What is a healthcare digital strategy, why is it important, and how do you create one that’ll generate a return on investment?

Every effective digital marketing campaign requires a strategy. Without a proven plan, resources can become wasted, time lost, and money misused while the success of your campaign goes down the drain.

Despite appearing an obvious part of the process, 50% of digital marketers do not incorporate a content strategy into their campaigns.

Read on to discover how you can establish an effective healthcare digital marketing strategy for SEO, PPC, and social media.

What is a digital healthcare strategy?

Determining a digital marketing strategy for your healthcare business will require establishing achievable goals through various online marketing channels. So, developing a marketing strategy is essentially creating a plan of action to achieve the most effective results from your campaigns.

You must assess resources, manage expectations, and conduct market and competitor research before even comprehending content creation.

Types of online channels a digital marketing strategy can address include the following:

  • SEO (Search engine optimisation)
  • Content marketing
  • PPC (Pay-per-Click)/ Paid advertising
  • Social media marketing
  • Email marketing
  • Advertising
  • Programmatic advertising
  • Video marketing
  • Web analytics Webinars

While some of these marketing disciplines undoubtedly overlap and interrelate, it does show the extent of what a digital marketing strategy can encompass. And the more marketing components involved, the need for a quality strategy becomes even more apparent.

Delivering a streamlined digital marketing strategy is perhaps best encapsulated by an omnichannel marketing plan.

Its focus is to provide an integrated consumer journey across multiple marketing channels, promoting products and services with unified messaging while updating and adapting to consumer behaviour depending on what stage of the journey they’ve reached.

The brands that offer excellent omnichannel customer engagement retain an average of 89% of their customers. Compare this to the 33% with weak omnichannel marketing, we see the power omnichannel systems possess.   

Why is a digital strategy important for my healthcare business?

Maximising your budget, resources, personnel, and time is only possible by integrating a comprehensive strategy from the beginning.

The multiple benefits of establishing a plan for your marketing campaigns include the following:

  • Clear direction – Achieve goals byallocating your resources to the right areas. Analyse individual marketing activity performances across the overall strategy and adjust accordingly.
  • Market understanding – Understand the demand for your digital services across the healthcare industry. Evaluate patient online behaviour and profiles alongside competitor strengths and weaknesses.
  • Oust your competition – On the back of market research, you should build your healthcare business to differentiate from your rivals. Analysing the areas your competition lacks can leave a space for your business to rise above them.
  • Target audience – A crucial part of your digital strategy should be researching your target audience. Generating a higher level of understanding will inform your marketing strategy and content creation.
  • Maximise time and resources – One singular marketing strategy that encompasses all online channels will streamline operations to perform simultaneously.

How to maximise the impact of your PPC healthcare strategy

Achieving a successful PPC campaign requires building on strong foundations across search engines and social media paid advertising. 

A solid PPC strategy for your healthcare brand will involve the following stages:

  • Select an account structure to determine the level of control – Segmented (maximum control), Consolidated (medium control), Hybrid (flexible control)
  • Quality conversions – Apply conversion goals determined in your marketing strategy to focus on ideal conversion types
  • Optimise bidding – Enhance CPC (Cost per click) alongside value-based and non-value-based bidding strategies
  • Introduce a funnel-based strategy – Combine keyword intent with ads and campaigns along the funnel
  • Boost attribution profile – Credit keyword and consumer behaviour with complete funnel analysis

Reducing Google Ads costs and improving PPC lead quality can be achieved by following the steps above. However, the nature of securing high-quality leads is more expensive as they are the leads who become genuine patients.

Apply machine learning to optimise bidding, segmentation, and an expanding audience to maximise the potential of your PPC marketing strategy.

How to create a long-lasting SEO healthcare strategy

Google quickly becomes an obvious choice for trying to grow organically and improve your online presence. Get to the top of search engine results, and you will no doubt secure new patients while boosting your brand awareness.

SEO can provide your healthcare brand with a long-term marketing strategy. However, it requires optimising your website and any other online content with high-quality, fool-proof content. Optimising for SEO purposes involves implementing the following techniques:

  • Use an SEO software tool such as SEMrush or analytics to research keywords, long-tail keywords, and competitor websites
  • Apply relevant keywords to your healthcare products, services, or treatments
  • Avoid stuffing keywords (keyword density 1-2%)
  • Place relevant long-tail keywords as headers or separate pages
  • Apply additional web pages with valuable SEO content (Blogs, articles, medical journals, etc.)
  • Optimise visual features
  • Upgrade your website speed, security, and smartphone use
  • Evaluate the quality of off-site factors (Links, social media)
  • Regularly update your Google Business Profile for local SEO purposes   

Better SEO rankings will increase the number of patients alongside boosting your credibility as a healthcare brand. Integrate these phases for an effective SEO strategy and begin to generate organic traffic to your healthcare website.

How to build a social media healthcare strategy that drives more engagement

Social media is becoming a reliable resource for patients and improving their connection with healthcare providers. Take the time to select the ideal social media platform that suits your healthcare brand, as it’s unlikely your business will translate across the entire social spectrum.

However, with direct associations with potential misinformation, healthcare professionals need to be careful they don’t smear the good name of their professionalism with potential disruptive external factors entering their online interactions.

The main aim of your social media strategy should begin by building trust with your existing and potential patients. Gaining valuable patient insights can be achieved through “social listening”, where you obtain data through social media research and measure feedback from numerous patients.

A social media marketing strategy should include the following stages:

  • Utilise social media channels to listen and respond to patient queries and needs
  • Ensure your content and processes remain compliant with healthcare regulations
  • Educate, update, and share valuable content
  • Stay secure and ensure access to your profile is limited to the right people
  • Invest in influencers/experts to promote your products, treatments, and services

Social media offers an immense opportunity for healthcare brands to build a healthy online community. You can educate, inform, and connect with patients, reducing costs and saving time.

Patients can also share their positive experiences with reviews and ratings to help build brand authority, attract new patients, and boost SEO performance.

Not sure where to start with your digital healthcare strategy?

At Amay Digital, we believe organisation is the key to marketing success, which is why we always recommend outsourcing any areas you feel will take up your valuable time.

As healthcare marketing specialists, we can help you develop an effective and efficient digital healthcare strategy designed to maximise your ROI.

Our services include PPC, SEO, social media Management, and website development.

Get in touch today to see how we can help your healthcare business thrive.

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