What digital marketing strategies and techniques can I use in the healthcare sector?
Saying “I have to apply digital marketing to my health company” is as broad and imprecise as saying “I have to apply medicine to my sick patient”.
When it comes to marketing your service, healthcare businesses have a lot of ground to cover. In the same way that in medicine there are thousands of specialties, treatments, and drugs available, there are many disciplines, techniques, and strategies within digital marketing, and it is necessary to know them before deciding which one to apply, to see if it fits our objectives, capacities and our audience.
Some different challenges and opportunities come with operating in the sector, which is why we’ve outlined the most important things you need to know about digital marketing in healthcare.
Read on for insight into what works, what doesn’t, and how you can effectively reach consumers who use healthcare apps, websites, and services.
8 AREAS OF DIGITAL MARKETING YOU SHOULD KNOW
The objective of this blog is that you have a general idea of the possibilities at your fingertips, to achieve online visibility in an appropriate way for our sector.
With so many new digital marketing strategies coming into play these days, businesses need to stay informed about the latest trends and best practices so that they can continue to develop their strategy effectively.
In a very summarized way, the 8 most appropriate areas or specialties within Digital Marketing for those millions of potential patient-clients who browse daily to find you are:
Positioning in search engines or Positioning in Google (SEO)
With so many new healthcare providers popping up every day, it can be difficult for patients to find the right care. That’s where SEO comes in – this specialty includes all the techniques to improve the position of a web page or an article when a user searches on Google, where more than 90% of the world’s online traffic circulates.
An excellent website or a perfect online therapeutic guide is useless if it does not appear on the first page of Google, and for this, there is this specific area of digital marketing. By optimizing your website for SEO, you can improve your ranking on search engines and attract more patients. This will boost your business, and it will also attract new patients who are looking for quality health care.
Advertising on Google or Google Ads
Show ads to users who search on Google related to your products or services.
A resource widely used in private health businesses where Google searches related to specific services or products are made, such as aesthetic or dental clinics (for mammoplasties, rhinoplasties, implantology…)
Google Ads is so effective, it’s a great way to generate revenue for your business. With Google Ads, you can specifically target potential patients and healthcare professionals. This can help you reach your target market more easily, and it can also help you increase your website’s traffic.
In the health sector, it is possible, although with some limits that should be known and that may vary from one Autonomous Community to another.
Email marketing
Healthcare is one of the most sensitive subjects on the planet, and people must know about the latest advances and developments in the sector. By using email marketing, you can reach a wide range of people – from doctors and nurses to patients and their families. And because email marketing is so effective, it’s a great way to build relationships with your target market.
Sending emails periodically to patients and customers interested in our product or service, based on their interests, is a very close way to connect with them.
Without filling the mailbox with spam, constantly trying to sell, and respecting the Data Protection Law (always!) It is a very appropriate method for patient associations, medical societies, or B2B businesses in the health and pharmaceutical industry.
In institutions that deal directly with patients, such as pharmacies and hospitals, it can be more complicated due to privacy issues of patient data.
Social networks
In some healthcare sectors, it is confused as the only way to do digital marketing, but as you can see in this article, there are many more options.
Sharing interesting audiovisual content for our target audience through these media serves to publicize our brand, and our services, create a community, and connect with them more instantly.
It is a recommended area, although not essential for any company in the healthcare sector as long as it is done strategically (planning, measuring results, testing different ways of publishing…)
Advertising on social networks (Facebook & Instagram Ads)
Being more and more difficult to have a good reach among the public of social networks in an organic (natural) way, advertising allows us to ensure results and also segment our target audience in a more precise way, to ensure that our content reaches people adequately.
For example, to profiles of a certain age, or in a specific location (a city, an autonomous community, a postal code…)
As in the case of ads in Google Ads, there are some limitations on both the type of ads to create and the autonomous communities in which it is allowed.
On the blog, we have an entire article dedicated to understanding and creating Facebook Ads health campaigns, which, if done well, can be a very efficient form of advertising (allows you to reach thousands of people with investments of less than €50).
Web analytics
E-commerce
Content Marketing
Creation of articles, videos, infographics, images, and all kinds of audiovisual material that allows you to attract qualified visits to your digital business (translated from the marketer language, potential clients)
Every time health content is searched for and someone ends up on your website, it is an opportunity for that visitor to get to know you and become a future patient or someone who recommends you.
The most powerful companies in the health sector, such as pharmaceutical laboratories, insurers, or medical directories, invest a lot in this area of digital marketing.
