Why Marketing and communication is extremely important for healthcare
image credit: Unsplash sandro porfirio
Introduction
The healthcare industry is changing rapidly, and marketing has never been more important. But what does that mean for your hospital or medical practice? The answer is simple: whether you’re a small provider or part of a large health system, there are opportunities to grow your business through effective marketing and communications strategies.
Marketing and communications plans that can help your hospital, health system, or medical practice succeed in today’s hyper-competitive healthcare environment.
We can help your hospital, health system, or medical practice succeed in today's hyper-competitive healthcare environment by assisting with the development of effective marketing and communications plans. You may also be interested in our all-in-one marketing service solutions
Sound communication strategies can help build brand awareness and increase market share.
You may have heard that good communication is essential to a successful business, but what does that actually mean? For hospitals and other healthcare facilities, there are two major benefits of marketing and communication:
Clear communication between your departments on goals and objectives set by management
Two-way communication to receive feedback from your providers and staff
Emergency communication plan and emergency PR planning
Consistency in Brand Awareness and Brand Recognition
Increase market share within your target market
A solid strategy is essential to help you develop your brand image, engage and expand your audience, and help grow the reputation of your healthcare facility.
Here are some of the major areas in which a marketing strategy can be useful:
Traditional Marketing (Print, TV, Conference, In-person business development)
Digital Marketing (including website design, logo design, SEO, Email, CRM, Automation)
Social Media Marketing (like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn)
Content Marketing to position yourself as an expert in the specialty or medical field in general (blog, whitepaper, research study, etc.)
When developing a digital marketing plan for your healthcare organization, it is essential to identify all of the areas where marketing will have an impact on your organization.
To do this, you need to answer some key questions:
Who is the target audience?
Who are our competitors?
What are our strengths and weaknesses?
What are our goals and objectives?
Always keep in mind that marketing not only drives brand awareness but also supports sales goals.
It's important to note that marketing and sales are closely related. Marketing drives brand awareness, which can help you drive sales. It also helps to build a loyal customer base that will keep coming back for more. As such, no matter if you're selling your own products or services or those of another company, you'll want to make sure your marketing efforts are geared toward creating an effective brand image and increasing the number of people who know about it.
Digital marketing in healthcare is no longer an option but a requirement—and it’s here to stay.
As patients become more aware of the use of smartphone technologies, digital marketing is becoming more important in helping you reach your target audience. Not only does it allow you to reach people directly through their mobile devices, but it helps you build brand awareness and engage with your current patients where they are.
Examine where you are now, what your audience needs, and how you want to connect with them.
Before you can create a marketing and communication plan, you need to examine where your organization is now. It's important to understand what sort of messages your audience needs and how they want to receive them.
The first step in developing an effective marketing message is to identify the target audience for your hospital. Who are these people, and why would they be interested in reading about or visiting your facility? What are their demographics (age, gender), psychographics (lifestyle choices), behaviors (do they use social media), the prevalence of disease in the given geography (CVA/stroke, cardiovascular, metabolic diseases such as diabetes, MVA/trauma due to road conditions, etc.) and attitudes toward healthcare delivery services? Once you have a clear picture of who this group is and what appeals most directly to them, focus on crafting messages that address their needs.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to grow your business and improve patient satisfaction, then a complete 360-marketing is a must-have for your facility or medical brand. It’s time to start making the most out of this opportunity by putting together a solid plan for your healthcare organization.