Healthcare performance marketing: a guide to attract more patients

Marketing Tech
January 29, 2023

The healthcare industry is increasingly reliant on performance marketing to attract more patients. With the cost of online ads increasing, healthcare providers must be strategic about their marketing efforts to maximize their return on investment. Fortunately, there are a number of different strategies that healthcare organizations can use to get the most out of their marketing budget. In this article, we’ll explore some of the best practices for healthcare performance marketing and how to make your campaigns as effective as possible.

What is healthcare performance marketing?

Healthcare performance marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on attracting more patients to a healthcare facility. It is a relatively new field, and there are not many standards or guidelines yet. However, the general idea is to use data and analytics to identify which marketing channels are most effective at reaching potential patients. Then, healthcare performance marketers focus their efforts on those channels to get the best return on investment.

There are a few different ways that healthcare performance marketing can be used to attract more patients. First, it can be used to target specific demographics that are most likely to use the healthcare facility. For example, if a hospital wants to increase the number of pediatric patients, they would focus their marketing efforts on families with young children. Second, healthcare performance marketing can be used to create customized messages that appeal to each individual patient’s needs. For example, a cancer center could create an ad campaign that targets people who have recently been diagnosed with cancer.

Third, healthcare performance marketing can be used to track and measure results so that the effectiveness of the campaigns can be constantly improved. For example, if a hospital notices that its Facebook ads are not getting as many clicks as it would like, it could test out different images or messaging until it finds something that works better. By constantly testing and tweaking its campaigns, a healthcare facility can gradually increase the number of patients it attracts over time.

Why healthcare marketing is important?

There are a number of reasons why healthcare marketing is important. First, it can help to attract more patients to your practice or hospital. By creating a strong marketing campaign, you can reach a wider audience and convince potential patients that your facility is the best option for their needs. Additionally, healthcare marketing can help to improve the quality of care that patients receive. By making your facility's services and offerings more visible, you can encourage patients to seek out your care rather than that of other providers. Finally, healthcare marketing can also help to boost your bottom line. By bringing in more patients, you can increase your revenues and better support your staff and facilities.

What are some strategies for healthcare performance marketing?

There are a number of strategies that healthcare performance marketers can use to attract more patients. Some of these include:

1. Creating Compelling Content: One way to attract more patients is by creating compelling content that speaks to their needs and interests. This could include blog posts, infographics, eBooks, or even video content. Make sure your content is easy to consume and provides value if you want to see results.

2. Leveraging Social Media: Another great way to reach more potential patients is through social media. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer vast audiences that you can tap into with the right message. Use social media to share your content, run ads, or even just interact with potential patients on a personal level.

3. Using Paid Advertising: If you want to reach an even larger audience, paid advertising could be the way to go. Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads allow you to target specific demographics with your advertising campaigns. Paid advertising can be expensive, but it can also be very effective if done correctly.

4. Hosting Events and Webinars: Events and webinars are another great way to connect with potential patients and promote your healthcare practice or brand. These events give you the chance to share valuable information with attendees while also building deeper relationships with them. Just make sure you promote your event properly so that people actually show up!

Challenges & Performance Marketing Solutions in the Healthcare Industry

Personalized messaging

Personalization is an important factor in the healthcare industry when it comes to marketing efforts. This can be achieved through utilizing patient data to create targeted messaging and implementing personalized landing pages and email campaigns. Engaging, personalized marketing is possible in healthcare as the industry progresses its emphasis from just treating symptoms and illnesses when they arise to helping patients live healthier lives. This presents a prime opportunity for marketers to give lifestyle-focused advertising on topics such as healthy eating, preventative screenings and chronic disease management. Not only should this prove advantageous for marketers, but also for consumers who will benefit from personalized communications.

Insurance-Focused marketing ads

Leading customers to a product is just the beginning. Healthcare marketers should create campaigns that capture both patients and decision makers within the patient care system. Cultivating strong relationships with providers, payers and insurance companies can reap big rewards — as seen with pharmaceuticals over the years. Direct mail is an effective way to build meaningful relationships that often get overlooked in an ever- digitizing market. Dimensional mail, for instance, and personalized gift boxes place a tangible reminder of your brand’s value in hands of potential customers and stakeholders more likely to respond favorably.

Building trust

Healthcare consumers have a lot of information to go through, and they expect precision and personalized service in return. Establishing trust is the key here: by being transparent about costs and ease of access, sharing customer satisfaction stories, and engaging with patients through NPS scoring, you can build up faith in your brand.

Discovering the audience metrics

Knowing which demographic you're aiming for with your healthcare campaigns is crucial. Having the data to target them makes it even easier, but how should you locate them? It can be difficult to fathom the varied habits of consumers in the vast healthcare sector – and trying to accurately figure out where people look for information about companies can be quite a challenge.

How can you measure the success of your healthcare performance marketing campaigns?

There are a number of ways you can measure the success of your healthcare performance marketing campaigns. One way is to track the number of new patients that you attract through your campaigns. Another way is to track the amount of online traffic that your campaign generates. You can also track how many leads and sales you generate through your campaign. Finally, you can also track the ROI of your campaign by measuring how much revenue you generate for every dollar you spend on your campaign.

Conclusion

Healthcare performance marketing is a great way to attract more patients to your practice. By understanding the principles of healthcare performance marketing, you can create effective campaigns that will drive results and help you grow your patient base. Additionally, by leveraging data-driven insights and focusing on delivering quality content and services, you can ensure that your healthcare practice stands out among the competition in an increasingly competitive marketplace. With these tactics in mind, you can be confident that your healthcare practice is well-positioned for long-term success.