Why Is Digital Marketing Important for Healthcare?

In today’s world of the internet, everyone is online. People prefer to chat instead of talking over the phone, they do not watch TV as much as they used to, and nobody reads the newspapers anymore. Of course, there are always exceptions, but when the majority of people are siding more to the online world, you cannot look at only the exceptions.

Knowing how to get adjusted as the times change is one of the crucial things to being able to properly advertise yourself. Oftentimes, healthcare professionals do not understand just how important digital marketing is for medical practices. Digital marketing is not only designed for organizations and businesses, it is the perfect way to reach out to your potential patients.

However, knowing how to properly utilize your digital marketing strategy is not a piece of cake. If you do not know much about this, you can always seek professional help, such as website development for doctors.

Hire a professional to help!

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is the process of being able to promote the services you offer, meaning your healthcare services. This is a lucrative investment option to let your potential patients learn more about your healthcare services online… allowing them to browse from the comfort of their own home.

Statistically speaking, around 85% of people tend to search for any kind of information online, and this includes health information. 70% of those people are more likely to be influenced by the information they found online. This means that whether they choose to visit you or not can be influenced by your online presence. By choosing to utilise an agency which has experience in your line of work, you increase the likelihood of success. One such example would be in the physiotherapy area of wellness and medical care. Using a physiotherapy marketing agency will reduce the onboarding time, meaning less time spend explaining your business to the agency in great detail, they will also be able to apply their existing knowledge in order to create an effective digital campaign that sees positive engagement with your target audience, thus building trust - which is vital for any business operating in the healthcare sector.

There are many different digital marketing techniques

In most cases people will opt for online healthcare services simply because in most scenarios they will receive an instant reply. In addition, they will be able to talk to a specialist through a chat or phone, from the comfort of their own home (you can see a pattern here).

However, it is also important that you offer your patients the best of both worlds. Some patients prefer to talk over the phone, while the majority prefer to chat. Letting them choose their preferred method of contact is the best move.

There are a couple of things that make a digital marketing technique applicable:

1. Search Engine Optimization

Often called just SEO, Search Engine Optimization is one of the most important things when talking about digital marketing. It goes hand-in-hand with user-experience, providing your users with amazing online experience. This is not an easy task, so if you do not have a lot of experience with SEO, you should consider hiring a professional, such as your local SEO specialists from Result Driven SEO, or others.

It all starts with your website. Is your site SEO-friendly? Your website needs to offer a responsive layout, which will help your patients find their way around to the information that interests them, no matter their age. There are many options you can consider providing them with, such as voice-search!

By having a SEO-friendly site, you will get a lot more traffic. How does this actually work? Well, SEO will ensure that your site is on top of the list of suggested websites, once users search for specific keywords. This will not only allow you to be suggested to millions of potential patients, but you will be able to target your audience.

2. PPC Advertising

PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click and it refers to the process of advertising the services you offer on social media, search engines, and other platforms. When somebody clicks on your AD you will be required to pay for the advertisement, but if nobody clicks you do not have to pay.

This is why PPC advertisements are able to offer quality traffic, because the traffic that decides to click on your AD are the users who are interested in your services. You can use different Ads on different platforms, and thus measure their success. This can help you know which approach is actually working. 

3. Social Media marketing

Today, everyone has a social media presence, and social media is definitely booming in the healthcare industry. It offers us a way to stay connected with our patients at all times. Through social media marketing you will have amazing opportunities to target patients of different gender, medical conditions, age groups, health issues, etc.

As a healthcare representative, having a social medial presence means that you are able to build public awareness. Teach your audience how to stay healthy during the pandemic times, provide them with tips to maintain their physical and mental health, and just share your expertise. Not to mention that you are simultaneously building a good reputation!

4. Content Marketing

What is content marketing? Well, in simple words that is the action of promoting yourself through your content; whether you upload videos, articles, images, etc. Content marketing allows you to deliver the information that you want to share to the right audience.

One of the easiest ways to stay relevant is to have a blog. Usually, people link to their blog on their main website, thus those who are interested in reading some related articles are more than welcome to do so. On that blog you should discuss what you know, provide useful information, answer questions, and keep your patients engaged.

Write regular articles for your patients.

Hire a professional for help

In case you do not know much about marketing overall, you can always hire a professional. There are professionals who specialize in healthcare marketing and will be able to come up with strategies that will allow you to reach out to your targeted audience. Investing in digital marketing for healthcare is definitely a must for every medical professional.

Final word

More often than not, the journey of your patients will begin at your website. This is why having an active website, that is user and SEO-friendly with appropriate ads, means that you are going to be able to add to the growth of the healthcare services you offer.