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Hospital marketing is essential to educate potential patients about your medical services and facilities. Nowadays, patients look for the best hospitals with the finest facilities online and if you do not have an effective hospital marketing strategy in place, patients might not find your hospital online. Healthcare digital marketing involves a combination of targeted messaging, […]
Hospital marketing is essential to educate potential patients about your medical services and facilities. Nowadays, patients look for the best hospitals with the finest facilities online and if you do not have an effective hospital marketing strategy in place, patients might not find your hospital online.
Healthcare digital marketing involves a combination of targeted messaging, compelling branding, and strategic promotional activities to engage and educate potential patients.
By using the right hospital marketing strategies, you can build strong patient relationships, increase brand awareness, and ultimately drive patient volume.
We have listed the best healthcare marketing strategies along with some popular medical promotion examples to help you build a strong authority in your niche and attract more patients to your hospital.
Let’s begin!
Hospital marketing is a set of specialized medical advertising tactics, which comprises online marketing techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO), medical influencer marketing, healthcare PPC advertising, social media promotion, email marketing, and content marketing.
When doing healthcare marketing, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines play a crucial role in ensuring patient privacy and confidentiality. HIPAA is a specific set of guidelines that hospitals should understand and comply with to protect patient information.
For instance, hospitals should consider collecting minimal information on promotional forms like requesting only the first name, last name, and email address. This ensures that patient privacy is respected while still enabling effective communication and engagement with potential patients.
Whether you’re a healthcare professional, hospital administrator, or medical marketer, these healthcare growth marketing strategies will provide valuable insights and practical ideas to enhance your hospital’s marketing efforts. Here are the top medical advertising strategies to follow:
Offering your patients the best-in-class digital experience should be your top priority. It includes smooth appointment bookings, seamless website experience, doctor and facility searches, and in-hand health education.
Create a consistent brand image by choosing soothing colors, appealing logos, a smooth interface, and a responsive layout.
Ensure that the website has a clear and logical navigation structure. Use LSI keywords to create meaningful and descriptive menu labels and headings. For example, instead of using generic terms like “Services,” use specific LSI keywords like “Specialties,” “Treatment Options,” or “Conditions We Treat” for better user understanding.
Include a search option on your website. For instance, if a user searches for “cardiac conditions,” the search should also display relevant results for terms like “heart conditions” or “cardiovascular diseases”.
Always include images, infographics, and videos in your website content to ensure that your patients are well-informed.
For example, here is the website of Centura Hospitals that prominently displays a CTA button that is easily clickable. Patients can easily locate the hospital address, and phone number, and can also click on the 24/7 emergency care button for conditions that need immediate attention.
Email marketing is overshadowed at times. However, it can be one of the most effective channels to educate your patients with offers, discounts, news, products, services, or updates consistently to keep communicating with them.
It also acts as one of the mediums to retain your existing patients by sending out personalized follow-up emails to them to keep track of their health.
Here are some of the best ways to boost your medical email promotion efforts:
Automating the entire hospital email marketing process is the best way to keep the patients informed and engaged.
Improving your hospital website’s organic search engine rankings can play a huge factor in enhancing your hospital’s reputation digitally. Offering relevant content, a user-friendly website experience, a strong linking structure, a high-speed website, and mobile friendliness to the patients can get your hospital website among the top SERPs.
Here are some tips to rank your hospital website on the top results of search engines:
Mayo Clinic is the perfect example of an SEO-friendly website with a high scrolling speed, easy navigation, a patient-friendly layout, detailed contact information, high-quality medical content, optimized images, and compelling CTAs. A perfectly optimized website might be the reason behind the high patient rate and enhanced digital visibility of the healthcare facility.
It is essential to provide your patients with multiple options to help them connect with your hospital. Hospital social media marketing is useful in keeping your community informed and it also helps you raise the number of online appointments.
Having a substantial follower base on leading social media channels increases the reputation and trust of your hospital. It also gives you the opportunity to connect with industry experts and influencers, which can further lead to improved visibility.
You can conduct live question-and-answer sessions on social media platforms to directly interact with patients and address their queries or concerns. You can invite medical experts from different specialties to participate in these sessions, providing valuable insights and advice in real time.
Additionally, different social platforms allow you to create and experiment with different content formats, which increases the chances of patient engagement.
