The Latest Trends in Healthcare Marketing

Healthcare marketing has always been in a lane of its own. In fact, up until the 1980s, there was little if no healthcare marketing at all. It was considered unnecessary because most patients didn’t think medical decisions were up to them. That is in sharp contrast to today’s rising consumerism in healthcare, which acknowledges the fact that patients are making healthcare decisions and becoming more involved in their own care and well-being.

The Changing Face of Healthcare Marketing

The empowerment of patients to make their own healthcare decisions continues to grow. When you factor in the revolutions that COVID-19 has brought to healthcare, including the rise of telemedicine and increasing consumer research, it’s easy to see that the healthcare industry is changing — quickly.

So now the question becomes, how will your marketing change to keep up the evolving healthcare industry? There are many things to consider, but two strategies you should be implementing right now are personalization and technology.

The Personalization of Healthcare Marketing

As consumers become more and more involved in their own healthcare choices, it also becomes increasingly important for providers and healthcare systems to engage with and form lasting relationships with them. That requires creating a personalized approach to marketing.

There are several ways to make healthcare marketing more personal, including:

• Understanding the patient journey — how, when and where patients find providers and why they choose to engage with them.
• Delivering content that matters to patients, not what matters to providers.
• Focusing on wellness and health rather than sickness, surgeries, etc.

Remember that marketing healthcare is becoming more and more like marketing consumer products. You need to meet patients’ needs by providing something they need with a unique spin. But, because it’s healthcare, you must also gain their trust and work to form long-term relationships.

The Rise of Technology in Healthcare Marketing

In order to meet potential patients where they are, you must present an omnichannel approach to healthcare marketing. This means combining traditional media (broadcast, outdoor, radio) with digital marketing across several channels.

These are some important tactics to consider:

• Create compelling content marketing – by posting information consumers are searching for, you establish yourself as a trusted resource.
• Use evolved SEO – just like healthcare marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) has undergone big changes. Today it takes more than simply repeating a phrase – you have to make sure you engage readers, as well.
• Track the patient journey – analytics can provide a multitude of useful information about how, when, where and why patients interact with you. But, you have to know where to get the data and how to interpret it.

Successful Healthcare Marketing Done Right

At Asher, a healthcare client was moving into a new market that was already filled with large established healthcare systems. Our job was to raise awareness of the incoming company to a new audience that appeared content with their current providers and were not outwardly interested in trying something new.

Using a balance of personalization and technology, we turned to digital media to introduce physicians who were accepting new patients. Seeing the faces of these doctors and hearing about their background played into the desire of many people for greater connection to their providers.

The physician introductions were shared across multiple platforms and delivered right to potential patients. In addition, consumers were able to use technology to quickly and easily make appointments with just a few clicks, even though they were new to the system. The plan resulted in an overall increase in patient appointments across the board, with one of the featured providers gaining an astounding 85% increase in patients. This one step also helped introduce the entire healthcare system to the new market.

Stay Current with Healthcare Marketing

Balancing personalization with technology is just one of the many emerging trends in healthcare marketing. To stay competitive in the changing environment, it’s vital that you stay up-to-date on other developments in healthcare marketing so you can deliver exactly what new patients are looking for.

The easiest way to do so is to work with a company filled with experienced experts in healthcare marketing — like Asher. To discover what’s new and what’s next, reach out to Asher today.