The continuous development of digital culture sets fundamentally new behaviors in all existing industries, including health. Large healthcare IT corporations create mobile services that allow managing health online; new search and evaluation systems for medical specialists are being introduced. In this article, we want to help the medical industry executives rethink how to attract customers, adapt the marketing strategy to the changes that dictate digital communications, and open up more new opportunities to increase the services provided.
What Marketing Techniques should Medical Organizations not use?
Several common advertising techniques cannot be used to promote medical services/products in many countries! Be sure to familiarize yourself with such bans in your own country before developing a marketing strategy.
- It is impossible to give guarantees that the product or service will definitely work. And also declare no side effects!
- It is forbidden to mention experts, stars, famous organizations, and even popular characters in advertising medicine. If the service is not specifically childish, it is forbidden to depict children or play a children’s voice.
- In many countries, the reference to successful patient experience examples is prohibited.
- The laws of many countries require that advertising does not create the impression that people should take advantage of the medical service. You cannot push people to self-diagnosis, to assume that the audience has a disease.
All these are the most popular standards that relate to advertising. Each country sets its own limits. When deciding whether to launch a campaign, be sure to read the relevant laws and consult with lawyers to avoid penalties.
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3 Main Points You Should Pay Attention to Developing an Online Marketing Strategy for Healthcare
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Ease of Navigating an Organization’s Website
In an era of advanced digital marketing, a poor-quality website can scare off a potential client, even if the clinic provides services at the highest level. Website usability is the convenience and ease of use by the user of the site.
In other words, usability is the ability of the site to be simple and attractive to visitors and improve the patient experience. It helps to keep visitors on the site and turn them into clients of the organization. The more intelligently the site at the stage of its creation is thought out, the greater the likelihood that customers will choose your site and not someone else. After all, if a visitor enters the site and cannot find the important information, whether it prices for services, a list of services, contacts, or other information, it is easy to find another site within a few seconds. And at another site, a patient will get all this very quickly and turn to exactly that clinic.
It is also vital to remember the multilingual site. Almost all sites have at least three languages, and you should also not forget about it. Moreover, you can use the services of professional translators. For example, The Word Point provides the translation of any texts on medical topics.
It is necessary to remember the very purpose of the website creation. There are three main objectives for creating a website:
- brand image enhancement;
- sales increase;
- providing information
Due to the main goal, it is necessary to develop consistent usability! All the same for the medical field, the first goal is not entirely appropriate!
The selling site is characterized by placing the necessary commercial information in the most prominent patient access. So that the visitor can quickly understand what the clinic specializes in and easily find the services provided there. It is important that the user also has access to prices for these services. It is believed that the site should be built in such a way that the visitor can find what he needs and order the service in three clicks!
2. Make Your Blog Informative
Build your blog in the right way! Today, many people first look for information about the disease on the Internet before visiting a doctor. After analyzing common requests, you can create a really high-quality information blog, which will contribute to the conversion of the site.
Plan your content. Use only relevant topics that directly relate to the activities of your company.
It is important to note that users are interested in learning as much about the disease and healthcare technology in simple language. Therefore, you should avoid short articles with incomprehensible terms for ordinary readers. The more meaningful and clearer you write, the more likely it is to win regular readers!
Let’s go back to the site navigation. Navigation greatly simplifies viewing topics by category of health. Readers can easily find a blog subscription, as well as the topic they need.
3. Social Networking as an Excellent Marketing Tool
If you think that since you are a medical organization, then social networks are clearly not for you, you are deeply mistaken! You are missing a great opportunity to build a relationship with your audience. Social networking will be a great tool for promotion if it is used properly. Social media presence extends patient coverage.
Social networks are quite popular today. More and more people prefer to go online via mobile devices. What prevents you from making your medical brand even closer to people through social networks?
Based on this, you can develop a whole marketing strategy. Also, it is a good way to inform customers about any innovations of their organization or promotional offers. After all, customers will not go to the site every day, but only when needed. But the information on social networks obviously will not go unnoticed!
It is also fertile ground for promotion among a young audience, most likely looking for information on the web. Therefore, it is worth investing in building an expert image for both individual specialists and whole clinics. Make content on social networks, which will increase the visibility of the clinic. People are happy to share on their pages interesting facts, infographics, and motivating jokes. Clear and creative content is a direct way to increase traffic.
Social networks will be useful for collecting feedback. Comments, likes, and other elements of involvement will help to understand what customers like, what concerns them, and what to focus on to improve your image. Use these tools to explore the most relevant audience!
Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash
How to Increase the Conversion of the Site of a Medical Organization?
To increase the conversion of the site to calls or appointments, use the following recommendations.
- If your type of site is selling, you need to make sure that the visitor can quickly contact your medical company. To do this, you need to place the phone number in the header of the site so that it is before the visitor’s eyes. You also need to connect to online chat, allowing people to write to the clinic if they do not want to use the phone.
- The site should have a search string so that people can quickly find the information. Search string should be placed in a prominent place.
- You can create a feedback form so that a potential client can leave their data to contact him and clarify his request.
- It is recommended to add a site map; with which the user can quickly find the section he needs. This is especially true for large informational medical portals and the site of commercial clinics.
With the help of such recommendations, marketing in the medicine area can kill two birds with one stone. First, it gives a chance to have a terrific deal – to make life easier for many patients and their relatives. Secondly, you will create a positive image of the organization and develop a stable positive association with you among the target audience!
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