Importance of Marketing in Healthcare
You have quality physicians, friendly and helpful administrators, and your healthcare business is a well-oiled machine when it comes to taking care of patients. And yet, you aren’t seeing the growth you would like to see. It may be time to invest in marketing.
What is Marketing?
Let’s start with the basics. According to the American Marketing Association, “marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large1”. That’s a fancy way of saying that marketing is the process of promoting a product or service to an intended target market.
There are a lot of ways a business can do this, depending on who they want to reach and what they want to say. Though there are numerous strategies and outlets, there are four focus points to consider when building a marketing strategy: PRODUCT, PRICE, PLACE, PROMOTION. This is called the marketing mix or the four p’s of marketing. Let’s breakdown what each of these elements include:
Product: What are you promoting? In the healthcare industry, the product is actually a service.
Price: How much are you charging for your services? While you don’t typically, disclose price in healthcare marketing, it is important to keep this in mind in regards to competitors and your marketing budget.
Place: Which distribution channels are best to use in order to reach your target market? This may require a little research, but it will ensure you are putting your effort and resources in the best place.
Promotion: Which marketing channels are best for your target audience and what messaging is most effective to attract them to your business?
Now that you understand what marketing is, let’s discuss why it is important for any business, but particularly in the healthcare industry.
Why is it Important?
Did you know…?
41% of consumers use social media to make decisions about which doctors or hospitals to choose2
36% of Internet users search online for hospitals or other medical facilities2
44% of Internet users search online for doctors or other health professionals2
Businesses that use content marketing see six times more conversions than businesses that don’t2
94% of healthcare patients use online reviews to evaluate providers3
These are just a few of the many statistics out there that prove the benefits of incorporating a marketing strategy in your business. Marketing is critical to continue growing.
So, you are probably wondering how to take all this information and create a marketing plan. Let’s discuss a few ideas to get started.
Marketing Ideas for a Healthcare Business
Social Media
This one may seem obvious but the amount of time people spend on social media is constantly growing. People are more likely to trust a company that has an online presence. Creating a consistent posting schedule with quality content will increase the faith a potential patient has in a healthcare company and their abilities.
Email
Believe it or not, healthcare-related emails are opened more frequently than any other industry. This is something to use to your advantage! Email is a great way to personalize content for a current or potential patient. There are many email campaign tools you can use to build a high-quality email that makes automation easy.
Search Engine Optimization
This one can get technical, but the basics behind it are easy to implement. Because so many people use internet searches to find a healthcare provider, you want to cash in on this opportunity. It all starts with your website. Make sure your business website has keywords throughout that will show up in an internet search. Also, make sure your website is user-friendly. You can do this by ensuring links work properly, everything is labeled correctly, there aren’t too many wordy paragraphs throughout, etc. Go through your website like you are a potential patient and see if it makes sense and is easy to navigate. All of these small changes can help your website rank better which will result in a higher search result spot.
Online Advertising
There are many stats out there that prove how beneficial online advertising can be for a healthcare business. Creating an ad online is simple and usually proves to have a high ROI (return on investment). Any chance you have to get your business in front of your target market, take it!
Now, Let’s Put it Into Practice
There are a number of tools available to help you on your marketing journey. Here’s a list of some of the easiest to use and most popular available:
For creating and sending emails:
-Mailchimp
-Constant Contact
For graphic design:
-Canva
-Venngage
For creating a basic website:
-Wix
-Square Space
It doesn’t take an entire marketing department to create a marketing plan and build an online presence. With some consistency, quality content creation, and patience, investing in marketing for your healthcare business is a move worth taking.
Written By: Katie Armentrout, MBA
LinkedIn: Katie Armentrout