Healthcare Marketing - Everything You Need to Know

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In times of growing competition in every respect, it is difficult to reach new, potential customers without properly planned and well-thought-out marketing activities, including both online and traditional advertising.

It is worth knowing, however, that healthcare services are associated with certain restrictions in this regard, and failure to comply with them may result in severe penalties that you certainly want to avoid. The following article is a capsule of valuable knowledge about medical marketing - by reading it, you will learn about tools useful for promotion, rules to follow, and a lot of important advice.

When planning medical marketing, you need to define the specific goals that your advertising will help you achieve.
The promotion of companies in the medical industry should be diversified and not limited to one channel.
The basis of healthcare marketing is understanding your target audience and their needs.
Contents
Marketing in the medical industry
Why is medical marketing so important?
Medical Marketing - The basis is understanding your potential patients
How to build a marketing strategy for a healthcare company?
Marketing for doctors, psychologists, medical-related companies… that sounds like a challenge!
The Importance of Quality Content in Healthcare Marketing
Website optimization for medical marketing
The importance of positioning in medical marketing
Monitoring effectiveness in medical marketing
How can a creative agency help you build your healthcare brand?
Marketing in the medical industry
As we have already mentioned, the medical industry is associated with certain restrictions, which is why it is increasingly difficult to compete on the market. The Act of April 7, 2022 on medical devices introduces numerous restrictions on the marketing of these products. From January 1, 2023, only medical devices intended for laypeople can be advertised, using language they understand. The advertisement must be free from the image of people practicing a medical profession or pretending to be such people (Article 55). This carries a number of restrictions, especially in areas of medicine, where equipment for performing procedures is a medical device for professionals. This results in a ban on advertising such equipment . This does not completely exclude the possibility of advertising by entities from the medical industry. However, this requires knowledge and vigilance, especially since the responsibility for the content of such advertising rests with the economic entity ordering it (Article 56, paragraph 2).

As in any other industry, in the medical industry you need to define specific goals that advertising is supposed to help you achieve . This will make it easier to examine the effects of your actions and draw appropriate conclusions that will help you optimize your activities. The marketing funnel includes both people seeking knowledge on topics related to given medical services and those looking for a specific service. In order to increase your reach and reach more people, it is worth including both of these groups in your targeting.

Medical Industry - Marketing
Why is medical marketing so important?
Many companies dealing with broadly understood healthcare services want to stand out on the market by implementing a comprehensive marketing strategy . As we have already mentioned, this industry is very competitive, as many clinics and medical facilities offer similar services, and patients have increasingly higher requirements. Thoroughly understanding your target group and adapting your communication in such a way as to interest them will actually translate into the success of the brand. Consistent and repeatable marketing will also help to increase reach - it will allow you to reach a wider group of patients. This will give you more leads, which will translate into the financial result .

It’s also worth remembering to promote locally – many patients are looking for specific services near where they live. You need to define the area in which you want to advertise . Sure, there may be cases where someone will travel hundreds of miles to use your services, but they are likely to be a minority, so focus on setting the right radius for your ads!

Medical Marketing - The basis is understanding your potential patients
Depending on what specific medical procedures you perform, you must first understand how your potential patients think . When you put yourself in their shoes, you will be able to better adapt both your office, your offer, and your behavior towards them.

Well… one of the most stressful visits in the field of health services are the dental ones. Due to unpleasant childhood experiences and traumas caused by them, some people face a huge fear in this area. Once you know this, you can somewhat embody one of them . You would definitely feel more comfortable if someone greeted you with a smile at the reception desk. Another conclusion drawn from this is that additional psychological comfort will also be provided by constant information about what procedures will be performed in turn - knowledge of the procedures, contrary to appearances, can really help to get rid of excessive stress.

The above example was to illustrate what exactly it is about in-depth understanding of patients, and this is the absolute foundation of medical services marketing . You will adapt your office differently if you provide thailand phone numbers rehabilitation treatments, and differently still if you have an aesthetic medicine office - taking on the role of a potential client will allow you to gather valuable knowledge that can make you actually improve some elements and gain new patients!

Now that we have the issue of understanding your audience behind us, it’s time to move on to the next step, which I’m sure you hear a lot about on a daily basis, namely… marketing strategy in the healthcare industry .

How to build a marketing strategy for a healthcare company?
While this may sound like a huge challenge, we assure you that it actually consists of a few simple steps - the final effect should be a promotion plan, created on the basis of observations and analyses (both of your company and the competition). To create a marketing strategy in the medical industry , you need to go through 4 stages of its design:

Analysis
First, learn about and analyze your current situation . A marketing audit will serve you well for this purpose, thanks to which you will examine your situation in terms of external factors (customer characteristics, competition), internal factors (resources, efficiency, development) and go through a SWOT analysis of your business. To prepare it, it is worth reading a few guides or seeking help from professionals - for example, a marketing agency.

