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It is no longer news that healthcare is totally transformed with technologies that are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Nowhere is this more visible than in the changing trends of marketing in the healthcare niche. For those who are very interested in and keen on making growth the priority for their healthcare businesses, these trends should be closely watched. In this piece, we will be taking a much deeper look at the constantly-evolving healthcare marketing trends.
Analysts focused on the healthcare sector in the United States have been noticing a steady rise in the spending on marketing strategies from year to year [Source]. These trends are in different areas of the healthcare industry but they seem to be most prominent in areas relating to spiking patient awareness and interactions. There is also a considerable rise in the precise marketing of health-related content.
These trends are coming up in different ways, they comprise of visible changes in content type on social media platforms, the wide acceptance of tech integration and even the inclusion of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The following sections are going to focus clearly on these trends and also exactly how they are having an impact on the sector
1. Promotion of Healthcare Content
Gone are the days where healthcare related content is just dumped on the Internet and the owners hope people will stumble upon them. Today, there are active and conscious efforts to ensure that healthcare content is promoted properly and there are numerous good reasons for this. One is that healthcare content online is very popular and it is not a surprise that most patients are always online hunting for details and information relevant to their conditions.
In ensuring success with the marketing and promotion of healthcare content, it is important that you become really creative and imagine what a typical patient is most likely to search for. It is based on this that the whole marketing campaign will be focused on.
Patients usually care about knowing what exactly is wrong with them after noticing some signs and symptoms. But that is not all, they also care deeply about where they can get excellent medical care and attention and they are very picky about this – they usually want the very best and most experienced doctors and healthcare providers to attend to them. Once they are able to find a reputable medical professional, the next line of action is usually trying to get an appointment in the shortest time possible.
Therefore, any healthcare content marketing campaign must take these fundamental queries into consideration in order to record any significant and tangible. You must be able to visualize what is going on in the minds of the patients and then develop content that will address their needs. There are several ways this goal can be achieved.
First is that the content that will be presented on the website should be based on the questions that patients typically ask during actual physical visits and appointments. That way, when they are searching for answers using the search engines, the content will make a lot of sense to them by flowing better and naturally. Here is a great example from an article titled “The Average Cost of Healthcare Insurance“. Implementing very informative and catchy landing pages is another strategy that can be used to get good results. You can use a landing page builder such as instpage.com or opt to hire a healthcare marketing agency.
2. Evolution of Smartphones
Mobile Phones: Today, there are billions of people across the globe that will surely go crazy if they spend ten minutes without their smartphones. In this era, you will rarely see anyone without a smartphone. And it is because technology companies and medical professionals are so smart and intelligent that they have decided to make the smartphone an integral part of the changing trends in the healthcare sector.
Patients can now get considerable access to all kinds of healthcare services and medical attention simply by pressing a few buttons on their phones. Apart from using these electronic gadgets to communicate with their doctors, nurses and other caregivers, patients also now have countless beneficial medical and health software apps (applications) on their devices.
With searches for medical details and information now made very easy with the use of smartphones, many people now prefer to get across to their medical doctors and caregivers directly via the same electronic gadgets. This is a trend that is on an upward spiral of late relating to this type of communication between the patients and the health professionals. From all indications, this is one powerful trend that is bound to continue with its meteoric rise.
3. Increasing Focus on Millennial’s
Millennial’s definitely mean different things to different people but what is for certain is that the healthcare industry is placing increasing focus on them. As a result of the fact that millennial’s are far more health-conscious due to exposure and will need to build their own families because of their age, they form the core of the target by healthcare companies.
[Influencer marketing for healthcare companies]
4. Search Engine Optimization
Another trend that has been very prominent in healthcare marketing has to do with search engine optimization. Yes, the digital world is experiencing this shift big time. For those who may not be aware, search engine optimization is extremely important to the healthcare industry. When you realize the fact that almost 90% of people directly rush to the Internet and bombard the search engine whenever they want to get information on a specific medical condition. This explains why ranking highly on search engines like Google is a major goal for those in the healthcare sector.
The ways in which healthcare companies and firms rank today on the various search engines have emerged a major trend. Some decide to go for the Local Pack system while some others choose the local search engine optimization system. The choice to go for depends on where the target audience of the healthcare venture. For the former, it is very good in cases where the healthcare business wants to focus mainly on users of mobile gadgets like smartphones. In order to rank well using Local Pack, the business will have to have a detailed profile that explains the business and contains information on operating hours, contact details and even feedbacks left by other customers.
