2022’S Digital Marketing Guide for Healthcare

 Health Care Digital Marketing:

_{In 2022, Healthcare digital marketing is referred to as a new set of digital strategies that the healthcare sector needs to market itself after the Covid-19 outbreak. After Covid-19 people are conscious about their Health. They avoid places where they can catch germs. The healthcare sector needs a new set of strategies such as telemedicine, and booking appointments online. Through these tactics, they can limit the physical contact between the hospital/clinic and the patient.}

^{Why Digital Marketing is essential in healthcare in 2022.}

^{In 2022, According to Google, there are 74000+ Average monthly searches for the term “ Physician near me” worldwide. Compared with last year the growth is around 80%. The term “ Hospital Near me” has an Average monthly search of more than 1,500,000 with a Growth rate of 50% than last year. And Surprisingly, the term “ online doctor visit ”. Has more than 100k Average monthly searches with a growth rate of 900% than last year. It clearly shows a need for healthcare professionals to have a strong Digital presence.} It is essential for their survival in this ever-changing environment.

^{Role Of Covid-19:}

^{The Healthcare Industry has faced a lot of challenges} because of the Covid-19 breakout in 2022^{. According to the research conducted by the national library of medicine, on the economic impact of covid-19 on the healthcare sector, the Healthcare industry lost almost $3 trillion in the year 2021.  They find out that one of the major reasons for this economic imbalance is the lack of preparedness. Another  worthwhile insight mentioned in this paper is a need to develop new strategies to ease the process for patients to get Doctor consultations like telemedicine (Diagnosing patients by the use of technologies such as video conferences, messages, and phones.)}

Change In Patient Behavior

^{The research showed us that if the healthcare sector will not adopt the new digital way of living they are going to lose even more money in the near future. Because due to great advancements in technology patient behavior is changing. Tele- consultation has become very popular among patients with minor symptoms because people are getting more aware of their health and hygiene than ever.}

Rise Of Telemedicine

People ^{certainly do not want to have any physical conduct at places like hospitals and doctor clinics. That is why for a minor infection people prefer to get telemedicine instead of visiting the nearby hospital or Doctor’s clinic. Change in behavior in patient preferences is one of the major reasons digital marketing is essential for the healthcare sector in 2022.}

Business Nature of the Healthcare Sector:

To digitally market Heath-care sector, we further divide it into two disciplines

1. Hospital Marketing (Corporate Marketing)
2. Marketing a Consultancy (Personal Branding)

Hospital Digital Marketing:

Whenever you market a hospital you should think of Corporate marketing tactics in which you highlight the specialties of the hospital facilities. Digitally, you are more inclined towards educating your patients about your different facilities. The focus of your Content should be how you can take care of them better than any other hospital in their surroundings.

Marketing a Consultancy:

If You are marketing a Medical practitioner or a group of doctors You should use personal branding tactics. In Personal branding, you focus on the person behind the desk who will give you the service in this case medical advice. Your content strategy will be focused on showing them experts in their particular niche.

5 Strategies that Hospitals must use in 2022 to Attract patients through digital Marketing:

After Covid-19, Many things changed in Digital Marketing. Particularly in the healthcare sector people are more inclined toward telemedicine and mainly they search the hospital online before stepping a foot into it. In a nutshell, Digital marketing is not an option for healthcare professionals it is mandatory. Five digital marketing tactics will help you attract more patients.

1. Focus On Facilities:

Hospitals normally have multiple facilities like birth centers, Blood banks, Intensive care units, Emergency units, etc. Every Hospital is known for its one particular facility. For example, Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic are known for their Heart and Vascular Centers. Focus on facilities that you already are known for or you want your hospital to be known for because digital marketing can be targeted in terms of finding the right Audience. Building Helpful content based on the facilities you are already known for Increases your Digital Presence. Because it is easy to build your Authority in that particular niche. After Getting success, integrate other departments as well.

2. Update Your Listing:

As explained above, On Google there are at least 150000+ searches per month for the term “Hospital Near me” globally. All of these people are potential patients. Use Google My Business to Update your listing. It is a free marketing tool from Google. 

Optimze Relevent Information:

Update relevant pictures and information about your facilities on it. So people Within your Area can easily find you. 

Collect Reviews:

Collect reviews from a patient about how your Hospital has the best facilities and Doctors onboard. Remember you just Do not want a review you want the right review.

