You’re here because your business is growing and changing, but you need effective medical marketing to acquire the new patients you structured your practice to help.
Your healthcare service has massive value to offer the community, but you don’t know how to craft or carry that message in an efficient, compelling way. Plus, digital tools for patient marketing can be almost as intimidating as the surgical ones used during a physician’s first year in med school.
We’re here to help. Keep reading to learn seven of this year’s best practices for digital healthcare marketing.
Use these seven tactics to get the most out of your medical marketing strategy
The healthcare industry is changing, and digital is at the center of that transformation. Digital tools allow providers to make healthcare more inclusive, individualized, and efficient.
That optimal experience starts with your medical practice’s website and online presence.
Here are seven ways healthcare professionals can build a medical marketing strategy that converts.
Patient journey mapping
You probably already have ideas about medical marketing tactics that work, but don’t start with your vision. Instead, start with your patients’ experiences.
Build a patient journey map to get a visual understanding of how your prospects engage your website. Patient journey maps answer questions like, “why are people visiting my site?” and “what content is most interesting to my patients?”
Use the answers you find to plan a digital marketing strategy customized for your target audience.
Consistent branding
Is a clear picture of your target market enough to begin developing a medical marketing strategy? Only if you’re also crystal clear about your brand strategy.
The way prospects interpret your brand (your business’ personality, mission, vision, appearance, etc.) can improve reputation, returning patients, and industry authority. However, if your branding is inconsistent or lacks intentionality, you can alienate your patients and lose credibility.
Personalization
A 2021 Hubspot report found that 92% of customers expect personalization, and nearly 75% are frustrated when marketers don’t meet that expectation.
Using personalization in your medical marketing strategy is an excellent way to show your audience that you understand them, care about them, and know what they want. It’s far more likely that a patient will engage an email with their name in it than something that begins with “Dear patient.”
Quality content
Provide patients with practical, engaging information and improve your website’s SEO quality by releasing consistent, high-quality content using a website content calendar.
Do most of your patients want to read a peer-reviewed journal article about the latest discoveries in molecular translational medicine? Probably not. They want to understand their conditions, how to get better, and how you can help them.
Readable blog posts, testimonials, and FAQs serve your patients’ needs for information and are excellent ways to disseminate targeted keywords for SEO.
Video marketing
Roughly one in eight patients use video marketing to research healthcare providers and services. Video marketing is one of the most powerful trends across industries because people prefer video over text and photo; according to HubSpot, digital video watching has nearly doubled since 2018.
As with text-based content, creating helpful video marketing content (like expert interviews, explainer videos, or case studies) gives your prospects digestible information they can use to make important health decisions.
Social media marketing
A Physician’s Weekly essay reported that 71% of consumers who had a positive experience with a brand’s social media were likely to recommend that brand to their family and friends.
Developing strong social media engagement for your medical practice can build your contacts, connect your brand to different lead sources, and initiate strategic partnerships. And if you’re creating quality text and video content, you already have material ready to post!
Reviews and testimonials
Does your practice regularly ask patients for reviews? Do you have a way to collect reviews integrated into your website or emails? If not, you may be missing out on your strongest content for medical marketing.
HealthLeaders reported that nearly 70% of patients said online reviews play a crucial role in decision-making. Requests for reviews from patients and follow-up emails are an easy way to gather this conversion-boosting social proof.
Partner with a healthcare marketer to get results-driven digital marketing solutions
Doctors and other healthcare providers are brilliant at what they do, but most didn’t spend their ten years attending medical school learning about how to become digital marketing experts.
While they could spend their limited free time between patient appointments researching medical marketing tactics, it makes sense to outsource this necessary (but time-consuming and complicated) work for most healthcare organizations.
Deciding to recruit outside help is the first step toward growing your medical practice, but what kind of marketing agency should you hire? The best medical marketing comes from professionals who understand current marketing trends and the healthcare industry.
Medical marketers are highly specialized communications experts who know how to deploy proven digital marketing strategies in a medical context. Look for a medical marketing company with experience creating the following digital assets for healthcare businesses:
- Paid ads that result in new patient acquisition
- Apps that facilitate patient appointments and inquiries
- Customized websites optimized for mobile and search engines
- Engaging videos, tutorials, blogs, and other web content that simplify complex medical information
The truth is, anyone can claim to be a healthcare marketer. Before choosing an agency, look for reviews and medical marketing awards demonstrating their ability to bring you results that align with your goals.
Prioritize a seamless digital patient experience
You chose the healthcare profession because you want to help people, and that’s why working with a medical marketing team is essential. The patient experience starts on your website well before they make it to your waiting rooms.
If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you might be losing patients who don’t like your website (but would love your level of care):
- Is your medical practice’s website cluttered or disorganized?
- Do you need to improve your bounce rate?
- Do you need a medical website redesign?
- Is your site missing integrations that allow patients to make appointments or contact their practitioners?
