5 Marketing Mistakes You Can Fix Today

With new healthcare marketing trends rising this year, your team is going to have to make some changes to your strategy. Evolving your marketing practices will help you reach more patients as their behaviors change, leaving your non-evolving competition in the dust.  Last year, we saw a huge spike in patients turning to the internet for health information and that is a trend that is certainly not going away, so let’s take a look at some of the mistakes you might have made in regards to your internet marketing efforts so you can improve this year.

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1.     Massive Marketing Collateral

Gone are the days of successful E-books. They take far too much time to create on your end and now patients are being drawn to more bite-sized content pieces. Smith & Jones calls them “info snacks,” giving patients with decreased attention spans the opportunity to easily consume the most important information you can provide. 

TIP: Buzzfeed has become wildly popular because of their funny and topical content, but also because of the way they display their content with easily consumed lists and quizzes. 

2.     Data Overload

Last year the most consumed forms of content were videos and infographics. Due to the short attention spans of online readers, healthcare marketers have to be able to deliver important data in a concise and easily consumed way. Showcasing medical data in infographic format is proven to make it more memorable and more impactful. 

TIP: Canva has some great infographic templates which you can easily import into a simple video format.

3.    Website's That Aren't Mobile Optimization

People are using their smartphones and tablets more and more to search online for services, so if your website isn't mobile responsive you could be losing valuable leads. Your marketing team needs to focus on how your website content appears on phones and whether or not your content is driving potential patients to connect with you. You should also keep mobile optimization in mind when it comes to your email campaigns. 

TIP: Squarespace websites include free mobile optimization and you can preview and test your web pages and mobile sites with the click of a button.

4.     Unemotional Messaging

With healthcare marketing it can be scary to show too much emotion and be disruptively different, but if your marketing is too general and surface level, you'll go unnoticed. It is a huge mistake to avoid using personality in your marketing or to be too clinical. Some of the best doctors are the ones that get personal with their patients, share stories and can be seen as a shoulder to lean on; as opposed to those that are detached and unemotional. Let your content marketing reflect the kind of care you want to deliver to your patients.

TIP: Connect with patients by sharing information about your staff or physicians on your pages. Go beyond where they got their training; focus on the parts of their personalities that patients can connect with, like favorite movies or inspiration quotes.

(Read More: How to Grow Your Practice's Twitter Audience)

5.     Blah Branding

There are few industries where brand loyalty is more imperative than health care but it is often over-looked. Let your brand speak to the kind of care your organization delivers and be sure to focus on branding in your social media content, blog posts and advertising efforts. This is your chance to stand out from the competition and in medical marketing, people are often afraid to deviate from the norm. Be the one who isn't afraid to switch things up!

TIP: Run a social media campaign or contest to get your patients and community involved with your brand by asking them to come up with a new tagline for you.

Why You Need to Brand Your Practice’s Patient Experience

Many practices can identify with the terrifying moment when you get an email from Yelp saying that your practice has received a new review. You’re sitting in your office chair, hanging in the balance of either honor or shame. Did a patient write complimentary comments about your service and how much they loved your practice or did they leave a scathing review saying how rude your office staff was to them?  It’s challenging to manage negative reviews, especially in the instances where the patient was upset over something you could not control. People are exponentially more likely to provide feedback on something they either absolutely love or absolutely loathe, while the likelihood of comments coming from someone who had an “okay” experience is very low.

This means, you need to take every effort to provide each patient with a flawless experience to promote more positive reviews. The best way to do so is to brand your patient experience. Adding small touch-points to your patient process can make a huge difference in perception. Simple changes such as personally introducing a patient to each staff member they will meet with, can go a long way. Additionally, you could exchange paper robes for terry cloth ones or give patients slippers to protect their feet from chilly floors in the winter.

Things like that are what people remember when they leave your office. If they had to wait an extra 15 minutes because your schedule was running behind, then have coupons available as an apology. Whenever you travel Southwest Airlines for instance, if your flight gets delayed they offer complimentary adult beverages as collateral. (You’re not alone if you find yourself wishing for a flight delay every once in a while.)

To elicit positive responses, you can recruit the help of your staff. It likely happens everyday, that a patient says something positive in passing about their time at your practice. You can take those opportunities to remind patients that they can go online and review your practice.

You might think that websites like Yelp, Facebook and Google’s review pages don’t matter, but patients are becoming increasingly better consumers of their own care. They are turning to the Internet to find information on their physicians, treatments and procedures.   In some statistics provided by Fluency Media, it was determined that 85% of Millennials and 78% of Baby Boomers are searching for health topics online. Take the appropriate steps to improve your patient experience while promoting positive reviews and you will be able to capture the attention of more patients and improve your reach!

5 Tips For Building Your Brand

A company’s brand can be the most important component of their business. This is more than just a logo and some brochures. Your brand encompasses everything that your company stands for.  This includes; how your patients see your practice, how your referring physicians see your staff and the impact you make on your community.  Think about some of the biggest brands in existence; the Coca Colas, Budweisers and Starbucks of the world dominate the ad space. Their brands evoke emotion and drive their consumers to remain loyal, year after year.

In what industry does it make more sense to promote brand loyalty, than in health care? There are some simple actions your practice can take to create stronger brand identity.

1.     Social Media

Whether you’re starting from scratch with social media or just revamping what you already have, your online reputation is an easy way to express your brand.  The key to maintaining your brand is consistency, so be sure to create a plan for how you’ll deliver your message. A content calendar will help you plan your posts and stay in line with your branding.

2.     Blogging

Creating a blog as a part of your website gives you the chance to provide unique content for your website. The best way to have your brand reach far and wide is to step up your SEO game. Your blog is a way to do that, adding new, original content weekly.

3.     Creative Campaign

Don’t limit yourself to a simple ad in your city’s newspaper or directory. Get out ahead of the news you’re delivering, by planning a full campaign. A series of advertisements, online marketing and social media; used in conjunction to your brand’s message can make a much bigger impact than an expensive billboard or commercial.

4.     Physician’s Event

Your referring physicians and community are the ones who will come into contact with your brand most often. The qualities that you portray to them are not just shown in words and campaigns. Rather, they are shown in the way that you treat their patients and how you network with them. Host an event such as an educational dinner or open house presentation, where you can showcase those things.

5.     Promotional Items

Of course, referring physician offices love their goodies. Think out of the box and instead of bringing around standard pens, breakfast and treats- find a unique promotional item that is in line with that previously mentioned creative campaign.

You don’t have to do all of these things at once, as they certainly take time. Remember that your brand doesn’t have to be built in a day.