What Does Best in Class Digital Marketing Look Like?

What is Digital Marketing? 

Digital marketing refers to the process of promoting and selling services by using online tactics or platforms to attract more traffic.  This is a necessary method of moving any company along the sales process in the digital age. With our ability to easily access the internet from our pockets, business executives and administrators are more convenient to reach than ever before. New techniques allow you to more easily target your key audiences. Read on to learn more.

Why does this apply to healthcare?

About 88% of people are now using internet search engines to look up health information, and about 70% of people feel they are impacted by their search enough to make a treatment decision. Those who aren’t feeling well at home, or even waiting at a doctor’s office, can use online resources to see what hospital has great reviews or can treat specific issues. With these consumer trends toward digital, it’s no surprise your efforts as a vendor selling into a hospital or health system need to evolve with the trends. 89% of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process. You need to know your audience and use a multi-channel approach to get discovered.

First steps 

There are a large variety of methods that can be used to encourage patients, providers, or other healthcare entities to your wanted location. Initially, you should ask a few questions that can serve as a guideline for who or what you want to communicate with. These questions can serve to give you a foundation of what you want to work towards.  Some things to start with can include: 

• What audience are you targeting? For example, are you trying to reach large multi-hospital systems or smaller, local players? Think about the attributes of both the organizations as well as the titles and departments of the individuals you want to reach.

• What specific services are you looking to promote? 

• What do you want to highlight about your company or achievements? How can you use the experience of your existing clients to help you in the sales process?

• Do you already have a marketing strategy in place that can easily be adapted to online platforms?

Top healthcare marketing strategies 

If you are investing in marketing strategies, you want to make sure that you’re picking the best-in-class methods and not wasting your energy. You should utilize tools that can give you clear data sets to monitor how effective your marketing tools and strategies are working. Some key components include:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

   SEO is an absolute must for those using digital marketing. SEO is when keywords are chosen that will draw in your target viewers. As a vendor, you want to find large hospital systems, providers, or other healthcare entities that may be interested in your product. 

   You can use SEO optimization engines to see what’s searched more often to generate more views or visits to your website. These tools can monitor what competitors are doing and help you identify opportunities for new content or tools to target areas of high traffic. For example, SEMRush or Google Search Console can both give additional information on your SEO techniques. 

2. Social Media Marketing 

   Most internet users are on social media of some type and follow it regularly. Knowing where your target audience is active will be imperative to selling your product. For example, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter are more commonly used apps or websites. Most professional companies have a regular presence on them and can use these platforms to promote achievements, new programs, advanced technologies, or services that can draw more attention. 

3. Content Marketing

   Part of maximizing your website and healthcare platform should include using content marketing, such as blogs, infographics, e-books, or other digital works. Blogs have grown exponentially in recent years and can be a simple way to keep your target audience up to date and engaged in your work. Topics can be researched beforehand to find trends that generate the most views, such as pandemic-related news. Keep your blogs around 1000 words or less, utilize keywords, and don’t overuse images or advertising to keep viewers coming back. 

4. Email Marketing

   Email marketing involves sending newsletters or messages directly to your consumers, investors, or employees. This is a great way to keep people engaged and informed in a convenient way for them. Many healthcare executives subscribe to newsletters or e-mails with up-to-date tech information or recent news, so think through how you can differentiate and be a go-to resource for them. Make it easy for executives or administrators to both sign up for your content and share it with their colleagues.  Make sure the information you include is credible and doesn’t come off as spam. 

5. Tools to Monitor Progress

   It can be expensive to hire all of the staff needed for the above strategies, so you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment. Choosing the right tools to look at data can be a useful way to make sure you are getting what you want out of your website, social efforts, blogs, keywords, and other strategies. Some examples of tools you can use include: 

   • Audiense: helps identify trends, targeted ad campaigns, and social media 

   • Hubspot: Email builder, templates, and can delegate tasks to staff 

   • SendGrid: can provide feedback on your total clicks, impressions, and costs 

   • Clearscope: identifies keyword opportunities that can provide recommendations for high-ranking posts

There are a variety of methods you can use to take your healthcare marketing strategies to the next level but utilizing these five techniques will give you an excellent foundation. If you track your analytics as you go, you can find customized techniques for your targeted population and adjust as necessary. Being best in class means finding what works best for both your company and your audience while still serving your mission. It will take maintenance and perseverance, but can generate leads, revenue - and ultimately patient-driven outcomes to make our healthcare system better for those that matter most.