3. Brand Story:

Let’s Face it the main purpose of a hospital is to help people get better. If people do not think that hospital is there to help them. Instead, it is there to make money out of them, then they are not going to trust it. Share your Hospital story and build an emotional connection with people. As after Covid-19 social media become the biggest community. You can leverage that to your Advantage and share your hospital story with people on it.

Example:

Imran Khan Chairman Of Shoukat Khanum Cancer Hospital did a great job building his hospital story by telling people why his cancer hospital exists. He said, “ I watched my mother suffer from cancer and I do not want anyone to suffer from this disease alone. Especially the ones that do not have enough resources to fight this disease. I wanted to give them a fighting Chance.

4. Make your content as simple as possible:

Medical science content involved a great deal of medical language. It is not easy and sometimes impossible to understand for someone who’s not a Doctor. Whenever you write content about any disease put yourself in your patient mindset and then write it.

For proofreading, you can make someone read it who is not a Doctor. It will help you understand the reader’s perspective and you can refine it accordingly.

Example:

Let’s say you are writing about a particular cancer disease name ALL (acute lymphocytic leukemia). Instead of telling it is a type of cancer you should let people know what it means for instance The word “lymphocytic” in acute lymphocytic leukemia refers to the white blood cells called lymphocytes, which ALL affect. Acute lymphocytic leukemia is also known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Make it easy for the reader to understand the disease by using as simple language as possible.

5. Leverage Paid Ads:

Digital Marketing Paid Media Is Further categorized into two types

1. Paid Search
2. Paid Social

Leveraging Search Ads:

Paid search is also referred to as intent-based marketing. In search ads, you target people who are already searching for you. It is the most effective way when it comes to conversions. If you want to generate the right traffic to your website and you do not have the time for organic S.E.O Search ads are a great way to show ads to the right people that could likely be your customer because they are already searching for a service like Yours.

Example:

Let’s say your hospital’s Cardiology facility is the most popular and advanced. And You want people to see your website’s particular landing page about your cardiology center. You can target Keywords like “Best Hospital for Heart Surgery” the Search engines will show the content to the people that are looking for a heart Surgery facility.

Social Ads:

 Paid social is also refer as interruption-based marketing. Because on social media people are not there to see your ads they are on social media to engage with their friends and family or maybe watch content that they want to watch. So whenever customers are exposed to an ad on social media you are interrupting their user experience. In Healthcare, your Ads’ focus must be on informing or educating the people. Because they will only bother to engage with your ad if they see some value in it.

Example:

Instead of just telling people about your facilities is not enough on social paid advertising. On Social Media try sharing patient stories and case studies with an audience and tell them how your hospital helps them get back at their feet. Because latest research shows that people are more inclined toward building communities on social media after Covid-19.

6. Appointment Booking Website:

After Covid, people are more conscious about their health. They are reluctant to go to places where they are likely to catch any germs. In these times, an online appointment booking website is a must. Because It will help in reducing the amount of time the patient spends at a Hospital.

5 Strategies that Consultants / Doctors must use in 2022 to Attract patients through digital Marketing:

1. Use Of Telemedicine:

  As mentioned earlier, I can not force this enough that after covid consumer behavior is not the same anymore. People now are reluctant to go to hospitals and clinics. So telemedicine will be the future of the practice of medicine.  There are two ways through which telemedicine can generate revenue for your consultancy.

1. Cost-Effectiveness

It Takes place online, so it’s convenient for both parties. Because it takes place in a virtual environment there will be no overhead cost at all. Doctors can even do it from their homes. Telemedicine is also a cost-effective way for doctors to help patients on a bigger scale. They can even help patients Internationally. All they need is the right website that can provide payment integration and a good digital marketing strategy. If they pay attention to it they can also make a lot of money from it as well. It is a win-win situation for both patients and Doctors.

2. Patient Retention 

It can be beneficial for follow-ups. For Example, if you’re a skin doctor and you give a laser treatment to your patient you can follow up with the patient online. What it does, it made a personal, empathetic connection between you and your patient. which will increase the value of the interest in the patient mind. As patients will be happy with your service it will boast your patient retention rate.

It Does not matter what your goals are with your consultancy, telemedicine is becoming an essential need.

2. The website that can bring in Revenue.

We all know the need of having a website these days. But Just having a website is not enough. Because you will lose a lot of opportunities if you do not optimize your website.

