What are the advantages of digital marketing for the healthcare industry?

By strengthening your hospitality services’ visibility online, digital marketing has given new life to the healthcare industry.

The advantages of digital marketing include reaching out to patients and healthcare seekers worldwide, building trust among your target audience, and expanding the growth of your healthcare practice.

A digital marketing strategy for your healthcare services is essential. You should consider embracing digital marketing techniques for your healthcare service if you have not already done so.

You will learn the importance of investing in digital marketing for your healthcare business.

1. How does Healthcare Digital Marketing work?

Digital healthcare marketing is all about getting your services in front of healthcare aspirants online. Digital marketing is a great way to promote your online healthcare business.

Almost 88% of people look online for health information, and 70% say it influences their treatment decisions. You can stay connected to current and new patients with digital marketing.

2. The importance of digital marketing in healthcare

The reason why people choose online healthcare services is that they can get immediate responses and communicate with specialists at their convenience from their home or office environment. According to a McKinsey survey, 75% of respondents indicated that they were interested in using digital health services.

Throughout this page, we will discuss various methods of expanding the growth of your healthcare services through the use of digital marketing.

A) Search engine optimization (SEO)

User experience and search engine optimization (SEO) are closely related. Providing the best user experience to your patients is essential if you want to become a successful healthcare SEO specialist.

User experience is determined by factors such as responsive design, voice search optimization, quality content, smooth navigation, website load time, etc.

Search engine optimization is an important digital marketing strategy that can improve your online visibility. SEO experts can help you improve your patients’ user experience, increase your visibility on search engine results, and drive organic traffic to your healthcare website. If you are interested in getting ideas for designing your healthcare website, check out our blog, which provides inspiration and ideas for the healthcare and medical industry.

Here are a few statistics that demonstrate the importance of SEO for the growth of your online medical center.

• Google, Bing, and other search engines are used by 77% of online health seekers to find health-related information
• Physical therapists, nursing homes, and optometrists are the most likely healthcare providers to be contacted after conducting an online search by consumers
• More than 70 percent of searchers seeking health-related information click on the first page of results
• Nearly 47 percent of internet users search for information about doctors or healthcare providers.

B)  PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising means you advertise on search engines, social media, and other platforms. You do not have to pay anything unless someone clicks on your ad.

Google Adwords, for example, offers display and text ads. Display advertisements will appear on various websites that you browse while they are targeted according to your past searches. Text ads are displayed at the top of Google search results.

Consequently, PPC ads offer excellent chances for obtaining quality traffic and maximizing potential leads for your online medical center. In addition to being able to measure the performance of your ads across different platforms, you can also ascertain which approaches are working and which are not.

The following statistics demonstrate the impact of paid advertising in online healthcare.

• In 2020, healthcare companies are expected to spend $36 billion on advertising
• 7 million+ healthcare advertisers spent a total of $10.1 billion on PPC ads
• For every $1.60 spent on Google’s paid ads, healthcare service providers receive $3 back

C)  Social Media Marketing

It is no secret that social media is booming in the healthcare industry, and it is a great way to maintain a constant connection with your patients. The use of social media can provide better opportunities to target patients under different age groups, genders, medical conditions, and health issues.

The government of India, for example, developed a Facebook Messenger chatbot that anticipates questions and directs citizens to the right resources by countering misinformation. Similarly, Canadian provincial medical health officers have effectively used social media and healthcare communication. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they share official information regularly.

Having an active social media presence as a healthcare representative can help you build public awareness about staying healthy during pandemic times, provide tips on maintaining mental and physical health, clarify doubts of patients through your expertise, and more.

The following statistics demonstrate the importance of social media in the healthcare industry.

• Healthcare centers in the United States have a Facebook account in 94.41% of cases, a Twitter account in 50.82% of cases, a Yelp page in 99.14% of cases, and a Foursquare page in 99.41% of cases
• Health professionals and doctors are trusted by 60% of social media users
• In America, 83% of social media users have searched online for health-related information, such as mental health, disease management, immunizations, etc.
• According to 91% of respondents, social media communities greatly influence the way they make health-related decisions.

