Healthcare industry serves a wider audience with their varying medical needs. Every now and then the medical sector transforms making way for to make way for further innovation and technological advancement. All the efforts within this industry, from inventing disease cure to manufacturing a new medical device, are directed towards improving patient care.

Keeping pace with the changing market trends, medical practices are also embracing new technologies and marketing tactics to stay up-to-date. Even the patients today are way more conscious and well-informed than they used to be a decade ago. This is because of the advent of digital media that has brought information at the comfort of a click. Today’s patients use mobile apps and websites to search for medical services and book appointment. Their important healthcare decisions are also greatly influenced by online reviews and social media posts. Hence, as their reliance on websites and other digital platforms increases, practices need to brush up their digital marketing strategies to optimize the evolving opportunities.

Here are six effective digital strategies for your healthcare business or practice that you must implement to improve your patient reach in 2019:

Build an Easy to Use Website

In today’s digital space, websites serve as a welcome mat for businesses. The first thing that an organization does to establish its online presence is to develop a website that will represent the brand before the internet users.

Most of the organizations today rely on digital marketing to promote their brand across various industries. Especially in the healthcare industry, the use of digital channels to search, compare and look for medical products and services has increased manifold in recent years. Most of the patients are searching online for health-related information. Moreover, they can now book appointments, chat with the doctor and keep track of their medical stats using health apps and various online tools. Hence, it is essential on the part of the medical practices to ensure that their platforms are user-friendly for the patients.

The first impression that a patient form on visiting your site lays the foundation of your future relationship. If the site is difficult to navigate and go through, then they are likely to leave and go to your competitor’s site. This is something that nobody would like, and so you need to develop an easy to navigate website that they can use without complications. Winning patient trust and showing your credibility is the key to your success. It is through an engaging, less complex, easy to use and informational website that you can establish a good online reputation.

Publish and Promote Informative Blogs

The importance of online content is never going to die especially when the internet searches pertaining to healthcare matters are increasing. According to statistics, there are 35 million medical searches online every day. This is because patients are looking for information about health conditions, tips for healthy being and answers to queries. Thanks to the internet, now patients need not go to doctors for minor issues as all kind of medical information is available across various online platforms.

Now, to take advantage of this growing demand for useful medical content, the best and effective strategy is to create and publish informative blogs. Apart from health tips, general query about medical conditions and symptoms, you can develop blogs based on customer testimonials. Sharing the satisfactory story of your existing patient will motivate and inspire new patients to trust your services. New visitors will love to read the experience of other patients and this in return will help to win their trust. Blogs have always been effective in terms of driving website traffic as well as boosting engagement. So, do include blogs in your digital marketing strategy if you want your medical business to have a wider reach. You must plan your content time table prior time and make sure to execute them in a way that will benefit your practice.

Run Email Campaigns that Delivers Value

Sending an email comprising relevant information to patients can keep you a step ahead in the competitive space. It’s true that patients are proactive in their search for healthcare information online. However, if you can deliver them what they are looking for even before they search, the outcomes are going to be in favor of your practice. According to Medicoreach quickbytes, 54% of the patients are very comfortable to get advice from online communications. This survey proves that delivering online message to patients adds better value for your business.

To stay in the patient’s mind and to keep them engaged, you can send a weekly or monthly email newsletter to educate them on the latest industry trends, medical innovations and more about your facility or practice. A personalized email sent to a targeted audience based on his/her interest or preferences will work. You just need an accurate and responsive email list of your niche audience to start optimizing your email marketing strategies.

Use Visual Content to Educate Patients

As per WordStream, one-third of the online users spent maximum time watching videos. The numbers are surprising and are likely to increase in the days to come as people are interested more in visual content. Instead of reading long texts, the audience prefers watching well-designed videos. That is why many organizations are investing in making videos to attract attention. From a company brochure to customer testimonials, brands are using video marketing tactics to spread their brand messages.

Even in the healthcare sector, visual content is consumed and preferred by patients, healthcare executives, and professionals. No matter who is your target, you can engage any prospect with your practice using video content. You can include videos in your digital strategy using the format for projecting various types of content. For instance, you can create an interview video of a doctor or can record a patient’s experience while receiving care at your hospital and post it on the site or social media channels. Videos showing a surgical procedure helps the new patient and their family get a glimpse of how the real-life experience will be and this, in turn, will increase their comfort.

Make Efficient Use of SEO Tactics

The competition in the medical field is fierce. Every day new practices and healthcare facility centers pop up, adding to the challenges of existing medical practices. Getting the right attention and bringing your medical website on top of the search results require to have a strong SEO strategy.

Search engine optimization is an integral aspect of a digital marketing strategy. With Google algorithms getting updated often, managing search engine rankings aren’t easy. It is highly recommended that you take help of SEO specialists who are best in their job. Although you can do the SEO of your medical website, however, the results may take a longer time to show as you may not have in-depth knowledge of the many SEO tactics. Hence, hiring SEO experts and targeting the right healthcare keyword relevant to your practice is essential for overall success. Also, you must build content based on a specific keyword that has high search volume in your field of work.

Remember the keyword is important in SEO. However, too much stuffing on keywords in your content may not help. So, do avoid such practices. Also, you must optimize your website pages well with the right tags, Meta descriptions, URL structure, page title, etc. All these elements are vital to successful SEO strategy implementation.

Engage in Social Media Marketing

If your practice isn’t on any social media platform, then you are likely missing a lot of opportunity to network, connect and bond with your audience. A large percentage of internet users are active on social media. Even patients check social media profiles of doctors, nurses, and hospitals to check their online reviews and reputation. Moreover, 31% of healthcare professionals use social media to network with other professionals in the industry.

A lot of patients and their family members express their health experience on social media platforms. According to PwC, 29% of patients on social media to go through the health experiences of other patients. Hence, every healthcare brand or business must make use of this opportunity and use it wisely. It can expand your practice reach and spread your word to a broader audience across the globe.

So, you need to have a dedicated social media team managing your social media marketing efforts. From sharing timely posts to responding to patient queries, addressing their concerns, and networking further, your social media activities can work wonders in keeping your practice top of your patient’s mind.