connects with patients.

Your healthcare services are the heart of your branding, but creativity is the vessel that carries your message. Working with a full-service healthcare marketing agency is worth the investment because you get the emotionally engaging creativity that compels action.

Let’s discuss your healthcare brand marketing

Run a quick diagnostic test on your healthcare brand by answering the following questions:

• Do you have new business goals?
• Are you releasing a new healthcare service line?
• Have new competitors emerged in your healthcare niche?
• Are you targeting a new audience?
• Do your existing patients have new needs you’re prepared to meet?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, congratulations. You’re taking your organization to the next level. This is an excellent opportunity for you to revamp your healthcare brand marketing.

Outsource your branding strategy to passionate healthcare marketing experts

You may be too close to your business to tighten your healthcare brand marketing. Work with TBH Creative’s award-winning healthcare marketing team to get a fresh perspective on your organization’s personality, expertise, and unique offerings.

Developing a solid branding foundation involves divergent thinking, bold creativity, and healthcare industry marketing insights. We’ve got you covered.

You worry about your patients. We’ll develop brand messaging that reflects your exceptional patient care, boosts revenue, and improves retention.