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Whether you’re just starting out or an experienced marketer looking for a refresher, understanding some of the core basics of healthcare marketing is vital to the success of your marketing efforts! After all, you can’t build without a solid foundation.
This is especially true when it comes to online efforts, as the internet is an ever-shifting landscape fueled by transformation and innovation. Keeping in mind some of the most important basics of online marketing can be what makes the ultimate difference in your next project!
Know Your Core Audience
Being able to identify and find your target audience might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how easy it can be to lose track of this fundamental. Sometimes, reacquainting yourself with who you’re marketing to, can be just what you need to overcome any roadblocks or to help generate a new idea on where to take your next step.
It’s always a good idea to step back and ask yourself some things about your target audience:
- What is my ideal demographic? Age, gender, occupation?
- How big is my audience? Is it niche or broad?
- What unique value does my company offer our target audience? What exactly are they looking for?
- Would my audience appreciate a more professional or a more casual approach?
- How and where do my audience primarily spend their time online? What platforms would they most likely find their career information?
- What healthcare background might my audience have? What may they be looking for, or expecting, from their healthcare-related searches?
Asking and answering these basic questions can open the door to identifying more complex, detailed aspects of your target audience. It can help you better narrow down what marketing methods would work best for them. And when it comes to any project, nothing is more important than knowing your client!
Maximize Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO (Search Engine Optimization), is an indispensable part of online marketing. If you’re unaware, SEO is knowing how to best workshop your online efforts in order to get them at the top of search engine results. Factors like tagging, formatting, and word choice all impact the likelihood of your campaign showing up for your intended audience. Understanding SEO and how to maximize its potential is imperative to making sure your content reaches those who need it the most!
This is also why knowing your consumer base is always relevant, as you’ll need to be able to see things from their perspectives. What are they going to be searching for? What particular words are they going to type into the search bar? What phrases will stick out and make them click on your link?
These are just some of the essential questions you need to answer when it comes to SEO. And when it comes to healthcare marketing, it’s imperative to stay in the know of the latest healthcare trends in order to know what keywords would thrive best in searches. SEO is a detailed system in its own right, requiring essential research, skill, and time invested. But if you put in the effort, then you’ll see measurable improvements in your online campaigns!
Maintain a Well-Designed Website
First impressions can make or break your campaign, especially online. If your customer clicks on your link but finds themselves faced with a website that’s unresponsive, laggy, disorganized, or even ugly or dated-looking, then they’re very likely to click right back off.
People like things to be aesthetically pleasing and efficient, especially when it comes to professional searches. How your website looks and feels reflects on your company, making it vital in knowing how to best present it. Healthcare marketing is all about speed, precision, and ensuring you’re getting the right message out!
When it comes to designing and programming your website, there are a number of key questions to ask yourself:
- Does it look good? You want your website to look clean and sharp—easy to read and easier to navigate. First impressions can make or break your first-time customers!
- How does it function on desktop and mobile? It doesn’t matter how good your website looks if it can barely load! Be sure to keep both platforms in mind while coding your website and formatting your posts.
- Is your information well-organized? Be sure to have your most essential information above the fold (i.e. everything at the top half of your page that customers will first see after clicking your link) without any additional scrolling or clicking. Putting in the effort to skillfully title, organize, and design your information will do wonders for the accessibility of your campaign.
Keep Your Branding Consistent
You want your company to be instantly recognizable offline, online, and anywhere your brand has presence. Consistency should be maintained for your company, such as where you promote yourself, who you promote to, what information and trends you specialize in, how you present it, and how you engage with your audience . Consistency is essential in building trust and maintaining your audience’s loyalty—and catching the eye of anyone new.
Consistency not only helps build trust and brand recognition but also makes it easier for you to plan and develop your healthcare marketing campaigns. Knowing how you traditionally present your brand can help you streamline future projects. What direction would be considered new, fresh, daring? What would be familiar and comforting to your customers? What will and will not fit with your brand? Sometimes, stepping back and reassessing your brand image can be exactly what you need to develop your next big marketing strategy!
Focus on Retention
While expanding your reach is always an ideal goal to strive towards, it’s critical that you don’t forget about your already established audience. Your existing consumer base is what helped build and support your company, so you want to be sure you never leave them behind! Balancing a persistent connection with your existing audience while simultaneously branching out to find new people is an essential skill to cultivate.
(P.S) Your original audience can also act as a safety net for when you decide to take any risks. Because even if you fail in your attempts to branch into new markets, as long as you have kept your core audience in mind, then you’ll still have them there to support you!
Be sure to maintain consistent content aimed at your current customers, often by keeping them updated on your latest news and being willing to reach out, engage, and consider feedback from them. This can bolster your reputation and motivate word-of-mouth marketing, which can actually be one of the most effective forms of marketing overall!
Explore More Rave Health
Want to learn more about healthcare marketing? Looking for the next big healthcare event or the latest trends? Then be sure to check out our other blog posts and follow us on LinkedIn in order to find all the information you need to supercharge your marketing campaign!
