Times are progressing, and so is the technology and data that affect businesses. We live in a technological world where businesses must use every available resource in order to remain competitive. Healthcare has been one of the late boomers to this phenomenon, however is no exception to the digital revolution that other industries have seen.
Within this article, we will examine five different ways you can improve your marketing strategies using technology that will push your business to the pinnacle of the healthcare industry. We will cover:
- Using Consistent Healthcare Branding
- Evaluating Your Online Patient Experience
- Learning to Leverage Your Healthcare Business on Social Media
- Follow up Reviews from Patients
- Co Creating Value for Your Patients
Using these five techniques, you will be able to utilize the new age of marketing to help your practice successfully reach new patients.
Consistent Healthcare Branding
What do you want your practice to be? Is it a modern take of what a doctor’s office used to be? Is it more family-friendly, or designed to have a spa-like atmosphere? These are questions that you must answer when coming up with what you want your brand to become.
Focusing on the uniqueness of your practice will provoke consumers into thinking you have something special. Something that other practices may not be able to offer. Defining what your brand is can be a time consuming and difficult process. However, when done correctly, will definitely bring new clients who are looking for what you have to offer. With technology at the fingertips of most consumers, choices have grown at incredible rates. Patients now have choices for healthcare providers as they do milk at the grocery stores – there’s so many specific types that cater to exactly what the consumer wants.
With that in mind, when thinking about what brand you want your practice to evoke, put yourself in the client’s position. By looking at your business through the eyes of your clients, you should be able to decipher what they want and how you can provide that.
Evaluating Your Online Patient Experience
Times have changed. No longer is just having a website sufficient enough to bring in new clients. Websites are now the gateway into your company, they give insight to the client about what your practice is about and what they can expect.
Your website should reflect what we discussed above. You spent plenty of time deciding on what your branding should be, and now it should reflect onto your website too. Your website will be one of the first things a prospective patient may look at. Because of this, evaluating how your website interacts with the patient through their perspective is imperative.
Looking at it from their point-of-view allows you to see if everything a client might want is easily accessible. Is your location easily accessible? Are your services in an optimal location to where they can find it within the first few seconds of being on the website? Asking questions through the lens of your clients gives insight as to what can be changed to perfect your online patient experience.
Leverage Your Healthcare Business On Social Media
Search engine optimization (SEO) can be a useful tool when trying to optimize the visibility of your website. However, as social media grows more and more, companies should look towards marketing within specific media outlets.
Social media companies like Facebook or Instagram have done the work for you now. They know your target audience and using paid for ads on their platforms will help you reach more of your target clients. Using these targeted ads will allow for your company to reach the right people who may be inclined to look at your services provided.
For example: if an individual had a recent online search of nearby dentistry practices, and later that day they are scrolling on Instagram – if you utilize paid-for targeted ads, the platform will display your practice to the prospective client and therefore do advertising that you do not have to worry about.
Follow Up Reviews From Patients
Having automated reviews emailed to patients can be an effective way to hear back on what you can improve. Technology has now outdated the traditional front-of-desk review. Having easily accessible review forms emailed to patients is the new and easy way to get feedback.
The tools that can be used with these customer reviews are infinite. Having a database where all reviews are stored allows for easy access when looking for customer satisfaction reviews or to see if there are any repeated outstanding concerns that can be answered. With these testimonials, you can use them to display on your website what sets you apart from the competition and what makes your practice one of the best in the area.
Co Creating Value
In a digital age where people can learn a lot about their health online, practitioners are seeing a rise in patient knowledge within the medical field. No longer are patients expected to take a passive role in the decisions about their healthcare, but instead to be more involved and develop a trusting relationship with their practitioner.
An example of this can be seen with chronic patients. They have been, or will be, dealing with their conditions for a long period of time. They know what therapy or medication works best for them and what does not, and as a practitioner of the 21st century it is your job to take their autonomy into account. To realize that they must have done research online and to take their opinion as if it were an expert opinion from a colleague.
Due to this new access to information, practitioners must take a step back from their paternalistic senses and work with the patient to build a cohesive relationship between the two parties. Doing this will not only appeal to the current patient, but prospective ones after they tell them about how progressive and deep-rooted their care was with you.
Using these five tools will take your healthcare practice to the next level. We are in an age where business owners can no longer rely on old-school methods of reaching out to new clients. Technology is now a business owner’s best friend and by using resources that will assist you and reach new clients, your practice will be taking advantage of the tools readily available. Digital marketing strategy is where any business should start and then define the goals of their investment in marketing for the next 12 months.