About 57% of internet users visit a website after researching and reading positive reviews about it online. Hence, delivering the best healthcare service is not enough.
You should encourage your patients to drop reviews, feedback, and comments on different platforms as it will not only help in the betterment of your existing services but also act as proof to the new patients that your hospital is credible. This also ensures that there is a hiked patient engagement rate.
You should also keep a check on your negative reviews and take proactive actions to resolve the complaints.
Additionally, flaunt your awards, accreditations, features, testimonials, case studies, and associations effectively to ensure that your existing and prospective patients are well-informed about your potential and capabilities.
For example, when I search with the keyword “hospital Manhattan”, the New York Presbyterian Hospital is listed at the top with 4.8 review ratings”. When patients search with keywords like this, they are more likely to visit a hospital that is rated highly on Google.
As a hospital, your services are location-based. Hence, it is essential to be locally visible when people search for services and products related to your hospital.
You should begin with geo-targeting your patients. It generally starts with creating and optimizing your Google My Business account, where you can update your address, phone, reviews, photos, services, and fees.
Adding all the relevant and key information about your hospital on GMB provides the patients with a clear view of where they are about to avail medical services. It builds trust among your brand, and reading the experiences of former patients makes them believe in your hospital more.
For local SEO, you should also focus on targeting long-tail location-specific keywords so that when patients in your locality search for a healthcare facility, your hospital appears among the top results.
The Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles is an excellent example of a hospital business having a complete NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) in their Google Business profile.
Additionally, they have good patient reviews for increased patient trust.
About 44% of marketers say that improving the quality of their content leads to higher chances of success. You should also take this opportunity of content creation to educate your patients about various health areas and gain their trust.
Writing blogs, creating FAQ pages, producing videos, and conducting webinars are some of the richest sources of content marketing. All of them contribute to educating the patients and help them in making informed decisions about their health and well-being. Hence, they help in creating a strong authority in the niche as well as developing a robust brand image for your hospital.
As a healthcare facility, your content should be highly scrutinized with facts and figures, as it should be dealt with with utmost care before dispersing information widely.
Other key factors to include content marketing in your hospital marketing are analyzing your target patients, emphasizing educating them, delivering your brand message, and utilizing image content.
Here is an example of Cleveland Clinic that leveraged their patients’ successful journey, positive reviews, and uniqueness to create a section on their website with the title ‘Patient Stories’. This content marketing tactic not only helped them acquire backlinks and build brand awareness but also raised prospective patients’ trust in their services.
Start by conducting thorough keyword research to identify relevant keywords and phrases related to your hospital’s services and specialties. Look for keywords with a high search volume and low competition. For example, if your hospital specializes in orthopedic surgery, target keywords such as “orthopedic surgeon,” “joint replacement surgery,” or “sports injury treatment.”
Create persuasive and relevant ad copy that matches the medical needs of your target audience. Highlight your hospital’s unique selling points, such as specialized treatments, state-of-the-art facilities, or experienced medical staff. Incorporate your chosen keywords into the ad copy to improve relevancy and click-through rates. For example, “Get Expert Orthopedic Care at ME Hospital – Book Your Consultation Today!”
Optimize your Google Ads account, which contains all the campaigns, targeted keywords, and ad groups. Ensure that you use all the keywords effectively in your campaigns. Make your ad copies appealing and include a CTA to call the hospital or book appointments. Keep the ad content brief, as it should be catchy enough to retain patients’ attention.
Prepare effective landing pages in your hospital PPC campaign. For example, if your PPC ad promotes a weight loss program, ensure that the landing page provides detailed information about the program, testimonials from satisfied patients, and a clear CTA to schedule a consultation.
| Looking to take your hospital’s marketing efforts to the next level? At Brenton Way, we believe that one size does not fit all. With expertise in healthcare marketing, our team understands the specific needs of hospitals to create customized marketing solutions tailored to your hospital’s goals, specialties, and target market. Schedule a consultation call with Brenton Way’s medical marketing specialists to improve the online presence of your hospital. |
By leveraging the top healthcare promotion strategies outlined in this guide, hospitals can enhance their marketing efforts and stay ahead in today’s competitive healthcare landscape.
From optimizing their online presence and leveraging social media to implementing email marketing campaigns and investing in patient-centric content, hospitals can create meaningful connections with their target audience.
