By David Gutierrez.
Everyone needs healthcare at some point in their life. With that guarantee, healthcare professionals might not see the need to put too much time and effort into their marketing campaigns.
Image credit: Hush Naidoo on Unsplash
If you’re reading this, you’re one of the smart ones who know that’s simply not true. While everyone needs healthcare, consumers have more choices than ever. Do a quick Google search for similar practices to yours, and you’ll see how true that is.
To get ahead, you need to be one of the first options that potential patients come across. Here’s a look at marketing trends that will define 2020, and beyond, within healthcare.
Make guest posting part of your content strategy
People prefer to learn about a brand by reading informative content rather than seeing an ad. That’s arguably the best argument for adopting guest posting. Banner blindness is real and only getting stronger. This suggests guest posting on a platform might be more effective than buying ad space.
Guest posting also has a range of other benefits:
- Expand your readership
- Establish your brand as an industry authority
- Become part of the conversation within the healthcare industry
- Build links to your website (One of Google’s top three SEO ranking factors!)
However, to get the most out of it, you shouldn’t just jump into guest posting without any planning. First off, keep in mind that guest posting should be part of a larger influencer marketing strategy. It’s more about building relationships than just SEO.
Second, links to your website need to be natural, relevant, and valuable. So, make sure you have content on your site that can supplement the guest post so that you can link to it.
Adopt new technologies
For a customer-facing and service-orientated industry like healthcare, customer experience is extremely important. Fortunately, few industries are being so thoroughly revolutionized by technology as healthcare.
One fascinating route to investigate is wearable fitness trackers or similar devices. People have their smartphones with them all the time. And today, many also wear watches with steps, nutrition, and heartbeat tracking features. Integrating with these gadgets via an app is a great way to become valuable to consumers.
Telemedicine is on a rise, many healthcare professionals are utilizing it. Smartphones, fitness trackers, and such gadgets fit right into the nature of telemedicine since the entire communication will be online. Adopting telemedicine can be the differentiating factor in maximizing your customers’ experience.
Exposure is all about getting in front of prospective patients, and tech can help you do just that.
However, you can also optimize the day-to-day running of your practice to improve the care and user experience your patients receive. Service desk for healthcare is a fast-growing space. These software packages can help you with data analysis and insights, customer relations management, security, and more.
Put more effort into mobile and local SEO
In today’s smartphone-driven world, mobile and local search are tightly interlinked. 72% of consumers who did a local search on their smartphone visited a store, while 41% of consumers research a location on their mobile device while they are inside.
People searching on mobile phones are often on the go and need a product or service nearby. This means they have a high level of intent that you can leverage.
The first step is to make sure that your Google My Business info is up to date. That means your phone number, address, business hours, and photos are current and accurate. It’s especially crucial for healthcare services that the call button works, as customers are likely to call you first. If they can’t reach you, they will likely go to the next search result.
Incorporate more infographics, video, and even VR in your content
It’s no secret visual content is more engaging, entertaining, and shareable than text. 45% of consumers say their favorite type of content is video. According to the Precision Marketing group, an astounding 92% of consumers share videos. If that hasn’t convinced you, Brightgrove reported a 157% higher click-through rate for videos on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Another study by BuzzSumo found that infographics are also among the most shareable types of content. It’s not hard to see how an infographic can quickly break down complex medical information to consumers. The same goes for videos.
While virtual reality (VR) may sound like something future marketers need to worry about, it’s actually already here. VR is predicted to make gigantic strides in the medical industry to help explain concepts to patients, train medical practitioners, and help with procedures.
Prevention is better than cure
When it comes to healthcare marketing, this means it’s better to be proactive than always trying to catch up with your peers. Digital marketing and SEO are all about momentum. The further behind you are, the harder it is to rise above all the noise.
If you adopt these trends now, you will give yourself some breathing room. But don’t become complacent, as new trends constantly emerge.
David Gutierrez started his career as a web designer in 2005. In 2012 he founded a creative design agency. Now it serves clients all over the world across multiple industries with a specific focus on FMCG and Fin-Tech.