However, mastering healthcare email marketing is complex. HIPAA regulations demand strict data protection, and sensitive topics require a delicate balance between information and privacy. Navigating these challenges while maintaining engaging communication is key. In short, while email marketing is powerful, success demands understanding and compliance in the healthcare landscape.

What Is Healthcare Email Marketing?

Healthcare email marketing is a digital communication strategy utilized by healthcare organizations to engage with prospective patients, existing patients, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders via email. It’s about crafting messages that speak directly to patients, healthcare professionals, and stakeholders, delivered conveniently to their inboxes.

From practical appointment reminders to informative health updates, these emails serve as valuable touchpoints, offering relevant content and fostering stronger connections. By segmenting audiences effectively, healthcare email marketing ensures that each message resonates with its intended recipients, sparking meaningful engagement and building trust.

It’s the smart, relatively low-cost and efficient way to stay connected in today’s fast-paced healthcare landscape, offering personalized care without significantly large spends.

Why Use Email Marketing for Healthcare?

Email marketing has become a cornerstone of healthcare communication strategies for several compelling reasons. Firstly, its unparalleled reach and immediacy make it an ideal medium for delivering time-sensitive information to both patients and healthcare professionals. Whether it’s sending appointment reminders, sharing health tips, or announcing new services, email ensures that important messages land directly in recipients’ inboxes, where they’re likely to be seen and acted upon promptly.

Moreover, the ability to segment email lists based on various criteria such as demographics, medical history, or engagement level allows healthcare organizations to deliver highly personalized content and subject lines tailored to the unique needs and interests of different groups. This personalized approach not only increases the relevance of the message but also enhances engagement and fosters stronger patient-provider relationships.

Secondly, email marketing offers unmatched cost-effectiveness compared to traditional marketing channels like print or television advertising. With minimal overhead costs and the potential for significant returns on investment, email campaigns allow healthcare practices of all sizes to amplify their reach and impact without breaking the bank.

Additionally, the rise of mobile technology has further amplified the effectiveness of email marketing, as emails can now be accessed and read on smartphones and tablets anytime, anywhere. This accessibility ensures that healthcare messages can reach patients wherever they are, making email an indispensable tool for driving patient engagement and ultimately improving health outcomes.

Types of Healthcare Email Marketing

1. Appointment Reminders

Appointment reminders are essential in ensuring patients attend their scheduled appointments. These emails serve as gentle prompts, ensuring patients don’t miss crucial medical visits or follow-up appointments. By reducing no-shows, appointment reminders streamline healthcare operations and contribute to improved patient outcomes by facilitating timely care.

2. Welcome Series

A welcome series is a sequence of emails sent to new patients or subscribers shortly after they join a healthcare provider’s email list or become a patient. The welcome series is designed to introduce patients to the healthcare organization, provide important information about available services, and establish a positive relationship from the outset.

The series typically includes a welcome message from the healthcare provider or clinic, an overview of the provider’s mission and values, information about the provider’s specialties or areas of expertise, and details about how patients can access care or schedule appointments. Additionally, the welcome series may include educational content on relevant health topics, tips for navigating the healthcare system, and opportunities for patients to engage with the provider through social media channels.

By leveraging a welcome series in email marketing, healthcare organizations can make a memorable first impression, build trust with new patients, and lay the foundation for long-term patient engagement and loyalty.

3. Educational Content Delivery

Educational emails deliver valuable health information directly to patients’ inboxes. From preventive care and wellness tips to chronic disease management and treatment options, these emails empower patients to take charge of their health. By positioning healthcare providers as trusted sources of expertise, educational email campaigns foster a culture of health literacy, contributing to improved patient engagement and adherence to treatment plans.

Many educational email campaigns are formatted as health tips or monthly newsletters that deliver bite-sized health advice, wellness tips, and updates on healthcare news directly to subscribers’ inboxes. These emails aim to keep patients informed about the latest trends in healthcare, provide practical advice for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and foster ongoing engagement with the healthcare organization.

By offering valuable content that resonates with recipients, health tip emails and newsletters can strengthen patient-provider relationships and establish the healthcare organization as a reliable source of health information.

4. Survey and Feedback Requests

Surveys and feedback request emails are instrumental in gathering insights from patients about their experiences with healthcare services. These emails typically contain links to brief surveys or feedback forms, allowing patients to share their opinions, suggestions, and concerns. By actively soliciting feedback, healthcare organizations demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement and patient-centered care.

Moreover, analyzing survey responses enables healthcare providers to identify areas for enhancement, address patient grievances, and enhance overall patient satisfaction.

5. Event Invitations, Webinars, and Follow-ups

Event invitations and webinar emails invite recipients to participate in healthcare-related events, such as health fairs, seminars, workshops, or online webinars. These emails provide details about the event, including date, time, location, and agenda, and encourage recipients to register or RSVP. By leveraging email marketing to promote events, healthcare organizations can attract attendees, generate interest in specific topics or services, and foster community engagement.

Additionally, webinars offer a convenient platform for delivering educational content, facilitating interactive discussions, and establishing thought leadership within the healthcare industry.

In most cases, event follow-up emails are also sent to attendees after a healthcare-related event, such as a conference, workshop, or live webinar. These emails express gratitude for attendance, provide a summary of key takeaways from the event, and offer additional resources or follow-up opportunities. By nurturing long-lasting relationships with event attendees, healthcare organizations can continue to engage participants, offer ongoing support, and further promote their services or initiatives.

6. Seasonal Health Campaigns

Seasonal health campaigns leverage email marketing to raise awareness about specific health issues or conditions that are prevalent during certain times of the year, such as flu season or allergy season. These campaigns may include tips for preventing seasonal illnesses, information on available vaccines or treatments, and reminders to schedule preventive screenings or appointments.

For example, Wisp positioned their emails about vaginal health around Valentine’s Day for more timely relevance. By addressing seasonal health concerns proactively, healthcare organizations can help patients stay healthy and informed year-round.

5 Healthcare Email Marketing Strategies (with Examples)

1. Seasonality and Timeliness

Seasonality and timeliness play crucial roles in crafting effective healthcare email marketing strategies. By aligning your emails with holidays like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, you can tap into the festive spirit and offer relevant healthcare tips or promotions. For instance, during the winter season, focusing on topics like flu prevention or managing winter colds can resonate well with recipients facing these health concerns.

Similarly, in summer, emails about sun safety or staying hydrated can address common summertime health issues. By recognizing and addressing seasonal health trends, you demonstrate your understanding of your audience’s needs and provide them with valuable information precisely when they need it most. This not only enhances engagement but also positions your healthcare organization as a trusted source of timely and relevant health advice, fostering stronger connections with your audience.

For example, the beginning of a new year is typically a prime opportunity for healthcare companies to connect with their audience through email marketing. It’s a time when many consumers are reflecting on their health and wellness goals, making resolutions to improve their lifestyle habits. Healthcare companies can leverage this momentum by sending emails that offer support, guidance, and motivation to help individuals kickstart their journey toward better health. 

2. Downloadable Resources

Offering downloadable resources, such as calendars, guides, or checklists, can significantly enhance healthcare email marketing strategies by providing tangible value to subscribers. These resources serve as practical tools that empower recipients to take control of their health and well-being. For instance, a calendar outlining a 21-day habit challenge, like the one created by Ritual, not only encourages individuals to adopt healthier habits but also keeps them engaged with the brand throughout the challenge period.

Similarly, guides or checklists can offer actionable advice on topics like nutrition, exercise, or stress management, helping subscribers make informed decisions about their health. By providing these resources via email, healthcare companies can establish themselves as trusted sources of expertise while simultaneously nurturing stronger long-term relationships with their audience. Furthermore, the downloadable nature of these resources ensures that subscribers can access them conveniently at any time, reinforcing the value of the brand’s email communications in their health journey.

3. User Testimonials and Social Proof

Leveraging user testimonials and social proof can be a powerful strategy to build trust and credibility with your audience. Testimonials from satisfied patients or clients serve as real-life endorsements of your services, showcasing the positive experiences others have had with your healthcare organization. Including these testimonials in your emails adds authenticity and relatability, helping to alleviate any apprehensions or doubts potential patients may have.

Moreover, social proof in the form of certifications, awards, or affiliations reinforces your expertise and reputation within the healthcare industry. When recipients see evidence of your credibility and the positive impact your services have had on others, they’re more likely to feel confident in choosing your healthcare practice. By incorporating user testimonials and social proof into your email marketing strategy, you not only strengthen your brand’s reputation but also foster deeper connections with your audience, ultimately driving engagement and conversions.

4. Educational Content and Blog Articles

By sharing educational resources tailored to their interests and needs, healthcare organizations can position themselves as trusted sources of expertise and guidance. Whether it’s articles on the latest medical advancements, wellness tips, or explanations of common health conditions, providing informative content demonstrates a commitment to patient education and empowerment.

These emails not only foster engagement with the audience but also help establish a deeper connection with patients who appreciate the effort invested in their well-being. Furthermore, by driving traffic to your blog or website through email links, you can enhance brand visibility and authority in the healthcare industry.

Here are some examples of educational content and blog articles that healthcare organizations could include in their email marketing strategy:

• Wellness Tips Series: A series of emails offering practical tips on maintaining overall wellness, covering topics such as nutrition, exercise, stress management, and sleep hygiene.
• Understanding Your Health Conditions: Emails that delve into specific health conditions, providing insights into symptoms, treatment options, and lifestyle modifications. For example, “Managing Diabetes: Diet and Exercise Tips” or “Understanding Anxiety: Strategies for Coping.”
• Preventive Care Guides: Emails outlining the importance of preventive care and offering guidelines for regular screenings, vaccinations, and health check-ups based on age, gender, or risk factors.
• Healthy Recipe Collections: Regular emails featuring healthy recipes tailored to different dietary preferences or health goals, such as heart-healthy meals, vegetarian dishes, or low-carb options.
• Mental Health Awareness Articles: Blog articles discussing various aspects of mental health, including common disorders, coping strategies, and destigmatization efforts.
• Expert Q&A Sessions: Inviting subscribers to submit their health-related questions for an expert to answer in a blog post or email newsletter.

5. Research Studies and Statistical Evidence

Integrating research studies and statistical evidence into healthcare email marketing strategies can significantly enhance credibility and trust with subscribers. By sharing insights derived from reputable research studies, healthcare organizations demonstrate a commitment to evidence-based practices and staying abreast of the latest developments in the field.

Whether it’s statistics on disease prevalence, treatment efficacy, or health outcomes, incorporating such data into email content adds depth and authority to the messaging. For example, emails discussing the benefits of a particular treatment backed by clinical trials or highlighting the importance of preventive screenings based on statistical evidence can resonate strongly with recipients seeking reliable health information.

By presenting research findings in a clear and digestible format, healthcare organizations not only educate their audience but also position themselves as reliable sources of information and expertise.

How to Get Started with Healthcare Email Marketing

To kickstart a robust email healthcare marketing strategy, the initial step is to construct a robust email list. Begin by collecting email addresses via your website, social media channels, and face-to-face interactions, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like HIPAA.

Once your list is in place, the crux lies in crafting content that resonates. Focus on delivering valuable information that educates, entertains, or solves problems for your audience. Employ segmentation strategies to tailor content based on demographics, health interests, or engagement levels, enhancing relevance and impact. By consistently delivering pertinent, personalized content, healthcare companies can cultivate trust, foster patient relationships, and drive desired actions such as appointment bookings or participation in health initiatives.

As always, if you need a little extra help in knowing how to use these healthcare email marketing strategies for your brand, you know where to find us.

The post Revitalize Your Outreach: Healthcare Email Marketing Strategies for 2024 appeared first on NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency.

What is Performance Marketing?

