Healthcare marketing has come a long way from the yellow pages. In the age of the internet, healthcare companies can no longer rely on print, radio, and TV advertisements alone. If you wish to survive the highly competitive market today, your company—whether it’s a hospital, a clinic, or a private practice—needs to enter the digital space.
Some companies are still hesitant when it comes to using healthcare digital marketing. After all, there will always be patients available, so why bother going online? Keep in mind that people today have more options when it comes to healthcare services and won’t necessarily go to your establishment, even if it’s the nearest one. If you’re still on the fence about using digital marketing, here are some well-founded reasons to start implementing it in your business.
Healthcare Consumers Are found Online
The numbers speak for themselves. Search engines process billions of searches each day. Google, the current top search engine on the internet, has 40,000 searches per second, which amounts to more than 3.5 billion searches daily. And this only covers search engine statistics.
On social media, more and more users create profiles and interact with friends, groups, brands, and companies in a massive digital hub. Statista, a business data platform, reports that as of October 2020, popular social media sites have the following active users:
- Facebook — 2.7 billion
- YouTube — 2 billion
- WhatsApp — 2 billion
- Instagram — 1.2 billion
- TikTok — 689 million
- Reddit — 430 million
- Twitter — 353 million
Indeed, if you wish to reach a wider, global audience, there’s no more efficient way to do it than going on the internet.
Digital Marketing Increases Online Visibility
According to Google Health Vice President David Feinberg, around seven percent of the daily searches on Google are health-related. This translates to 70,000 health-related inquiries per minute. Additionally, the Pew Research Center reports that 70 percent of searchers admit that the health information they learn online affects their thoughts and decisions when it comes to getting treatment.
Considering these numbers, naturally, you’d want a front-line seat when consumers come looking for healthcare services. Good visibility helps build brand awareness and retention, which increases the chances of driving up sales. However, visibility comes with a cost. It takes a lot of work, planning, time, and capital.
Properly investing in digital marketing allows you to efficiently get the most of your money’s worth. Depending on your company’s goals and resources, you can employ various digital marketing methods that can best help your business reach its objectives.
It can Reduce Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)
“Cost per acquisition” refers to how much money is spent in order for a potential customer to take action. This can mean a variety of things, including filling up a contact form, booking an appointment, and availing of your healthcare services.
In 2009, VeinLine, the quarterly newsletter of the American College of Phlebology, reported that healthcare companies primarily used print and TV channels to get new patients, which cost them $314 and $348 respectively per patient.
By efficiently using digital marketing, you can potentially cut overall costs down by half. Check the numbers:
- For every $1 spent on email marketing, healthcare companies can earn $44.25 back.
- Through pay-per-click advertising, you can get $3 back for every $1.60 spent on Google paid ads.
And this hasn’t even covered other marketing methods such as SEO (search engine optimization), content marketing, and mobile advertising market yet. Clearly, digital marketing can be an exceedingly effective tool, especially when you’re strapped for cash.
Digital Marketing Zones in on Your Target Demographic
Radio and TV advertisements are effective in reaching thousands and even millions of people, but how many of those will actually avail themselves of your company’s services? One of the advantages of digital marketing is that it targets people who are already interested in your services—whether it’s through age, location, gender, and so on.
Search engines and social media sites have advertising tools that allow you to select the demographics you wish to reach for a given amount of time. As you engage with people, it inevitably draws others who are interested in the topic, service, or product that you’re discussing or providing.
The great thing about this is that you can tailor the content you’re releasing specifically for them. Speak their language, learn their unmet needs, and know what catches their eye. In this manner, you can increase community engagement and encourage potential patients to avail of your products and services.
It Makes Data-Gathering Easier
Unlike traditional marketing methods where it’s difficult to accurately gauge how effective a strategy is, healthcare digital marketing has several tools that can show you the numbers. Some of the crucial information you can glean is expenses, how many leads a link got, which topics are most interesting to consumers, and which keywords searchers most commonly use, among others.
When you know the numbers, it becomes easier to pinpoint effective strategies, areas of improvement, and lucrative opportunities. With digital marketing tools, you can make data-driven decisions, which helps you make the most of your resources while efficiently accomplishing business objectives.
It becomes clear that digital marketing has become an integral part of the emerging healthcare landscape. It’s crucial in reaching a wider audience, building brand awareness, and eventually, establishing your reputation as a reliable healthcare provider in this competitive industry. Invest in digital marketing today and reap its numerous benefits in the long run.
