Due to recent events, patients have a renewed focus on health and wellness. They are demanding better services to improve the quality of their lives, and as a result, healthcare facilities are taking their brand up a notch to compete in the many healthcare markets. Read on to discover the top healthcare marketing trends of 2020.
In the digital era, people have access to an unlimited amount of information right at their fingertips to make informed healthcare decisions. Healthcare marketing techniques are quickly evolving to adapt to this consumer behavior.
These are healthcare marketing trends that you need to adopt before the year is over:
Content marketing
When people get sick, they turn to the internet to see what’s wrong. The first thing they do is search their symptoms and find a possible diagnosis, which most often leads to a visit to the doctor’s office. If you want those patients to find you right away, then you must create helpful, high-quality content that answers their medical questions.
There are numerous ways you can create SEO-friendly healthcare content, including:
Each form has its own benefits and levels of engagement. While you may only want to utilize one or two content formats, it’s important to mix it up frequently to keep your audience engaged. Some of your audience may enjoy your newsletters, whereas others may only consume your content through videos.
Zero-click search
No click or zero-click searches are a search engine result page (SERP) that displays featured snippets so that users do not need to click through to a website. For example, when you search “sinusitis symptoms,” several relevant answers will show up, allowing the user to get the information they need without ever having to leave the Google search platform.
Before trying to compete for the top, zero-click spot on Google, think of how you can improve your overall digital marketing strategy. Here are some small steps that can create a big impact and help you work your way to the zero-click spot:
- Make your website as user-friendly and accessible as possible on desktop and mobile devices.
- Be intentional with your content by focusing on keywords and topics that matter to your audience.
- Always be consistent with your messaging so that your standard of care is clear both online and offline.
- Try new things to diversify your marketing efforts to ensure that you reach patients along their decision-making journey.
Focus on local SEO
Local SEO refers to the process of ‘optimizing’ your online presence to attract more business from local searches. These searches can take place on Google and other search engines. Search engines rely on signals, such as local content, social profile pages, links, and citations to provide the most relevant local results to the user.
When someone is interested in finding a doctor nearby, they generally enter search keywords like “sports medicine doctor near me,” which then provides the user with relevant information, such as physicians that specialize in sports medicine in their exact location.
It is critical to create a well-rounded local SEO strategy to dominate local search for your keywords and help you outperform your competitors.
Social media is key
Social media is an essential piece of your business marketing strategy. Not only does it allow physicians to connect with their patients, but more importantly, it offers them opportunities to educate patients, provide better service, improve scheduling, and increase loyalty.
Patients are turning to social media to find recommendations to providers and do research prior to scheduling an appointment. Your social media presence needs to start with investing in the right platform that fits your practice. While one healthcare practice may thrive on Instagram, another might not. This circles back to our first marketing trend: content creation. The better the content you have on your social media platforms, the more engagement and audience you will see since people want to digest unique content.
Here are some tips when building your social media marketing strategy:
- Be authentic
- Leverage video
- Go behind the scenes to show your audience more
- Put time and effort into the content you put out
- Follow the 80/20 rule (80% focus on providing real health-related content, 20% focus on the call to action button)
- Be social and collaborate with your audience
Contact us
To learn more about healthcare marketing strategies, follow LEVO Health’s Insight blog. Interested in hiring a professional marketing team to help grow your practice? Contact the healthcare marketing experts at LEVO Health today by calling (855) 234-0232 or visiting our contact page online.
