We have witnessed a rising trend in medical marketing mistakes across the board, according to recently published healthcare marketing reports by Smith and Jones 2020 and Smith and Jones 2022, digital marketing experts in the field of medicine.
A poorly planned marketing campaign leads to even worse execution. And poor execution won’t just prevent you from reaching your goal. It can potentially lead you in an entirely different and unintended direction.
Top 5 Medical Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
This post aims to help prevent you from wasting your money and time on the development of medical marketing strategies that won’t work.
As such, we went through the above-mentioned reports to find the five most common medical marketing mistakes to prevent.
Focusing on “Bestsellers”
To provide the right type of healthcare, you need to take care of your patients’ well-being in the most comprehensive manner possible.
For example, it’s not ideal to build a campaign around a single healthcare service (e.g. focus on capitalizing on flu season). Not only is it ethically questionable. It can also be dangerous for the future of your business.
If your marketing strategy brings a lot of people to your office, you will have to deal with an overcrowded waiting room. That could force you to make people wait far too long or to turn them away altogether.
In either scenario, your brand will be negatively impacted. First, they will have a poor experience and likely won’t come back. But also, they could give you negative reviews or tell everyone they know about it. Both of these would be bad for you.
Don’t your attention on making immediate cash by delivering one or two services.
Show the full array of your skills. Work on building a brand that stands for professionalism, dedication, and comprehensive healthcare service.
Lack of Campaign Analysis
As a medical professional, your focus should be servicing patients in a timely fashion. This is why you often don’t have the time to deal with every aspect of your ongoing campaign.
However, every once in a while it’s important to analyze your progress. It pays to know if you’re on the right path or not.
Identify the strengths of the clinic/doctor: profile directions, the competence of specialists, equipment, convenient location, etc.
Check out which aspects of your campaign are showing proper results. Alternatively, figure out how to adjust things that are not working within your marketing strategy.
Lack of Dedication to Social Media Audience Engagement
Social networks bring together billions of users on a monthly basis. This makes them a fertile soil for audience growth.
Boost engagement by posting engaging content which will elicit meaningful interactions like shares, comments, and likes. This will expand your organic reach, allowing you to be seen by friends and followers of your existing audience.
Perhaps you can post humorous content like doctor-oriented memes, or posts depicting funny office and waiting room situations.
One idea is to provide an alternative to serious scientific and health-related content. This will help you to display charisma and bring your entire community closer together.
To diversify your content a bit, ask for help from outside copywriters or an online digital marketing agency / consultant.
Diverse content can keep people engaged and make them more interested in your brand, because they recognize a touch of humanity in your online activities.
Additionally answer any messages you might receive. Responsiveness will build positive sentiment and provide you with a personal connection with your audience.
Lack of Interaction with the Audience
Doctor Sandra Lee (AKA Dr. Pimple Popper) started recording videos of her therapy sessions and uploading them to YouTube.
She later got her own television show. This is a clear testimony to her marketing success, which is mostly due to her constant interaction with the viewers.
Dr. Lee listened to questions, answered them in her videos, organized live streams, and engaged with her followers directly during the show.
If you do not want to create your own YouTube channel, try to create an Instagram or TikTok account, which are now at the peak of popularity.
Record short videos about life hacks in your medical field, about the results of your work “before” and “after”, about possible promotions, etc.
Take note that TikTok is most effective for reaching audiences between 18-and-34 years of age. Think of it as a complementary platform to others, but one that is fully worth considering.
Why TikTok? The competition is low. The audience capacity is high. And video is the most visible content format.
Therefore, consider launching your first advertising campaign in TikTok today.
Bad Branding
According to a recent survey, business owners place an expensive price tag on brand-related data. Around 94 percent of CEOs show real trust in information concerning their brand.
Branding is an important aspect of your marketing efforts, however, you’ll find it challenging to establish a recognizable and trustworthy brand.
Building a brand takes time, dedicated work, and consistency in your relationship with the patients.
To become a trusted brand, you have to walk the walk. Keep improving your services. Provide top-tier customer service. And do your best to maintain a loyal client base.
You simply can’t rush brand building by throwing money at it.
Let your practice build the brand while you focus on managing your business flow. Your brand vision is only as good as the team that works to make that vision true.
This is why it’s of paramount importance to keep your staff in line with the image you’re trying to establish.
Conclusion
There you have it: some of the most common medical marketing mistakes observed in the healthcare industry. Keep your mindset on your goal, and hone your strategy with precision.
If you notice the need for changes, don’t hesitate. Never forget that the success of your marketing efforts will depend on your content and the audience you’re targeting.
Feature Image Credit: CC0, via Anna Shvets from Pexels
Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this post are that of the author, and Return On Now may or may not agree with any or all of the commentary.
This guest post brought to you courtesy of Return On Now, Professional Austin SEO and PPC Services Company.
Mary Voss
Latest posts by Mary Voss (see all)
- 5 Medical Marketing Mistakes Doctors Make - January 4, 2022
