The global healthcare industry is worth billions of dollars. That value continues to rise as populations balloon and service prices increase.
While increasing costs of healthcare have been a thorn in the side of consumers for a long time, for providers, rising costs have spelled large returns, prompting many investors and entrepreneurs to jump into the space.
If you’re among the many that have opened up some iteration of a healthcare practice and are now interested in marketing healthcare services to boost your client base, you’re in the right place.
In this post, our team of marketing experts share the 8 best things you can do to make your healthcare social media outreach strategy effective!
1. Understand Who Your Clients Are
Not everyone’s healthcare needs are the same. Middle-aged clients could be working with accident professionals in this practice area and may want medical prospective on personal injuries. Younger clients might be interested in alternative medicines like acupuncture.
Therein lies one of the biggest keys to social media success – Knowing your audience!
By understanding the makeup of your most loyal clients, you can tailor your social media activity to them. The more tailored your message is, the more likely you’ll be able to attract followers that could convert into paying clients down the line.
2. Invest in Meaningful Platforms
Another key advantage of understanding who your clients are is that you can better invest your time online. Different social media platforms cater to different demographics.
For example, Twitter has an older leaning audience while Instagram is the preferred platform for millennials and those in the Gen Z bucket.
Take a moment to look over analytics to determine where the demo you’re trying to reach spends their time online. Once you’ve come up with one or two primary platforms, focus your energy there and let fringe platforms fall by the waist side.
3. Weigh in on Trends
With your audience identified and your platforms selected, it’s time to start thinking about your marketing healthcare content! Your content is what’s going to attract or repel social media users.
Consequently, getting your content right is extremely important.
Among the many types of content we see pop for healthcare professionals in the social space, offering “trend perspectives” is among the most powerful. Putting out trend perspectives means understanding what people in your audience are buzzing about in relation to health. For example, a popular new diet.
Once you have a trend in mind, create a series of posts around it that offers your team’s professional take. By weighing in on popular conversations, you give your brand a great chance of attaining quick exposure.
4. Share Simple Health Tips
People love immediate gratification. Therefore, anything you can share on social media that someone can put into practice right now and see results from is worth sharing.
Tips as simple as advising people to cut down on sugar by mixing their sweet juices with water or sharing an infographic showing how many calories a person burns by taking the stairs can earn you quick likes and shares.
5. Keep Your Explicit Marketing Limited
One of the biggest mistakes providers make when healthcare marketing on social media is explicitly marketing too much. An example of explicit marketing is putting up posts that advertise deals.
Social media users much prefer to be marketed to passively. That’s why successful brands focus more on building trust on social platforms as opposed to using them as billboards.
If you market explicitly too much, you stand a chance of being labeled as disingenuous which will hurt your traction.
6. Join Community Conversations
Conversations on social media should never be one-sided. If you want to find success on platforms, be just as focused on participating in other’s discussions as you are on creating discussions with your posts.
Great ways to hop into discussions include seeing what’s “trending” on your social platform and adding a professional perspective to debates. You might also choose to participate in non-health-related conversations by commenting when one of your followers announces a life event like a birthday or engagement.
7. Get Your Employees in on the Fun
There’s only so much momentum your business can generate for itself on social media. To expand your reach, try to get your employees to help.
By creating social hashtags that call back to your business, employees can post to their audiences and tag your organization. Team members might also consider following your business and sharing the posts you create.
Every bit of additional reach means the potential to reach a new client so never underestimate the value a team member can bring to your social strategy.
8. Follow Healthcare Influencers
Success leaves clues when it comes to succeeding on social media. To see what it takes to get big on the platform you’re on, follow other healthcare providers and influencers that are where you’d like to be. Study what they do right, where they slip up and adopt any practices you think could benefit your business.
Marketing Healthcare Practices Successfully on Social Media Takes Time
There is no magical way to get traction on social media. With that in mind, make it your goal when marketing healthcare to take small steps every day to provide value to your audience and to slowly build your following.
With a steady commitment to daily improvement, you’ll find that over time, your traction will pick up alongside the success of your healthcare brand.
Are you looking for more tips on marketing to and communicating with patients? If you are, check out the newest content we have featured on our blog.
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.