The best medical marketing companies develop patient-centric strategies that reflect your medical practice’s passion for providing excellent care. Too many digital marketing tools are available today to give your patients anything less than an exceptional user experience.
How to use medical marketing to support your organizational goals
Medical marketing is an investment, so you should expect to track marketing ROI to come with that sleek new website and pithy paid ad campaign.
Your goals should include positive financial outcomes, but that’s not all an effective healthcare marketer will bring you. In addition to more patient appointments, you can also expect the following from your digital medical marketing plan:
- Saved time. How often are prospective and returning patients calling your front desk to get information that you could quickly deliver online? Integrating apps that allow patients to make inquiries and schedule appointments on your website will give your office staff a return on time.
- New lead sources. The internet is a vehicle for connection, so you don’t have to rely on the same old sources to attract leads. Using paid ads, organic social media, or emails lets you engage prospective patients (and partners) in fresh ways.
- Improved reputation. More than ever, patients care about receiving excellent health care. A professional, modern website will leave prospects with a positive impression of your medical practice. On the other hand, a disorganized website may send them running.
These outcomes won’t happen by accident. Medical marketing can grow your organization through analysis, strategy, and optimization.
Analyze your market
You might know the ins and outs of orthopedic surgery, but how well do you know your market? More specifically, do you know what it takes to make your prospective patients tick (besides persistent joint pain)? The most effective healthcare marketing plans begin with audience personas and profiles of your target market built with intensive market research methods, like patient interviews.
Use data to form a customized strategy
Collecting and analyzing data provides a quantitative understanding of your healthcare practice’s strengths and weaknesses.
For example, your website’s referral traffic tells you which digital platforms are working best. If most of your referrals come from Facebook, you can direct your marketing efforts at paid Facebook ads.
The marketing data around landing page retention, engagement, conversion, and bounce rates are a crucial step toward growing your medical practice.
Continue to optimize your healthcare marketing
The medical marketing strategies that worked last month may not work today. Effective digital marketing requires a devotion to quality improvement.
Audit and quality test your website and digital campaigns regularly to ensure that your healthcare business stays ahead of the competition and is prepared for the future.
FAQs about medical marketing
Do you want to know more about medical marketing? Whether you’re a director of marketing or an orthopedic surgeon, marketing your practice is crucial to stand apart from the competition and provide your patients with the tools they need.
Get straightforward answers to common healthcare marketing questions below.
What does a medical marketer do?
A medical marketer is a communications specialist who can plan, create, and deploy marketing assets for clients in the healthcare industry. The best medical marketing agencies offer comprehensive marketing strategies, including website development, social media management, paid ads, email sequences, and content creation.
How is marketing used in healthcare?
Patients rely on healthcare marketing to find providers, evaluate their services based on reviews, and learn about available medical services. Medical marketing also involves creating websites patients can use to make appointments, ask questions, and more.
How much does medical marketing cost?
Medical marketing costs depend on your project; there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The healthcare industry standard is to spend between three and five percent of your gross revenue on marketing. So if your practice grosses $1 million a year, your target marketing budget should fall between $30,000 and $50,000.
How do you market a medical practice?
The best way healthcare professionals can market a medical practice is to highlight how they help people, using the language and visuals that move their target audience.
Hiring a medical marketing company is a strategic way to outsource this critical step in growing your healthcare practice.
Find out what we can do for your healthcare organization
TBH Creative is a digital medical marketing agency with more than 15 years of experience growing healthcare brands. Our digital marketing strategies and websites give medical practices time-saving tools, new lead sources, and more appointments.
You don’t have to take our word for it. Look through the following case studies to learn what healthcare businesses say about our medical marketing work:
- Illinois Bone and Joint Institute. Our inbound marketing campaign led to a 30% landing page conversion rate (five times the industry standard). Learn more about how we helped the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute attract new patients.
- Logansport Memorial Hospital. Our social media marketing service improved this Indiana community hospital’s engagement by 142% and increased its web traffic by 194%. See how our email, event, and digital hospital marketing resulted in 124% more appointment requests.
- Dermatology, Inc. To help the largest adult and pediatric dermatology practice in central Indiana create a patient-centric digital experience, we engaged our web design, development, strategy, and content management system services. Get specifics directly from Dermatology, Inc.’s practice administrator.
The energetic, innovative professionals at TBH Creative are experts at every digital marketing tactic you can think of (and the ones you can’t).
In 2021, we won six Aster Awards for outstanding healthcare marketing, were named on Clutch’s list of top women-owned businesses and took home the title “Best Web Design Company in Indianapolis.”
We excel at what we do because we’re passionate about helping our healthcare clients. We can’t wait to guide you into your medical practice’s next stage of success.
Don’t delay your medical practice’s growth
The massive shift to the remote world post-pandemic makes it more critical for medical professionals to market their practices. Stay ahead of your competition by investing in your medical marketing. Your business and your patients will thank you for it.