Performance marketing is exactly what it sounds like. Marketing based on performance. Unlike traditional marketing, marketers only pay when there is a specific desired action performed by their customers. That action can take the form of a click, a lead, or an impression. This method aligns costs with results, making it a highly effective marketing strategy. Some of the marketing types that are considered performance marketing and you probably already include in your marketing strategy include Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing, influencer marketing, email marketing, and search marketing.

Customers today, as in every other industry, are looking for a highly customizable experience. Performance marketing, with the help of data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), enables precise and personalized marketing activities without sacrificing personal data sharing, allowing even companies in healthcare to take a handle on performance marketing and be able to reach the right customers. With precision in messaging and targeting, not only companies can improve campaign performance but also maximize Return on Investment (ROI), which is something that they couldn’t do as easily in the past.

Key Benefits of Performance Marketing in Healthcare

Performance marketing has many benefits and that’s why brands are increasingly using it over other methods of marketing. Some of those for healthcare marketing include:

1. Cost efficiency: Companies only pay for specific actions performed by customers such as clicks, a new acquisition of a customer, a sale, etc. This ensures that marketing budgets are used effectively and efficiently.

2. Precision targeting: Through data analytics, AI, and ML, marketers can identify and target specific audiences. This ensures that the right messaging strategy reaches the right audience at the right time, improving engagement and results.

3. Compliance with HIPAA regulations: Through server-side tracking, marketers can continue to use their marketing and analytics tools without sacrificing any Personal Identifiable Information (PII). Before forwarding the data to third-party platforms such as Meta Ads, and Google Analytics, businesses can de-identify the data i.e. remove any identifying information, to protect their users’ privacy and stay compliant with the regulation.

4. Measurable results: Every single action in performance marketing can be tracked and measured in real-time, enabling continuous optimization of marketing strategies while maximizing results.

Planning with the SMART Methodology

One of the most effective methods in goal planning is using the SMART methodology. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-related. Here’s how to deploy the SMART framework to assess the most effective course of action:

Specific

A specific goal focuses on a precise target. This might mean defining objectives that target specific audience segments. For example, instead of setting a general goal of “increasing brand awareness,” a more specific goal would be “increasing brand awareness among cardiologists in the Northeast region by 20% in the next six months.” This clarity ensures that all efforts are pointed towards a distinct and measurable goal.

Measurable

Measurable goals allow us to track progress and determine the effectiveness of the marketing strategies. This could be something like “increasing patient portal engagement rates from 10% to 20% over the next quarter.” By establishing clear metrics, such as engagement rates, patient acquisition numbers, or the number of newsletter subscriptions, companies can continuously assess and adjust their strategies based on real-time data.

Attainable

Set yourself realistic, achievable goals. Don’t set yourself up to fail. Ask: Can we achieve this goal? Is this goal too far-reaching? Who will implement the marketing plan? For example, a goal could be, “Partner with three leading healthcare providers in the next year,” rather than aiming for an unrealistically high number of partnerships. Achievable goals take into account the available budget, manpower, and market conditions and ensure that the goals set are achievable.

Relevant

Is your goal worth the investment of time, energy, and resources? Ask: Is this the best time for this campaign and the goals we’ve set? Does this objective coincide with other goals set by the practice or hospital? For instance, if a hospital’s primary goal is to expand its telehealth services, a relevant marketing goal would be “increasing telehealth appointment bookings by 30% within the next six months.” This ensures that marketing efforts are directly contributing to the organization’s strategic priorities, whether that’s expanding services, improving patient care, or enhancing operational activity.

Time-Related

Timely goals have a specific timeline creating a sense of urgency and organization to achieve the set goals. It is important to understand a prior when the marketing effort will start and end. When will you begin this project? When will the check-ins happen? Ensuring a specific timeline, teams can ensure that the project stays on track and timelines are met.

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) Model

The STP model plays a crucial role in crafting effective marketing strategies. By utilizing advanced technologies, companies can have an advanced understanding of their audiences, target them precisely, and position their services and products to meet the audience’s needs.

Segmentation

1. Utilizing big data for in-depth audience analysis: Healthcare companies can leverage data from Electronic Health Records (EHRs), patient surveys, and wearable health devices to gain insights into patient demographics, behaviors, and health conditions. By using this data, healthcare marketers can build awareness with brand messaging, deliver therapeutic messaging, distribute co-pay support, and enroll patients into patient engagement programs to improve health outcomes.
2. Developing advanced patient personas: Combining demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data helps create detailed patient personas. These personas represent distinct segments within the patient population, such as “tech-savvy millennials who prefer telehealth services”. Tailoring marketing messages to these personas enhances engagement and satisfaction.
3. Creating dynamic customer journey maps: Customer journey maps help visualize interactions and identify pain points. This helps stakeholders assess the customer experience from multiple perspectives. Journey maps provide a way to visualize the internal and external factors affecting customer flow and the different paths customers must take to reach their goals.

Targeting and Positioning

1. Precision targeting with AI and ML: AI and ML can analyze patient data to predict health needs and behaviors, allowing for highly targeted marketing efforts. For example, AI can identify patients at risk of certain conditions, enabling the advertising of targeted preventive care programs.
2. Strategic positioning of healthcare services: Positioning involves creating a distinct image and value proposition. Companies can differentiate themselves by emphasizing quality of care, patient-centric approaches, and innovative treatments. As an example, a pediatric clinic might position itself as a family-friendly provider with experienced pediatricians.

Leveraging the Most Common Performance Marketing Channels

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM is one of the most important channels for healthcare marketing. It combines SEO and paid campaigns to generate the designed action and build credibility for your business. Another added benefit is that through SEM marketing, you always make sure that you come up first when users are searching for a keyword that is relevant to your business. As an example, a medical equipment company for orthopedics, wouldn’t want to show up at the bottom of the page or not show up at all when doctors or hospital administrations are looking for a new supplier. Typical pricing models for SEM include Cost-per-Click (CPC), Cost-per-Impression (CPM), or Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA). Common goals for a healthcare organization

Social Media Marketing

Social media has become the new word-of-mouth marketing channel, establishing itself as an indispensable tool for healthcare organizations. By using social media, brands can build trust and enhance their presence with their target audience. With billions of daily active users on platforms such as Meta, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, or Reddit, companies can use these channels as tools to scale their reach and generate brand awareness. Some of the techniques that are usual for social media marketing include:

• Sharing preventative health news: Companies can share time-sensitive posts to engage their audience and educate them. This type of content can include articles on recent health epidemics, routine procedures, and hot topics in the industry. When you create a habit of sharing such type of content, users look at you as their source of the latest news in the healthcare sector, making them more likely to engage with your posts.
• Raising awareness for events, new research, and more: It’s important to keep a balance between promoting certain events around your brand while also demonstrating the passion that the team has in everything that they do. When customers see that, it helps them build a stronger bond with your business.
• Testing Lookalike (LAL) audiences campaigns: LAL audiences are an effective way to reach potential clients or partners who share characteristics with your existing audience. By analyzing data from your current followers or your social media platforms, you can identify and target users with similar demographics, interests, and behaviors.
• Launching retargeting campaigns: Retargeting is essential for keeping your brand top-of-mind among individuals or organizations who have previously interacted with your online content but haven’t converted yet. By placing a tracking pixel on your site, you can serve ads to users as they browse other sites or social media. However, it’s crucial to comply with HIPAA regulations when retargeting. HIPAA mandates the protection of Protected Health Information (PHI). This means that any retargeting efforts must ensure that PHI is not improperly shared with third parties. Typical pricing models for social media include CPC, CPM, Cost-per-View (CPM), or CPA.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a common technique for healthcare organizations such as hospitals and healthcare providers. It uses quantifiable metrics to measure the direct business results of content, such as revenue, online conversion, and ROI. These metrics can help marketers compare their content to competitors, justify continued investment, and optimize content performance. Common pricing models in content marketing include Pay-per-Engagement (PPE), Cost-per-Thousand (CPM), or CPA. Among the many benefits, it’s a leading technique for customer engagement, retention, branding, and professional reputation building. Successful content marketing techniques include:

• Content clustering: Content clustering includes a main piece of content (a pillar page) on a broad topic, supplemented by related articles and resources. This method helps organize content around a central topic as well as helps with improving SEO by linking related pieces together. For healthcare, a main pillar page can be a topic around “Telehealth Services”. Supporting topics can include “Benefits of Telehealth, “How to Choose a Telehealth Provider,”, “Telehealth Best Practices” or “Telehealth for Chronic Disease Management”. These pages then need to be detailed and informative, providing a thorough overview of the main topic.t” can cover various chronic conditions, management strategies, and patient resources, linking to more detailed articles on each condition.

• AR/VR content: Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are innovative technologies that are helping healthcare organizations advance their content strategy. AR can enhance the real-world environment by superimposing digital objects into it. It can be used to create educational experiences for medical students, demonstrate medical procedures, or visualize the human anatomy. VR offers complete immersion in a virtual environment, such as showing a patient who needs brain surgery what they are going to undergo, or taking a virtual trip inside their brain. According to a report by Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Research, the global AR and VR in the healthcare market is expected to reach USD 5.1 billion by 2025.

Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic ad platforms provide a broad range of features across the entire publishing and buying workflow, enabling ad buyers and sellers a one-stop shop for everything from purchasing to bidding, and analysis. These ads then appear on third-party websites and use video, image, or text to market the products or services of the organization. Precise targeting is what sets display ads apart from other performance marketing efforts, specifically for healthcare. By working with compliant data partners, healthcare organizations can use EHR data to create targeted campaigns without sacrificing data privacy regulations. Some of them are strong in display ads marketing and can use detailed data for healthcare customers including Pulsepoint, LiveRamp, Veeva, Healthgrades, and others.

Enhancing Web Performance and Conversion Rates

Conversion Rate (CVR) is a central KPI in performance marketing. It is the percentage of users who perform the desired actions on your website or landing pages, such as making a purchase or signing up. The conversion rate is a direct measure of the success of your marketing strategy and efforts. Improving CVR on the website is important for all businesses wanting to provide a seamless UX/UI experience. Here are some best CRO tips for healthcare brands:

Focus on User-Centric Design (UCD)

This is an iterative design process where your pages would need to focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the customer journey. Are your efforts targeted at creating brand awareness? Link pages that would allow users to find more within your site about the brand. Are users already familiar with your brand and you’re just trying to make them convert through paid acquisition campaigns? Create pages following the AIDA framework, that would make it easier for them to convert.

Use heatmaps and session recordings for user behavior analysis

Use heatmaps to visualize user engagement and session recordings to capture individual interactions and assess performance. Analyzing this data helps to identify pain points and optimize the site layout and content to improve user experience. Are users interested more in nerve block-related content than hip injuries? Your analysis will show, that you may want to move the nerve block content higher than the hip injury content.

Test advanced CRO techniques

Multivariate A/B testing can be used to determine the most effective page elements. Dynamic content personalization can tailor the user experience based on behavior and preferences, enhancing engagement and conversions.

Integrate additional tools to improve engagement

Chatbots for instant assistance, virtual assistants for complex interactions, and appointment scheduling systems can be added as additional widgets on the site to streamline the user experience. PolyAI is such an example, where healthcare companies can use it to take appointments, answer FAQs, reduce missed appointments and route phone calls with no staff needed.

Comprehensive Data Analytics and Performance Measurement

Data analytics, accurate event tracking, and attribution are not negotiable for healthcare companies that choose to do performance marketing. By leveraging advanced analytics, companies can measure and optimize their efforts. Performance measurement is important as it provides vital insights to inform future marketing strategies. If tracking is not set up right across all platforms or attribution isn’t set up right based on your marketing objectives, then marketers can make wrong decisions when deciding on the next steps for the strategy. Here’s how analytics can be leveraged to drive up the performance of your marketing campaigns:

Identify the right metrics

The first thing in leveraging analytics for performance marketing is to identify the right metrics you want to use to optimize your campaigns based of. KPIs can include click-through rates, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, lifetime value, retention rate, and others. The goal as mentioned above should be set a priori.

