With many technological advancements, the healthcare industry is being more progressive than ever in recent years. While many new inventions and discoveries to treat and cure many life-threatening diseases are an important one, the way industry has taken to online platforms for marketing is another.
Like any other industry, the healthcare industry too is untouched by the magic of digital marketing. Or putting it more honestly, it’s not the magic of digital marketing which is crucial and important for the healthcare industry, but the benefit of it.
As healthcare and digital marketing are joining hands from the past few years, we can see that there is a significant growth in the awareness about many diseases, their precautions and symptoms. This is the magic of digital marketing that actually helps the healthcare industry. It helps to educate people, make them more aware of the impending disease they may be suffering and the importance of right treatment at the right time.
This way, it also saves many lives. Also, as for any other business, it also helps to get more leads and build a brand image. “Brand image”, when we say this, we’re no more just confirming to some big fashion or beauty brands, cuisine brands, etc, but today, there is a “brand” in every industry. Going by this, we can say that building a “brand image” is equally important for any business in any industry. So is the case with healthcare.
Today, right from a small pharmacist, chemist to big super-specialty hospitals and individual dietitian or physician wants to build a brand image for themselves. While their dedication, hard work, and talent will remain the defining principle for their success, digital marketing is one of the initial things which will help them to climb up the stairs of success and branding.
Technological advancement is something that is unavoidable especially in the medical and healthcare industry in the present scenario. Right from getting a small diagnostic test to treatments like laser operation, you need to leverage technology. Here, we ReadColors Technologies, the leading digital marketing agency in Delhi NCR brings to you some of the best things to do for marketing a healthcare brand digitally. Read below to find some intelligent and helpful hacks.
Create a website which is easy to navigate
Your website is mostly the first impression to your audience in the digital era. This applies even in the healthcare industry. It will hence create a first impression on your patient about your services or check-up plans. If your website is easy to navigate, it will create a sense of ease in the mind of the patient or your target audience. Also, the chances are that the person browsing is already not in a very good state of mind and if he/she does not get the answers to what they are looking for, they’ll quickly go back. Therefore, an easy to navigate website which presents to the customers what they’re looking for easily is a big plus point.
SEO trends with voice-activated searches
Keeping search engines in mind while optimizing for online marketing is mandatory. Search engine optimization is one of the foremost things which cannot be ignored when it comes to digital marketing. Also, more than 50% of the people browse healthcare-related queries from their mobile phones on various search engines. This also includes the voice search as we can see a significant rise in the use of Siri, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Cortana, etc. What is important is to configure your website and it’s search engine optimization skillfully based on the recent trends. A large amount of traffic is directed to any hospital website through search engines and most of them even end up booking an appointment.
A healthcare educational blog
In the present day marketing ecosystem, a blog is a part of any digital marketing campaign for any industry. An informational blog about healthcare would work great is not only educating your target audience and making them more aware but also in building trust with them. Along with this, it will also be extremely helpful in planning and executing your SEO strategy. Combining them both, your healthcare business will definitely benefit. Post regularly on your website blog and create unique and strategic content to target your audience. You can write about the recent advancements in the medical industry, about the various diseases, their symptoms, prevention, causes, and cure, etc.
Optimize and leverage Social media
Social media is another great platform to market your brand and business these days. Talking statistically, every next person is active on some of the other or perhaps multiple social media channels. Posting about your brand on different social media platforms will result in more engagement with your target audience along with building a brand image. Social media optimization should hence not skip your list while marketing online for healthcare.
Develop an easy, quick and all-inclusive app
This is another great thing to do to market your healthcare brand online. Many healthcare brands have become more user-friendly by launching their app. These mobile applications of different healthcare brands are gaining popularity as people these days are getting more dependent on their mobile phones. Any healthcare based mobile application gains brilliant traffic of healthcare enthusiasts, patients or their family members. It makes browsing and planning easy and more convenient for them. Through these applications, one can check their diagnostic report with a patient ID, book appointments or upload prescription for getting the medicines delivered to their home. This one of the breakthrough in the medical industry which has completely digitalized it.
Efficient Email marketing
Email marketing is a very good way to reach to your target audience effectively. Send resourceful and informative emails with a call-to-action button to your target audience. While this also helps in building brand awareness, it also helps your customers to get easy access and catch up with various health care related news and updates of your hospital, lab, or organization. Personalize and Segment Emails on the basis of your recipient’s interest and needs. This way, they’ll receive the information relevant to them. You can also consider sending a video, a current blog post or industry news that will inform and educate them on various topics. However, an important thing to remember is to send them timely, regularly and consistently. For this, you need to plan ahead your email marketing strategy timely. This should run in accordance with the on goings of your industry and your organization in particular.
Online reputation management
One of the recent and also an important trends in the digital marketing world, Online reputation management is another big thing to achieve in the present world. For an industry like healthcare, maintaining a good online reputation is a very important task.
As already said, people are relying extensively on the internet for researching the best healthcare service provider, pharmacies, laboratories or hospitals. In this case, if your online reputation is hampered with few ratings and not very good positive comments and reviews in large numbers, you can certainly miss on something big. Online reputation management is one of the very effective and useful digital marketing technique in this regard.
SMS marketing
Building a good brand image with your potential customers and target audience is one thing and keeping them engaged while constantly being in touch is another. When two of these are combined into a well-planned strategy, you achieve results that are beyond your expectations. SMS marketing campaigns are not only excellent in generating more leads, but they are also exceptionally well in keeping your target audience engaged.
Send reminders about the health check-ups, medicines, lab tests, and discount offers through SMS to your target audience. While this will represent you as an active and functional healthcare organization, this will also help your target audience have your name firmly sit at the back of their mind. SMS campaigns have proven to generate a very high number of conversion and leads so, do give it a try!
Testimonials and Google reviews
For any business in any industry, their testimonials are one of the biggest achievements. Google reviews and ratings further work excellently in making you a strong rand and representing you as a trusted, reliable and reputed business. Add a testimonial section to your website and encourage your past clients and customers to add a review about your services.
This creates an image of a genuine and good business. Also, encourage your customers, friends, and relatives to add a google rating and review about your healthcare organization as these works best in not only search engine optimization but also in helping your client choose you.
Choose the best partner for your healthcare digital marketing
These were a few of the ways in which digital marketing can help the healthcare business or brand to grow. The Healthcare industry is one of the largest one and so are it’s the audience. This industry appeals to a larger section of the audience in particular and the whole world in general. This is because healthcare is something that concerns everyone in some of the other ways. Therefore, online marketing for the healthcare industry cannot be ignored for long. If you haven’t given it a thought yet, give it now! ReadColors Technologies is the leading “digital marketing company in Gurgaon” which provides the best and the tailor-made holistic digital marketing service for various industries. In case you need any assistance in chalking the best online marketing strategy for your healthcare business, just give us a call or reach us online!