Why Is Digital Marketing Critical For Healthcare Professionals?

Digital Marketing is now essential for healthcare professionals

Digital marketing has been able to find its integral position across all the industries as it has its own benefits in terms of reach, impact, returns, etc. But somehow the healthcare segment has not been able leverage the benefits of digital marketing.

It is observed that searching information for health is the third most popular activity on the internet

Healthcare industry needs to adopt digital marketing

Majority of the people nowadays rely on the internet to find information regarding the health issues because of the advancement in the technology and the convenience of finding information whenever they feel like. So considering the fact that the target audience is already present on this platform healthcare industry just cannot afford to neglect digital marketing.

So why is the healthcare segment lagging behind in adoption of this medium

Firstly the practitioner or doctors are not aware of what digital marketing is all about, and how people are using this media. Also they are not sure if promoting on this platform is within the guidelines of MCI.

They have to understand that digital media consists of various channels like content marketing, search engine marketing, social media and many others.Digital Marketing offers a great opportunity for the healthcare segment to use this media to drive sales, market share, create transparency and build patient relationship.

What are the key benefits of adopting digital marketing in healthcare?

Increasing Reach

To understand the impact of digital marketing in healthcare, it’s important to understand today’s healthcare consumer. Most of the healthcare consumers turn to internet when it comes to finding medical information. Consumers are no longer willing to blindly accept what a doctor tells them. They prefer doing their homework before visiting a doctor.

Unlike in the past healthcare marketing used to incur huge investment to be present on TV, radio and health magazines and other print media. But due to the advent of digital marketing various channels like Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media Marketing (SMM), and Mobile Marketing & App Advertisement have made it more cost-effective to take a targeted approach.

Personalisation of Communication

As mentioned digital marketing is not quite static in nature it has the ability to be personal. With the amount of data available these days, the healthcare segment can now deliver highly personalized messages through digital marketing. It is designed to reach the right patient with the right message at the right time. Digital marketing with the help of data based on Personal, demographic, social, and behavioural information can have a greater impact of the communication.

This helps the health care professional to connect with the patients and build engagement in attracting and retaining the customers.

Performance Measurement

The best part about digital marketing is that each and every activity can be tracked and measured. Health care professionals don’t have to indulge into any guess work now as far as campaign and promotion is concerned.  That is the reason digital marketing has become synonym for performance marketing. With these kind of mechanism available healthcare professionals can take an informed decision regarding the campaign performance and promotion budget.

A few statistics from Think with Google, to understand the potential of this media.

• Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are used by 77% of the patients before making an appointment.
• 44% of patients schedule an appointment who research hospitals on a mobile device.
• The decision process is empowered by digital content available on the web properties.
• 26% use reviews generated by consumers or patients.
• 50% use health information sites for information.
• 83% use hospital sites to know more about the healthcare professionals and the services.
  

Conclusion

The healthcare industry has the potential to considerably increase their reach and effectively engage consumers with various digital marketing strategies. By integrating digital marketing into their existing marketing plans, healthcare professionals can develop a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour across digital marketing channels. To know more about digital marketing for healthcare business contact Digital-Skills.in