You need a website that can build your Authority as a Doctor and bring you more patients.

Building Authority Through Content:

Your content Strategy should be focused on making you an expert in your respective field. For instance, if you are a physician, your content could revolve around common diseases like flu, Covid-19, and all hepatitis,, etc.

Tele-medicine Should be the Focus of your UX Strategy:

The user experience journey should be focused on telemedicine because it will generate direct revenue through your website. Your user experience research should be focused on how you are going to make it easy for patients to consult with you through the internet.

3. Personal Branding:

Whenever you are marketing yourself or a group of doctors with a particular niche you have to work on personal branding because people want to know that you are the expert in your respective field. Build content around common diseases and how people can protect themselves from these diseases. Optimize your Social profiles so people know that you are the right doctor for them.

Example:

Dr.Mike did a perfectly good job in building his brand he has 10 million subscribers on youtube and the reason why he is so successful. because he made medical science easy for people to understand.

4. Using Webinars To Attract Patients:

Hosting a webinar is a great way to attract the right patient to your clinic and Re-engage with the existing ones. 

The Right Topic:

 Doctors Usually do not know what type of topics to select that will attract the right patients to their clinics. So they usually host webinars with general topics like diabetes, Carona Virus, and other common viral diseases. That’s why they would not be able to attract any right patients to their clinics. For example, if you are a dermatologist before hosting a webinar you should research the most common questions people are asking on the internet about skin diseases. You should also compare it with your personal experience i-e what type of skin-related problem people came to you with.

Keep It Simple:

After selecting the right topic, the next step is to build up the content for the webinar. As your audience is someone who does not have a working understanding of medical sciences. So you should keep it as much simple as possible so that they can understand what you are talking about. 

Use Right Marketing Tools to get the word out:

Collect people’s emails through paid digital advertising (google ads, Facebook ads) while letting them know that you are hosting a webinar. After collecting emails, send them emails with the link to join the webinar. After that, retarget those people with paid ads and via email to remind them about your webinar. In Marketing terms, build a sales funnel.

5. Use Paid Media To Get Instant Results:

Paid Media is divided into two categories

1. Search advertising
2. Social Media Advertising

Search Advertising:

You can use Search Advertising for directly market your tele-medicine practice. for example, whenever a consumer searches for virtual doctor your website should came at the top on Search Engine Result Page. When people click on it they will directed to the landing page. On that landing page if they book an appointment with you. Than it would be a conversion for you.

Social Media Advertising:

On Social Media Consumer Behaviour is really different. Y ou cannot expect people to buy from you rightaway on Social Media. You’ve to use Inbound Marketing tactics to build a connection with your Audience. On Social Media You really have to be Creative in-terms of forming an ad. Because If People do not see any value in your ads there is a 99% Chance they would not engage with it at all. On social media you can share your patient stories and how you help them get better. Build Helpful content about common issues in your niche to connect with your target audience and than you can market your consultancy to them.

5. Update Your Listing:

As explained above, in the Hospital Marketing section that how much its important to update the business listing. It is also essential for Consultants to update their listing as well. Google My Business is a free marketing tool from google. Use it to update your business location, timing, and services that you offer. So that people nearby your location can easily find you when they are looking for a service like yours.

^{Final Words:}

^{With Telemedicine becoming more popular day by day Healthcare professionals now have the chance to market themselves to a larger Audience. Even they can give online consultations internationally, and all they need is a laptop or mobile and high-speed internet. All they have to do is adopt a few digital marketing tactics to get started. . And even if you want to increase patient visits to your hospital and your private clinics, a strong online presence is a must.} A^{ccording to Go}ogle, ^{77% of health-related queries start with an online search}. P^{eople are searching for you online}. ^{if p}atients ^{can easily book appointments over the internet and visit your clinic or hospital at that particular time.} I^{t will increase your patient turnover.} B^{ecause the patients do not want to spend a lot of time at hospitals and clinics}

Rightway to Hire Help

Normally, Healthcare professionals do not have enough time. Writing content, doing digital marketing, and handling their website on their own are hectic tasks that require focus and skillset. ^{Digital Agencies like Strategy guys have customized packages for the healthcare sector.} these packages are ^{cost-effective and efficient.} W^{ith a little help from you}. ^{They will handle all of your digital presence from developing a website to getting you, qualified customers}