In the US alone, there were 2,836,395 businesses in the healthcare and social assistance sector in 2022, a 1.8% increase from the previous year. On the other hand, COVID-19 propelled many businesses with little or no online presence to go online. Both facts signify that the online scenario for healthcare companies is quite competitive.
In this competitive digital world, only having a website wouldn’t cut it. To stay visible and become successful, healthcare businesses must do more than just the basics. Let’s take a look at five ways healthcare companies can improve their online presence and consequently increase the number of patients:
1. Develop a Professional Website
Your website is its digital front door. Clients can come in through the door, look around, and decide whether they want to choose you or not. But what if the client’s journey ends even before it starts?
A website that takes more than 3 seconds to load loses 40% of the traffic. On the other hand, a website with a poor design and layout drives away 6 in 10 people.
While these statistics are scary for any website owner, they also present an opportunity to grab traffic driven away by other businesses.
While there are a lot of website builders available, website building requires a lot of time. The best option is to opt for professional digital healthcare marketing services and free your time for your clients. First of all, they have the expertise to help you set up a professional-looking website and reliable hosting. Secondly, they can help you develop a digital marketing strategy that suits your business model.
2. Give Away Free Value
Nothing draws in more audience than the word “free”. In the world of digital marketing, free value is something that audiences love. When it comes to your healthcare business, you can offer free value to your potential patients by giving them free knowledge.
Here are some ideas that you can use to develop free value for your audience:
- Make informative YouTube videos.
- Conduct live webinars or workshops.
- Break down findings of new research studies through infographics.
- Offer printable resources like diet charts or checklists.
- Share healthy recipes according to your audience.
3. Leverage Email Marketing
You might develop free value for your audience, but there are only a few ways to actually get your audience to get and value these free resources. One way to do that is to leverage email marketing. Consider developing email lists starting with existing patients. Gradually expand your email list by offering free value to your potential clients in exchange for their email addresses. For instance, you can offer your eBook as a lead magnet to get more email addresses on your email list.
After compiling an email list, send them emails weekly or bi-weekly related to new offers, discounts, services, or informative content. This will allow you to stay on top of their mind. However, make sure you are following all the best practices for email marketing to keep your customers engaged.
Pro Tip:
Like website development and hosting, you can also outsource email marketing to professional digital marketers. While it might seem like you’re spending a lot of money on email marketing with an outsourced function, it will gradually pay off in the form of new, loyal consumers.
4. Become Active on Social Media
Social media is one of the most important platforms for boosting any business’ online presence. Sure, a professional website is important, and so is email marketing, but unless you have a presence on social media, your business will not make a strong impact. The reason is that social media is the new search engine!
Here’s how we can make this big claim:
While Google is a great way for people to discover new businesses, social media is becoming more powerful by the day. In 2023, 75.78% of consumers used social media to search for new brands and products. On the other hand, the percentage of people who made a purchase based on brands they saw on social media is an astounding 68.75%.
But posting random content on social media won’t do it. You need to do more than just post every day. Let’s take a look at some useful strategies that you can use:
- Post Engaging Content on Your Page
Only posting about breast cancer awareness month on your page won’t help your business. You need to generate some activity through your social media, like hosting competitions to increase followership or insightful content to get more audience engagement.
- Post Short-form Video Content
While TikTok was the social media platform to popularize short-form video content, reels on Instagram and shorts on YouTube have also played a huge role in boosting this popularity to the next level. Short-form content is easy to produce and gains a lot of viewers.
However, because you belong to the healthcare industry, make sure you don’t share just anything. Research before stating facts don’t post irrelevant content, and add value to develop trust with the target audience.
5. Use Digital Advertising
While SEO strategies can help boost your website’s organic reach and valuable content can help you get greater reach on social media, digital advertising has its own benefits. Advertising using Google Ads, Facebook ads, and sponsored videos can help you reach a greater audience – boosting the results of your organic reach as well.
However, managing advertising within a budget effectively can be difficult. You can either hire an experienced resource or outsource your digital advertising to a reliable and professional digital marketing agency.
Final Words
Establishing a digital presence is no easy feat. Sure, you can create a Facebook page and a website practically for free, but that doesn’t mean that you can reach your audience without investing time, effort, and money in digital marketing.
Companies in the healthcare sector particularly need to invest a lot of effort into digital marketing and online presence due to the level of competition in the industry. However, with the right resources and strategy, companies in the toughest sectors can establish an online presence and garner the fruits of their digital strategy’s success.
