Tip: Clinical digital marketing can help you get seen more, get new patients, keep them coming back, and talk better with your patients.
Nowadays, creating content, using search engines, being active on social media, and running online ads affect 41% of people when they are choosing a hospital or treatment center. A recent study shows that people make 70,000 health-related searches every minute because it’s easier than ever to get professional health advice online. Imagine having a toothache at midnight with no nearby emergency room. Wouldn’t it be great to go online and chat with a doctor anytime? They could suggest remedies you can get from a 24/7 pharmacy or convenience store.
But setting up a system with 24/7 online doctors isn’t easy. You need effective strategies for clinical digital marketing. Let’s understand its benefits in detail, and see how to invest in it using the strategies.
6 Reasons Doctors Must Invest in Clinical Digital Marketing
1) It Strengthens Patients and Doctors Relationships
Clinical digital marketing helps doctors and patients talk better and stay connected for a long time. Patients can talk to their doctors directly through websites or social media. They can ask questions, give feedback, or even complain. This makes the relationship between patients and doctors more personal. Doctors can understand their patients better.
In 2021, lots of doctors had a hard time making sure patients kept coming back. Finding new patients like the old way of marketing might not work like it did in the past. Now it’s about making them become big fans.
What you can do is use online reviews, share them on social media, and even set up automatic announcements. Using stuff like social media, email, and websites, doctors talk to patients right away, sharing useful info, educational stuff, and support. This makes talking a cakewalk and builds trust, making patients happier and more likely to stick around.
2) It Reduces Your Marketing Budget
Hospitals are working hard to spend less money, says a recent report. Hospitals are getting less money from funding and many are worried about controlling costs in a way that lasts. But websites and social media platforms help them by sending out information to thousands of people.
In healthcare advertising, there’s a new tactic called “geoconquesting” which shows ads to people within a certain area around their location. With geoconquesting, the goal is to target people just outside this area—specifically, those near a competitor’s location. By doing this, they aim to attract potential customers who might consider their services instead..
More people are using technology to find health information, so it’s really important for hospitals to have good websites. Marketers are focusing on making websites easy to use, without mistakes, and they work well on phones. They’re also paying attention to popular words and how well ads are doing to get the most out of their money. Online ads and social media are more flexible and cheaper than traditional ways. This helps smaller healthcare providers compete better with bigger ones in a fast-changing market.
3) It Improves Your Brand Metrics
Digital marketing is really important for healthcare because it helps healthcare places become more well-known and trusted. They use things like social media, SEO (which means making sure they show up in online searches), and content marketing to reach more people and show what they can do beyond just their local area. By using these online tools, healthcare providers can tell more people about their services and skills, which helps them become more popular and respected in their field.
Digital marketing, unlike traditional advertising that’s limited to one area, lets healthcare places connect with people all over the world. By sharing helpful blogs, interesting videos, and responding quickly to people online, healthcare providers can show that they really know their stuff. Good online reviews and interacting with people online also help build trust and make people think highly of the healthcare provider.
Having a strong online presence is crucial for healthcare providers to build trust with potential patients. A good website with useful information shows that the healthcare place is reliable and can be trusted. Sharing useful articles and stories from patients who are happy with their care shows that the healthcare provider is skilled and caring. When satisfied patients share their good experiences online, it helps build the healthcare provider’s reputation and attracts more people to their services.
4) It Optimizes Your Patient’s Experience
In the competitive world of U.S. healthcare, making sure patients have a good experience is super important. You want to understand what people like. They like to have choices and easy healthcare experience. And that’s where using digital marketing for clinics comes in handy. Around 80% of folks look up healthcare info online, and 63% pick their healthcare provider based on how good they look online.
The COVID-19 pandemic made people depend more on online platforms for health info. Health centers need to focus on effective online advertising and meeting the needs of today’s patients. To do that, you need to fill in any gaps in patient experience using the right technology and smart strategies.
Digital marketing for clinics is really helpful for healthcare professionals. It allows them to teach patients about health topics and treatments using interesting blogs, videos, and pictures. This helps patients understand their health better so they can make smart choices about treatment. Digital marketing also helps doctors gain trust from patients by sharing useful information and patient stories. When doctors talk with patients on social media and answer their questions quickly, it builds trust and makes the relationships better.
5) It Engages More Patients
Stats show that clinical digital marketing can boost patient involvement by 81% and turn potential patients into actual patients by 59%. The only healthcare experts that are currently smart about it are plastic surgeons. They use data to find possible patients, put ads on social media channels like Insta and FB and build trust by sharing interesting stuff. You can learn from it how to show up online.
For instance, you need a SEO friendly website that is easy to find online. You need social media presence because people say what they see affects how they take care of their health. Plus, you want to send emails to keep the connection going, and teaming up with influencers to help reach even more people. Being online is key, especially since people spend around 7 hours daily on screens.
Digital marketing for clinics helps healthcare providers reach the right people with personalized content. Using social media and online ads, clinics can connect with potential patients based on what they like, where they live, and what they search for online. This focused approach makes sure that marketing efforts are aimed at people who are most likely to become patients.
