Marketing generally focuses on how companies can better attract customers who will hopefully go on to buy tangible products. However, healthcare that’s classified as a service industry because it doesn’t provide that same tangibility doesn’t necessarily fit within that same scope, especially when you consider that marketers here are targeting patients rather than customers.
While lines between patients and customers are becoming increasingly blurred, this is an imperative differentiation because patients seek service for entirely different reasons. They aren’t here to have fun or to shop around for the best deal – they’re more likely frightened, and reliant on the best possible professional oversight regardless of cost. Hence, patients are typically far less forgiving of poor services. They’re also entirely untouched by many of the standard marketing techniques. All of which begs that question, what exactly does a patient-centric marketing drive look like?
Step 1: Value your leads
As stated by medical tech marketer Jerome Clavel, it’s important to value your leads in any marketing drive. That said, applying this level of nurturing and respect is especially imperative for patients seeking support. Providers who collect information or resources without putting in any effort themselves are especially unlikely to succeed. Instead, patient handling requires gentle, ongoing focuses, including basics like regularly updated content that outlines relevant studies or reviews, and even ongoing personalized emails (as we’ll discuss a little more later) that always ensure patients feel listened to.
Step 2: Inform rather than sell
A sales focus is perhaps the prime difference between traditional and patient-led marketing. Rather than pushing products, patient-centric efforts should center around valuable information that reassures and advises patients who aren’t necessarily looking to ‘buy’ in the normal way. As well as helping you to feel like a trusted resource rather than just another noisy company, informative blog posts, infographics, and beyond can especially help you to feel like an authority in your field, thus both increasing your chances at organic traffic (specifically fuelled by Google medical searches), and increasing your opportunities to turn those potential opportunities into all-important patients.
Step 3: Make it personal
Much like lead value, the importance of personalization is quickly making itself known across all marketing avenues, especially as digital marketing makes this a much easier goal to achieve. For patients seeking sensitive and incredibly personal professional oversight, however, personalized marketing focuses are even more essential. Simple things, like tailoring website content towards specific medical search terms or activity, as well as personal email taglines and, of course, patient support, have all proven especially rewarding in this sense. In each instance, you prove to potential patients that you’re listening, that you care, and that you can provide the support they so badly need.
Marketing in a healthcare field can feel like learning to walk all over again, especially if you’ve been stuck on traditional customer-led marketing campaigns until now. However, targeting patients needn’t be as difficult as you think, and simply requires your ability to tap into a more human side of your efforts here using these tips.
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