Sometimes, a marketing campaign within the health sector or any other sector, does not stop working. When this happens, it is easy to feel confused and frustrated. But just because an effort or a specific marketing campaign does not work does not mean that marketing does not work in the health sector.
When you start testing new marketing campaigns, you may be discouraged when you discover that the results are not exactly what you expected. However, that does not mean that you should stop investing resources.
These are some of the reasons why the results of a digital marketing campaign in the health sector usually fail.
Not Having A Marketing Strategy
Without a strategy, you will not have results. Well, you can have results, but not the best results. It’s one thing to try new things in order to add variations to your marketing strategy. But another thing is simply “hit shots in the air” without a strategy previously developed.
You have to devote your time to creating your health marketing strategy before tackling and launching any new ideas. The most important thing is that you must base your marketing strategy decisions on the data. Are you choosing keywords for your website and PPC ads because you believe that this is what people are looking for? Are you using images and designs that are proven to convert? Are you choosing things that seem good to you? One thing is what you think of you from your site as a connoisseur of your business, and another is what your potential patient thinks from yours, without having any idea of your business. You have to leave your bubble, think like patients and create a strategy thinking about what they do to find your services.
Data-Based Marketing is key to find a strategy that really works.
Remember: you are not your target audience.
You Have Forgotten Your Audience
When you look at your last medical marketing campaign, everything looks very good. But if it does not attract patients, then your audience does not feel the same.
You are familiar with the jargon of your acting field, but once again, you are not your target audience. To be a good seller, it must be put in the mind of the consumer. What kind of phrase would a patient use to describe the problem they are having or the services they need? That is what you have to think. If you do not have it clear, ask your environment (not professional) and they will give you a thousand ideas.
Your audience cares about things like images and ease of use. Are there “before and after” with which your target patient is identified? Do you use images of real people that match your target audience? Is it easy to complete a contact form and browse your site? Put yourself in the patient’s place to determine if your marketing works better for you or your potential patients.
Not Reworking Your Marketing Actions In The Health Sector
We have all heard the saying: “Madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” In a certain sense, medical research is based on this idea of redoing processes to develop new innovations. And the same can be said about the development of the best marketing campaigns.
If you do not get new patients with the same booklet you’ve been using for years, maybe it’s time for a new booklet. It’s probably time to try a new media ad or invest in your digital strategy.
Digital advertising, when done well, is a constant experiment. The best digital marketing specialists constantly readjust and perform A / B tests to determine which strategy is the most effective based on the data. They make changes to the target keywords, the design of the site and other elements over and over again.
Assigning Very Few Resources To The Marketing Budget In The Health Sector
Too many organizations within the health sector are afraid to spend money on marketing. But this is how the most successful businesses get the best results. “It would be great if I could spend a few more euros for people to know my brand, but I just cannot.” This is what many managers say to justify their limited budget and therefore their poor result. This is the snake that bites its tail. As I invest little, I have a few results, and since I have a few results, I cannot justify investing more. In today’s competitive market, this is simply a mistake.
There are companies and organizations that ARE getting satisfactory results and this is another snake that bites its tail in the opposite direction. They are doing with the market and cornered and making the first invisible. It is a long-term race in which there are going to be some winners and some losers. You are still in time to participate in the race. The health sector has lagged behind compared to other sectors in terms of digital marketing and that is an opportunity today.
Your main competitors are already using aggressive marketing to reach their current patients. If your competitors are at the top of the search engines, they have ads on Google and other online media and an excellent website that attracts patients is because they invest.
The marketing and advertising to the health sector is a source of income, not a cost center and should be treated as such. Smaller organizations need to invest around 7-15% of the income, and the largest clinics and medical centers with good results spend around 5% of their income. This may seem excessive in the eyes of many managers, is justified by the volume of business that they attract and that other fixed expenses are dissolved in the total billing.
Expecting Immediate Results From Your Marketing Campaigns.
Occasionally, we receive this question from a client a couple of days after launching a campaign: “Why have not I received any new patients?”
Unfortunately, most marketing efforts do not offer immediate results. You should not expect to start seeing patients new moments after starting your campaign. But some marketing strategies work better than others.
When what you have done is change the design of your website in the health sector, or, update social networks or work to improve SEO, it will take time for those changes to have an effect (if they end up doing it). To get faster results you should invest in paid advertising, such as Google Adwords , Facebook or Instagram Ads, etc.
Not Performing A Good Follow-Up Of Your Health Marketing Campaigns
Remember that marketing does not end with just one good publicity. You should follow up with people who clicked on your ads, with reorientation on social networks, etc. You must do what you can to put yourself in front of clients at every point of the decision-making process.
The follow-up continues in your clinic, where everyone should be informed of the marketing campaigns currently underway. They should work to turn callers into patients each time they pick up the phone. This probably requires additional training for your staff to ensure consistency in the marketing strategy. Otherwise, it will be one of the best ways to lose patients that has cost a good investment to get them to our clinic or medical center.
