10 Ways to Start Your Healthcare Marketing Game Strong in 2020

by Kanika Ahuja Digital Marketer

To make your life easier, we compiled our favorite tips from our most popular healthcare marketing blogs of 2019. And if you want a deeper dive, we also included links to the original posts and relevant articles. Incorporate these strategies into your organization’s marketing plan, and set yourself up for success this year!

1. Include Instagram and Facebook Stories in your hospital’s social media strategy:

Stories are easy to create, visible for 24 hours (no worrying about the ideal time to post!) and a top way to increase organic search on Instagram.

If you’re not yet using this fun, personal method of connecting with potential patients, 2020 is the time to start.

2. Amp up physician bios by using quotes from doctors:

Write a bio that impacts. Provider profiles should reflect your team’s passion for what they do

3. Write physician bios that highlight the info people are looking for:

Our research on provider profiles uncovered the 3 details potential patients want to know most:

Does this doctor:

• Have experience treating their condition?

• Have a notable educational background?

• Accept their insurance?

Make Sure Your Healthcare Marketing is on Track: 7 More Tips

4. Writing about sensitive healthcare topics? Talk about people, not conditions:

You would never write, “Bob is diabetes.” Because a person isn’t their condition — the condition is something they have or experience. Use the same approach when writing about mental health. Know more of this at Digital Technology Institute

5. Don’t pad content to hit a word-count goal:

SEO experts agree there should be a 300-word count minimum for most webpages. But adding flabby, unfocused content to meet that word count won’t help. Focus on:

• Creating content your audience will value

• Answering your audience’s questions

6. Give readers quick facts and visuals as well as long-form content:

We love this infographic Leftover Lessons: What’s Safe to Eat and What’s Not from OhioHealth. It cuts to the chase with large visuals and minimal text. And people who want to know more can read the blog post under the infographic.

Make the rapid scanners and deep-divers joyful by writing a blog post and then revolving it into an infographic.

7. Cut ineffective web content:

The most effective content solves a problem or answers a question. During a content audit, take stock of that useful, valuable content. And be ruthless when consolidating or deleting the rest.

8. Go beyond personas: Consider the real-life experience of a person with a condition:

Characters allow us to adapt content to meet users’ surface-level needs. But to make your readers feel truly understood, you have to go deeper. Get to the heart of your readers’ experiences:

• Read disease-specific blogs

• Spend time in digital health communities

• Talk to subject matter experts

9. Must-have: Patient education material:

Patient education content is the content you may think of as boring, standard or unnecessary: It describes conditions, tests and treatments. But it answers readers’ questions and helps them connect with your organization. Make a lasting impression by giving people the information they need right from the start.

Patient education content also increases:

• SEO

• Users’ time on your site

• Organic search

10. Plan on a website update or overhaul every 3 years:

Even if your organization or its offerings haven’t changed, other factors do, such as Google’s algorithm and general web writing best practices. About 3 years is a good benchmark for a full revamp.