Understand and segment your customers

Organizations can leverage customer behavioral insights to improve their marketing efforts. Marketers can analyze data from multiple sources to make sure that they identify trends and preferences to understand the customers better. Cohort analysis can also be used to segment the audience into groups based on shared characteristics such as treatment plans or health conditions, providing deeper insights.

Monitor performance metrics

Monitoring KPIs to track the progress towards achieving the goals is important. If there is only one website, companies must set up a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) account. If it’s a digital product (either a web or mobile app), companies need to set up product analytics tools like Mixpanel to analyze performance. Everyone needs to be able to visualize all of their marketing data in one place to get a holistic view of their data. These tools include Looker Studio, Power BI, Tableau, Databox, etc. The choice of tool depends on the technical experience of the various team members.

Optimize marketing strategies with A/B and multivariate testing

A/B and multivariate testing allow healthcare companies to experiment with different marketing elements, determining the most effective combinations to increase CVR.

Perform incrementality tests and brand lift studies

Incrementality tests determine the actual impact of marketing measures, while brand lift studies measure changes in brand perception and awareness. Both evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns in compliance with HIPAA privacy standards and improve overall brand reputation. The geographic split test is the most popular incrementality test because it splits the target market into different regions, exposing some regions to the marketing campaign and not others. This framework helps to control external factors and provides a clear picture of the impact of the campaign.

Navigating Regulations and Ensuring Data Privacy in Healthcare

Compliance for healthcare organizations involves implementing comprehensive data protection policies, conducting regular risk assessments, and ensuring that all data processing activities meet legal requirements. There are still ways to perform performance marketing and still abide by HIPAA regulations.

• Data anonymization and encryption: By removing Personally identifiable information (PII) and using encrypted data sets, healthcare organizations can analyze and target audiences without violating privacy regulations. For instance, marketing campaigns can be based on anonymized health data trends, without sacrificing individual patient identities.
• Strict access controls: By working with HIPAA-compliant third-party vendors, healthcare companies can ensure that all aspects of their performance marketing are secure and compliant.
• Regular security audits: Obtaining explicit patient consent for data use is essential to inform patients about how their data is handled and provide options to opt in or out.

The healthcare industry is progressive in many ways, but marketing strategies often lag behind other consumer-oriented industries. Due to closely guarded privacy regulations and constrained marketing efforts, it’s challenging for healthcare organizations to keep up with marketing innovations as other industries do. Performance marketing is an avenue for precise targeting that can significantly improve customer retention and loyalty. With specific and measurable goals, performance marketing can prove the performance of campaigns and demonstrate increased ROI for organizations. As marketing continues to evolve, the healthcare marketing industry will undoubtedly adapt, embracing new technologies and methodologies to better serve customers, patients, and other stakeholders.

The post Healthcare Performance Marketing: A Guide to Attract More Customers appeared first on NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency.

So, what exactly does SEM mean in healthcare, and why is it so vital for hospitals, medical practices, and healthcare facilities? This comprehensive guide will delve into healthcare SEM and uncover its significance for healthcare organizations. From boosting organic search traffic to enhancing the overall user experience, healthcare SEM isn’t just a popular term—it’s a fundamental component of any healthcare provider’s digital marketing strategy. Continue reading as we explore the intricacies of healthcare SEM, its unique relevance in the healthcare industry, and the compelling reasons why it’s a lifeline for healthcare professionals navigating the digital landscape.

What is SEM in Healthcare?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in healthcare is a comprehensive digital marketing approach that encompasses both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising strategies. This powerful marketing technique is designed to target and engage specific audiences within the healthcare field. SEM involves optimizing a healthcare website’s content to improve its ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant search queries. It ensures that the website is visible to potential patients and healthcare professionals seeking information or services.

PPC advertising, often facilitated through platforms like Google Ads, allows healthcare marketers to create targeted search campaigns featuring healthcare-related ads. These ads appear prominently in search results when users enter specific keywords related to the healthcare industry or popular search terms. SEM is effective at aligning with the search intent of users, driving clicks that convert into valuable leads or actions while keeping track of the cost per conversion. It also provides options for precise location targeting, enabling healthcare advertisers to make efficient use of their advertising budget. This makes SEM a crucial component in the field of healthcare advertising services, helping craft successful campaigns that resonate with healthcare professionals and patients alike.

What Does SEO Stand for in Healthcare?

There are so many new endeavors in the healthcare industry today, such as health-tech startups, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare (e.g. IBM Watson for Healthcare and Google’s DeepMind Health, etc.), Telemedicine and Telehealth (e.g. Teladoc and Amwell, etc.), Healthcare Wearables (e.g. Whoop, Oura Ring, etc.). As all healthcare companies aim to establish a robust online presence, they increasingly recognize the importance of healthcare SEO efforts. These strategies go beyond traditional advertising and reach potential patients where they are most active – on search engines like Google.

By employing effective medical SEO strategies, healthcare providers can improve their search engine rankings, ensuring that their medical websites appear prominently in organic search results. When individuals search for health services or medical content related to their needs, they are likelier to see healthcare organizations investing in SEO. This visibility increases the chances of attracting prospective patients and builds trust within the healthcare industry.

The Significance of Healthcare SEO

In today’s information-driven world, individuals are turning to search engines as their primary source of healthcare information. Whether someone is looking for a specialist, seeking information about a specific medical condition, or trying to find reviews and recommendations for a healthcare provider, it all begins with a simple online search. This is where Healthcare SEO comes into play.

1. Enhanced Visibility and Credibility: When potential patients search for medical services or related information, appearing near the top of search results instill a sense of credibility and trust in the provider. People tend to associate higher search rankings with expertise and reliability.
2. Targeted Patient Acquisition: Effective Healthcare SEO and Healthcare search engine marketing strategy involve using keywords and phrases relevant to a provider’s specialties. This ensures that the website is visible to individuals actively seeking the services offered by the healthcare provider. Consequently, healthcare SEO and SEM help attract a more targeted audience of potential patients more likely to convert.
3. Competitive Edge: With the increasing competition in the healthcare industry, having a strong online presence can set a provider apart from competitors. Well-optimized websites and informative and engaging content attract patients and keep them engaged and informed. This creates a lasting impression and strengthens the provider’s position in the market.
4. Trust and Transparency: Healthcare SEO can showcase a provider’s expertise, achievements, and patient testimonials. This transparency fosters trust between the provider and potential patients. Patients are more likely to choose a healthcare provider they know and trust, even before setting foot in the clinic or hospital.
5. Local Patient Base: Local SEO strategies are especially crucial for healthcare providers, as many patients prefer medical care from nearby facilities. Optimizing for local searches ensures that a healthcare practice appears in local listings, Google Maps, and local directories, making it easier for local patients to find and choose their services.

What is PPC in Healthcare?

In the realm of healthcare marketing, PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, is a digital advertising strategy that healthcare organizations use to promote their services online. It involves creating and running paid advertisements on platforms like Google Ads. These healthcare PPC ads are strategically displayed to users when they enter specific search queries related to healthcare services, medical information, or other relevant topics. The essence of PPC lies in the fact that advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked, making it a cost-effective way to reach potential patients actively searching for healthcare-related information or services.

PPC in healthcare offers several key advantages:

• Immediate Visibility: PPC allows healthcare organizations to gain immediate visibility by appearing at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) when specific keywords and search terms are entered.
• Targeted Audience: PPC campaigns can be tailored to reach a highly specific audience based on factors such as keywords, location, demographics, and more.
• Cost Control: PPC campaigns provide control over advertising budgets, allowing organizations to set daily or monthly spending limits. This ensures that healthcare marketers can manage their advertising expenses effectively.
• Conversion Tracking: PPC platforms offer robust conversion tracking tools, enabling healthcare organizations to measure the effectiveness of their ads. Metrics like the cost per conversion can be monitored, allowing for campaign refinement and improved results.
• Location Targeting: Healthcare providers can use PPC advertising to focus on specific geographic areas, ensuring that they reach local patients actively searching for nearby healthcare services.
• Flexibility: PPC campaigns offer flexibility in allocating budgets and adjusting strategies based on ad performance and ROI.

The Significance of Healthcare PPC

In today’s digital age, individuals increasingly turn to search engines as their primary source of healthcare information and service discovery. Whether someone is looking for a specialist, seeking information about a specific medical condition, or trying to find reviews and recommendations for a healthcare provider, it often starts with an online search. This is where Healthcare PPC comes into play.

• Enhanced Visibility and Patient Acquisition: Healthcare PPC strategies ensure that healthcare providers’ ads appear prominently in SERPs when users enter relevant search queries. This not only enhances visibility but also facilitates targeted patient acquisition. PPC campaigns focus on keywords related to the services offered, attracting a specific audience likely to convert.
• Competitive Advantage: In an increasingly competitive healthcare industry, a strong online presence can set a healthcare provider apart from competitors. Well-optimized PPC campaigns, along with engaging ad content, attract patients and help providers establish a robust position in the market.
• Cost-Effective Marketing: Healthcare PPC offers a cost-effective marketing approach, as organizations only pay when users click on their ads. This ensures that advertising budgets are spent efficiently, targeting individuals actively interested in healthcare services.
• Immediate Impact: Unlike some marketing strategies that take time to yield results, PPC provides an immediate impact. Healthcare organizations can quickly launch campaigns and start generating traffic and leads.
• Data-Driven Decision-Making: PPC platforms offer comprehensive data and analytics, allowing healthcare marketers to make data-driven decisions to optimize their campaigns continually.

Healthcare SEM 101

Healthcare SEO and PPC are two indispensable tools in the digital marketing arsenal of healthcare providers. Healthcare SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, involves optimizing a healthcare website’s content to achieve higher rankings in organic search results. It ensures that potential patients find the website when searching for healthcare services or information. On the other hand, healthcare PPC, or Pay-Per-Click advertising, enables healthcare organizations to create targeted ads displayed on platforms like Google Ads. These ads appear when users enter specific healthcare-related search queries, delivering immediate visibility to a precise audience. In the ever-evolving healthcare landscape, mastering these fundamental strategies is essential for building a strong online presence and connecting with patients effectively.

The Basics of Healthcare SEO

1. On-Page SEO for Healthcare Websites:

On-page SEO involves optimizing the content and structure of a healthcare website to enhance its visibility in search engine rankings. Key elements of on-page SEO include:

• Keyword Research: Identifying the most relevant and high-value keywords related to healthcare services, combined with secondary keywords. These keywords should be strategically incorporated into website content, including headlines, meta descriptions, and body text.
• Content Quality: Creating high-quality content, informative, and engaging content that addresses the needs and questions of patients. Content should be medically accurate, user-friendly, and regularly updated.
• Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Crafting compelling title tags and meta descriptions that not only contain keywords but also entice users to click through to the website.
• Mobile Optimization: Ensuring the website is responsive and user-friendly on mobile devices so users do not bounce, as Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in its search rankings.

2. Off-Page SEO for Building High-Quality Backlinks:

Off-page SEO focuses on activities outside the healthcare website itself to improve its search engine rankings. A critical aspect of off-page SEO is building high-quality backlinks:

• Backlinks: Earning backlinks from authoritative healthcare websites and reputable sources can significantly boost a website’s credibility in the eyes of search engines. These links should be natural and relevant to healthcare topics.
• Social Signals: Engaging in Healthcare social media marketing and sharing healthcare content can help increase brand visibility and indirectly influence search engine rankings.
• Advertorials: Creating advertorials that provide valuable and detailed information related to your brand and healthcare services can serve as both a source of high-quality backlinks and a means of creating brand awareness.

