Introduction

Why do healthcare professionals/owners should know about digital marketing? How traditional marketing is different from digital marketing? Don’t you think we should know whether we are getting desired returns of our marketing expenses? If yes can it be measured? Find out solutions, how to increase patients traffic, understanding important aspects of digital marketing in healthcare. If you are looking for this, then the article is just for you.

A brief about Marketing

Most healthcare professionals feel marketing is all about only creativity but believes me once you go through the entire article you will agree that marketing is all about science because marketing happens before a product is created which includes who is your customer and what it needs. Once we understand we can design a product that will fit it into that block. All of us doing it but not aware e.g while designing a pathology test for diabetes we combine fasting sugar, HbA1c, postprandial, s creatine, and blood urea, etc. A package for delivery for pregnant patients.

In Marketing, things happen when we send the right message to the right patient at a right time. When we keep our patients satisfied, they remain with us for a long time. We need not sell our medical services again and again it happens on its own. The big question is how this will happen we cannot reach each and every patient. Now here comes the importance of digital marketing. So the concept of mass trust comes.

Healthcare organization marketing purpose is to build a brand and occupy a space in the mind of patients. You are already aware of FORTIS, MEDANTHA, NARAYANA, APOLLO, etc. Marketing is the game of perception and the product is rooted in reality. Why I say so when you have excellent specialist, nursing team, and patient-friendly infrastructure and direct response marketing, foot fall of patients flow itself. A satisfied patient is your organization’s brand ambassador.

An important point is that owner of healthcare should become a marketer of his organization. Why I say so because he is the one who designed the vision and mission of the organization. He can plan in the next 5 years where he wants to take his organization. So plan it and get executed through the marketing team and keep on assessing and direct them.

Traditional marketing vs Digital Marketing

I understand in healthcare marketing needs to be a combination of both traditional and digital marketing because in our country people are from different socioeconomic statuses. So marketing media will be as per that. Among traditional it could be TV, Radio, print media or can be digital marketing when dealing with a creamy layer of patients. It can be a corporate also.

Direct response marketing

Most healthcare professionals who run advertisements do not know whether their advertisements are effective or not. They only assume and generate a feeling about it as is not done in a scientific way. Even big pharma companies face this problem.

Direct response is a type of marketing designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospects to take certain measurable and specific actions e.g an advertisement in a newspaper with a phone number, an advertisement leading to the landing page with lead form. etc

Basics of economics & marketing

The decision we take in business or personal life is based on certain facts about economics. We need to understand the socioeconomic structure of that part world or area where we are marketing. The target customer’s financial status. I t is a fact that recession creates strong healthcare organization and drive out weak healthcare organizations out of the market. Data from various sources can be drawn and analyzed when, where and how one can market and sell the product.

Communication

If we know market and sales it is quite good but what we are and what we know should be able to communicate to the target customer in the right way and at the right time. Good marketing is all about good communication. We should be able to transfer our thoughts to the target customers in an effective way or not. Through effective communication build trust. Once there is a bond of trust sales will flow.

CATT Marketing Funnel & framework.

We have been talking about various topics like marketing, various ways of marketing, traditional marketing vs digital marketing, economics, etc but the key question is how to increase the footfall of patients and total profitability. We will learn through a scientific method called CATT.

CATT is Content, Attention, Trust & Transaction.

When you have good quality content that helps your users and solves a problem and achieves the desired result.

Wealth is equal to n to the power CATT. Where n is niche. The success of a healthcare organization depends on the niche we select.

Content: Create useful and effective content as per the scope of your organization which should attract patients from your niche, blogs,posts, videos,lead massages, etc

Attention: Draw the attention of your patients to your content using SEO, Social media, Paid advertisement, and patient testimonials. Patient testimonials are the best way to divert traffic.

Trust: Build trust with your patient using marketing automation and retargeting

The best known will always beat the best. Patients want to hear from doctors and not hospitals. How one can build trust and evolve a personal brand as shown in the above diagram. Learn: Always try to learn a new skill through concepts, facts, and procedures. First, understand the concept then remember the facts and practice the procedure.

Work: Make your funnel and develop this skill to work from practice to implementation on the patients that will give you a better understanding.

Blog: Write about your experiences with patients and procedures which you performed and get connected.

Consult: When you are with your personal brand through blogging also learned through experience and fundamentals are clear start consultation to your peer group also.

Mentor: Mentor others who want to become like you. This will scale up your understanding to work at a new level.

Startup: Startup your own services and develop a further market.

Transaction: Now it is time to convert your leads into the satisfied patient

Conclusion:

We have learned the basics of marketing, traditional vs digital marketing, basics of economy, communication, CATT funnel and framework, and Mass trust blueprint. I firmly believe now that you will agree marketing is a science which can be learned through logical steps and one can achieve its desired target. Also, digital marketing is an integral part of healthcare as we are having scarce resources so it has become more important to work with available economic and social challenges.

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