6) Adapting to Changing Consumer Behavior
People now use digital tools more for healthcare information and services. Doctors and healthcare professionals need to keep up with this change by using clinical digital marketing strategies. This helps them stay relevant and available to patients in today’s digital world.
Healthcare providers need to change to meet the needs of younger people who are used to digital technology. Millennials and Gen Z want quick and easy access to healthcare online, like they get with other services. This means doctors and healthcare services need to be more informal and convenient to keep up with what younger patients expect.
Digital marketing is great for meeting the needs of today’s consumers. It allows for online appointment booking, telemedicine services, virtual consultations, and remote monitoring—all things that are easy and convenient for patients. These healthcare options are modern and fit well with what patients want. Plus, using this type of marketing helps doctors stand out and be different from others in the healthcare field.
Check: Digital Marketing Challenges to Consider in 2024
Challenges and Solutions in Healthcare Digital Marketing
Patient Education and Health Literacy
Healthcare marketers help people understand important health information better. They create simple and interesting content that everyone can understand, no matter their reading level or language skills. This kind of content empowers people to make smart choices about their health. By using clear language and avoiding complicated jargon, marketers make sure that everyone feels included and informed.
Marketers also support fair and equal healthcare practices through their work. They promote programs and partnerships that aim to make healthcare more accessible for everyone. Sharing real stories from people who have benefited from these services makes the message relatable and shows how inclusive healthcare can make a real difference in people’s lives.
Navigating HIPAA Compliance in Digital Marketing
Complying with HIPAA rules is a big challenge for healthcare marketers because of strict privacy regulations about patient information. HIPAA says you can’t use patient data without their clear permission, which makes it hard to do personalized marketing, a big part of modern marketing. This makes it tough to segment markets effectively and limits how healthcare groups can target and follow up with potential customers. Breaking these rules can lead to fines of up to $50,000 per violation and even prison time if you share patient information without permission.
To work with HIPAA, healthcare groups can get patient consent to use data that doesn’t identify who the patient is for marketing, usually with forms patients sign at appointments. Certain kinds of data, like details about who patients are, how they act, and what they’re interested in, aren’t considered private by HIPAA and are really useful for figuring out who to market to. Marketers can focus on areas like nutrition, palliative care, and mental health to make marketing that works within the law.
Enhancing Healthcare’s Public Image
People’s views of the healthcare industry changed a lot after COVID-19, according to a Gallup poll. By 2023, more people felt negative (49%) than positive (35%) about healthcare, which is a switch from 2020 when 51% felt positive and 31% felt negative. This shift is because people worry about expensive medicine, insurance, and overall healthcare costs, as well as issues with getting care, safety, and service quality.
To deal with these challenges, marketers can learn from what customers say online and during phone calls. Since 88% of healthcare appointments happen over the phone, it’s important to use tools like Invoca to analyze these calls quickly. This helps marketers understand what customers want. This way marketers can respond better to what customers think and improve healthcare brands.
Maximizing Results with Limited Budgets
In 2023, healthcare companies had to spend 8% less money to spend on advertising. This made it harder for them to reach out to new patients online. And this shows the importance of digital marketing in the health care business. They need to team up with marketers and create strategies to talk to patients and create content that really works for their business. Tools like Google Analytics show who visits your website, which helps plan targeted ads and decide where to put resources.
Working together with other businesses also saves money while reaching new people. With tight budgets, marketers should focus on advertising using data to guide decisions in real time. They also need to keep tracking where customers come from and how they decide to use healthcare services. Invoca uses AI to listen to phone calls and figure out how online ads impact what people decide to do. This helps marketers change their strategies fast.
Utilizing Patient Feedback to Drive Marketing
Good communication and quickly responding to feedback help healthcare organizations improve how patients feel and how they market themselves. Let’s look at Spectrum Retirement Communities, which runs retirement and assisted living places in 10 states. When COVID-19 hit, Spectrum had to come up with a fast plan to talk to patients and families and ease their worries.
Before the COVID-19, Spectrum used Signal AI by Invoca to study phone call words for marketing and training. They wanted to understand what customers were saying during calls, especially about COVID-19. This helped them learn what people were worried about and how they were feeling. With this information, Spectrum made a strong plan to deal with the crisis. They did really well—only 1% of staff and residents got sick in the first six months. They also got 160 great customer reviews and kept more residents happy, reducing the number of people leaving by 20%.
Creating Impactful Healthcare Marketing Content
In healthcare marketing today, the goal is to create content that speaks well to different groups, like regular people and professionals like doctors or drug makers. It’s important to meet the needs of both. Marketing needs to explain complex ideas clearly without confusing everyday consumers. Finding this balance makes sure that messages are interesting and useful to everyone, which keeps people interested and builds trust.
A good healthcare marketing plan depends on getting accurate data and knowing what consumers really want. By using different sources of information, like looking up popular keywords, studying how customers interact, and tracking phone calls, marketers can learn important things to create content that talks about specific health problems. Talking about real issues and suggesting solutions in marketing shows that you understand what people are going through and builds trust with them. This can lead to better health results and make your brand more trusted. By using data to guide their approach and focusing on what consumers need, healthcare marketers can create effective messages that connect with the right people.