3. Local SEO for Healthcare Businesses:

Local SEO is especially crucial for healthcare providers who serve specific geographic areas. Local SEO tactics include:

• Google My Business: Claiming and optimizing a Google Business Profile listing to appear in local map searches and provide essential information like location, hours, and reviews.
• Local Directories: Ensuring consistent and accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information across local directories and review platforms to improve local search visibility.
• Local Content: Creating content tailored to local healthcare topics and community engagement to appeal to local patients.

4. Importance of User Experience and Load Times for Healthcare Sites:

User experience and website load times are critical aspects of healthcare SEO:

• User Experience (UX): A positive user experience is vital for retaining visitors and encouraging them to explore the website. This includes intuitive navigation, easy appointment scheduling, and clear calls to action.
• Page Load Times: Google considers page load times in its organic ranking algorithms. Healthcare websites must optimize images and minimize code to ensure fast loading, especially on mobile devices. (https://pagespeed.web.dev/)

The Basics of Healthcare PPC

At its core, Healthcare PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a digital advertising strategy that empowers healthcare providers to effectively engage with their target audience online. It starts with meticulous keyword research, identifying the most relevant and high-impact keywords specific to healthcare services. These keywords serve as the foundation for creating persuasive advertisements that prominently feature in search engine results when users enter healthcare-related search queries. Here are the key elements of Healthcare PPC:

• Keyword Research: Thoroughly researching and selecting the right keywords related to healthcare services, including secondary keywords. These chosen keywords are strategically woven into the content of the advertisements, encompassing headlines, meta descriptions, and body text.
• Targeted Audience: Precision is paramount in PPC campaigns, as they can be tailored to reach a highly specific audience based on factors such as location, demographics, and user behavior. This ensures that healthcare ads are presented to individuals with a genuine interest in the services offered.
• Budget Control: Healthcare organizations have full control over their advertising budget, allowing them to set daily or monthly spending limits. This level of control ensures that advertising expenses are managed efficiently.
• Conversion Tracking: PPC platforms provide robust tools for tracking conversions, enabling healthcare organizations to measure the effectiveness of their ads. Metrics like the cost per conversion are closely monitored, allowing for ongoing refinement of campaigns to yield better results.
• Location Targeting: In healthcare, local presence matters. Healthcare providers can leverage PPC advertising to focus on specific geographic areas, ensuring that local patients actively searching for nearby healthcare services are reached effectively.
• Flexibility: PPC campaigns offer flexibility in budget allocation and strategy adjustments based on ad performance and ROI.

Healthcare SEM Strategies

Healthcare SEM (Search Engine Marketing) strategies encompass a comprehensive approach to bolstering the online presence of healthcare providers and effectively connecting with their target audience. These strategies harness the combined power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, ensuring visibility on popular search engines such as Google. Here are some key elements of healthcare SEM strategies:

• Ad Copy Optimization: Crafting compelling ad copy is a crucial aspect of healthcare SEM. Advertisements should not only contain relevant keywords but also engage users and encourage them to click. A/B testing different ad copies can help identify which messages resonate most with the target audience, leading to improved click-through rates and conversions.
• Remarketing and Retargeting: Remarketing and retargeting campaigns allow healthcare providers to re-engage with users who have previously visited their website but did not convert. These campaigns target users with tailored ads across the web and social media, reminding them of the healthcare services and information they explored earlier.
• Negative Keywords: Implementing negative keywords is essential to refine healthcare PPC campaigns. Negative keywords are terms for which ads should not be displayed. By carefully selecting negative keywords, healthcare providers can prevent their ads from appearing in irrelevant search queries, thus saving ad spend and improving campaign efficiency.
• Quality Score Improvement: Google Ads assigns a Quality Score to each keyword in a PPC campaign, which affects ad placement and costs. Strategies to improve Quality Scores include enhancing ad relevance, optimizing landing pages for user experience, and ensuring keyword-ad-landing page alignment.
• Ad Extensions: Ad extensions provide additional information within the PPC ad, such as location details, phone numbers, and links to specific pages on the website. Utilizing ad extensions can make ads more informative and attractive to users, potentially increasing click-through rates.
• Competitor Analysis: Analyzing the SEM strategies of competitors can provide valuable insights. Understanding which keywords and tactics competitors are using can help healthcare providers identify opportunities and refine their own SEM strategies for better results.
• Budget Optimization: Efficiently managing the advertising budget is crucial for healthcare SEM success. Continuous monitoring of campaign performance and adjusting budgets based on top-performing keywords and campaigns helps maximize the return on investment (ROI) for healthcare advertising.
• Ad Schedule and Geotargeting: Fine-tuning ad schedules and geotargeting settings can be highly effective for healthcare providers. Ad scheduling allows ads to appear during specific hours or days when potential patients are most active online. Geotargeting ensures that ads are displayed to users in specific geographic areas, particularly beneficial for local healthcare services.
• Conversion Tracking and ROI Analysis: Setting up robust conversion tracking is essential for measuring the success of healthcare SEM campaigns. Analyzing the ROI of different campaigns and keywords enables healthcare providers to allocate resources effectively and optimize their strategies for the best results.

Implementing Healthcare SEO strategies

Keyword Research and Optimization in Healthcare SEO

1. Process of Keyword Research Using Keyword Research Tools:

Keyword research tools are the secret sauce behind any successful SEO strategy. SEO experts and healthcare professionals often use these tools to identify relevant keywords and phrases that will drive organic website traffic. Some popular platforms for keyword analysis include:

• Google Keyword Planner: This tool, provided by Google, offers insights into the keyword search volume and competition. It’s a great starting point for keyword research.
• SEMrush: SEMrush provides comprehensive keyword data, competitive analysis, and content optimization recommendations. It’s invaluable for understanding your competition’s keyword strategies.
• Moz Keyword Explorer: Moz’s tool gives you keyword data and offers keyword difficulty scores, helping you identify keywords within your reach.
• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer: Ahrefs is known for its thorough keyword analysis, including search volume, click-through rate (CTR) estimates, and competitor insights.

The keyword research process typically follows these steps:

• Identify Seed Keywords: Start with a few broad, relevant keywords related to healthcare services or topics you want to target.
• Expand with Tools: Utilize keyword research tools to expand your list of keywords. These tools provide data on search volume, competition, and related terms.
• Competitor Analysis: Analyze the keywords your competitors are targeting. This can offer valuable insights into gaps or opportunities in your strategy.
• Long-Tail Keywords: Pay attention to long-tail keywords, which are more specific and often have lower competition. These can attract highly targeted traffic.
• Consider User Intent: Always consider the intent behind each keyword. Are users looking for information, seeking a specific healthcare service, or searching for local healthcare providers?

2. Significance of Using Relevant Healthcare Keywords:

Why is it crucial to use relevant healthcare keywords?

• Targeted Traffic: Relevant keywords ensure that your content reaches individuals actively searching for the services or information you provide, resulting in more targeted traffic to your website.
• User Satisfaction: Content aligned with user intent helps visitors find the information they seek, improving user satisfaction and engagement. This, in turn, can positively impact your website’s search engine rankings.
• Competitive Advantage: By optimizing for specific healthcare keywords, you can gain a competitive edge in your niche. This is particularly important in the healthcare industry, where competition is fierce.

3. Importance of Optimizing Description Tags and Meta Descriptions for Healthcare Content:

Description tags (or meta descriptions) are the snippets of text that appear in search engine results. They play a crucial role in driving organic clicks to your website. Here’s why optimizing them is vital:

• Description Tags (Meta Descriptions): These concisely summarize what a webpage is about. To optimize them:
  • Include relevant healthcare keywords naturally.
  • Craft compelling and informative descriptions to entice users to click through to your website.
  • Keep meta descriptions concise, staying within the recommended character limits (typically around 150-160 characters).
• Meta Descriptions: These offer an opportunity to showcase the value of your healthcare content:
  • Highlight key benefits or unique selling points of your healthcare services or content.
  • Use action-oriented language to encourage users to take the desired action, such as visiting your website.
  • Ensure that each meta description accurately reflects the content of the corresponding page.

The Power of Internal and External Links

1. Significance of Internal Links in Healthcare SEO:

• Internal links, the links that connect different pages within your website, are often underestimated but play a vital role in healthcare SEO:
• Enhanced User Experience: Internal links guide visitors to related content, keeping them engaged and informed during their online journey.

2. Strategies for Building High-Quality Backlinks in the Medical Industry:

• Building external backlinks, especially within the tightly regulated medical industry, requires a strategic approach:
• Create Shareable Content: Develop informative, shareable content that naturally attracts backlinks from other healthcare websites and industry peers.
• Guest Blogging: Collaborate with authoritative healthcare blogs and publications by contributing guest posts on relevant topics.

Implementing Healthcare PPC Strategies

• Ad Group Structure: Properly structuring ad groups in PPC campaigns is essential. Healthcare providers can organize their ads into relevant ad groups, ensuring that ads are tightly aligned with specific keywords. This improves ad relevance, click-through rates, and overall campaign performance.
• Ad Extensions: Utilizing various ad extensions can enhance the effectiveness of healthcare PPC ads. These extensions, such as callout extensions, site link extensions, and location extensions, provide additional information to users, making the ads more informative and compelling.
• Dynamic Keyword Insertion: Dynamic keyword insertion allows healthcare providers to create highly customized ads that match the search queries of users. When a user’s search query matches a specific keyword in the campaign, the ad dynamically inserts that keyword into the ad copy, increasing ad relevance and click-through rates.
• Ad Scheduling: Ad scheduling allows healthcare providers to control when their PPC ads are displayed. They can set specific times and days when their ads should appear, ensuring that their ads are most visible when potential patients are actively searching for healthcare services.
• Bid Adjustments: Implementing bid adjustments based on various factors, such as device type (desktop, mobile, tablet), location, and time of day, allows healthcare providers to allocate their budget more efficiently. This ensures that they are bidding higher for the most valuable traffic and optimizing their ROI.
• Landing Page Optimization: Optimizing landing pages is crucial for healthcare PPC success. Healthcare providers should ensure that the landing pages are highly relevant to the ad content, user-friendly, and designed for conversions. A/B testing different landing page elements can help improve conversion rates.
• Call Tracking: Implementing call tracking allows healthcare providers to measure the number of phone calls generated by PPC ads. This valuable data helps assess the effectiveness of campaigns and understand how patients are engaging with the healthcare provider’s services.
• Budget Allocation: Managing the PPC advertising budget effectively is essential. Healthcare providers should allocate their budget based on the performance of individual campaigns and keywords, ensuring that the most successful campaigns receive the necessary resources.
• Ad Copy Testing: Continuous testing of ad copy variations helps healthcare providers identify which messages resonate best with their target audience. A/B testing different ad headlines, descriptions, and calls to action can lead to improved click-through rates and conversions.
• Remarketing Strategies: Implementing remarketing strategies allows healthcare providers to re-engage with users who have previously visited their website but did not convert. Remarketing ads can remind users of the healthcare services they explored and encourage them to take action.

Measuring Healthcare SEM Success

Effective measurement of healthcare SEM (Search Engine Marketing) success is crucial for optimizing digital marketing efforts. Analytics tools like Google Analytics play a pivotal role in monitoring healthcare SEM strategies. Here’s a breakdown of key aspects to consider when measuring the success of your healthcare SEM campaigns:

1. Analytics Tools for Insight

Analytics tools like Google Analytics provide healthcare providers with valuable insights into the performance of their SEM campaigns. These tools track and report various metrics that help assess the impact of digital marketing efforts.

