The 7 Most Important Healthcare Marketing Strategies You Can’t Ignore

The medical industry is constantly evolving and presenting new trends and challenges your marketing team needs to keep up with and tackle. But healthcare marketing doesn’t have to be daunting, as there are many strategies that can maximize your efforts and easily reach your prospects and patients.

To help you narrow down the best options for your business or practice, I’ve compiled a list of 7 effective marketing strategies for healthcare. I made sure to include a varied selection, so you can find at least one that suits your needs and goals. You’ll also find examples to discover how to get started on them!

What Is Healthcare Marketing? 

The most common definition of “marketing” is “to advertise a product or a service,” but what is healthcare marketing? Well, it’s basically the same, but focused on promoting medical products, services, facilities, and organizations to patients, healthcare providers, and even stakeholders.

By employing hospital marketing strategies, a provider can build brand awareness, increase trust, attract and retain patients, and even increase revenue.

It’s important to note that because of the sensitive information and topics involved, medical marketing is highly regulated. There are regulatory agencies and laws, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), that ensure that advertising is honest, ethical, and legal.

What Are the Benefits of Healthcare Marketing?

From health systems, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals to manufacturers, health plans, and solo practices, virtually any kind of healthcare-related business can profit from implementing medical marketing strategies. Here are some examples of their benefits:

• Increase trust in your practice or company.
• Educate patients and share important information.
• Boost patient or customer acquisition.
• Improve patient satisfaction and healthcare outcomes.
• Raise awareness on medical conditions as well as healthcare products and services.
• Encourage engagement.
• Debunk misconceptions and clear doubts.
• Keep patients and staff updated on the latest medical developments.

Top 7 Healthcare Marketing Strategies You Can’t Ignore

There are many effective marketing strategies for healthcare, more than I could discuss in this post. That’s why I decided to give you a good mix of popular strategies as well as those you’re less likely to come across when doing your research. All of them are equally good for achieving different purposes; let me show you!

1. Harness the power of video

Video content is an incredibly flexible medium through which to connect with your audience and nail many goals, enhancing your healthcare marketing plan considerably.

You can use marketing videos to summarize information, provide insights, give a tour of your facilities, share success stories and testimonials, and more! What’s even better is that leveraging this content is incredibly easy. For example, you can share it on social media and YouTube, and embed it on your landing pages and even on your blog posts. And ultimately, creating an adequate video for your company can always be made easier by partnering up with a good video marketing agency. 

Now, regarding the types of videos for your healthcare marketing strategy, here are a few excellent options:

1.1 Explainer videos

Explainer videos are typically 90-second pieces that use either animation or live-action footage (or both!) to explain complex medical concepts in a way anyone can easily understand them. They can be used to address patients, staff, and shareholders alike and help you promote your medical products or services by highlighting their features and benefits.

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(Created by healthcare video production company Yum Yum Videos)

1.2 Patient testimonials

These pieces feature patients sharing their successful outcomes and positive experiences with a healthcare provider or treatment. They’re your strongest allies in healthcare marketing because they help build trust and credibility by providing social proof.

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1.3 How-to videos 

Also known as “tutorials,” these videos are a staple in most video marketing strategies, as they are perfect for demonstrating to both patients and staff how to effectively use certain medical devices, administer treatments, or even explain how a medicine works. They can be a valuable resource in your healthcare marketing plan to promote education and engagement.

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1.4 Live videos

You’ve probably seen a medical live video before. They’re typically used to hold virtual events such as panel discussions, share interviews and Q&A sessions, or provide a behind-the-scenes look at a healthcare institution. These pieces can foster engagement and help build a sense of community.

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1.5 Doctor and staff profile videos

This type of video content is used to introduce healthcare providers to potential patients, featuring doctors or staff members and showcasing their experience, expertise, and personality. This way, the audience can feel more connected and comfortable with the provider, increasing the chances of them choosing you over your competitors. 

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2. Be consistent in your branding

The truth is simple. Just like customers don’t buy anything they don’t already know or trust, potential patients won’t choose a healthcare provider or medical production they’re not familiar with. This is where having a strong brand identity comes into play.

When you convey a consistent brand message across various channels, such as your social media accounts, your institution’s website, and so on, people are more likely to recognize and remember the brand.