Adapting to AI and Modern Marketing Technologies
Using and making the most of new technologies like AI can be tough for healthcare marketers. They’re usually okay with using tech to make things better and spend marketing money wisely, but putting AI into marketing plans needs careful steps over time, not just a sudden change. However, AI has big advantages for healthcare marketers. For example, there’s a platform called Invoca that uses AI to automatically handle personal health info (PHI) and stick to HIPAA rules, which is a big deal in this industry. Plus, Invoca works smoothly with other tech tools marketers use, like customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Invoca takes care of important things that marketers worry about when they use AI. One big concern is keeping data safe. We talked about how Invoca follows HIPAA rules for healthcare data. But Invoca goes further. It also follows rules from the European Union (GDPR), California (CCPA), and payment card security (PCI DSS). Invoca meets standards like SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 to show it’s serious about keeping data safe.
The Evolution of the Patient Journey
Healthcare marketing faces a persistent challenge: rapidly changing customer behaviors and preferences. Each patient is unique, complicating efforts to understand and meet their needs effectively. Marketers who can confidently trace the patient journey gain a significant advantage. Statistics highlight the evolution of this journey: formerly telephone-based, it now predominantly begins online, with over 94% of patients using online reviews to assess providers and 5% of Google searches being health-related. Mobile usage will likely further drive these trends.
Healthcare marketing has a tough job because people’s behaviors and preferences keep changing quickly. Every patient is different, which makes it hard to figure out what they really need. Marketers who can follow how patients move through their healthcare decisions have a big advantage. Recent stats show how this journey has changed: it used to start with phone calls, but now it mostly begins online. Nearly all patients—about 94%—check online reviews to pick providers, and 5% of Google searches are about health stuff. More people using mobile phones will probably keep pushing these changes.
Data Privacy Concerns
Apart from following HIPAA rules, many patients worry about their health data’s privacy and security. Healthcare marketers must openly discuss these worries and create strong plans to earn and keep trust about data privacy. Patients and their families need to feel confident that their information is safe with your organization. Considering how sensitive this data is, it’s normal for people to feel nervous about it!
Marketers can use simple and clear ways to inform people about how they protect data, like following rules such as HIPAA. They can write easy-to-understand privacy policies and include these details in their ads. Talking about using strong encryption and safe ways to store data can show their dedication to keeping health information secure. Sharing stories from happy customers who trust the provider with their data can also help build confidence. Overall, being open and upfront about privacy shows that the healthcare industry cares about keeping people’s information safe, which can strengthen trust between providers and the public.
Mental Health Stigma
Even though people are more aware of mental health now, there’s still a lot of stigma around it. Healthcare marketers need to work on reducing this stigma and promoting mental health services. This involves using clear and thoughtful messages and getting communities involved. It’s a complex issue that needs different approaches like clear messaging and involving communities actively.
To fight the stigma around mental health, healthcare marketers should create campaigns that share real stories of people who had these issues in the past. These stories should emphasize how individuals have recovered and stress the importance of seeking help. By doing this, stereotypes can be broken down, and people can better understand and support those with mental health issues. The goal is to show that mental health is as important as physical health for our overall well-being, which can help reduce feelings of isolation and shame.
Read: Digital Marketing 101: What is SEO, SEM, and SMM?
Successful Case Studies of Digital Marketing in Healthcare
Out of many numerous clinic, these are 2 successful examples of digital marketing helping clinics.
After-Hours Pediatrics
In Florida, a pediatric center is creating simple posts aimed at working moms who look after their kids. They focus on two main types of content. One is “Doctor’s Suggestion,” where pediatricians explain topics clearly and professionally.
The other is “Recommendations to Mothers,” offering advice on preventing kids’ illnesses from the viewpoint of an experienced mom. This mix blends professional language with personal stories and a friendly tone that connects well with their audience.
Boys Town Pediatrics
A pediatric center in Nebraska used podcasts to share useful information with parents and caregivers. They made three types of podcasts: one about illnesses and accidents, with advice from medical experts on prevention and treatment; another with parenting tips for different age groups, from professionals like nurses and psychologists; and a third on child and adolescent growth and behavior, offering solutions for common issues by psychologists. The healthcare industry sees the value in personal care but also needs to manage its online reputation.
Research shows that 72.9% of patients consider a provider’s online reputation when picking healthcare services. So, digital marketing strategies should match each clinic’s unique goals. The aim of digital health marketing is to show what a clinic really offers online, reaching more patients and possibly saving more lives. This boosts online presence and patient trust, making digital marketing crucial for a health center’s success today.
Final Thoughts
Digital marketing for clinics is essential because it helps reach more people interested in medical services, improves online visibility, and builds patient trust. It has indeed driven the growth and success of many medical centers like the ones we mentioned above. You can also upscale your clinic or hospital’s potential online. You can also reinforce patient interaction and education, enhance your practice’s reputation, streamline communication and administration, and attract new patients efficiently.
And if you want to make your clinic or hospital more popular online, our expert digital marketers, developers, content designers and strategists at First Growth Agency can help you with that. Book a call today or send us a quote.