2. Organic Search Traffic

One of the primary metrics to evaluate is organic search traffic. This metric reflects the volume of visitors coming to your healthcare website from search engine results pages (SERPs). An increase in organic search traffic indicates that your SEM strategies are effectively attracting users to your site.

3. Keyword Rankings

Monitoring keyword rankings is essential to gauge the visibility of your healthcare website for specific search terms. When your website ranks higher for relevant keywords, it is more likely to appear in prominent positions on SERPs, increasing the likelihood of attracting clicks from potential patients.

4. Conversion Rates

Conversion rates are a critical indicator of SEM success. They reveal how successfully your website is converting visitors into patients or clients. Conversions can take various forms, such as appointment bookings, contact form submissions, or phone calls. Tracking and analyzing conversion rates helps identify areas for improvement in your healthcare SEM strategy.

5. Assessing Effectiveness

The metrics mentioned above collectively help assess the effectiveness of your healthcare SEM strategy. An increase in organic search traffic suggests that your website is gaining visibility, while improved keyword rankings demonstrate enhanced online presence. Conversion rates indicate how well your site is engaging and converting visitors into patients or clients, ultimately impacting your healthcare practice’s bottom line.

Overcoming Challenges in Healthcare SEM

Healthcare organizations often encounter unique challenges in their SEM (Search Engine Marketing) efforts. This section discusses some common challenges healthcare providers face. It offers solutions and strategies to address them, including compliance with healthcare regulations (HIPAA), managing online reputation and patient reviews, and adapting to frequent algorithm updates in the medical industry.

1. Compliance with Healthcare Regulations (HIPAA):

Challenge: Healthcare organizations must navigate the stringent regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which governs the privacy and security of patient health information. This can limit the type of content and information that can be shared online.

• Solution: To address HIPAA compliance while maintaining an effective online presence, healthcare providers should:
  • Ensure that all patient-related information is de-identified and anonymized in online content.
  • Educate staff about HIPAA guidelines and the responsible sharing of patient-related information.
  • Use secure communication channels and encryption for any patient interactions online.
  • Regularly update and review your website’s privacy policies and terms of use to align with HIPAA requirements.

2. Managing Online Reputation and Patient Reviews:

Challenge: Healthcare organizations often need help managing their online reputation and patient reviews. Negative reviews or unfavorable online mentions can significantly impact public perception and trust.

• Solution: To address this challenge and maintain a positive online reputation:
  • Encourage satisfied patients to leave positive reviews on reputable review platforms.
  • Respond professionally and empathetically to negative reviews, addressing concerns and offering solutions privately.
  • Monitor online mentions and reviews using reputation management tools to catch and address issues promptly.
  • Focus on providing excellent patient experiences, naturally leading to positive reviews and referrals.

3. Adapting to Frequent Algorithm Updates in the Medical Industry:

Challenge: The healthcare industry is subject to frequent algorithm updates from search engines like Google. Staying updated and adapting to these changes can be challenging for healthcare SEM practitioners.

• Solution: To address this challenge, healthcare organizations should:
  • Focus on producing high-quality, authoritative, and medically accurate content as search engines increasingly prioritize such content.
  • Diversify your digital marketing strategy to include social media and email marketing to reduce dependence on organic search traffic.

Integrating Healthcare Search Engine Marketing into Digital Marketing Strategy

• Complementing SEO Efforts: Healthcare PPC and SEO can work hand in hand to boost your online presence. PPC advertising provides immediate visibility for specific keywords, while SEO efforts focus on long-term organic rankings. Combining both ensures that your healthcare website appears in prominent positions on search engine results pages (SERPs) while you work on improving organic rankings.
• Keyword Expansion: PPC campaigns can help identify high-performing keywords and search queries that you may not have initially considered for your SEO strategy. These insights can inform your SEO efforts and help you optimize your content for a broader range of keywords.
• Conversion Tracking: PPC advertising provides robust conversion tracking capabilities, allowing you to measure the direct impact of your ad campaigns on patient acquisition. This data is invaluable for optimizing your digital marketing strategy and allocating budget effectively.
• Location Targeting: Healthcare PPC allows for precise location targeting, ensuring that your ads reach users in specific geographic areas. This is especially beneficial for healthcare providers with local or regional patient bases.
• Ad Messaging Consistency: By aligning your PPC ad messaging with your overall digital marketing strategy, including SEO-aligned content, you create a consistent brand message across multiple channels. This reinforces your healthcare organization’s expertise and trustworthiness.
• Budget Allocation: Integrating healthcare PPC into your digital marketing strategy requires careful budget allocation. You can adjust your PPC budget based on performance data, ensuring that the most effective campaigns receive the necessary resources.
• A/B Testing: A/B testing of PPC ad copy and landing pages can provide insights that benefit your broader digital marketing efforts. Discovering what resonates best with your audience through PPC can inform content creation and messaging for your website, social media, and email marketing campaigns.
• Remarketing and Retargeting: PPC offers powerful remarketing and retargeting options. You can re-engage with website visitors who didn’t convert, guiding them back to your healthcare services. This reinforces your overall digital marketing strategy by keeping your services top of mind for potential patients.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our exploration has delved into the pivotal role of healthcare SEM, encompassing both SEO and PPC, in the dynamic digital landscape of healthcare organizations. We’ve navigated through the intricacies of optimizing websites for search engines, harnessing the power of paid advertising, and the symbiotic relationship between these strategies.

As healthcare providers and institutions strive to bolster their online visibility and patient acquisition efforts, the synergy between SEM strategies becomes evident. However, the world of SEM can be intricate and ever-evolving. This is where the expertise of SEM agencies shines.

Consider the invaluable support that a reputable SEM agency can offer in crafting and executing a comprehensive healthcare SEM strategy. These agencies bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, allowing healthcare professionals and organizations to focus on delivering top-tier healthcare services. Collaborating with an esteemed SEM agency optimizes your online presence, expands your reach, and fosters meaningful connections with patients in the digital era.

Consider the valuable assistance that an SEM/SEO agency can provide in crafting and executing healthcare-specific strategies. These agencies bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, allowing healthcare professionals and organizations to concentrate on what they do best—delivering high-quality healthcare services.

Collaborating with an SEM agency can optimize your online presence, enhance your reach, and create meaningful connections with patients in the digital age. If you’re looking to create an SEM marketing strategy, connect with a NoGood SEM expert today to find out where you could enhance your SEM efforts and your organic online presence. It’s a strategic move that can improve patient care and strengthen your healthcare brand’s position in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

The post A Complete Guide to Healthcare Search Engine Marketing appeared first on NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency.

What role does content marketing play in healthcare?

Content marketing in healthcare is a proactive approach that enables healthcare providers to leverage digital channels to reach both local and global audiences while distinguishing themselves from competitors. It involves creating and sharing informative, engaging, and multimedia types of content, such as articles, videos, infographics, and podcasts, that address the needs and interests of potential patients and healthcare organizations.

Healthcare brands can establish themselves as trusted authorities in their respective fields by producing valuable, relevant, high-quality content for their audience. This, in turn, helps in capturing search traffic as people seek out health-related information online. Whether it’s educational blog posts about managing chronic conditions, video content explaining medical procedures, or infographics on wellness tips, content marketing bridges healthcare providers and their target audience.

In essence, healthcare content marketing empowers organizations to educate and engage their audience, build credibility, and foster lasting relationships in an increasingly digital and competitive healthcare landscape.

Why is content marketing important in healthcare?

Content marketing efforts hold paramount importance in the healthcare industry for several compelling reasons. First and foremost, the ubiquity of Google search as a primary source of medical information means that healthcare organizations have an unparalleled opportunity to provide valuable and actionable advice to a wider audience. With over a billion healthcare-related search terms daily, a content marketing strategy allows them to tap into this demand.

Furthermore, healthcare content marketing has various key benefits. It builds trust by showcasing the expertise and people behind the organization, reducing current patient anxiety by providing clear information and answers to questions, and capturing local search traffic for long-term lead generation. By offering informative and engaging content pieces of content, healthcare brands differentiate themselves from competitors and establish a loyal audience.

The high success rate of content marketing in healthcare, as evidenced by 99% of surveyed companies generating positive results, highlights its effectiveness. With a significant percentage reporting moderate to very successful outcomes, it’s clear that content marketing is a powerful tool for healthcare organizations to connect with their audience, build credibility, and drive lasting patient engagement.

Review this infographic for additional details about the importance of content marketing in healthcare:

Strategies to accelerate your healthcare content marketing in 2024

Strategy 1: Assess the current situation in your healthcare company

The first step in creating a comprehensive healthcare content marketing strategy is to assess your current situation. This initial phase lays the foundation for your strategy by providing essential insights and context. Let’s delve into this crucial step and expand upon it:

Assess the situation of your company

• Company goals: Begin by understanding the broader goals of your healthcare organization. What are the mission, vision, and long-term objectives? How does content marketing fit into these goals?
• Challenges and objectives: Identify the specific challenges you aim to address through your content marketing efforts. What are the key objectives you intend to achieve? For example, is it to enhance patient engagement, establish thought leadership, or drive lead generation?
• Budget allocation: Determine how much your healthcare marketing budget will be allocated to content. This allocation will shape the scope and scale of your content initiatives.
• Expected deliverables and cadence: Define what you plan to deliver through your content marketing strategy. Will it be blog posts, videos, infographics, or a combination? Establish a cadence for content creation and publication.
• Stakeholder involvement: Identify all stakeholders involved or impacted by the content strategy. This includes the content development team and individuals in various roles who may have insights or dependencies on the content.

Be aligned on the results of the overall strategy

While it can be challenging to pinpoint the hard ROI of content marketing in isolation, it’s crucial to clarify the overarching objectives of your content initiatives. Ask questions such as:

1. What are we aiming to accomplish with our healthcare content marketing efforts?
2. Are we primarily focused on improving brand awareness, driving lead generation, increasing customer retention, or a combination of these goals?

Segment, define, and create personas for your audience

• Buyer’s journey: Map out the buyer’s journey within your healthcare context. Identify a prospective patient or customer’s stages, from awareness to decision-making.
• Buyer personas: Create detailed buyer personas to segment your audience effectively. Consider factors such as demographics, roles in the purchasing process (e.g., economic, technical, end-user), and specific use cases.
• Influencers: Recognize the influencers within your healthcare ecosystem. This could include Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), financial analysts, regulatory bodies like the FDA, and other healthcare systems.
• Audience needs and pain points: Understand your audience’s needs, challenges, and pain points. What are their priorities when seeking healthcare information or services?
• Unique value proposition: Define the unique value proposition your healthcare organization provides. How does it address the specific needs of your audience?

By diligently addressing these foundational aspects in the planning phase of your healthcare content marketing strategy, you’ll be better equipped to create content that resonates with your audience, aligns with your organization’s goals, and ultimately drives meaningful results in the healthcare sector.

Strategy 2: Gain content marketing insights from your patients

The initial step entails connecting with your audience and acquiring insights into their inquiries, which you can incorporate into your content. This action lays the groundwork for formulating a customer-centric content strategy.

There are various approaches that healthcare organizations can employ to accomplish this, for example:

• Encourage your community to submit questions directly. You can set up a dedicated email address, utilize a website submission form, or engage through direct messages on social media platforms. It’s crucial to emphasize that these platforms should not be used for sharing personal health information.

Internal sources can also serve as a wellspring of content ideas. This includes consulting your clinical teams about their passion projects and aligning them with your audience’s needs. Collaboration with customer-facing teams, such as customer support, can facilitate the analysis of patient and prospect requests and inquiries. Additionally, getting content ideas from other successful healthcare marketing campaigns can be valuable.

