No matter where in the world we are, healthcare is a service that is common to everyone; we cannot do without it and we all use it. And often our complaints are about how it is not streamlined enough, how it is not as accessible as we want it to be and how we wish the waiting time to see a doctor can be reduced. Well, with digital platforms now this is slowly becoming reality, even though we still have a long way to go.
For me, in an illness my first point of access to healthcare would be a readily-available app on my phone. Often in the midst of a busy work day, a child falls ill. I am thankful then, to be able to quickly make an appointment via an app on my phone to visit my child’s pediatrician without having to break a sweat.
Even better is, if it is not a serious illness, and is just a common cold or cough, for which I can consult the doctor via a video call. A great number of these benefits were especially helpful during Covid-19 when lockdowns were in place, and just goes to show how much digital technology and marketing can help people in meeting their daily needs.
Why digital marketing has presence in healthcare
How much time do you spend online? I believe it is safe to say that we are all online quite often during the day. Thus, this is the best place to market healthcare services. According to datareportal.com those who are in the workforce spent an average of 7 hours online in 2022. While this has decreased to 6 hours and 37 minutes in 2023, this is still a significant number of hours that the average person spends online. So, why not make use of this by addressing your readymade target audience via emails and pop-ups on websites? I certainly am someone who often googles symptoms of various illnesses and reads up material on new viruses and flus online. Therefore, if a company was to market certain immunity boosters or medicines to fight those illnesses, I would certainly take note and add them to my healthcare spend.
In addition, each person’s digital footprint is important. When we are online, servers that keep track of our virtual habits can channel valuable information to healthcare service providers, which can then be used to finetune their services in a manner that caters to these specific needs. For instance, if a new mother is searching online for special needs baby toys having found out that her baby is visually impaired, then her digital footprint can inform the healthcare service provider to connect with her and put her in touch with healthcare providers who specialise in caring for such children.
Furthermore, digital marketing can also help hospitals, hospices and such establishments to target their information at the proper demographic. As an example, directing information about geriatric care to the elderly can be done via digital marketing where elderly patients make appointments for check-up via website channeling services.
The educated and the reputed
The use of various digital platforms affords healthcare service providers the chance to demonstrate their reputation and reliability, as these are valuable selling points to prospective patients. Thus, through patient testimonials, short videos of doctor diagnoses, etc., posted on online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, these healthcare establishments can establish their reputation and professionality.
Given that today’s audiences are quite educated, it is impossible to hoodwink them in any way with bogus marketing tactics. Therefore, allowing specific medical problems to be targeted via digital marketing material will ensure that those who are searching for information find it in a timely fashion, and then reach out to the information providing establishment to resolve their medical issue.
Sadly, cancer is an illness that is very prevalent in our world today, and in 2022 an estimated 1.9 million new cancer patients were expected to be recorded in the United States alone, with actual figures still not available at large. With this many people suffering from the illness which can become terminal if not caught early, healthcare establishments can easily target the general public with cancer-screening packages and hospital-stay packages that can ease the burden on prospective patients.
Digital marketing can play a huge role in getting the information out there through e-flyers, social media platforms and SMS notifications in order to enlighten the public of the available resources. Couple this with information pamphlets on new developments in managing the many forms of the illness, and these become invaluable services to everyone.
The information flow goes both ways
While the general public can obtain information about healthcare breakthroughs, in-patient care and after-care among many others, healthcare providers too, can obtain information about their target audience’s health issues and worries. Thus, by ascertaining what people regularly worry about in terms of healthcare decisions, hospitals and medical institutions can tailor-make packages that will help such people overcome these problems. Digital marketing, therefore, provides the opportunity for search engine optimisation (SEO) because as people keep researching symptoms and illnesses online the chances of these service providers’ names coming up on search engines, increase.
SEOs can work even better with tools that enable easy navigation of websites, voice searches and even medical blogs and videos. These need to be user-friendly in order to take people to the next step in the process. Unfortunately, Digital Marketing agency Knorex says that 70% of people who search for solutions online to health-related problems, do not move beyond the first page. This is a huge market wasted.
Pay-per-click advertising also works wonders as target customers click on ads and the service provider pays for that click. This not only offers up valuable data about the customer, but allows healthcare service websites to crop up more in search engines.
At the end of the day, digital marketing is going places and taking companies to greater heights. The healthcare industry players rank high among those who should be making maximum advantage of the magic of digital marketing. If you are one of them, good on you.
(Anouk De Silva)