As a healthcare brand, trust and credibility are essential. Starting out in this industry can be gruelling. In fact, even for those of you who are already established, remaining ahead of your competitors can feel near impossible. It’s in these instances that digital marketing for healthcare becomes so vital. An organic strategy is the best way to build your reputation and build brand awareness. Not to mention, it’ll also work wonders in accelerating positive word of mouth too!
What is digital marketing for healthcare?
Digital marketing is a way for brands to boost their presence without using overly pushy, traditional advertising techniques. Both routes to market aim to educate your audience on your brand and its products or services. Their approach, however, is very different.
There are lots of different forms of digital marketing. These include:
- Social media
- Search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Public relations (PR)
- Influencer marketing
- Events
All of the above techniques aim to shine a light on brands in ways that advertising cannot. Organic campaigns allow companies to showcase their personality, boosting their reputation and credibility whilst also generating new enquiries. What’s more, besides the cost of an agency, marketing is completely free!
Why you should avoid traditional advertising
Although once very lucrative, traditional advertising techniques have found themselves loosing effectiveness in more recent years. With the introduction of ad-free streaming platforms such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer, ask yourselves, when is the last time you sat through and paid attention to a television advert?
The truth is, these solutions are nothing but pushy and invasive. What’s more, if brands aren’t careful, they can even go as far as tarnishing your reputation. Instead, companies need to look at smarter ways of being subtle yet compelling with their promotion, such as through digital marketing.
The initial costs of advertising can be crippling, making this technique far less accessible for small and medium sized businesses. Not to mention, the start-up costs will also massively reduce your ROI too!
We may be bias, but we think that digital marketing for healthcare really is a no brainer. This being said, not all advertising is bad. In fact, modern techniques such as Pay Per Click (Google Ads) and adverts on the likes of Instagram and Facebook can still be lucrative. That is, of course, providing they are set up correctly.
Building credibility
When it comes to being successful as a healthcare brand, credibility is a vital foundation that needs to be built. If your customers feel they can’t trust you with their health, they’ll go elsewhere. It’s as simple as that! That being said, how does a brand go about building their reputation?
Positive word of mouth can work wonders for any business, but this can only go so far. Where the budget is available to do so, companies shouldn’t limit their potential. Instead, they should invest in marketing techniques such as SEO, PR, and social media.
SEO, short for search engine optimisation, is a way for brands to improve their ranking on Google under relevant searches. This is done in a variety of different ways, but back-end optimisation and content creation are the main two to note. As a result, you’ll soon be more visible on the search engine results page. In other words, people will find your practise far easier, and your credibility will be elevated.
Meanwhile, PR and social media are both opportunities for you to showcase your expertise. Appearing within industry specific and national press will position you as an authoritative and trustworthy figure within the healthcare sector, all whilst boosting your brand awareness. Your social media profiles can then be used to share your knowledge, building rapport with potential customers, and putting their mind at ease.
Key statistics
Still not convinced that digital marketing for healthcare will change the game for your business? Don’t just take our word for it. Let’s look at the numbers…
- As part of a recent survey, 70% of people said that being able to trust a brand is more important to them now than ever before.
- Around 63% of brands have increased their digital marketing spend in 2023 when compared to last year.
- There was an average budget growth rate of 14% between 2020 and 2021 for businesses globally.
- Brands who invest in their SEO receive 55% more site traffic on average.
- Instagram is home to more than 200 million business accounts. LinkedIn is estimated to have around 55 million.
Building a strategy
So, you’re looking to venture into the world of marketing but you’re not quite sure where to start? Building a strategy should always be the first step. This is a live document that details all of your planned upcoming marketing activity and helps to keep your team on the same page.
As part of the strategy building process, it’s vital that you take a look at your competitors and assess what they are doing in terms of marketing. From here, you can then take inspiration. Furthermore, you should also detail your budget and how you are choosing to allocate this. Other things to mention include:
- Your goals for the project
- A timeline for each proposed campaign
- A SWOT analysis
- And much more!
Need help with putting together your strategy? Our team build the foundations for effective and lucrative campaigns. What’s more, should you need us to, our specialists can also help you with implementation too!
Contact us
For more information on digital marketing for healthcare, get in touch with our team today. You can reach one of our specialists by clicking here, or by calling us on 01376 386 850.