Aligning Digital Marketing in the HealthCare Business
In today’s digital ecosystem there is no way to ignore digital marketing by the HealthCare industry. While digital marketing is necessity of time in almost every sector, the HealthCare industry is one of them. There is a huge jump has been observed in the preference of digital marketing over traditional marketing in HealthCare globally. Medical HealthCare, Hospitals and Clinics businesses are also increasing in Bangladesh also.
Digital tech-driven marketing includes internet marketing, mobile marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, and many other online brand marketing methods. Now, organizations are in the midst of re-design their digital marketing strategy and align with their organizational strategy. Continue to invest in digital strategy to impact more on consumer engagement and increasing revenue. Since digital marketing is less expensive as well as an effective way of marketing compared to the traditional marketing systems, the HealthCare sector is no wonder to miss out.
Consumers would trust medical information shared on their social media networks and sometimes asked referrals from their peers on social media.
Social media can drive both negative and positive word of mouth. This makes it an important channel for organizations and individuals in the HealthCare industry to focus on in order to attract as well as retain patients.
On social media, millennial networks can get an opportunity to connect. Recently patients are more comfortable with seeking advice or solutions from online communities for better treatment and information.
HealthCare professionals are also using social media for professional networking. Which helps them in professional development from such networks as LinkedIn. At the same time, patients can search for profiles of the right doctors or right physicians for their problems.
Consumers are now researchers. Google’s insight will help for hospital selection. YouTube helps traffic to hospital sites. Search engines are used by patients before booking appointments. Search drives visitors to hospital sites as compared to the number of visitors from other referral sites. Patients are scheduling appointments on a mobile device. Tech-savvy patients and millennials may go for Google analytics to get a deeper understanding of the site.
Patients are sometimes using reviews consumers for international hospitals or clinics, searching health information sites, visited hospital sites, etc. Today, consumers are no longer blindly accept what a doctor tells them. They prefer to do homework before visiting a doctor or hospital. This means that the doctor no longer has the only say on medications, hospitals, medical facilities, treatment, and more. Information is worth more than money because good information allows for long-term profitability in several ways. For a hospital or patient, information means being able to research symptoms, understand doctors’ profiles, service conditions, etc. These are invaluable to the patient to take the necessary decisions. Social media is equivalent to WoM (Word of Mouth) marketing. WoM plays a huge role in the HealthCare sector. If many people around us, recommend a doctor or hospital or clinics. Then, the likelihood will increase to consult that physician and go to that particular hospital.
So CMO of the modern HealthCare industry incorporates digital along with a conventional marketing management system. If the hospital’s website looks dated and isn’t meeting the needs of the growing mobile audience. If so the solution is, just change it, re-design it to get real user experiences. There is a number of ways of promoting and advertising the HealthCare brand or services by using various digital marketing methods and platforms.
As people are active on social media and consumers got information through social media affects the way they deal with their health and wellness. The decision process is empowered by digital content.
That is why content is always king, which is equally true for HealthCare marketing. Eye-catchy authentic content marketing builds trust, confidence and boosts traffic.
Just investing in content marketing produces sustainable results.
Now, HealthCare marketers and professionals have an obligation to create trustworthy, practical and educational health-related content that could be shared across social media. This would be an authentic source of insights especially when people are dealing with such a sensitive subject as health. As people are discussing health-related matters on social media and content with the right message catch the eyeballs of the target audience.
Traditional HealthCare brands need to adopt digital space and update through developing modern internet sites or new Customer Management System (CMS). HealthCare brand can be promoted through online touchpoints by creating customer friendly website which further can be promoted by various digital marketing techniques. Optimizing the website which can help out to gain higher visibility, which eventually enhances larger footfall, capture mind share and business to grow.
It is very usual to having trouble selling the online project concept across the traditional management of a health system or hospital owner. Maybe no one understands the value of the site, or they don’t understand that the old website costing the organization. More likely, the web comes up against higher-priority projects but it should align with organizational goals and be part of the total marketing budget then it will be easier. At end of the day, this very first digital touchpoint will have a direct relation to generating leads and revenue; the owner or management should realize its necessity if they really want to be in the business. As co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates said, ‘If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business.
Most of today’s internet users access content through smartphones instead of laptops or PC. So, digital marketing in HealthCare should have a strong mobile focus no matter what their industry size is. If the website is not designed to provide a quality user experience on mobile devices, then automatically those mobile users may doubt about hospital’s ability to provide quality services with modern technology. We need to remember the first impression is the last impression in any marketing effort. Experiential marketing will definitely have some impact on customer behaviors and buying decisions. So while making decisions on website re-design marketers should consider the user experiences, appeal, relevant information and overall look and feel.
If the website rank needs to be good in markets as multiple hospitals or clinics are present, then Marketers need to provide content that will help people to make easy decisions. This is important because when people are searching for hospitals online naturally assume that the hospital with the highest ranking is the good hospital in their vicinity.
One of the reasons for increasing HealthCare market growth due to increase in the adoption of digital tools and techniques. HealthCare CMOs or marketers have many options to reach more people using a multi-channel approach now.
In the HealthCare industry digital marketing is required to drive traffic to the website as well as to generate leads. It would also help to build business on social networks. Which can be done by paid campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Also by using the latest technologies like online appointments, tracking patients’ treatments and reports, medical tips and advice, electronic medical health records. There are now an increasing demand for the HealthCare industry. Since consumer marketing tricks are shifting greatly to digital ads and mobile apps, therefore, the shift to digital channels in the HealthCare industry is quite obvious. In case of social media HealthCare brands need to manage online reputation and always be alert to maintain and handling negative reviews.
Patients will go to the hospital with the faith that they will get the best possible services, it’s now the CMOs or marketers’ charisma to strategize their HealthCare brand or hospital brand stand out from the competition in this huge virtual space.
