If you’ve ventured into any kind of business, marketing is necessary to promote your services, increase your clientele, and generally raise your business income.
The same applies to the healthcare industry. If you want potential patients to learn of your clinic and the services you provide, a marketing strategy is something you want to consider developing.
Cause marketing, to associate a product or service to a defined cause. For example, a fertility clinic could link its IVF technique to a fertility campaign.
Relationship marketing is all about building the loyalty of patients; vis-à-vis customer-company relationships with existing patients.
Undercover marketing, also known as stealth marketing, involves marketing in disguise such that the audience does not realise they are a marketing target.
There is a recent proliferation of options for healthcare clients, with most patients easily accessing health-related information from the comforts of their home, without the need for physical presence in a healthcare facility like a hospital, clinics, etc. This enables the need for effective healthcare marketing strategies to make your brand the first-line option among patient communities.
Healthcare marketing aims to improve the reach of your brand and increase traffic and retain your market share among competitors.
Stakeholders that should leverage healthcare marketing include physicians, healthcare facilities, health practitioners, caregivers, and marketing experts.
Healthcare marketing is a dynamic phenomenon, very different from what was obtained years ago, although some old strategies are still relevant to healthcare organisations. It’s important to find working strategies, and we are discussing recommended approaches to healthcare marketing—critical in 2021.
However, the strategy employed would depend on your organisation’s growth level, whether young or old, the class and number of the target audience, and milestones already achieved by your healthcare organisation. These strategies would be adapted to suit a particular audience and purpose.
New organisations yet to build a large client base and patronage should take the following approach:
The strategies are different for organisations with an established online presence and regular visits from patients. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and social media presence are ways to grow the healthcare marketing of your organisation organically.
However, the results are not sustainable without other strategic alternatives because of fierce competition in SEO rankings. Other options include:
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketing gimmicks may not suffice for physician referred organisations, especially during their formative years. Owning a basic website where potential patients and referral doctors could access your services is another strategy to improve their confidence in your organisation.
You may also want to consider flyers for doctors to give them a better understanding of the services you provide.
Are you targeting a younger audience? Gear up for some smart, game-changing techniques that young people can relate to.
People believe that more analogue marketing mediums such as mailers, television, and print media appeal to older generations more than digital media.
But recent observations show that older adults 55 years and above still leverage social media and other online presence in their routine activities. Therefore they can easily be reached on these platforms.
Combining digital and traditional strategies would suit this class of audience while considering their specific population characteristics.
For healthcare organisations that have already established a large patient base, it is essential to devise strategies for patient retention. As one cannot be too sure that this will remain unchanged, especially in the face of fierce competition from similar or more recognised healthcare organisations.
We hope that we’ve helped you garner a better understanding of the importance of a good clinic marketing strategy and the different strategies available.
Finding the right healthcare marketing strategy for your clinic can help you reach potential patients in need of your services and treatment. This is why it is so crucial for you to take the time to invest in an appropriate strategy for marketing your clinic.
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