Planning
At this stage, you need to ask yourself fundamental questions, such as “ what is my goal and how do we want to achieve it? ”. At this stage, you should create a goal that is realistic, measurable and specific - we suggest following the SMART model. In addition, it is worth designing the tactics you want to use to achieve the goal. This is definitely the largest and most demanding stage. Even small changes can be an example: “I want more patients to visit me, so I will offer a discount to current ones, in exchange for leaving a positive review on Google.”

Implementation
After planning all aspects of implementing the marketing strategy, it is time for implementation, i.e. properly organized and adhering to the previously chosen strategy, realization of the goal. It is obvious that a marketing plan for companies offering medical services will not succeed if it remains only a plan. You describe it in order to later implement specific sub-items!

Control
Once your strategy is implemented, you should regularly monitor its effectiveness using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and useful tools that will be mentioned later in the article. Using the earlier example, if you offered a discount for a month in exchange for a Google review, count how many there were. Then, when a new patient visits you, ask why they chose your office. Maybe those reviews convinced them!

Marketing for doctors, psychologists, medical-related companies… that sounds like a challenge!
It must be admitted that it is a bit like that. Firstly - legal acts that must be taken into account. Secondly - huge competition. This alone sounds like a really big hindrance, but the truth is that with the help of a few useful tools you can achieve your goal, which is to reach new potential customers.

Doctor
Company profile on Google
Marketing for doctors, psychologists or medical companies should be based mainly on reviews . Thanks to the Google Business Profile , any medical company can post information about its address, opening hours, phone number, email address, photos and other important details. They are displayed in Google search results , making it easier for customers to find and contact it. What's more, the tool allows you to collect opinions and reviews from patients, which can influence the decision of other potential customers to use your services. Additionally, thanks to Google My Business , you can monitor your online presence, including tracking the number of views, clicks and interactions with patients.

Google Ads
This is a great tool that allows you to display ads on the search network - you significantly increase the visibility of your company. With Google Ads, you can be at the very top of search results , which is often one of the basic ways to interest a patient. This will increase awareness of your office, and allow you to reach completely new recipients.

Social media
It is a good idea to build communication in social media. Well… now almost every medical company is present on Instagram or Facebook . Of course, the principles of marketing healthcare services listed at the very top of the post should be followed, but there is nothing to stop you from showing, for example, the interior of the clinic or describing the staff working there. You can also use social media to provide information about the procedures performed, including answering the most frequently asked questions.

If you want to learn more about interesting tools for promoting a company in the medical industry , be sure to check out our post: “ effective advertising for dental and orthodontic clinics ”.

The Importance of Quality Content in Healthcare Marketing
Many people do not realize how important content marketing is in promoting medical services . Sharing knowledge can make many more people visit your website!

Blissful
A great idea is to run a blog . It is worth regularly checking what users are interested in at a given time and responding to their needs. Tools such as Google Trends or AnswerThePublic will work well in this regard - they will help you choose topics that interest your recipients the most.

Dental office - blogging
Writing valuable blog posts is another big advantage — readers will start to see your practice or clinic as an expert in their field . Building trust can greatly help attract new customers and can actually translate into profits! Before you start writing a blog, be sure to do thorough research to provide the highest quality content. Medical marketing is all about properly edited, error-free, and valuable content, so pay a lot of attention to it.

Regular blogging is also a chance to build brand awareness. Of course, it's not about writing every day, but a few valuable posts a month that touch on current trends will certainly allow your medical company to reach a wider audience.

Sponsored articles
Sponsored articles are another way to promote your dental practice. These are paid texts published on other portals, containing a link to your clinic's website. Their task is to help with positioning and reaching a wider audience. It is important that they are placed on valuable websites that are frequently visited by users. If you care about local promotion, check if it is possible to add such an article on the website of your city or municipality .

Make sure that the text is valuable, grammatically correct and contains keywords. Also, do some research on where your competition is posting similar texts - maybe this will help you choose where to advertise. Beware of low-quality portals, because they may negatively affect the positioning of your practice's website.

It is worth engaging a professional to create this type of content, who will easily determine where it is worth obtaining a link. What's more, they will create an attractive and valuable text, appropriately optimized for SEO. If you are a doctor, psychologist, or have a company in the medical industry, be sure to consider cooperation with a creative agency in terms of marketing health services - experienced specialists work there, with extensive knowledge of SEO and copywriting .

Website optimization for medical marketing
As we mentioned earlier, a website is a business card for your medical business. A well-optimized website can help you reach a wider audience and promote your practice, regardless of whether you are a psychologist, doctor, or provide any other health services. Nowadays, a website actually makes one of the first impressions on a customer. Therefore, it is necessary to take care of both its appearance and optimization!

First of all, you should pay attention to the page load time . This is extremely important, because if it takes too long, it can discourage a potential customer from visiting and encourage them to visit the competition, where the page loads in a fraction of a second. Another important issue is that the vast majority of people browse the Internet from their smartphones. Therefore, your website should be fully adapted to mobile devices so that it is still functional, clear and easy to use.