Moreover, conducting traditional audience research is vital for effective content marketing. Rushing into content creation without understanding your content marketing audience often yields subpar results, if any. Here’s how to do this:

• Listen to your audience. Schedule meetings with customers and conduct interviews to comprehend your audience’s challenges, explaining them in plain language if possible. Learn the terminology they use to discuss their industry and incorporate it into your content. Depending on your target audience (e.g., healthcare solution purchasers), the language can vary significantly—relying solely on search results may provide limited insights.

When engaging with clients and prospects, gather the following information to ensure you possess sufficient knowledge for crafting resonant content:

What are their preferred communication methods, channels, and content formats?

This information will guide your choice of platforms for disseminating content and the most effective media types to employ. Pay attention to the communication style they employ. Are they formal or more casual when communicating with you? This insight will help you determine the appropriate tone for addressing this specific audience.

Determining healthcare patients’ preferred communication channels is a critical step in effectively reaching and engaging with your target audience. To address the question of how to identify these preferred channels, we can draw insights from the following considerations:

• Audience-centric approach: Start by putting your healthcare patients at the center of your communication strategy. Understand their preferences, behaviors, and habits when it comes to seeking healthcare information.
  
• Analyze information consumption habits: Investigate how your audience consumes healthcare-related information. Are they more inclined to seek information in person, online, through traditional media like billboards, or a combination of these? By understanding their habits, you can tailor your approach accordingly.
  
• Online presence: In today’s digital age, online channels often play a pivotal role. Explore which online platforms your healthcare patients frequent. Do they engage with health-related content on social media platforms, read healthcare blogs, or participate in online health communities?
  
• Social media insights: Dive deeper into social media usage. Identify the specific social platforms your audience prefers. For instance, younger demographics might be active on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, while older individuals may prefer Facebook or LinkedIn. Knowing where your audience spends their online time can guide your content distribution.
  
• Publications and news sources: Examine the publications, news outlets, or magazines your target audience trusts and reads regularly. This could include medical journals, local newspapers, or healthcare-focused magazines. Consider partnerships or advertising opportunities in these publications to reach your audience.
  
• Feedback and surveys: Actively seek feedback from your patients through surveys or direct conversations. Ask them about their preferred communication channels and what type of content they find most valuable. This firsthand information can be invaluable for refining your strategy.
  
• Demographic and psychographic data: Leverage demographic and psychographic data to gain insights into your patient population. Age, gender, interests, and lifestyle can influence communication preferences. Tailor your approach based on these insights.
  
• Content testing: Experiment with different communication channels and content formats. Monitor the performance of your content across various platforms. Analyze metrics such as engagement, click-through rates, and conversions to gauge which channels are most effective in reaching and resonating with your audience.
  
• Adapt and evolve: Keep in mind that preferences and behaviors may evolve over time. Stay attuned to changing trends and adapt your communication strategy accordingly. Regularly revisit your patient personas to ensure they remain accurate and up to date.
  
• Multi-channel strategy: Consider adopting a multi-channel approach to reach a broader spectrum of patients. Combining online and offline channels can provide comprehensive coverage and cater to diverse preferences.

By thoroughly researching and understanding your healthcare patients’ preferred communication channels, you can create a tailored communication strategy that effectively delivers valuable healthcare information, fosters engagement, and enhances the overall patient experience. This approach builds trust and ensures that patients receive the information they need through their preferred means of communication.

Strategy 3: Find out which topics are of interest to your audience

Once you’ve grasped your audience and the community you serve, it’s time to unearth the specific subjects to incorporate into your content strategy.

Establish your subject matter authority

Subject matter authority revolves around enhancing your proficiency in a specific subject area within a particular niche. By producing substantial volumes of top-tier content on a particular topic, you can cultivate credibility with your audience and convey favorable signals to search engines.

For instance, consider a scenario where you’re developing content for a mental health clinic, and you’ve noticed a rising demand and curiosity in anxiety treatment services.

To establish subject matter authority, it’s crucial to craft high-quality content addressing various subtopics and queries linked to anxiety. Here’s how to do this:

• Irrespective of the subject, there are at least 25 approaches to tackle it. Once you’ve brainstormed the subject concerning your target personas’ needs, you can leverage keyword research to refine your ideas and pinpoint your topic focus.

Keyword research stage

* Although you can use a variety of keyword research tools, such as Frase or SEMrush, we’ve used Ahrefs for this example.

Regarding your keyword research, it’s important to note that developing a comprehensive healthcare SEO strategy in conjunction with your content marketing efforts is essential for a successful healthcare content marketing strategy.

Step 1

First, navigate to your keyword research tool, enter the ‘anxiety’ subject, and select your preferred location (country, region, or city).

Step 2

Click’ Matching or Related terms’ and generate an array of interconnected subtopics. You can explore different perspectives, such as questions.

You’ll also come across various popular headlines and queries that web users pose regarding each subtopic.

Step 3

From here, you can promptly compile a list of topics to include in your topic cluster. For example, your clinic might decide to concentrate on the following overarching content concepts:

• Anxiety signs and symptoms
• Anxiety disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Selective mutism
• Social anxiety disorder

Keep in mind that some of these subtopics might eventually evolve into independent content pillars or cluster focal points. Every topic in your content plan will be associated with a set of related keywords. Conducting keyword research for each piece of content will enable you to tailor your content to the preferences of online searchers and gauge potential gains.

Suppose we’ve opted for the ‘social anxiety disorder’ topic from the abovementioned list. Head over to the ‘Keyword Explorer tool’ and input it.

You’ll be presented with a list of correlated keywords, along with details on search volume, search intent, and keyword difficulty. Let’s also assume that you believe this keyword is worth pursuing, a decision that hinges on your estimation of the results it can yield and the resources required for ranking.

The keywords for your content might encompass:

• Social anxiety symptoms
• How to overcome social anxiety
• What causes social anxiety
• Difference between anxiety and panic attack

Step 4

Your next step is to contemplate semantically related keywords. These can enhance the context and depth of your content. Again, here, you can use either Frase, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. We’ve used Frase to illustrate our point.

In Frase, navigate to the new document section and input the ‘social anxiety disorder’ keyword. Click ‘create document’ to generate a list of semantically linked keywords and view additional details like optimal content length and target readability.

In the ‘Research’ section, you’ll be able to see what word count you should target and the number of headers, links, and images.

To consider which semantically related keywords you should include in your content, you can head over to the ‘Optimize’ section in Frase. You’ll be able to filter by top topics, long tail, clusters, titles, headers, and blacklist semantically related keywords.

One of our favorite features within Frase to consider semantically related keywords is the ‘Heatmap’ setting. Here, you’ll be able to see which semantically related keywords your competitors are using the most. Again, you can filter by long tail and top topics.

Step 5

Lastly, any quest for content ideas would be incomplete without competitive research, and the healthcare sector is no exception.

Your competitive content analysis should encompass several key steps:

• Compilation of a list of direct and indirect competitors (Ahrefs and SEMrush are both great tools to use for this).
• Assessment of their overall content strategy: content formats they employ, the content categories they focus on, and the channels they utilize for content promotion. Carefully scrutinize their websites and social media platforms.
• Evaluation of their current SEO strategies: e.g., the informational and transactional keywords they rank for and identification of their top-performing pages. Leverage the Organic Research tool.
• Keyword gap analysis: uncover keywords they already rank for and identify potential content opportunities. Utilize the Keyword Gap tool.
• Search intent analysis: analyze the top-ranking pages for each keyword. Employ AI tools like ContentShake to incorporate these insights into your content creation process seamlessly.

Explore social media options

Your analysis of topics and trends should not be confined to the workflow outlined above. In fact, it’s crucial to explore various available platforms to gain a deeper insight into your audience’s needs and preferences. Here’s how you can do this:

• Browse forums and check various social media platforms to see if content related to pertinent health issues is being generated and shared. Numerous channels, profiles, or groups openly share experiences, challenges, and more, which can spark engagement and discussions and, in turn, offer relevant topics to address in your content.

You can also participate in industry events to stay updated on trends and capitalize on recent news stories to craft valuable content on trending topics. This is commonly known as “newsjacking.”

For instance, let’s say your mental health clinic wants to create timely content about coping with anxiety, and you’re looking for inspiration beyond your industry. Consider the approach taken by the wellness brand Headspace.

Headspace regularly creates blog posts and social media content that addresses anxiety management techniques and mindfulness practices. Their website has a dedicated section that provides resources for dealing with anxiety, including articles, guided meditations, and expert advice.

Their content often aligns with trending topics and events, such as providing tips for managing anxiety during the holiday season or during periods of high workplace stress. This strategy has helped them stay relevant and engage with a broader audience.

To follow Headspace’s lead:

1. Stay attuned to current events and cultural trends that may impact stress levels.
2. Develop content that offers practical solutions and techniques for stress management.
3. Leverage social media platforms to share bite-sized stress-relief tips and engage with your audience.
4. Experiment with different creative formats and social media platforms and see what works best for your audience.
5. Collaborate with mental health experts or influencers to provide credible insights and advice.
6. Monitor the performance of your stress-related content and adjust your strategy based on user feedback and engagement metrics.

By drawing inspiration from successful brands like Headspace, you can tailor your content to resonate with your target audience and address their specific needs and concerns related to stress.

Furthermore, you can always draw inspiration from healthcare content creators for specific social media channels, like TikTok. This information will serve as a valuable guide for refining your content plan based on what’s proven to be effective within your sector. Also, this will help you establish which types of content to steer clear of, as healthcare content marketing should always be sensitive to the patients.

Strategy 4: Implementing your content marketing strategy

Implementing your content marketing strategy involves several critical steps to ensure its success. Let’s break down these steps and discuss their significance in more detail:

Collaborate with healthcare experts

After carefully choosing and delving into your healthcare content topics, it’s imperative to integrate medical proficiency into your content creation process. There are two effective approaches to accomplish this:

1. Engage with medical experts from the initial content creation phase, involving them directly in the writing and content development process.
   
2. Alternatively, you can opt to enlist marketers with a background in the medical field to craft the initial drafts of your content. Subsequently, you can streamline the process by having subject matter experts review and validate the content.

The latter approach is often the more streamlined and efficient option, as it requires less time and involvement from your experts while ensuring that the content maintains the required level of medical expertise and compliance.

Strategic content planning

Before diving into content creation, it’s crucial to strategize effectively. Begin by plotting a macro view of your healthcare business milestones, product launches, and seasonal events. By doing so, you can align your content marketing priorities with these significant initiatives while remaining flexible in responding to sudden media events or trending topics. This step ensures that your content efforts are closely aligned with your overarching business objectives, providing a clear roadmap for your content strategy.

Streamlined content creation process

Creating a structured content creation process is the backbone of a successful content marketing strategy. Regardless of your team’s size, this process helps align roles and responsibilities, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability among team members. Implementing creative briefs during the pre-production stage helps define deliverables and approval processes.

Editorial calendar management

To maintain a steady publishing cadence, an organized editorial calendar is indispensable. It serves as your content roadmap, ensuring consistency in messaging and engagement with your healthcare audience. Plan your publishing schedule at least one quarter in advance, in line with your content creation process. Moreover, allocating time for brainstorming sessions enables the generation of fresh and engaging content ideas, making your content marketing efforts more effective.

Leveraging content repurposing

Content marketing success isn’t solely about producing copious amounts of content. It’s about creating valuable content consistently and maximizing its utility. Repurposing content is a powerful strategy. For instance, consider transcribing or summarizing podcasts into articles or blog posts. Key findings from reports or surveys can be repackaged into compelling infographics. Additionally, explore localization or translation to reach diverse patient populations. Extend your reach beyond your website by leveraging digital channels, social platforms, and influencers that align with your audience’s preferences.

