Why health care sector should think about inbound marketing

Inbound marketing case for healthcare company

Now that we are in the digital age, medical and healthcare marketing has a new face. At the present time, there are many diseases around, even more than 30 years ago, probably owing to bad feeding habits or hazardous lifestyles. But once you get sick, you feel the need to get some healthcare services available or medical assistance which calls for a healthcare company.

Why clinics and not hospitals?

People prefer going to clinics instead of hospital despite the cost that it implies. Their preference is because they can get more benefits as clinic customers rather than in hospitals. It’s not that hospitals are in bad condition or there is a scarce of medical utensils, it’s just that if they can afford to pay for a better service, they will do it. As a norm, clinic managers are associated with any healthcare company that can provide them better options for, for example, health policies or even medical supplies.

As said, users tend to feel safer in a private healthcare institution than in a public one. Reasons can’t seem to be so obvious in developed countries, yet in developing ones. Patients who suffer from cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure usually need to go to the doctor for a check-up. They will also need a very healthcare system provider which can cater high-quality and attentive health insurance and medical products for them at any time. They are people whose diseases are consider as chronic, thus they need special attention as well as many others, not to mention their diseases can be currently treated but are some of the most common causes of death in these days.

Getting the most of the moment 

Knowing that getting sick of almost anything in the air is not a rare thing in these days, managers and healthcare company owners are trying hard to spread the information of the products they offer by all means. It is obviously not an easy task considering that the number of companies is growing by the minute. Healthcare companies are growing in number in the market because of the current demand. Sickness rates are going up as ever and they must pull up their socks to take advantage of it by getting ahead of the competition through the implementation of new and innovative marketing strategies that can make their services and products well-known in the society. 

On another level, patients also get concerned about which healthcare company to choose among the big gamut available in the market. Prices vary and benefits are similar. But, now, what really matters is the way each one of those company owners are projecting their ideas to the public. 

Consequently, both healthcare companies and medical device company owners are aware of the fact that if they want to succeed in the market, they need to increase their presence in the digital world, in doing this, they will be building trust in people and they will also be reputed as excellent providers of patient care. Over 60% of the sales cycle is made before the client first contacts your sales assistants. Making their ideal client feel attracted to their website as well as providing him with the right information is currently the best way in building sales.

They may find themselves losing business to competitors if they are not being efficient enough to actively attract potential consumers. Healthcare owners’ focus must be on the client’s needs and wants. 

So, what’s the most effective method?

There are five elements that do a lot in the digital world when it comes to drawing in customers. They are patient case study, social network marketing , SEO, video-testimonials, and blogging. 

Let’s start with:

Patient case study

Patient case study is the first factor that healthcare companies should take into account when attempting to promote their product. Patient case study enables companies to determine what exactly people in the market need. Learning what people are looking for is the key that will lead to better marketing strategies and provision of more accurate information. The point will always be to act as accurate as possible to reach as many people as there are. 

The most common patient cases

In fact, there are so many patient cases that it is almost impossible to enlist them. But, some of them are related to medical malpractice and chronic diseases treatment. In the first one, the relatives of the deceased will do some research in the quest of a good insurance service to possibly sue the healthcare center where the malpractice was committed. 

What are the benefits?

In case you are starting a website on the basis of a healthcare program or service provision, Inbound marketing for this purpose truthfully pays off and managers make a great deal of effort to contact the best of content developers.

Let’s break down some of the advantages.

• Counting on the best providers will draw you to getting better traffic.
• Marketing services companies will address the main health problems of a certain population to generate great content for your website.
• Developers and content producers build up the site based on SEO, making users reach the site smoothly.

Blogging

Blogging is one of the most popular trends nowadays. The reason why blogging has become a craze is because of its availability. Even people without resources can post something and get some cut from the visitors. It means you don’t necessarily have to be rich or be a money-bag to have your own blog and make your product known. Everybody that has a blog has the chance to do almost anything ranging from posting images, writing articles (about what you offer), chatting with interested people, and much more. But most importantly, it is also feasible to embed some HTML code in order to draw the curious into the site where they will be able to learn more about your foundation. In short, if you are a blogger, you can do anything.

Why is it currently so important?

Blogging is important because it represents the basis of practically having a website. Besides, it is also a tool that entitles healthcare companies to post and promote their products and services without restriction and at a very affordable cost. 

Benefits and cons of managing a blog 

Owning a blog has some benefits, some of which are:

• People can post information of any sort
• Low cost
• Generally blog suppliers have good platforms
• When upgraded to Premium, Google positioning improves a long way
• Its service is user-friendly, meaning most blog platforms are not complicated. It is not complex to learn the ropes about blogging

Despite its apparent benefits, blogging can also be a little disadvantageous in some cases. One of the reasons for such thought is that in order to really succeed in using this tool, it is necessary to avail one of many techniques. Let’s see some of the disadvantages.

