The Evolution of Healthcare Digital Marketing in 2020

Updated on April 5, 2021

Healthcare has always been a heavily regulated industry. Between HIPAA compliance and FDA restrictions, healthcare is slowly evolving and growing. It is 2020 & the healthcare market is expected to cross US$ 280 billion in the U.S. alone. The advent of new technologies is bringing a paradigm shift in the healthcare segment. Today, healthcare has more room than ever to provide B2C-type social experience to humans. The goal is to effectively communicate health-centric information through a customized and customer-focused interaction.

Digital marketing is playing an important part in promoting better healthcare by creating and delivering healthcare information through technologies. It is healthcare digital marketing which enables multi-channel targeting of patients, profiling, retargeting and nurturing. This transforms the whole journey of patients leading to higher conversion. Healthcare digital marketing is enabling more qualified leads and hence, higher revenue. Healthcare providers can find prospective patients, improve loyalty and establish multi-channel patient connections.

Why Should Healthcare Digital Marketing Be a Priority?

Just like every industry, healthcare was volume-based in the past. Nowadays, a brand’s value is everything. The patient of 2020 expects a continuous and engaging interaction from healthcare providers. Patients are more knowledgeable than before. Digital marketing in healthcare is the gateway to value-based care that a patient wants. Technologies such as Healthcare Customer Relations Management (HCRM), Content Management System (CMS), Marketing Automation and Engagement Center are surfacing the market to power successful digital marketing avenues. Whether one is running a solo clinic or heading a dedicated healthcare practice, services provided are the value proposition for the healthcare establishment.

Healthcare services are like products only which you’re trying to sell and grow. The starting point can be conducting an audit of your products and services. What makes the patients choose your services? Why are they coming to you for their health problems? Asking the right questions can help you create a “patient persona” on which the marketing strategies can be created and tailored. Using a professional healthcare PowerPoint template to conduct SWOT analysis can help healthcare businesses to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats they face.

Let’s move ahead and have a better look at the state of digital marketing in healthcare.

Big Data:

Big Data has touched bits and pieces of every industry out there. Healthcare segment is a no exception. Companies around the world are gathering huge amounts of customer data, performing big data analytics and revamping their workflows. Demographics information generated from websites and applications is helping companies funnel down their marketing efforts. Big data analytics tells marketers how to determine and approach the target audience for a specific marketing campaign. Healthcare providers while pitching to hospital boards, investors and trustees can leverage the big data to make a stronger pitch than ever.

Rise of Video Content:

Videos are emerging as a major component of healthcare digital marketing practises across the world. Video is versatile and helps marketers provide a real picture of what’s going on. Integrating videos in marketing strategy can increase conversions by up to 80%. Dynamic storytelling of patient stories can be brought to life for everybody to see. This helps new visitors develop interest with the healthcare provider and get to the gist of a healthcare organization. Video is the perfect medium to render information related to complex health-related issues and diseases in a concise way.

Highly Personalized Campaigns:

It can be said that health is a personal subject. Companies today are leveraging personalized healthcare marketing to reach out to the right audience. Since one size doesn’t fit all, while reaching out to a potential patient or investor, you can leverage a Medical Case Study Template for PowerPoint and present information in a customized fashion. One should note that a person might seek medical care for a variety of reasons. It can be a desire for general wellness or life-threatening disease.

2020 is the year of customized digital marketing strategies in healthcare. An HCRM or healthcare CRM system is a beneficial tool for marketers to gather, store and organize data to build marketing campaigns. This process helps in reaching the customer on the right channel. The system is helping healthcare providers to attract a patient who would have otherwise looked elsewhere for the treatment.

Revamped Email Strategy:

A report by IBM Watson Marketing has revealed that 48% of healthcare segment emails were opened on smart devices while just 26% were opened on desktops. This confirms that email marketing is well alive even today. Email marketing has always been one of the most cost-effective, efficient and dedicated forms of communication with leads. Today, with the latest digital marketing technologies in healthcare, email marketing models can be revamped to suit the modern consumer.

Educational content tends to perform best when it comes to the healthcare industry as a whole. Email marketing can generate a call to action (CTA) if executed well. Healthcare providers can now give more detailed information about specific diagnosis and diseases to make customers informed and make the right choice.

Sailing on a pool of customer information and big data analytics, digital marketing is helping healthcare evolve with market-moving methodologies. Engaging multi-media content, when created for targeted outreach, can be a game-changer for healthcare organizations. The right content generates effective communication with the right customer. Digital marketing in healthcare is continuously boosting loyalty and patient engagement.

No idea of much on digital marketing? The24HourMarketer.com is a dedicated blog to learn the art of selling through online mediums and platforms. As it’s an era of digitization, so I feel everyone should be learning it to stay ahead everywhere and make a massive growth through marketing opportunities. 

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.