Gauge impact and value

To ensure your healthcare content marketing strategy aligns with business goals, robust measurement and management are essential. Three fundamental components to assess effectiveness include cost, utilization, and performance. Evaluate the costs associated with producing different types of content to make informed budget decisions. Maximizing content utilization across various channels can significantly enhance ROI. However, focus on measuring engagement metrics over vanity metrics like page views or social shares. Meaningful engagement is a better indicator of your content’s value and its contribution to achieving business objectives.

Wrapping up with things to keep in mind

As we wrap up our exploration of the fundamental principles and strategies of healthcare content marketing, we must keep these four key rules in mind. These rules serve as a compass and a guiding light for successful content marketing endeavors.

1. Audience-centric approach: Always begin with your audience in mind. Your content should be finely tuned to resonate with the specific audience or group you aim to engage. Remember, it’s not about what interests you; it’s about what captivates and engages them.
   
2. Humanize your content: Strive to retain the human element in your content. While presenting information authoritatively is important, ensuring that your content is easily understood is equally vital. Embrace people-oriented storytelling or adopt a conversational tone when needed. Remember that your audience relates more to personal experiences than dry technical details.
   
3. Avoid self-promotion: Content marketing is not a platform for self-promotion. Instead, it’s about nurturing relationships over immediate actions. Building trust and credibility requires providing unbiased and informative content. An impartial voice is not only convincing but also reliable.
   
4. Patience and persistence: Understand that content marketing yields results over time. Building an engaged audience takes patience and consistent effort. While traditional advertising may offer more immediate returns, content marketing’s true value lies in its ability to foster long-term connections.
   
5. Sustainability is key: Lastly, begin only with what you can sustain. Consistency is paramount in content marketing. Ensure that your resources align with your efforts. Starting small and gradually scaling up is often a wise approach.
   

Incorporating these rules and tips into your healthcare content marketing strategy will enhance your brand’s visibility and cultivate enduring relationships with your target audience. Remember that healthcare content marketing is a journey, and adhering to these principles will lead you to sustained success.

If you’re curious to know more about our award-winning healthcare content marketing approach, contact us.

The post Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy: Proven 2024 Playbook appeared first on NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency.

Healthcare companies can take advantage of TikTok’s ability to reach and engage with a diverse audience of young consumers in order to raise awareness on health issues, redefine how the new generation looks at healthcare, establish a new avenue for recruitment, and establish a new communication channel for medical advancements and news.

Overcoming marketing challenges in the healthcare industry using TikTok

Traditionally, according to Forbes and We Are Amnet, healthcare marketers have struggled with challenges such as public perception of the industry, audience targeting limitations, and balancing authority with relatability in their creative messaging. TikTok, unlike other platforms, can position a company in a way that is similar to a friend in a group chat. The digital culture of this platform allows brands to be a part of the conversation instead of trying to yell from a megaphone.

Let’s explore how TikTok can combat these three particular challenges.

1. Public perception of the industry

According to Maestro Health, 50% of 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 25 years and older surveyed feel the quality of care they receive is equal to or greater than what it costs. Chief strategy and product officer at Maestro Health, Nancy Reardon, stated, “While cost is an industry-wide issue, providers and health plan administrators must work on better communicating (or as we like to think about it, marketing) to patients and members.”

The goal for this would be to build a community through a channel that is widely used by consumers, offers an easy and accessible method of communication, and innately causes the consumer to see the brand as a friend rather than just a service provider: TikTok. Merely having a TikTok account would cause a mindset change showing that the brand is tapped into the latest trends and understands the current digital landscape. How the brand uses the account (which we will go over later in this article), however, would determine if they can shift the public perception.

2. Audience targeting limitations

Although targeting across any digital platform is going to be limited due to privacy regulations, TikTok’s algorithm has a unique ability to find and curate these small communities within the platform and serve the right content to the right audience. There is #chronicillnesstok, #diabetestook, #crohnstok, and pretty much a “tok” for every corner of healthcare. By utilizing content buckets and TikTok SEO strategies you can organically reach this audience, creating an even more meaningful connection.

3. Balancing authority with relatability in creative messaging

In many traditional marketing mediums, the healthcare industry has maintained a more formal voice. Though healthcare companies should have an authoritative sector of their brand voice, in the current digital landscape, that same voice won’t work everywhere. A platform like TikTok allows brands to take an informal approach to the way their audience sees them. Jokes you maybe wouldn’t make on LinkedIn fit well into the TikTok culture.

This is a place of self-deprecating humor, self-awareness, and breaking through the fourth wall. The strings should be a lot looser on this platform, and they must be in order for a brand to thrive here.

For TikTok specifically, there is more regulation around the community guidelines and restrictions for paid advertising. Here is a quick overview of the restrictions to keep in mind:

• Ads for pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and medicines must target 18+ users and comply with local laws of the target country. Over-the-counter or prescription drugs must be approved by the regional regulating authority and may not contain misleading or inaccurate claims. We do allow advertisements for brick and mortar pharmacies and online pharmacies that are certified by a third-party licensing organization such as the NABP or LegitScript or regional equivalent. Proof of licensing may be necessary for approval.
  Ads promoting weight loss/management fasting products or services.
• Ads promoting weight loss/management supplements (including fat burning pills, appetite suppressants, weight loss or detox teas or lollipops).
• Invasive cosmetic procedures such as rhinoplasty, face/lip fillers and microdermabrasion cannot be advertised on the platform.

Though TikTok especially is a much more flexible channel in terms of personality and humor that can be used, brands still want to follow community guidelines to prevent any account shut downs or penalties.

Identifying the target audience on TikTok for healthcare companies

According to Wallaroo Media, 80% of TikTok users are between the ages of 16-34. This platform, though not only for young people, is primarily made up of Gen Z and young Millennials. Therefore, the content should be catered to this audience, and healthcare companies should keep this in mind when strategizing how to use this platform. TikTok should be used as the channel to reach the younger generation, curate the current messaging around the industry, and create loyalists from the future (and present) consumers.

What content should healthcare companies put on TikTok?

First, there are two main lenses that should be used to figure out what content to put out on TikTok. Across any account, you want to consider

Content Bucket: The category of content you are talking about (e.g.: Health education, current health news, relatable industry topics, etc.). This answers the question, “What are we going to talk about?” and serves as guardrails to align your content with your brand values and interests across other platforms as well.

Content Delivery: How are you presenting the content? Through a vlog, trending sound, direct-to-camera, skit… You get the idea. This answers the question “How are we going to tell the story” and this can greatly affect how your audience receives the information. You could be talking about the same topic but in two different delivery formats and your audience may be much more receptive to one over the other.

Second, all brands should identify what their personality looks like on a platform such as this one. On TikTok, you may be known for the crazy stories working in healthcare, for jokes that call out relatable experiences within the industry, or for being the first to break news or advancements. In any regard, we encourage you to reach into the funny, quirky, out-there parts of your personality. Simple education content will not cut it. You have to deliver it in a fun way, make a joke about it, be uncannily timely with the content, or a mix of all of these in order to see the results you are looking for.

Health communities on TikTok

Something that makes TikTok unique is its curation of niche communities. The TikTok algorithm is very good at creating these “Tok” corners for consumers to find videos related to their interests/experiences. For example, “T1Tok” is the community around Type 1 diabetics and their families. Creators who talk about Type 1 Diabetes and use keywords and hashtags such as #T1, #Type1, or #T1D can connect with other people in this community to share tips, struggles, and relatable experiences.

If healthcare brands cater to a specific niche of people (Examples: Chronic Illness, Diabetes, PCOS, ect) then they can do keyword research on TikTok and find out more about what these communities are talking about, what trends they are paying attention to, and what topics they are interested in. This not only helps to inform the content strategy but can also serve as a place for community research for advertising, website copy, and other marketing and product development purposes.

Example videos for healthcare companies

There are several angles a healthcare company can take to posting on TikTok, so here are a few examples to visualize what your brand may align with.

Heartwarming content

The healthcare industry can be a bit of a scary place, but if you can be a light in the dark that is a great corner of the internet to sit in! People love to see people win, hero stories, etc. and sharing those stories in an exciting way is a great way to gain views and brand awareness. For example, MDLawrenceWerlin used their fertility clinic’s fun way of announcing patients’ pregnancy results to share wins and provide encouragement for those struggling with fertility. This provided a great way to approach a hard subject with lightheartedness and positivity. 

Education with a twist

Like we said, a simple educational video is not going to gain the views and engagement you are looking for, no matter how interesting the topic is. TikTok, and most platforms for that matter, is saturated with educational content, so you have to put your own spin on it. Medicine Explained does exactly that while also remaining completely faceless. Instead of just sitting in front of the camera and talking about subjects like “Can I swim on my period?”, this account uses a visual + voiceover format to tell a story while they talk on the subject.

Work culture related

A large part of TikTok culture is humanizing a brand and creating content that is relatable to a group of people. This is why behind-the-scenes content of work culture and skits/memes relating to the experience of a workplace do very well. For example, @Nurse.John has created an entire platform by portraying funny skits about the crazy experiences of being a nurse.

However, this doesn’t have to be approached with skits. This can also be done through short, meme-like content using trending sounds. For example, this video by Children’s Hospital New Orleans shows a funny work-related experience in a bite-sized video using a trending sound. Trending sounds are not just for “the kids” and are in fact a tool that healthcare companies can use to connect with their audience.

How to leverage trends and TikTok culture

Though trending sounds may seem intimidating for brands to use, particularly brands that have traditionally had very restricted messaging, they can be an easy-to-use tool to reach new audiences and communicate brand personality in a unique way. Trending sounds can be done through lip-syncs, popular dances, or even “mini skits”. The key to using them well is understanding the joke or purpose behind the trend and then spinning it in a way that is applicable to the brand.

Here is an example from Nationwide Children’s Hospital of how this can be done well. This trend includes a specific song and the creator making a sort of this or that game on the screen. These types of gamification trends are a prime opportunity to create engagement with the audience and explore new ways to convey information. They have used this trend to create a fun, educational video on when to go to urgent care vs. the emergency room. This is not only helpful and vital information, but they also delivered it in a way that was native to the platform, fun to watch, and they did the trend correctly (which is arguably the most important!).

How to use TikTok for cross-promotion

Short-form video does not and should not solely be used for TikTok. Especially if you are already creating content, brands should leverage their content on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. The audiences on these platforms tend to be different from one another, so we recommend tracking the content that does best on each and delegating your content accordingly. Be sure to pay attention to platform culture and content length restrictions when delegating to get the most out of your content. For more information on cross-platform promotion, check out this blog post!

Short-form video platforms, specifically TikTok, can be the answer to the restrictions that the healthcare industry has traditionally had with other marketing mediums. Though there will always be advertising limitations, the culture of TikTok gives brands the flexibility to be a bit less sterile and have a bit more fun.

The post How Your Doctor is Leveraging TikTok Healthcare Marketing appeared first on NoGood™: Growth Marketing Agency.

From large medical facilities to nonprofit organizations, healthcare brands across the board create and distribute campaigns using a variety of channels, including social media, blogs, videos, and interactive websites, to amplify their message and drive engagement. Beyond promotion, these campaigns are all about connecting, building community, and providing valuable resources and support to people and caregivers navigating healthcare.

In this blog, we highlight nine remarkable healthcare marketing campaigns that exemplify effective storytelling, community building, and innovative approaches. Each of these campaigns tells a unique story and highlights the different ways healthcare organizations are using marketing as a catalyst to make a real difference. By engaging with these campaigns, we gain invaluable insights, learn from their strategies, and apply these lessons to shape the future of healthcare marketing.

Best Healthcare Marketing Campaigns to Learn From

1. ”Compass” – Spring Health Providers

Who Is Spring Health?

