Ten Healthcare Digital Marketing Actions To Improve ROI -John G. Baresky
A Marketplace Fluid With Change Offers Challenges And Opportunities For Strategic Digital Marketing And Sales Initiatives
Consumers, patients, clinicians, payers and other stakeholders across the healthcare industry coexist in a digital ocean of information sharing and data generation. Healthcare marketers of products and services live here as well and seek to maintain existing connections with customers and make new ones as more digital marketing options and venues emerge. Customer preferences, new digital technology and advancements in healthcare have a shared inertia healthcare marketers have to furiously paddle in to effectively compete. These are 10 recommendations to increase sales and ROI while keeping your healthcare digital marketing initiatives swimming ahead of the competition.
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Strategic Technical Spending Guides Digital Marketing
Review existing expenditures on basic technical budgets. Revisit IT contracts, hardware costs, programming and other vendor arrangements; assertively negotiate for lower prices and/or more services. Funding made available from these tangible cost reductions can be applied to existing or new digital initiatives and adding more services can reinforce them.
Clinical / Financial Connection
Healthcare is “clinical and financial”. Review your content and medical information made available to consumers, patients, clinicians and other stakeholders. Is your content a resource for audience decision-makers and is it readily accessible? A proven way to establish leadership in healthcare is to promote the deep clinical and financial value of a brand and the company’s expertise; authenticate it through your digital presence.
Fine-Tune Functionality
Does your website function as it should? Like a house, a website can always use a little work somewhere. A hinge squeaks, a window doesn’t open/close easily, a storm door doesn’t latch, a kitchen drawer sticks. Find these quirks in your website, you probably already know where they are. Fix the issues before others emerge; avoid having ongoing website maintenance turn into an overhaul.
Dark Social Insights
Few healthcare companies have a formal way to look behind the curtain to know how content and other brand-relevant dialogue is shared between users and not reflected in analytics. Develop a pathway into Dark Social to get insights leading to a competitive edge. Evaluate existing and new tools to measure Dark Social and a process to apply them; convert Dark Social into standard digital/market intelligence.
Website Analytics Management Improvement
Analytics abound; brand teams, sales units, market researchers and digital agencies are awash in reporting. Sharing more data doesn’t mean digital insights are commensurately better. Prioritize improvement of what is most useful and what new data is needed with distinct planning and goals. Reduce redundancies, streamline analytics, reduce costs; maximize efficient sharing of key details.
Mobile-Friendly Is The Standard Set By Google
Be all you can be on mobile. Google notes over 54% of its queries are through it. Healthcare is a hothouse for mobile; your mobile presence should be friendly and fortified for consumers, patients, clinicians and other stakeholders. Don’t forget about the onslaught of new offerings; a great example of this for teleconferencing, market research and other uses is the Houseparty app.
ROI and KPIs Of Digita Marketing Define Success Based On Measurement
Budget categories in digital healthcare marketing are complex. There are physician and patient websites, mobile, inbound marketing / lead generation functions, e-commerce platforms, social media sharing initiatives and others. Inevitably, the ROI of each will change. Some need more to increase effectiveness; others diminish no matter how much is allocated to them. Make smart decisions, take action, boost your sales lead generation opportunities and ROI.
Face-To-Face With Strategic Customers
Have a conversation with strategic customers (KOLs, health systems, MCO, PBMs, etc.) based on a formal agenda focused on digital healthcare. Know their thoughts about your digital offerings and how they feel about those of competitors. Learn what their digital challenges are and what digital marketing initiatives they have underway. Assess if your digital marketing is keeping up with the industry.
Always Align With Sales
Determine how aligned digital marketing initiatives are with Sales objectives and company revenue goals. Misalignment will result in disappointing ROI. As healthcare, competitive positions and digital venues rapidly change, it’s easy for Sales and digital marketing initiatives to disconnect. Strengthen the Sales and digital marketing tandem to stay connected with customers, disadvantage competitors and optimize ROI.
Exploration
The variety of digital marketing, social media and e-commerce options grow. Instagram, Pinterest and others are still largely uncharted waters. Amazon is assertively advancing in healthcare. As your company and digital marketing initiatives pivot based on industry change and competitive measures, reassess options not applicable earlier; explore new ones to connect with established and new customers, outflank rivals.
Decision Time
Consider these recommendations and focus on a couple most relevant to your digital healthcare marketing and sales initiatives. Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube are always on the move — as are competitor websites and social media actions — don’t fall behind. Account for your brand and product management goals then make a plan, set a goal and sail ahead. A quick win is an immediate benefit; the larger tasks can serve as continuous improvement in your processes and effectiveness. Each sharpens your digital marketing efforts, customer engagement, sales / lead generation and competitive effectiveness with a positive ROI.
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Learn more about the healthcare industry; read my articles about its medical and business trends, content marketing and digital strategy, brand and product management, mergers and acquisitions, consumer wellness, managed care and market access strategy.
About me
Hi, my name is John Baresky ( pronounced “ buh — ress — key “) and I have over 25 years of experience in healthcare.
Throughout my career, I have been writing about healthcare while developing and sharing important information with physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other clinicians plus consumers, patients, healthcare business professionals, investors and other stakeholders.
Healthcare is a vast industry. I organize its clinical, business, academic, technical and consumer topics into precise messages and stories that are easily understood and immediately useful. The content I write resonates across audiences with objective accuracy and clarity.
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