10 Ways You’re Messing up Your Healthcare Digital Marketing. Don’t get left behind! Here’s what you need to know: a blog about healthcare digital marketing.
Introduction
Healthcare is a digital world now, and the way you communicate with your patients and the broader community has changed. The good news is that there are many ways to engage with people and get your message out using technology. But if you’re like most hospitals, you’re still stuck in a rut of old-school marketing tactics that don’t work in the modern world. If this sounds like your healthcare organization (or even if it doesn’t), read on for some tips on how to get more sophisticated about digital healthcare marketing:
Not optimizing for mobile
Mobile devices are changing the way people search.
In 2015, mobile device users surpassed desktop and laptop users in number, and they’re continuing to grow in popularity. Because of this, optimizing your site for mobile is more important than ever.
If you haven’t already optimized your website for mobile devices: do it! It’s not hard to do and can be easily accomplished by getting a responsive web design company involved with this process.
But just because you’ve made your site mobile-friendly doesn’t mean that it’s perfect—there are several things that could be done better on any website, even those that are 100% optimized for all types of devices (read: yours).
Ignoring SEO
If you’re not paying attention to SEO, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic and leads for your healthcare business. Let’s take a look at why that is by diving into what it means, how it works and what you can do to make sure you’re using it correctly.
Search engines use algorithms to determine where websites rank in their search results pages (SERPs). These algorithms are designed to provide users with the most relevant information based on their previous searches or web browsing patterns over time. When someone searches for “heart attack symptoms” in Google or Bing, they will get a list of articles that have been optimized for this specific query term – they are ranked based on relevance as well as other factors such as backlinks from other domains pointing towards yours and social shares/likes/retweets etcetera!
Overlooking the “most likely to share” content
Shareable content is the best kind of content. What makes shareable content?
The right mix of interesting, useful, and valuable information can get people to pay attention to your brand, but there’s more to it than that. To be truly successful in digital marketing, you have to create something so good that people want to share it with their friends and followers.
Incorporate these strategies into your healthcare digital marketing strategy:
- Make sure there’s a call-to-action in each piece of content – This can be as simple as asking readers if they found what they were looking for or even just asking them for feedback about their experience on the website or app. Either way works!
- Use images and videos – Digital marketing is all about engagement, so make sure that your content has a variety of visuals to keep readers interested. Videos are especially good for this because they can be used in social media posts and on other websites without needing to copy-and-paste the link.
- Keep it short and sweet – You want to keep people reading, so don’t write long-winded sentences or paragraphs. Instead, try to incorporate lots of bullet points or short paragraphs with catchy headlines that grab your reader’s attention
- Use social media – Don’t just use social media to talk about your content, but also as a way to promote it. Share the article on Twitter or Facebook, and then tag some of your customers in the post so they can share it with their friends too. This will help increase awareness of your company among new audiences with similar needs.
- Use data – Data is one of the most important things you can use to improve your content marketing strategy. It will help you see what people are clicking on and what they’re reading, which in turn helps you create better content that gets more engagement.
Not promoting your social media accounts
Your social media accounts are a great way to reach new patients. They’re also an excellent tool for building your brand awareness. However, if you’re not promoting your social media accounts, then you’re missing out on a big opportunity to get more traffic and build trust with potential patients.
You should post at least once per day on each channel in order to keep up with the latest trends and gain followers who will be interested in what you have to say and share their own experiences. But posting regularly can be time-consuming—and it’s easy for those updates just disappear into the void of people’s newsfeeds without anyone noticing them! That’s why we recommend hiring someone who knows how much work goes into managing these channels well so they can help promote your content while they manage them. Your healthcare digital marketing strategy will benefit greatly from having this extra resource available at all times so that when an issue arises (e.g., high volume during flu season), someone is always ready with solutions instead of scrambling around trying figure out how best handle things themselves while still meeting deadlines.”
You’re not paying attention to online reviews of your healthcare organization.
When was the last time you monitored your online reviews? If it’s been longer than a month, you need to start paying attention. Online reviews are important because they allow potential patients to get a feel for your healthcare organization. Reviews can help patients decide where they want to go for treatment and what kind of experience they’re going to have when they get there.
There are also some things you should know about reviews:
- Both positive and negative reviews are important! The goal isn’t just getting more 5-star reviews; it’s getting more 4-star and 3-star reviews as well. These types of reviews offer insight into what could be improved upon in your practice.
- You should respond immediately if someone has posted something negative about your practice—and try to resolve the issue quickly (but don’t take too long doing so). People appreciate knowing that their feedback has been heard by someone who cares about improving the customer experience at their healthcare organization!