This hospital marketing strategy can help you stand out from other competitors while building trust and confidence in your services and setting yourself up as a reliable and trustworthy healthcare provider. 

A good place to start transforming your assets into a cohesive and high-quality unit is by sticking to a consistent color scheme and typography. Your logo should also be easily recognizable and adaptable to different mediums, so you should forego complex designs that will look messy when shrunk to fit mobile screens, for example.

3. Create interesting lead buckets

Lead acquisition is one of the most common goals people researching healthcare marketing strategies are trying to achieve. In other words, they want to attract new patients and grow their practice or business. But we all know that’s not easy, especially in such a competitive industry.

However, creating lead buckets is a tried and tested medical marketing strategy that aims at attracting prospects. The idea is that you offer them a valuable resource or service to get them interested in you. Optionally, you can request their contact information in exchange, so you can better target your campaigns.

For example, you could ask them to leave their email address in order to download an eBook, and then use that address to send them targeted and personalized newsletters. Other things you could offer include: 

• Free consultation or screening.
• App demo.
• Discount or coupon.
• Email updates on the latest medical developments.
• Exclusive event invite.
• Access to a dedicated social media patient group.

Whatever you choose, just remember that what you offer has to be equally valuable as the information the prospect will be giving you.

4. Launch a hashtag campaign

A hashtag campaign is a medical marketing strategy that involves creating and promoting a specific and relevant hashtag on social media channels. The goal is to build buzz around a particular topic or event and engage users.

A key aspect of this tactic is to choose a hashtag that’s short, memorable, and easy to spell. Then, you should promote it across your social media channels, website, and even emails to spread the word. You can even partner with influencers or organizations with similar values to help you spread it and reach other audiences.

You also need to encourage users to actually use your hashtag. So, you should clearly explain how and why they should use it. Consider requesting that they share their own stories or experiences, inviting them to join a larger conversation, or even offering to feature user-generated content (UGC) on your own page.

5. Cultivate and manage reviews

Reviews are the cornerstone of any healthcare marketing plan that seeks to build trust in a medical institution, product, or even doctors and specialists. As I’ve mentioned before, people always look for social proof before making a decision, particularly in the healthcare industry.

A lack of reviews could cause problems, as your potential patients might find it suspicious that you don’t have any ratings online. For this reason, it’s crucial that you request and encourage feedback from satisfied patients. For example, you can do this with a satisfaction survey or by directing patients to your Google Business Profile.

Bear in mind that getting negative reviews is inevitable, especially if you own a big hospital or big institution. It’s important that you take them as feedback and respond to them with empathy and HIPAA compliance in mind. Start by thanking them for the review and tell them how you plan to resolve their concern or how they can request further assistance.

6. Use automation to provide better services 

Improving patient experience with something as simple as reminding them of their appointment can do wonders for your healthcare marketing efforts, boosting patient acquisition and fostering loyalty. But let’s be honest for a moment here. You can’t have people on the phone 24/7, booking appointments and providing information to every single patient who contacts you.

Luckily, there are healthcare automation tools that can provide the solution and help you expand your reach, nurture leads, and even book appointments! 

The best part about them is that you can plan for different actions and create a predetermined and personalized response to them. For example, you can use automation for: 

• Appointment scheduling and reminder.
• Advertising.
• Social media publishing.
• Email campaigns and newsletters.
• Blog updates.
• Chatbot display and answers.

7. Give influencer marketing a try

There are influences in every niche, even in the medical industry. Influencer marketing is a growing trend among professionals and practices looking to expand their reach, as healthcare and wellness influencers help reach new patients and spread their message. 

They can achieve this just by talking about the person or the company on their social platforms. Pretty amazing, don’t you think? 

It’s crucial that you find the influencers that best fit your specialty, as it will increase the effectiveness of your healthcare marketing strategy. Also, bear in mind that some influencers may request compensation for their services. This can take the form of sponsorships, free products or treatments, and maybe even commissions on sales.

Wrapping Up

There are many healthcare marketing strategies you can leverage to successfully promote your business. However, some of them are more or less effective in achieving certain goals. For that reason, I created this guide with a balanced variety of strategies for different purposes. 

From social media to influencer and content marketing, I hope you’ve found some useful insights here and are now able to create a solid healthcare marketing plan to start growing your practice.