Spring Health is a New York-based B2B behavioral health organization with a mission centered around eliminating barriers to mental health. They focus on making mental healthcare accessible and achievable by leveraging clinically validated AI technology.

Campaign Overview

They partnered with us to attract highly qualified mental health providers who align with the Spring Health mission. Their goal was to ensure a steady influx of skilled professionals to meet the growing demand for mental health services.

Impact and Community Engagement

To achieve this, we applied tailored marketing recruitment tactics and refined their digital marketing efforts to attract providers who met the criteria. Campaign efforts resulted in a staggering 113% increase in provider-qualified leads and a 58% increase in official hires.

What We Can Learn

Data can help identify optimal advertising spaces for your particular target audience to achieve a lower CAC.

The strategy behind this success was strategically placing ads on platforms where the target audience is most active per industry of partner companies. We leveraged data analytics to identify prime advertising spaces based on user behavior, demographics, and online habits.

2. “Concerned About Taking Opioids?” – Non-Opioid EXPAREL

Who Is EXPAREL?

EXPAREL is a subsidiary of Pacira Biosciences. EXPAREL is a cutting-edge, long-acting non-opioid anesthetic that effectively manages postsurgical pain. Since its introduction in 2012, over 9 million patients have received EXPAREL as a safe and effective alternative to opioids.

Campaign Overview

They partnered with us to stand out amidst rising competition and bring awareness to non-opioid treatment options and alternatives. Their goal was to increase high-quality traffic that converts to leads.

To achieve this, we defined audience targeting and user engagement journies. We conducted website analysis and stakeholder interviews to better understand processes, needs, and opportunities. We also guided UX, content, and SEO efforts and made strategic, performance-based recommendations based on data to drive more engagement and leads.

Impact and Community Engagement

The campaign resulted in 307% more HCPs connected directly with EXPAREL to integrate into their practice, a 106% increase in direct traffic, and a 46% increase in organic sessions.

What We Can Learn

Benefit-driven ad creative can be effective when trying to educate and resonate with patients and providers.

While executing the display advertising strategy, we found that certain ad creatives performed particularly well. These creatives were designed to effectively communicate the benefits of EXPAREL as a non-opioid pain management solution and resonated with our target audience of healthcare providers and patients.

3. “Connect to What Matters Most” – Zepp Clarity

Who Is Zepp Clarity?

Zepp Clarity, a division of Zepp Health, is a global smart wearable health technology brand. Zepp Clarity focuses on empowering health, fitness, & well-being with hearing technology. They partnered with us to break into the U.S. market and increase user purchases of their flagship product, Zepp Clarity One.

Campaign Overview

To achieve this, we implemented a persona-specific acquisition strategy, conducted CRO and UI/UX improvements for the website, and developed a new digital marketing funnel that leverages a cross-channel marketing mix.

Impact and Community Engagement

As a result of this campaign, we achieved a 766% QoQ increase in Zepp Clarity One purchases, 67% QoQ decrease in cost per lead, and a 193% QoQ increase in ROAS.

What We Can Learn

An omnichannel approach can enable you to reach multiple segmented customer personas.

We learned that by seamlessly integrating with Zepp Clarity’s internal marketing team, we were able to build on and evolve the company’s strategy across various channels, including paid search, social, and display, which allowed us to reach multiple segmented personas based on demographic and interest-based characteristics.

4. “Patient Stories” – New York-Presbyterian Hospital

Who Is New York-Presbyterian Hospital?

New York-Presbyterian Hospital is one of the largest and most prestigious healthcare facilities in the United States. It’s known for providing exceptional health care to its communities by offering specialized medical services, conducting research, prioritizing individual patient care, and introducing technological innovations.

Campaign Overview

The “Patient Stories” campaign effectively captured the essence of the hospital’s compassionate and patient-centered approach. By showcasing real-life stories and experiences of patients who received care at the hospital, the campaign achieved its goal of sparking an emotional connection in its audience and highlighting the hospital’s commitment to providing exceptional healthcare services.

Impact and Community Engagement

The campaign fostered trust between consumers and New York Presbyterian Hospital. The heartfelt stories shared in the campaign made consumers feel that they would receive high-quality treatment from doctors who cared. The campaign solidified New York Presbyterian Hospital as a top choice for medical care in New York.

What We Can Learn

Sharing personal narratives can inspire hope, raise awareness, and highlight positive impact.

By presenting these personal narratives, the campaign achieved its goal of inspiring hope, raising awareness of the hospital’s services, and highlighting the positive impact New York-Presbyterian Hospital has on patients’ lives.

The campaign was praised and successful, likely because of the personal stories and emotional connections it sparked in viewers. At the core of the campaign was attention to and compassion for the patient experience, which came off very clearly.

5. “Sharing Mayo Clinic Blog” – Mayo Clinic

Who is Mayo Clinic?

​Mayo Clinic is a world-renowned, nonprofit medical institution known for excellence in patient care, groundbreaking research, and education, making it a leader in providing comprehensive healthcare services.

Campaign Overview

The Mayo Clinic’s “Sharing Mayo Clinic Blog” is an online platform where patients, caregivers and medical professionals can share their personal stories, experiences and insights related to health and wellness. The blog allows individuals to share first-hand accounts of their journey, medical breakthroughs and the impact of Mayo Clinic’s services, fostering a sense of community and providing a unique perspective on the human side of healthcare.

Impact and Community Outreach

The “Sharing Mayo Clinic Blog” has become a valuable resource, providing inspiration and education to readers while supporting Mayo Clinic’s mission to advance medical knowledge and improve patient care.

The response to the blog has been overwhelmingly positive, gaining a loyal following and becoming a valuable resource for patients, caregivers, and medical professionals alike.

What We Can Learn

Personal stories are inspiring, informative, and relatable and can create a greater sense of community.

Readers appreciate personal stories and find them inspiring, informative, and relatable. The content of the “Sharing Mayo Clinic Blog” has resonated with its audience and fostered a greater sense of community and understanding. It has become a platform for open dialogue, support, and connection among people in the healthcare community.

6. “#YESMAMM”- (Carilion Clinic)

Who Is Carilion Clinic?

Carilion Clinic is a leading healthcare facility known for its comprehensive medical services, advanced treatments and commitment to population health. Carilion Clinic in Virginia is a trusted provider known for its commitment to patient care and innovative research.

Campaign Overview

Carilion Clinic’s “#YESMAMM” campaign was a breast cancer awareness initiative aimed to encourage prioritizing mammograms and emphasize the importance of early detection to women of all age groups. The hashtag is a play on words prompting women to say ‘Yes, Ma’am’ to their mammograms, with “Maam” also being an abbreviation for “mammogram.” To show their support for the cause, social media users were encouraged to change their profile pictures and use the hashtag during the month of October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Impact and Community Outreach

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were flooded with statements of support and stories from the community directing interested individuals to the Carilion Clinic’s dedicated landing page.

What Can We Learn

User-generated material can increase engagement while also expanding access to necessary medical information to all communities.

This user-generated material increased engagement by making it easier for women to access important information, find clinics near them, and schedule appointments. The lives of many women, even ten years after the campaign’s launch, is a great testament to the campaign’s continued effectiveness and positive impact.

7. “We Dare You” – UnitedHealthcare

Who Is UnitedHealthcare?

UnitedHealthcare is a well-known health insurance company in the United States. Part of the larger UnitedHealth Group, it offers a wide range of health insurance plans and services and strives to improve access to quality health care and promote the health and well-being of individuals, families, and businesses.

Campaign Overview

UnitedHealthcare’s ‘We Dare You’ campaign targeted individuals who wanted to improve their health and well-being. The campaign was designed to encourage people to take on small, actionable challenges to make positive changes in their lifestyle and overall well-being. The We Dare You campaign was designed as a fun and interactive initiative that challenged participants to complete daily health-related tasks, such as drinking more water, getting enough sleep, or incorporating exercise into their daily routines. By presenting these tasks in an accessible and engaging way, the campaign aimed to inspire people to adopt healthier habits and make a positive change.

Impact and Community Outreach

The campaign received much recognition and accolades, including three Communicator Awards, two Hermes Awards, two Healthcare Advertising Awards, and an Aster Award. With more than 3,000 photos submitted by participants, the campaign’s success underscores the positive response and impact it had on inspiring and motivating people to adopt healthier habits.

What We Can Learn

Successful healthcare campaigns can aim to inspire people to adopt healthier habits and make a positive change for themselves.

The act of creating a movement for people to better themselves builds a sense of community around your campaign and leaves a lasting impact on the communities you serve.

Encouraging people to live better lives and giving them the tools they need to get there helps foster trust between consumers and their providers.

8. “Inside Women’s Healthcare Org” – Tia

Who is Tia?

Tia, a women’s healthcare organization, recently launched its first influencer marketing campaign to showcase its unique approach to patient care. Unlike traditional doctor’s offices, Tia’s clinics are designed with social media in mind, boasting aesthetically pleasing waiting and exam rooms adorned with houseplants, feminist literature, and geometric prints.

Campain Overview

In collaboration with seven influencers, the campaign aimed to promote Tia’s newly opened Soho office and increase awareness about the company’s mission and growth. Several influencers were existing Tia members, ensuring authenticity in their content creation. Paid promotion was strategically employed to amplify the best-performing influencer posts.

TikTok and Instagram served as the primary platforms for the campaign, with potential plans to explore YouTube and Pinterest for future influencer content. Tia’s team also featured some members in an Out-of-Home (OOH) campaign alongside the influencer efforts.

Impact and Community Outreach

By tapping into micro- and nano-influencers, Tia successfully resonated with its target audience and witnessed positive results on social media. While exact metrics on membership growth and brand awareness are yet to be revealed, the campaign is already proving to be one of the most successful pieces of content in Tia’s social media portfolio.

What We Can Learn

An innovative influencer marketing strategy can effectively leverage the power of social media to create buzz.

As the campaign’s momentum grows, the company expects to allocate more of its marketing budget to influencer collaborations. With its innovative influencer marketing strategy, Tia is successfully leveraging the power of social media to create a buzz around women’s healthcare and redefine the patient experience in the digital age.

9. “Sick Cities” – One Medical

Who Is One Medical?

One Medical is a San Fransisco based healthcare company now owned by Amazon. The healthcare clinic aims to provide exceptional healthcare for less. Offering memberships at affordable prices for those without insurance.

Campaign Overview

One Medical launched a compelling contextual ad campaign titled ‘Sick Cities’ to highlight the ease of falling ill during the cooler season amidst increased viral activity and slippery pavements due to rain. The campaign aims to shed light on the challenges people face in accessing healthcare promptly, as the average wait time to see a doctor is a staggering 24.1 days.

Partnering with Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P) for the first time, One Medical created over 130 unique advertisements targeting locations notorious for spreading illnesses, such as Times Square and LA’s Sunset Strip. Each ad showcases relatable daily interactions that can easily contribute to the spread of germs.

As part of its expansion plans, One Medical has introduced the ‘Sick Cities’ campaign and undergone a complete brand-identity system redesign. The company collaborated with San Francisco design agency Moniker to develop the campaign’s photography to align with their growth within existing markets and new geographies and incorporate new service offerings in pediatrics and mental health.

Impact and Community Outreach

The campaign led to more visibility and community engagement for One Medical and helped position them as a reliable healthcare provider that consumers can trust to consistently deliver quality care.

What We Can Learn

Leverage the power of context and relatable experiences.

The campaign’s reach will extend to online platforms, where social and digital advertisements respond to people’s sickness- and injury-related searches. By leveraging the power of context and relatable experiences, One Medical aims to emphasize the importance of their improved doctor’s office experiences and make healthcare easily accessible for those in need. As they continue expanding their services and number of offices, the ‘Sick Cities’ campaign is pivotal in creating awareness and enhancing the overall healthcare experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

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