You haven’t built an email list, or you’re not using it.
Email marketing is the most cost-effective way to reach your audience. It’s also the most direct, personalized method of communication and can be used to nurture prospects into becoming customers as well as maintaining relations with current ones.
To build an email list, create a signup form on your website using one of our recommended opt-in forms (we like Mailchimp). You can then use this information to send out relevant content that is tailored for each person on your list.
If you’re sending out emails infrequently or not sending messages at all, then you are missing out on an opportunity to grow your business through digital marketing! Email campaigns have been proven time and time again as one of the most effective ways for businesses in any industry (including healthcare) to grow their brand awareness and increase sales.
Refusing to accept the value of PPC ads
PPC ads are a great way to get in front of people who are actively searching for your product or service, and they’re easy to set up and measure. If you’ve never used PPC ads before, it’s time to start!
Here are some tips on how to use Google Ads effectively:
- Set up at least two ad groups per campaign – one for desktop users and the other for mobile users.
- Use negative keywords so that your ads aren’t displayed when someone types in an irrelevant keyword (like “dentist” if you’re running an ad about chiropractic services). This stops advertisers from wasting money on clicks from people who don’t want their products or services!
- Use call-to-action buttons that tell people exactly what they should do next (like “Download Now” or “Get Started”). Don’t use language like “click here for more information” because it’s too vague and doesn’t imply any kind of urgency. You can also use an image with a CTA button on mobile devices where text isn’t supported.
- Use sitelinks to connect your landing page directly to specific pages on your website.
Avoiding influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a powerful way to promote your brand, but it’s not as simple as just finding the right influencer and asking them to endorse your product. The most successful influencer marketing campaigns are ones that are thoughtfully executed and that have clearly defined goals.
In order to understand why influencer marketing works, it helps to know what an influencer is: It’s someone who has a large following (usually on social media) and is trusted by their followers. Influencers can be used to promote your brand, or they can endorse your product—it depends on how you want to use them in your campaign.
You can find influencers through social media, or through marketing agencies; whichever method you choose depends on how much time and money you’re willing to invest in this type of campaign. If this sounds like something you want help with, consider partnering with an agency!
Neglecting video marketing opportunities
Video is a powerful tool for developing your brand and telling your story. It has been proven to be more effective at driving action than text, which means that when you are putting out content online, video is something you should consider.
We all know that videos are more likely to be shared than text content. They also get higher engagement rates and longer watch times. Video is an excellent way to convey information in a concise manner, so it’s no wonder that people prefer it over other mediums like podcasts or written blogs!
Video marketing can be used for lead generation through webinars or explainer videos about your business model or product line; customer service with live streaming Q&As; marketing by showing off new products/services through product demos or behind-the-scenes looks at how things work behind the scenes at companies like yours (and even how they don’t work); as well as education because they provide visual examples of concepts being taught in schools or other educational environments such as class lectures held online via video chat platforms like Zoom (or Google Hangouts).
Using ineffective analytics tools and strategies
Analytics tools are vital to your healthcare digital marketing strategy, because they help you measure the effectiveness of your efforts and make improvements. The best analytics platforms will allow you to see which channels are driving the most traffic, where customers are coming from, what keywords they’re using to find you, and more. This can then be used to tailor campaigns based on these insights. If a particular channel isn’t working well for you, then it’s easy enough to stop investing time in it or try something different.
However, many businesses still don’t use an analytics platform at all—or if they do have one in place, they don’t know how to interpret its results because they haven’t been trained how!
The hospital has a website and a Facebook page but it’s time to get more sophisticated about healthcare digital marketing.
A website is important for a hospital. It not only helps the hospital with its digital marketing efforts but also helps patients find the right healthcare provider for them.
The first thing that you need to make sure of is who your audience is and what their needs are when it comes to finding medical care. When you know who your audience is, you can build a better website or Facebook page that will resonate with them better and drive more traffic back to your site or page.
When creating a website or Facebook page for your hospital, one of the best ways of knowing what works or doesn’t work for your audience is by testing out different things online such as:
- Headlines on articles posted on social media
- Images used in advertisements on social media
- The copy used in the advertisements on social media The layout and design of your website or Facebook page
Conclusion
We hope this post has helped you understand what healthcare digital marketing is and why it’s important. We know that many of you are already doing great work in this space, and we applaud you for that! If your organization is not yet employing digital marketing strategies, however, now may be the time to start considering them more seriously. This article provided some tips on how others have been successful with their own healthcare digital marketing efforts—and hopefully those ideas will inspire new ones in your own organizations’ campaigns as well!