Hospitals & Clinics
Hospital Marketing Services
Do you oversee the marketing strategies of your hospital? If you do, you know that hospital marketing isn’t static; it is ever-changing and evolving. You know that your marketing plan doesn’t solely focus on the services you provide. In reality, marketing plans for hospitals need to show the width and breadth of all that you do and show a personable and human side. In order to do that, you must be able to think creatively and out of the box.
That is often easier said than done.
The hospital services market is highly crowded, and it can be challenging to reach a broader audience that is in need of care and services. In order to stand apart from the competition, you need to have an excellent working knowledge of digital marketing, knowing your target audience and which marketing strategies will help you reach your goals and be within budget.
This page will help you understand the benefits of digital marketing for hospitals and the different types of marketing you can utilize. Additionally, you will learn why using an external hospital marketing firm such as MGMT Digital can be of tremendous benefit to the growth of your brand.
02Benefits of Utilizing Digital Marketing for Your Hospital Services
Hospital marketing management is an absolute necessity in this day and age. Each day, more and more people are turning to the internet in their search for medical services. Data from Google shows that 5 percent of all searches worldwide are health-related. In the United States, 72 percent of people have looked online for medical information, and 1 in 3 adults use the internet as a diagnostic tool. With these statistics in mind, it is clear that your hospital must have sound digital marketing strategies in place.
The benefits of utilizing digital marketing services for your hospital services can be game-changing and can take you to the next level. The following are some of the major benefits of digital hospital marketing:
Increased Ability to Find and Retain Patients
Given that an increasing number of people are doing Google and Bing searches to find medical services, it is important that your hospital lands on that coveted first page on search engines. Having a solid and dynamic hospital marketing strategy gives you the chance to rise above the competition and get on that first page. With the addition of an eye-catching website that is easily navigated and a customer portal, people can get the information they need to make the best-informed healthcare choices for themselves and their loved ones.
Immediacy
People don’t want to just get information on medical conditions and services; they want to get a personable and human side to your facility. Comprehensive hospital marketing strategies often include tools such as click-to-call, which allows people to click a button to place a phone call or text. This allows both prospective and existing patients to contact and interact with you, which enhances their overall experience.
An Improved Patient Experience
Digital marketing for hospitals makes it much easier for patients to get the pertinent information and expert and compassionate support they need. As stated earlier, a website that is well-designed and easy to navigate allows people to easily access what they need. As a result, you are more likely to receive more positive reviews and patient testimonials for your hospital. This greatly benefits your facility because it brings increased traffic and contact with prospective clients who are in need of medical services.
Dynamic and Data-Driven
A tremendous benefit of digital hospital marketing is that you are able to get specific data regarding foot traffic to your site. This data is valuable in showing you which marketing strategies are working for you and which strategies need to be refined or dropped due to poor performance. You will see trends in real-time and are able to further customize your healthcare marketing plan to reflect those changes.
Reduces Per Patient Acquisition Costs
You are well aware that the process of acquiring patients to your facility comes at a cost. The cost of finding patients and having them come to your hospital can run into hundreds of dollars per patient. Digital hospital marketing significantly reduces those costs. In general, the cost of acquiring a patient can be cut in half when compared to utilizing traditional marketing strategies.
Marketing Strategies for Hospitals
There are many digital marketing strategies that you can use in order to grow your hospital and overall brand. The bread and butter of digital marketing is search engine optimization or SEO. Simply defined, SEO is the practice of increasing both the amount and quality of traffic to your website through organic means. The ways this is done is through the following:
- Designing a website that is eye-catching, easy to navigate, and contains pertinent information
- Backlinking to other reputable sites so you can have a more authoritative presence
- Local SEO focus to have maximum reach in your local or regional area
- Onsite optimization
Another important component of a comprehensive and dynamic marketing strategy for hospitals is content creation. You need to create content that is both informative and easily understood by your readers. The information you provide is crucial in giving both potential and existing clients the knowledge they need to motivate them to seek your facility’s services. Additionally, your hospital marketing strategy cannot ignore social media marketing to platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Other important facets of digital marketing that you need to take into consideration include the following:
- Lead generation
- Custom tracking and reporting
- Pay per click ads (PPC)
- Email marketing
- Videography services
While hospital marketing is king, there is still room to add traditional marketing tools to your arsenal. Television and print ads, radio spots, business cards, brochures, and tradeshow presentation design can be effective marketing tools for those situations where you are face-to-face with the public.
Why Utilize an External Hospital Marketing Management Company?
The marketing of hospital services is a full-time endeavor. The constant analysis and tweaking of your overall digital marketing plan can take up a lot of your time. While you may feel you can keep on top of your hospital marketing, your other vital obligations may suffer. If this is the case, bringing on an external hospital marketing management company is the right move.
The main reason to seek an external marketing firm is that their primary focus is to help grow your brand for the long term.
Another benefit of utilizing an external healthcare marketing agency is that they fully understand and observe the changing marketing trends in real-time. Therefore, they are able to create a solid and dynamic marketing plan to address those changes as they come. Professional healthcare marketing firms will be able to smoothly handle SEO duties by retooling your website structure, building backlinks, and creating engaging and readable content so you can focus on other aspects of your healthcare facility.
External healthcare marketing firms can also read and analyze your data and can make sound marketing decisions from that data. They will inform you which marketing strategies work, which methods need retooling, and they may introduce new and innovative marketing strategies to grow and help you retain your patient base. They also will build and manage your social media presence, create email marketing campaigns, and ensure your website is optimized for smartphones and tablets.
MGMT Digital: Your Full-Service Hospital Marketing Agency
Today could be the day that you make the decision to take your hospital marketing planning to the next level. The dedicated and experienced professionals at MGMT Digital have a proven track record in helping hospitals grow their business, brand, and reputation. Our number one goal is to help you succeed in the long run. If you are unsure of which digital marketing strategies to use, our team can create a customized marketing strategy that fits your needs and explain how each component will work and help you grow.
Give us a call today and set up an initial marketing consultation. Let MGMT Digital help you achieve measurable long-term success.