D) Content Marketing

Content marketing methods such as blogs, infographics, videos, e-books, etc. help to demonstrate your expertise to the right audience. You can easily share your expertise and engage with your patients when you provide quality content.

Those who are well-experienced dieticians can write blogs related to topics such as childhood obesity, nutritional diets, fitness tips, etc. It is possible to provide readers with the best solutions through the posting of articles based on topics relevant to your niche and also demonstrate your expertise to your audience.

Your content should focus on delivering value to your patients rather than on self-promotion. You can also make your content more understandable by avoiding medical terminology.

Here are a few statistics that demonstrate that content marketing is crucial to your healthcare business.

• As a result of healthcare content marketing, three times as many leads have been generated as through outbound marketing and it costs 62% less than other marketing avenues
• Each year, healthcare video marketers receive 66% more qualified leads
• 83% of  engage in content marketing
• 58% of health organizations use blogs

E) Mobile Marketing

Through the effective use of mobile marketing tactics, you can reach healthcare aspirants on their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

A variety of mobile marketing solutions are available that will meet your requirements, including app-based marketing, in-game marketing, location-based marketing, mobile search ads, mobile image ads, and text messages.

Using mobile marketing, you can target local audiences and encourage them to take advantage of your services.

Here are a few statistics that indicate the importance of mobile marketing in the development of your healthcare business.

• 44% of patients who use a mobile device to research hospitals schedule an appointment
• 47.6% of healthcare industry emails are opened on mobile devices
• Nearly 19% of those surveyed have health and fitness apps on their mobile devices

F) Email Marketing

A cost-effective method for staying in touch with your audience, providing a customized experience, establishing a relationship, and staying in the forefront of their minds is via email marketing.

In order to conduct an email marketing campaign effectively, you need to segment your email subscribers according to certain demographic characteristics, such as age, interests, health conditions, etc. Customize your emails with an attractive subject line, call-to-action (CTA), and sign up options that are easy to use.

Secondly, implement email marketing automation strategies to ensure you send effective emails consistently and without hassle. By using email marketing, you will be able to effectively acquire new patients for your online medical center and retain your current patients.

Below are a few statistics that illustrate how email marketing has a positive impact on your online medical center.

• According to 74% of digital healthcare marketers, email is the most effective distribution channel for new content
• Email is 40 times more effective at attracting new patients than Facebook and Twitter combined
• 89% of digital healthcare marketers report that email is the primary source of lead generation
• Each dollar spent on email healthcare marketing generates an average return of $44.25

It is evident that digital marketing plays an important role in enlarging the growth of your online healthcare services. You can effectively turn prospects into active participants in your healthcare center by optimizing these digital marketing platforms.

3.  Benefits of Investing in Healthcare Digital Marketing

Your online healthcare center would benefit greatly from digital marketing. Listed below are some of the benefits of healthcare digital marketing.

CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition)

By investing in digital marketing, patient acquisition costs will be reduced. There was a survey conducted at U.S. vein practices that reported the most common media channels used are print (68%) and TV (30%), which costs approximately $314 and $348 per patient, respectively. The cost of digital outreach can be reduced by 50%.

Demographic Targeting

Digital marketing allows you to target patients based on their age, gender, location, and other characteristics, contrary to traditional marketing. This will enable you to provide a more personalized level of service to your potential patients.

Data-driven Decisions

Traditional marketing makes tracking a patient’s experience difficult. Thanks to the latest digital marketing tools and techniques, it is easy to track and analyze user experiences.

Search Engine Visibility

Google searches for healthcare services make up one of every 20 searches. Almost everyone uses search engines to find health-related information, such as wellness tips, symptoms, medical centers, specialists, and more. Using digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, you can improve your position in the search engine results.

Patient Referrals

While traditional marketing does not offer as many tools and techniques as digital marketing, it can drive quality leads to your healthcare services.

To Wrap Up Things

The patient’s journey normally begins at the healthcare website. Thus, having an active online presence contributes to the growth of your online healthcare services.

Once you have developed a website, you can easily implement effective digital marketing strategies and provide your patients with the best possible experience.