5 Ways to explore your Healthcare services through Digital Marketing.
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What is Healthcare Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing for the Healthcare industry is not that a doctor is sharing Operation videos on YouTube or Facebook or sharing his full-day experience on social media. No, that’s not it.
It is the direct interaction between a Healthcare service provider or Doctor and his patients. Digital marketing for the Healthcare industry helps in reaching the right patient at the right time with the right treatment approach.
Today the behavior of the patients has changed considerably over the past few years. They are looking for the best and searching for it over google or search engines.
They want to know everything about his doctor or hospital, his experience and services, and trust in the reviews and testimonials what his patients have given. That’s the reason that searches on google for the healthcare industry is the 3rd most popular online activity today!
People search for “best gynecologist in Bareilly”, “best physiotherapist near me”, or “best physician in Lucknow” etc. on google and google shows them the best search results as per its algorithms.
Why Digital Marketing is a need of the Healthcare Industry?
Today people are very conscious about their health. They use apps to monitor their heartbeat or count their steps during the walk or for the calory burn. They are searching for the best diet on google to reduce wait or best fruits to keep liver or kidney healthy etc.
Overall, they are relying on technology or the web for healthcare. That’s the main reason to have your digital presence on the web to target your audience.
5 Ways to explore your Healthcare services and increase patient volume in your Hospital through Digital Marketing.
1.) Health Care Website –
Today having a website for a hospital is very important because your digital presence is as important as your physical presence. Today approx. 60-70% of people search for the internet for any query and this percentage increase when it comes to the healthcare industry.
People are very conscious about health and they want to have all the information about the doctor or hospital before they visit it. They look for its internet presence or website where they can have information and if they don’t find it they lose some faith.
Website is the first interaction of the patient with the hospital or service provider where he can search for all the required information like timings, location, doctor panel, services, testimonials, etc.
Benefits of Healthcare Website –
Enables 24/7 Online Presence – Your Healthcare website means that your patient can find your services anytime from anywhere. He can get the information even after your business hours.
Build Credibility– In Today’s Digital Era, there is an expectation for any reputable Hospital to have a robust online presence. Doing so helps to increase the credibility and trust of your hospital.
Cost-Effective – As compared to traditional or any other marketing aspect it is very cost-effective. Just a one-time expense and you can have your digital presence.
Expand Reach – One of the most important features of a healthcare website. Your Physical presence or Hospital could have a limit of holding patients or visitors and Your location has a certain reach. But on your website, you can hold as many as they are also there is no physical boundary. A person who is sitting 1000 km away from you can get all of your information on your website but can’t visit your physical location.
Patient Source – You can always check through some analytic tools about your audience sources that from where you are getting most of the traffic and which is your prime audience. So, that you can focus on them and turn them into your patients.
Competitors – In this Digital world, everyone is aware of online presence benefits. You can attract your prime audience to you before your competitors do so. But If you don’t do it today, you will allow your competitors to lead.
2.) Social Media Marketing for Healthcare –
Social media is the most effective and reliable approach to connect with your audience for public awareness and brand management. Today in this digital world social media presence is a must-have thing for the healthcare industry.
Social Media Marketing is the usage of social media tools to connect with your audience for your brand awareness, drive traffic on your website or for sale, etc. Some of the major social media tools in India are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
As per the latest report of statista.com, there are 346 million (34.6 crores), current users, on Facebook only and that will rise to 445 million (around 45 crores) in 2023. This continuous growth in Facebook only shows that there is no other big place than social media to target your desired audience in the world for Healthcare professionals.
When it comes to social media marketing for Healthcare professionals working as a doctor, physical therapist, dentists, dermatologist, orthopedics, Obstetricians, Pediatricians, gynecologists and bigger entities including Hospitals, Clinics, IVF Clinics, E&T Clinics, Eye Clinics, can have the best results by showing their services to a mass population for a regular interval of time and get connected with them.
Positive reviews and testimonials can work miraculously for the healthcare service providers on social media as it builds trust in a patient related to the same problem or disease.
Some of the major key points that how can social media marketing benefit you in your business –
· Improve Doctor-Patient Interaction – On social media, doctors can share their experience with patients and built a bond of interaction or trust with them.
· Sharing general Information through posts & videos – The use of social media in healthcare helps organizations in sharing general information about health care through posts and videos.
· Lowest Cost – Social media or Digital marketing costs much cheaper compared to other traditional marketing like Road hoardings, Newspaper ads, TV ads, or other.
· Explore your Boundary – With Social media, you can explore your boundaries with the people living in distant places. You can reach your targeted audience to a maximum distance reach.
