5 Steps to Building a Healthcare Marketing Plan You Can Be Proud Of
Make This Your Most Growth-Focused Year Yet
As a practice owner, a well-structured healthcare marketing plan is one of your greatest assets. But marketing doesn’t have to be your forte, or even in your wheelhouse! The experts at Practis can create a personalized healthcare marketing plan based on your unique growth goals, letting you focus on doing what you do best: caring for patients.
Also see: 5 Modern Strategies for Effective Healthcare Marketing
What is a Healthcare Marketing Plan?
Revised and refreshed healthcare marketing plans are essential, especially in the healthcare industry. Every year, new opportunities emerge to engage patients, increase acquisition, streamline patient onboarding, and share your unique offering with your community.
A healthcare marketing plan is a roadmap specifically tailored to your practice’s mission, vision, and goals. When carefully crafted, your medical marketing plan should succeed at boosting your reputation in the industry, bringing in more patients, and promoting your services to the right people at the right time.
Benefits of a Healthcare Marketing Plan
Not all marketing plans are a success. Below are the markers of a medical marketing strategy that was thoughtfully built around SMART goals, the latest digital marketing trends, and a patient-centric philosophy:
- Trust-Building: A great medical marketing strategy helps you showcase patient success stories and share valuable information unique to your specialty, boosting patient trust and helping establish you as a credible, reliable source of information and guidance.
- Market Differentiation: Healthcare is a crowded landscape, so maintaining your competitive edge is essential. One of the best ways to stand out is through creative healthcare marketing strategies that capture people’s attention and interest while highlighting your unique philosophy and offering.
- Reputation Management: Most new patients will find you online, and the majority of them read past patient reviews. As a practice owner, you know how much a lack of reviews or a single negative review can impact your reputation. Reputation management strategies empower you with more and better quality reviews, letting your years of expertise and professionalism shine.
- Patient Engagement & Acquisition: Today, many relationships start online. And patient-provider relationships are no different. A successful healthcare marketing strategy builds strong relationships through community outreach, social media engagement, and interactive features that help patients feel confident choosing your practice.
Components of a Savvy Healthcare Marketing Plan
Every healthcare marketing plan is unique, but every successful healthcare marketing plan includes the same essential components. These components are tailored to the healthcare industry, which has unique marketing needs and requirements.
- Identify the Target Audience – In your business plan, you explored your target audience in depth. Your medical marketing strategy will revisit these patient personas to create custom marketing techniques that suit the behaviors and needs of your target audience, ensuring the messaging resonates.
- Conduct Market Research and Analysis – At some point, possibly during your business planning stage, you conducted market research. But regularly refreshing your knowledge of the marketing landscape is essential. Comprehensive marketing research includes analyzing competitor strategies, industry trends, and patient habits to devise a savvy medical marketing plan.
- Develop Strategic Messaging – One of the most critical components of your healthcare marketing plan is your messaging. Digital marketing experts can help you hone your message to craft a marketing strategy that addresses patient pain points while highlighting your practice’s unique value proposition.
- Define Measurable KPIs – KPIs (key performance indicators) will help you track performance metrics, and might include elements like patient satisfaction scores, patient inquiries, conversion rates, web traffic, or ROI from your latest marketing strategies.
- Develop Multichannel Marketing Strategies – The experts at Practis can help you leverage multiple channels to see optimal outcomes from your marketing efforts. These channels could include a combination of traditional (radio or print) and digital marketing tactics (social media, content marketing, website optimization) as well as community engagement initiatives and email campaigns.
Types of Healthcare Marketing Plans
Healthcare Social Media Marketing Plan
Social media gives your practice the opportunity to connect with patients, reach a new audience, and solidify your brand. By creating and posting targeted social media content, you keep an ongoing relationship with existing patients while attracting new patients through various social outlets. Ideally, your social media management plan engages patients in a professional but fun manner, solidifying your practice as a trusted, involved specialist in your community.
Online Reputation Management Plan
Whether your practice currently has an outstanding rating, a mediocre rating, or a lack of reviews, monitoring and responding to online feedback is critical. Through online review management, Practis can help you develop HIPAA-compliant responses to your positive and negative reviews, boosting trust and improving your online reputation.
Medical Content Marketing Plan
Your online content is one of the most important factors connecting you to potential and existing patients. Clear, reliable information that’s up-to-date and well written helps position your practice as credible and trustworthy, making it an important element in building trust. Your medical content marketing plan might include SEO blog articles, SEO site optimization, licensed healthcare content, patient education videos, and a patient education library.
Email Marketing Plan
Email marketing for medical practices is one of the best ways to build long-lasting patient-provider relationships. Whether your email campaigns focus on informational newsletters or individualized patient education, email marketing keeps your practice top of mind. Automating patient communication lets you to save time, boost efficiency, and improve the patient experience, all while offering valuable information and insights your patients can appreciate and pass along.
Build a Winning Medical Marketing Plan With Practis
Partner with Practis today, and see for yourself what a strategic healthcare marketing plan can do for your practice in 2024. Whether you want to explore email marketing, reputation management, healthcare SEO, or all of the above, the Practis team is ready to help you reach your growth goals this year and every year.