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. 

The Different Types of Marketing in Healthcare

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.

Healthcare Marketing Strategies

• Create a unique brand. Find your niche and strength in the healthcare industry. For example, a service that would distinguish you from other providers in the same field. It could be your customer care, ease of appointment scheduling, and swift response to a patient’s need.
• Increase online visibility. Remember that today’s technology means that the majority of your target audience is searching for services they require online. 
• Design an attractive website. Make your website simple but comprehensive enough to cater to a patient’s inquiries and informational needs such as your location, services, and contact email/phone.
• Use a responsive website; which adjusts to screen size on any device. This aids SEO since search engines look out for this during crawling. Additionally, most search engines would encourage website accessibility from mobile phones.
• Ensure a high browsing speed of your website.
• SEO would require skilled experts.
• Use pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. PPC would ensure proper budgeting.
• Social media posting of pictures, updates, events, and articles on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Also, use paid social media advertising.
• Ask for feedback and reviews through an automated review system.
• Follow up on feedback for reputation management and increased customer satisfaction. 
• Use physician liaison. The importance of doctor referrals should be factored in.
• Understand the role of a person-to-person witness by satisfied patients; therefore, follow up with patients after appointment through email, phone calls, and mails.
• Be a go-to person in your field of speciality. 

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.

Marketing Strategies for New Healthcare Organisations

New organisations yet to build a large client base and patronage should take the following approach:

• Set up a digital advertising landing page for temporal use before your website is ready.
• Employ paid online advertising for easy finding through Google, Bing, Yahoo, Firefox, etc.
• Register your presence within your location by signing up your business on local directories like Google My Business.
• Take feedback and review ratings from clients/patients into consideration and make changes if necessary.

Marketing Strategies for Well-Established Organisations

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:

• Paid adverts with the help of a marketing agency or social media professional.
• Mainstream media advertising, depending on the trends in your locality.
• Training of desk staff for appropriate office etiquette that would sell the organisation positively to the public.

Marketing Strategies for Physician-Referred Organisations

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.

A Healthcare Marketing Strategy if Younger People are Your Target Audience

Are you targeting a younger audience? Gear up for some smart, game-changing techniques that young people can relate to. 

• Your website should be intelligent yet straightforward, and easy to navigate when searching for information.
• There should be ease of online booking and accessibility.
• Your presence should be documented on widely-used websites.
• And, of course, social media advertising fascinates the younger group. Therefore you should leverage it for best results.

A Healthcare Marketing Strategy if Older People are Your Target Audience

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.

• Television, radio, print, and other traditional media should depend on the demography of the target audience.
• To reach your direct communities, use social media marketing popular among your existing or prospective clientele.
• Pay attention to individual patient satisfaction through faster website networks, quick-moving queue in the office waiting room, courteousness, and avoid insensitive cold calling and other redundant practices.

A Healthcare Marketing Strategy for a Larger Clientele or Patient Base

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. 

• Use SEO strategies for top ranking in popular search engines. 
• Employ technological advancements like an automation system for requesting a review from patients after accessing your services.
• The importance of staff training would not be over-emphasised as successful healthcare marketing is teamwork. Customer care staff and receptionists should mainly be coached on the client-business relationships.

Conclusion

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.