· Trust – With positive comments and reviews you can build trust with more and more people.
· Exact and Detailed Reports – If I talk about traditional marketing you cannot see that how many people have seen your ad in the newspaper or how many have seen your hoarding on the road and contacted you. But on social media you can an exact report of how many have seen your ad, reacted, and how much you have spent.
· Show your Ad or posts only to your targeted audience – Through social media marketing you can target only the people who need it or who are your desired audience and you will pay for that only.
3.) Healthcare Search Engine Optimization (SEO) –
Search Engine Optimization is the key to how you can rank your website or blog on the search engine for related keywords. Healthcare-related searches on the search engine are the highest common online activity among almost all age group users.
People search for their related keywords on the internet for information like “best cancer specialist in Lucknow” or “best method to reduce weight” etc. In Healthcare marketing SEO techniques, Hospitals or Healthcare service providers can target this audience and can end up their search by showing them their respective websites on the top places of the search engine through SEO.
Through SEO, Healthcare professionals can target their related keywords and invite traffic who are searching for that, on your website which could become a lead for them.
The conversion rate is also quite high through SEO, as the people are searching for those keywords means they need that service or want to know about that. In other words, it means that your audience is searching for you on Google (or any other search engine), but if you do not have your presence over there you might lose them.
SEO is not just all about gaining page rank in search engines but it is also building trust among patients who are considering your healthcare service.
Brand recognition, Rank, Trust, and Educating patients about your service are a few benefits of Health care SEO, but there are some more –
1. Trust Building – Google is the world’s leading search engine. And showing up your practice name or service on it can build up trust among your audience.
2. Reduce Budget – Attaining new patients can cost you more but with Healthcare SEO techniques you can reduce your budget a lot as digital marketing is much less expensive than traditional marketing.
3. Increases Credibility – When your website ranks on top position on Google, then it is a sign of credibility and trust among your audience.
4. Genuine leads – People come on google or search engine with an interest or demand for that they are searching for. So, most of the traffic that comes to your website is most probably be your genuine audience.
5. Higher ROI – With Healthcare SEO techniques you will get a higher ROI compared to other platforms because chances of conversion are higher.
4.) Search Engine Marketing or PPC (Pay Per Click) –
With SEM or PPC, you can directly put up your ad in Infront of someone who is searching for your services or your keywords. And someone clicks on that he will be redirected to your website and you will pay for that.
For example, If someone is searching for the keyword “Best Dietitian near me” and you are targeting your Ad on this keyword then Google will show up your ad to this person and when he will click it google will take him to your website and you will get charged.
PPC or Pay Per Click is the most used feature or technique in Healthcare Digital Marketing to derive more potential traffic to their website. The Benefits of Healthcare PPC are –
High Traffic – About 80-90% of traffic on Google goes to the topmost positions, and in PPC google puts the Ads on the top positions. So, If Google puts your Ad in front of the person who is searching for your services and he finds your Ad strategy interesting for fits with his needs, he will click on the ad, lands your website, and may turn out into your customer.
Specific Targeting – Google will only show your ad to those who are searching for your keywords or your services which you have specified in your Ad. So, when someone see your ad he is much more likely to be your specific customer.
Higher Conversion and ROI – You are only showing your ad to those who are interested in your services or are searching for them. So, the rate of conversion and ROI is much higher.
5.) Video Marketing –
It has been estimated and proven that videos or visuals leave its powerful impact on our minds. Today people are more likely to watch something instead of reading. And it is a fact that our minds remind the visuals more than the reading.
You must have heard about the Tik-Tok that made people crazy during the lockdown and later the government banned it due to the China issue.
In the Healthcare Industry “Testimonial Videos” play a very important role in engaging with the audience. People trust testimonials where a patient is telling his story of pain, treatment, and cure with a doctor and hospital.
People who are suffering from the same type of disease will contact the doctor or hospital by trusting that they will also get the same treatment as they saw in the testimonial.
Benefits of Video Marketing –
High Engagement – A short video of your services or testimonial on social media, google, or YouTube can open the gate of engagement for your hospital. People find it more trustable and interesting.
Higher Conversion and ROI – Unlike traditional marketing or an ad in a local newspaper your videos do not have an end date. It will be on your website till the time you want. So, every time, your video will engage with your audience and work for you, that will result in higher conversion and ROI.
Build an Audience – You must have your reliable client base. Videos that explain health conditions and precautions build the brand value of a hospital or doctor and build a reliable audience base.
Improves Ranking – Video marketing plays an important role in increasing the ranking on the search engine for a Hospital website.