Healthcare marketing is not the same as other types of digital marketing. The evolution of business in the healthcare industry introduces new complexities.
It presents a unique challenge to healthcare companies when attracting more consumers. It is also important to gain the trust of new consumers to engage with your services and products for a long time.
Marketing in the healthcare industry is different from product marketing because impulsive purchasing is not common. Therefore, healthcare professionals need to establish communication with the patients and work to maintain it for retention.
For years, healthcare marketers have focused their marketing on patients and physicians. However, this model is not effective anymore with the changing landscape of healthcare. Conversely, the new 5 P’s of healthcare marketing can attract more patients much more effectively. Continue reading to learn what these are.
1. Physicians
Despite all the changes in the healthcare industry, physicians are still the ones to set the standard for healthcare. Doctors can influence how new technology and procedures are implemented to a great extent. The goals of an organisation only go into practice when these esteemed healthcare providers give the green light.
Therefore, a hospital must consider the advice of its physicians when choosing a healthcare pr agency and marketing strategy. For your healthcare marketing strategy to be effective, you need to consult the physicians in your firm and ask for suggestions on implementing new technologies and procedures.
The experiences and achievements of your doctors will also be a significant part of your marketing campaign. For instance, you can share a brief interview of one of your physicians as a social media post. After all, hospitals are ultimately selling physicians.
2. Patients
The patients should be the topmost priority of any healthcare business. The internet has made medical knowledge easily accessible to your target consumers. Modern patients demand sufficient knowledge and information about the steps in their healthcare journey.
For this reason, providing relevant, concise, and updated information is essential for successful healthcare marketing of your brand or practice. If you don’t meet your patients’ expectations, there is a risk of losing prospective clients.
In any healthcare business, the patient is the consumer who defines the success of your marketing strategy. When building a campaign, remember that patients define your brand’s target market and are responsible for driving traffic to your service or practice.
As a healthcare marketer, you also need to keep the following information in mind when optimising your marketing plan:
- Specific medical inquiries and concerns
- Health hazards in the community
- Population demographics (percentage of people struggling with obesity, diabetes, etc.)
- Awareness of seasonal illnesses
But how can you extract information for the list mentioned above? These tools can help you find helpful and meaningful information and learn more about patients in your community:
- Market research
- Patient analytics
- Patient surveys
- Automated management software
3. Professional Healthcare Administrators
As healthcare networks evolve and grow with technology, there is also a rise in the number of professional healthcare administrators. Healthcare administrators are individuals in the industry responsible for contributing to the adoption of new technologies and procedures in the hospital, negotiated rates, and formulary decisions.
But healthcare marketing also presents a challenge of marketing the overall experiences of a patient. This is not the same as promoting a single product. While companies need to show off the product, a greater focus should be on the patient’s experience. This becomes the job of healthcare administrators to ensure satisfactory services like payment procedures and booking appointments.
Your target audience, which involves potential patients, prefers reading online reviews to gauge how long the waiting times are or how friendly the staff is. Not to mention, doing so also shows them whether your hospital’s services are satisfactory.
This adds to the pressure on professional healthcare administrators to provide promised customer experience to attract new patients. The marketing strategy can use tactics like video posts to showcase the hospital’s amenities, comfort, and quick service.
4. Policy Makers
The healthcare market comprises different sectors, all of which are subject to various laws. In the healthcare industry, policymakers are professionals who create these laws and determine how the particular facility will provide care to its patients.
The healthcare market is a broad term that covers different departments. Policymakers are responsible for ensuring that the marketers promote relevant services to the right patients. When it comes to brand marketing, it is important to abide by the rules created by these policymakers. Mostly, marketing laws focus on patient privacy.
Surprisingly, healthcare policymakers also perform marketing, not to sell but to inform the audience. Their marketing content typically includes infographics and educational posts regarding a specific subject.
Healthcare marketing teams should create content with guidelines from health policy makers for engaging the target audience. As an example, the marketing team of the World Health Organisation (WHO) created an abundance of content (informative videos, illustrations, blog posts, social media posts, etc.) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
5. Payers
Last but not least, make sure that you’re marketing to the actual payers. Payers can refer to a variety of entities such as organisations and patients.
You need to ensure that your company’s healthcare services are easily accessible to the right people. They should be able to find any information that they need immediately. To make accessibility simple, make sure that your target market has access to your company’s:
- Contact number
- Social media
- Website
- Locations (clinics, blood drives, vaccination pop-ups, etc.)
- Email address
Other content tools that can make healthcare marketing possible while also helping payers include:
- Facility tools
- Patient testimonials
- Research
- New insights
- Equipment purchases
- Facility tours
You will also need to collect the payer’s information for various procedures like payments and appointment booking.
Bottom Line
As the increased use of technology transforms the healthcare industry, healthcare marketing also becomes more complicated. The dramatic change in the healthcare marketing strategy presents many challenges for marketers. However, keeping the 5 P’s of healthcare marketing in mind can help your organisation remain competitive.