• Blogging is good but most healthcare companies already use more sophisticated websites.
• Templates are generally not that attractive there you will have to download others to make up for that fact.
• Blogging can be time-consuming. Not because you have a lot of information to post, but because you can find yourself wasting time trying to figure out how to be better positioned.

Below, a picture of how to start a blog in blogger, best-known as one of the easiest platforms for blogging. It is recommended for both novices and experts.

In this case, and taking into account that most people have internet at home, contemplate purchasing a URL after some months. There are many ways, indeed, through which you can succeed in the healthcare market but remember the competition is furious. It is recommended to ally with a graphic designer to give the blog the appearance of a serious website from which users won’t want to leave so quickly. 

One of the other things you can do while blogging apart from turning the blog into a website is providing online payment method. There are many online payment processors you can turn to, furthermore, it is possible to embed it on the site with no effort. Keep in mind people don’t want to leave their homes to pay, they want the product to be at the doorstep in a flash and they are currently reluctant to use cash, they use credit or debit card instead. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is another marketing strategy, healthcare company owners and managers must avail themselves of. Yes, I used MUST because if they don’t utilize it, they are unlikely to appear on Google when people search. Bear in mind, people only like scrolling up and down when they are on Facebook or Instagram but they hate doing it when they are looking for a result. They just click on the first three or (in rare cases) four results Google shows. This is bad, as there are so many companies working in the health field that being well positioned on Google must be really hard and such an art to be mastered. Notwithstanding the last statement, there are still some chances for managers to succeed over the Internet. 

How must they use SEO?

SEO allows managers and entrepreneurs to position their website through KEY WORDS. Yes, it’s not only writing good things and bigging up your healthcare enterprise. It’s a matter of utilizing the key words that best describe the products or services you provide.  Furthermore, those keywords must be CORRECTLY PLACED in each article or promotion depicted on the website. They can’t be randomly placed otherwise the strategy will fail and it will pan out really tough for people to find you, and this, of course, means you are missing out on a chance to make money.

As we can see in the above picture, SEO is about highlighting some words or phrases that best describe the product or any image displayed in the explanation and in this way Google will position all that information better making the site easier to be found by users. 

What is a must-do to get better performance?

For this and in case you don’t possess expertise at this point, hiring a SEO expert can be viable. In fact, many healthcare company managers fork out money for this purpose. It is better to do so, since they are just trying to make sure their website is not being overlooked.

Video – testimonials

Going into this point, there is no wonder that video – testimonials in the marketing world are a must – have. These videos must sound as authentic as possible; in fact, they should be done on factual basis considering patients are looking for a real service and not scammers. 

In this type of strategy, doctors and specialist can participate. They can talk about their experience and why a service or a product is a must- have at home. Yet, professionals are not the only ones who show off their experience, ordinary people also do. Users who claim to have used the service speak their mind letting the public generally know about time, effects, durability of the product or service.

Who usually turns to this strategy?

It is now a norm to see a lot of these videos spread all over YouTube and Tv. Pill manufacturers and herbal remedies companies are some of the most frequent users of this strategy to reach public. The method has been proven to be effective as well as far-reaching. We can concede that, as one of its downsides, is the cost, as video-testimonials are no way free. People volunteer, but of course, both professionals are ex-patients get paid. 

Below, an exemplary video on Youtube of a woman looking to lose weight through a health program.

It is important to remark YouTube is not the only platform used for publishing testimonials. Advertisers also resort to Vimeo which is an innovative alternative that has gone up some positions.

Social media marketing

It goes without saying that getting a social media account such as Facebook or Instagram will allow customers to keep track of everything regarding the healthcare company you manage. For firms of this spectrum, signing up on a social network, is, indeed something to do even before laying the first brick to build the facility or tap the first key to write an article. However, knowing that it brings benefits to all entrepreneurs, mentioning its advantages never hurts anyone:

• There are many social networks as stars in the sky right now, so the information posted will be available and well-positioned.
• Social networks make user-provider communication a piece of cake.
• They are generally free.
• It is possible to create pages, forums and even online social groups to interact with consumers.

Nevertheless, what’s the catch?

The fact that healthcare managers turn to social networks to make its product known doesn’t mean they have their world at their feet. They equally need strategies, some of which can be:

• Delegation of a community manager
• Constant interaction in groups, chats and forums
• Pay for premium features to resound in more communities

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Undoubtedly, the impact of social networks in this field is very high; it is no wonder, considering that 170,000 searches for medical information on Google are carried out every 5 seconds.


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