Digital marketing for healthcare has quickly moved from a “nice to have” to a “must have.” Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, people were increasingly looking online for their medical needs.
Since the pandemic, connecting with patients online has become even more critical. People are very accustomed to searching the internet for anything and everything they want to know, buy, or book, making digital marketing for healthcare a key growth strategy. An incredible 97% of consumers turn to the internet for researching products and services.
More and more people are going online to research physicians, ailments, and treatment options. And it’s not just young people turning to Doctor Google. The Baby Boomer generation is also medically techy, with 57% researching health and wellness information online for either themselves or a loved one.
No matter what subset of the healthcare industry your business is in, you have to meet your patients where they are – and that is online. There are three main ways patients are digitally researching their healthcare needs:
Implementing a digital marketing strategy that uses these avenues can help healthcare organizations reach prospective patients at each phase of their decision process, from interest to booking.
There is a lot more to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) than most people realize. While SEO used to involve simply including some key words in your web copy, it has evolved and grown into a strategic, multifaceted, and technically advanced digital marketing strategy. Adding keywords to your web copy is only one small part of SEO.
Today, an effective SEO strategy must include title tags, alt tags, meta descriptions, internal linking strategy, external linking strategy, Google Business Profile optimization, page layout optimization, business listings, and more.
In order to run marketing campaigns that drive long-term value for our clients, we must also understand and amplify what makes their brand and products different. To do this, we enable multiple tracking programs that track the full life-cycle of a customer, from click to sale.
This data allows our team and our clients to better understand their customers and their habits. Then, we turn that data into actionable insights to create powerful strategies and campaign adjustments that improve marketing performance and sales.
Website Tracking & Analytics
The standard website analytics programs like Google Analytics track all visits and visitors on your website. You’ll know where they come from, how they arrived at your website, which pages they visited, which cities they live in, and which products/services they are interested in. Additionally, through website analytics, we are able to track how many users interacted with your online forms and online chat features, and we know which marketing campaigns delivered those users.
Heat Map Tracking
This takes standard website analytics a step further, as it records how each user actually interacts with and uses your website. You can watch the recorded session and actually see a user scroll your content, click on links, and move through your conversion steps.
Phone Call Tracking & Call Recording
This is the big criticism of digital marketing – traditional conversions only track and record when a product is purchased online or a form is submitted through the website. Today, cost-effective phone tracking lets you know how many phone calls were generated from website visitors and which marketing campaigns delivered those visitors to your website. Furthermore, it’ll also record the calls and you can listen to how your sales and customer service interacts with potential new customers. This is vital, game-changing information in today’s market!
A solid digital marketing strategy for any company starts and ends with search. Why? Because when people go to either Google or Bing to search for something, they have what we call “high intent.” They aren’t passively scrolling through social media; they are actively looking for something they want, whether that be information, a product, or a service.
When potential patients are looking for your services, you need to be there to meet them. Furthermore, you need to show up on the first page because 75% of people will only look at the first page of search results. Paid search ads are the only way to guarantee your business shows up on the first page.
And there are more benefits to running ads on Google and/or Bing. With paid search ads, you get to choose the keywords and phrases you show up for. This ensures every lead is a qualified lead. Also, you only pay when people click on the ad, that’s why they’re called Pay Per Click Ads (PPC).
With Soud Marketing’s paid search ads, you get:
While paid ads are the top choice for top placement, organic search results still matter. A strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy will help your website rank higher in organic search results for the keywords and phrases that matter most to your business.
SEO is especially important for healthcare organizations because patients are often researching ailments and treatment options before they start looking for providers. You want your site to be a trusted source of information for people who are looking to educate themselves on topics that fall within your service capabilities.
If you are a local business, optimizing your local SEO is a must. Local SEO strategies work to get your business to show up in Google’s local 3-pack when someone searches for your line of work. The local 3-pack is the list of three businesses that appear right under the map when people search for businesses in a particular area or “near me.” There are several elements that determine which businesses show up in the local 3-pack, including the business listing, photos, and reviews. An effective local SEO strategy must address them all.
With Soud Marketing’s SEO service, you get:
Healthcare groups tend to use social media less than other industries, but social media plays an increasingly important role for patients. In the U.S., eight out of 10 internet users look up health information online, and 74% of them use social media.
An effective social media strategy involves much more than just throwing up an occasional post and hoping it goes viral. Organizations must provide genuinely useful and informative content that can catch patient’s attention at a variety of points in their shopping cycle, from researching health issues and looking up local providers to deciding when/where to book an appointment.
These days, an effective social media marketing strategy must include social media ads. The algorithms on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media channels continue to change and gaining traction organically is getting harder and harder. Social media ads provide a guaranteed way to get specific posts in front of specific groups of people.
Social media channels provide excellent targeting capabilities, allowing us to get the right message in front of the right audience at the right time. You can target based on demographics like age and location, as well as interests and behaviors. Social media ads are an excellent way to find new patients (discovery) as well as retarget individuals who have shown an interest in either your services or your competitors (nurture).
With Social Media Marketing, we provide an array of strategies and tactics that reach across a variety of social channels, including:
In our very digital world, online reviews now play a critical role for businesses. In fact, 42% of internet users say reviews are one of the most important things that impact their decision about a company or product. And healthcare organizations are in the top three industries where consumers are most likely to read reviews.
Proactively asking for and managing online reviews can have a positive impact to leads and business generated online. Good reviews don’t just strengthen your online presence, they also create powerful and persuasive messages as happy patients do your bragging for you.
Soud Marketing can help you:
We were tasked with improving the ROI from paid search campaigns for the properties in the Midwest section of the country, including: Marriott Hotels, JW Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott & SpringHill Suites and Fairfield Inn & Suites.
Learn How We Did ItWe want to be clear on one thing – we are not a large, full-service agency. We are a micro agency that is both intellectually and financially focused on digital ad campaigns and the components that make them more successful (content and SEO). This is by design and we work hard to keep it that way.
We strongly believe the full-service agency era is coming to an end. The world of marketing has gotten too complex for them to be effective and they simply do not have the time, budget, or know-how to build and manage effective ad campaigns.
As a micro agency, we stay in our lane, and that lane is digital advertising. Digital is what we know and all we do. This allows us to dedicate more time getting to know you, your business, and how your goals can best be achieved in the digital world.
As a small team, we are able to become a true extension of your team.
YOU'LL LOVE WORKING WITH US
We work month-to-month with all clients. You’re welcome to leave anytime you are not fully satisfied. You are in full control.
It's easy to understand and scale, plus you pay less. No bloated “packages” filled with other services you do not need.
You pay Google and Facebook with your own credit card and are able to see exactly how much was spent on traffic.
You pay after ads and campaigns go live. We set up campaigns free of charge. Ads go live only with your final approval.
You are free to increase or decrease your ad budget as much as you want with no consequences.
Any and all advanced tracking services are deployed at cost with no agency markup. Not fully satisfied? You can cancel at any time.
We have a long-standing partnership with Google & Facebook for both ads and analytics. Plus, we have access to enhanced support on both platforms that others do not.
We believe fresh content is the recipe for success. Our team continually presents fresh ideas for ad creative and website content to strengthen campaigns and build brand.
We’d love to meet you and learn about your business and marketing goals, as well as answer any questions you may have regarding digital marketing or our agency.
Plus, we’ll give you a free assessment of your business’s digital presence.
