Most of the time our clients – doctors, hospitals, PathLabs, and healthcare professionals – are apprehensive about opting for a digital marketing agency. Some are burned to a point where they do not even want to consider digital marketing as an option. Instead, they prefer to stick to the traditional methods which do not help them in achieving their marketing goals.
We understand their apprehension. Being the only healthcare digital marketing in India founded and run by a doctor, we know the feeling of being let down; of false promises and tall orders taking a toll on the healthcare professional’s mindset. Every marketing agency thinks they can work wonders for their clients since they have prior experience in the service industry, failing to realise that it doesn’t work the same way for doctors, clinics, and hospitals.
Healthcare digital marketing services in India are completely different from other verticals. It needs a unique digital marketing approach along with the knowledge of medical fundamentals. After talking to many of our clients (and reinstating their belief in healthcare social media marketing) we have listed down a few pointers that can help you in recognising the mistakes your digital marketing agency is making at your expense:
1) Not targeting the right audience:
The first mistake a digital marketing agency makes, for its healthcare client, is not grasping that the consumers of the healthcare industry are different from the consumers of other sectors. A good healthcare digital marketing agency knows that here the consumers are either anxious patients or their next-of-kin looking to find a solution for their health problem. These are the people who are usually in distress, are in discomfort and have a lot of anxiety. Now, if a consumer is searching for a doctor for heart-related trouble and your profile as a skin-care expert shows up on their search as part of the targeted reach, you know it isn’t going to work – either for you or the patient.
Instead of this your profile should pop up to a person searching for solutions to get rid of their skin pigmentation or acne problems and are living in the vicinity of your clinic. Targeting specifically to such an audience needs an in-depth knowledge of patient behaviour.
Each medical speciality is different from the other, needing deep, extensive research and definitive targeting. Applying a ‘To each, its own’ marketing strategy is extremely important in the healthcare sector.
2) Not prioritizing trust:
The second most common mistake digital marketing agencies make is to go for a quick sell instead of prioritizing trust. For healthcare social media marketing, patients are the targeted audience. And for patients to share their problems and issues with you they need to trust you first. This trust can be built by focusing on advising the best way forward for their problems instead of hard-selling them your services. Digital marketing agencies do not prioritize the patient-first approach because this results in delayed gratification in terms of conversion and metrics.
3) Not understanding the medical marketing ethics correctly:
In the medical world, there’s a very fine line between what can be taken as a good healthcare marketing technique and what can be construed as an unethical practice. The difference can only be understood either by a medical professional or someone who has been serving in the healthcare industry for long. General marketing agencies are usually not aware of this thin line and get to know about it only after it backfires costing you a lot more than just a penalty.
4) Redirecting audiences on the wrong page:
This cannot be stressed enough. If your digital marketing agency forwards all your traffic to a generalized webpage then you are in for a lot of costly trouble. To understand this, lets assume that a prospective client wants a quick look at the easiest ways to reduce cholesterol and your marketing partner leads him to the ‘contact us’ or the ‘home page’ of your website. The client will simply shift this attention to another page that holds the answers he is seeking, making you lose a prospective patient. Your digital marketing agency should also emphasize having a well-designed, easy-to-navigate and optimized website with timely updates.
5) Not believing in ‘Less is more’:
For every other industry advertising to the max may be good for conversion but with healthcare digital marketing, less is more. One of the reasons why your digital marketing agency could not deliver expected results is that it was ‘over-selling’ your services. As a doctor or a hospital targeting people into conversion by popping up on every webpage they visit is not a good idea. The intention should be to create awareness rather than being irritating.
6) Not promoting ‘You’ as a brand:
This is a crucial mistake a non-experienced marketing agency makes. They do not quite understand the nuances of the healthcare industry. Or the benefits of having a good healthcare social media marketing strategy. Half the cure to any of the problems is when your patients believe in ‘you’ as their doctor. See, the patients do not know the medicine or the treatment. They put faith in the doctor’s ability and trust them for the best line of treatment. Regardless of the world-class services your hospital or clinic may provide, if the patients don’t believe in your capabilities, they won’t seek your services.
Faith and trust are the only way prospective clients will be able to convert into your patients. Good healthcare digital marketing agency understands how crucial this element is for successful conversions and incorporates trust-building actions as part of the digital marketing strategy.
7) Thinking short-term:
In the quest of showing quick results in a short time, digital marketing agencies think of short-term gains and strategies. Results are enticing but, believe us when we say, it is a long-term strategy that pays off in a greater number of conversions as far as the healthcare industry is concerned. A good healthcare digital marketing agency focuses on providing quality over numbers; providing benefits to the patients to build a trustworthy relationship with audiences. The long-term effect of this will look more enticing than the shorter one.
Conclusion:
Healthcare digital marketing services, especially in India, are different and needs an unparalleled marketing perspective. You, as a healthcare professional - by the very nature of your work, are extremely busy and stressed for time. A healthcare digital marketing agency should be able to unburden you of the digital marketing woes and not increase them. Choosing the wrong marketing partner will make you pull out your hair on the easiest days, but with the right healthcare social media marketing partner this will become a joyous and fruitful ride of a lifetime. Let’s not forget that a healthcare marketing agency should make your digital journey easy, not difficult.