For the local search engine optimization, the first and one of the most important steps is for the business to perform very well on all the search engines available. However, before this can be possible, there are certain adjustments that must be made on the website itself. For example, the speed, responsiveness, and security of the website must be top-notch in all ways.
In addition to this, the content should be presented in the most gadget-friendly way possible. Then it is also important that the appropriate keywords relating to the healthcare sector are used. This is very crucial as far success with SEO is concerned. For those who cannot do this on their own probably due to lack of skills, there are countless experts in SEO and digital marketing who are always ready to help out in optimizing the websites for very reasonable fees.
5. Videos
Related Post: 12 Healthcare Marketing Strategies
Still, on how to rank properly on SEO parameters, videos are another major trend that healthcare companies are paying very close attention to. The reason for this is very glaring and that is because videos are extremely useful when it comes to ranking highly in online searches. Even as it is now in the United States, a vast majority of online traffic is directly linked to videos. That explains why YouTube is one of the top three websites on the planet in terms of organic traffic.
Videos have emerged a major trend as far as healthcare marketing is concerned. It is easy to gain the attention of the audience and have massive engagement with potential clients by using really interesting videos. People will always prefer to watch amazing videos than settle down and read content and there are stats that prove this preference on the part of the users.
A principal trend that has now emerged among healthcare marketing companies is video marketing. Apart from easily getting the attention of the prospective customers, videos are also very good at passing useful information to the audience in a very lovely and presentable format. In a world where many have very short attention spans, it is very reasonable to make use of videos in healthcare marketing.
But not all videos will give the same results, the best types of videos are those that contain validating information from the patients who have satisfactorily enjoyed the services of the healthcare company. Videos assist in consolidating the relationship between healthcare providers and prospective patients.
6. Links from Authoritative Sources
Another step that can be taken in improving the SEO ranking of a platform is to ensure that highly-respected healthcare portals link up to your website. Once you are established and appreciated as an authority in the healthcare niche, you will notice a direct positive impact in all the parameters.
It must, however, be stated that to record impressive success with SEO trends, it is important the targeting of the right section of the population is done. For example, if you are into geriatric care, then your SEO efforts should be directed towards the older citizens of the country. If you are a gynecologist or obstetrician, then your SEO should be targeting primarily women of reproductive age. In addition to focusing on the right demographics, the location is also important. The easier it is for people to locate the nearest medical center or health facility to them, the easier it is for your venture to trend properly on search engines.
7. Social Media Promotion
With billions of people now on various social media platforms, it surely makes a lot of sense to see many healthcare marketing trends generating results are based on social media. In fact, one of the hottest healthcare marketing trends is intimately linked with social media platforms. Countless healthcare enterprises now maintain a very solid presence on social media with their own followers and fans getting good details and relevant and helpful medical information directly from these social media platforms. There is no doubt that social media platforms greatly influence the type of healthcare provider that patients eventually settle for.
[Healthcare social media marketing]
8. Patient-Centered Approach
Unlike what was considered conventional and typical before the advent of the Internet, technology has totally liberalized the space of healthcare business. One of the resultant trends with this is that medical ventures are now focused primarily on giving the patients the best experience possible. The rise in competition among different healthcare enterprises also means there is no other choice but to exert the greatest amount of efforts on giving the patients superb experience.
9. Evolution of Big Data
Related Post: Healthcare Advertising Agency: 10 Things to Look for Before Hiring
It is very apparent now that big data is what drives the entire healthcare industry. And because more data is generated every second, there is the need to get more hands to assist with the analysis of this never-ending stream of data. With millions of patients’ files to handle, it is understandable why handling big data is one of the most prominent trends seen in the healthcare sector.
10. Incorporation of Electronic Formats for Patients
Gone are the days when information was presented to patients using old dusty files. Today, patients expect that information be presented to them using the latest in electronic and digital displays. Not only that, other aspects of healthcare services like booking appointments, making payments, tracking treatment progress and even getting prescriptions should be done in digital ways. Apart from being quick and efficient, electronic formats make life a lot easier for not just the patients but even the healthcare service providers too. Today, it is not uncommon to see the results of laboratory tests analyzed, transmitted and compared all using the latest in electronic display technologies. There are also more portable electronic gadgets available today for patients to monitor their vital statistics and quickly reach out to their doctors or nurses if need be.
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