Word-of-mouth marketing was presumably the main approach many people resorted to when looking for the best doctors, dental offices, and hospitals. Undoubtedly, it is still an integral part of how people search and choose service providers. However, online presence is now more important than ever for clinics, hospitals, healthcare manufacturers, and others in the industry, especially for new emergers in the market that don’t have a notable reputation yet. This is your go-to guide for executing effective and results-driven healthcare marketing in the UAE.
What is Healthcare Marketing?
Marketing remains marketing, despite the industry your business caters to. Generally, it’s best to incorporate all areas of digital marketing within your strategy. That includes but isn’t limited to social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization, paid advertising, influencer marketing, and so on. None of that changes no matter where you are in the world. How you execute those is what puts a difference between you and your competitors. At the root of it, you need to implement well-targeted healthcare digital marketing solutions into your marketing plan to notice results.
Digi-Tip: If you can’t invest time and resources into every avenue of marketing right now, incorporate the main ones that your business absolutely needs.
You can execute marketing activities in-house or outsource it to a digital agency and freelancers instead if you don’t have the time and resources to do it. Just make sure that whoever you cooperate with has experience in providing healthcare digital marketing solutions since you don’t want the reputation of your facility to go down the drain due to poor strategies.
How to Market Healthcare Effectively
Well, how can you make your healthcare or medical business stand out with marketing with the same marketing components that all other businesses are using? You will need to strategize based on two important factors. The first is the specific medical/healthcare target audience that you want to focus on. The field of medicine in itself has specific niches that all require their customized approach to marketing. For example, if you have a dental clinic, then your marketing strategies are nowhere similar to that of a hospital, plastic surgery clinic, or hearing aid clinic. In that case, you need to dive deeper into dental marketing best practices like dental SEO and so on.
Next, you must determine exactly what your business is aiming to provide to that target audience. Are you manufacturing or distributing medical equipment or providing services to patients? Is your business doing both? This is another valuable point in strategizing that might take your healthcare marketing down an entirely different path because the aim of each is different. One involves marketing a service while another involves marketing products and the approach for effectively marketing either is quite different.
How To Market Medical Equipment
Healthcare manufacturers and sellers can offer an array of both small-scale or large-scale medical equipment. The former refers to items such as syringes, stethoscopes, medical masks, sanitization products, assistive canes, and more. The latter refers to larger medical equipment like stretchers, hospital beds, heart monitors, and so on. If your business specializes in selling medical equipment, focus more on:
- eCommerce marketing — For selling equipment and products, your business is in competition with other sellers which means you need to step up your eCommerce game since only in-store sales won’t cut it anymore. Build or update your website to support online selling or opt for shops across social media marketplaces like Instagram.
- Influencer marketing — If your business manufacturers or develops innovative healthcare/medical equipment then opting for influencer marketing can really put your business on the map. Send your products to influencers within the niche of your product and ask for their reviews. It’s a unique and timely way to gain exposure to your products and brand.
Digi-Tip: Aim for working with micro-influencers instead of collaborating with the big fish. Influencers with under a million followers tend to have higher engagement rates.
How To Market A Medical Facility
Have a clinic or hospital? Then it’s best that you concentrate on these marketing strategies first and foremost:
- Search engine optimization — SEO activities, especially local SEO, can benefit your business significantly in the long term. Since your medical facility will serve primarily people within the range of the establishment, it’s crucial to target them through localized SEO efforts. You don’t want to reach audiences in an entirely different city or country because those leads won’t bring you many patients.
- Content marketing — Producing high-quality, evergreen, informative content will showcase the professionalism of your team, increasing the reputability of your brand. People have a lot of health-related questions and scour the internet when they want answers. Through effective content marketing efforts, you’ll meet your potential patients halfway.
Health Marketing Strategies to Try
Here are a few additional health marketing strategies that can you implement with the above-mentioned to make the most of your marketing efforts:
- Inform, don’t impose — Aim to produce content whether in the form of blogs or videos that have educational value within the framework of your healthcare marketing efforts. People tend to dislike businesses that only have the “sell, sell, sell” mindset visible in their brand.
- Narrow your bubble — Many businesses make the mistake of aiming for a wide healthcare target audience with the idea that they’ll reach more potential clients thanks to it. However, that isn’t the case. Targeting more people makes it significantly difficult to please everyone’s needs.
- Invest in results — You need to be willing to invest in your results, literally. Paid social and PPC ads are an optimal way to increase exposure and traffic to your business. Many businesses shy away from paid opportunities and focus only on the organic ones. It’s best to have a balance of the two in order to ensure both short-term and long-term efficiency.
- Be informal, yet professional — Being in the healthcare industry doesn’t mean you need to be distant and cold with your current and potential clients online. Whether through your website or social media, aim to be light-hearted, informal, and friendly to create a sense of community.
Digilite has years of experience with offering results-driven medical/healthcare digital marketing services to businesses across the globe. Get in touch with us to see how our specialists can help you.