Why is marketing important in healthcare?

Like other industries, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies cannot do without a solid marketing strategy to reach a wider audience, communicate brand values, or improve market penetration.

The impact of healthcare marketing strategies is growing, as evidenced by the increased investment in digital media by brands in the sector.

In addition, studies show that approximately 88% of people now search for relevant health information on the Internet, a percentage that continues to grow year after year, along with computer literacy.

For healthcare and pharmaceutical brands, taking advantage of this trend represents a unique opportunity, as well as a necessity, linked to the creation of marketing strategies to reach the target audience.

In this article, we will take a closer look at the impact of healthcare marketing strategies that we have observed in numerous successful projects for our healthcare clients.

 

Goals of Healthcare Marketing Strategies

The objectives and impact of healthcare marketing strategies should be closely linked. These can range from disseminating medical information to educate patients and help them make informed decisions, to driving traffic to a brand or product’s website to reach a specific target audience (such as medical or veterinary professionals).

Here we look at some of the objectives that a good digital marketing strategy should achieve and the impact they have on the business, visibility, and reputation of healthcare companies.

 

Reach

Marketing strategies allow healthcare companies to reach a wider audience that may be interested in the brand directly or indirectly.

This can have a positive commercial impact in both the short and long term by associating the brand with specific issues and (through the marketing campaigns carried out) influencing an audience that previously did not know or associate the brand.

 

Retention

Retaining existing users (and/or customers, in some cases) is just as important as attracting new ones, which is why healthcare marketing focuses on building a positive relationship between brands and their target audiences.

Of course, all of this is only possible with the right marketing strategies that help build a positive connection between brands and their customers and/or users.

 

Inform and educate

Through marketing, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies can have a significant impact on raising people’s general awareness of health issues. Health marketing can promote medical information through the dissemination of scientific articles and other informational materials based on truthful, validated data written by health professionals.

Thus, health marketing is not just about promoting a product or brand, as is the case with most traditional marketing strategies, but also about raising awareness and empowering people with information and data to make informed decisions about their health. Indirectly, it is a tactic that allows you to build a bond and a level of engagement with the audience you are reaching, making them interested in the brand and ultimately considering it as an option when choosing between different competitors.

 

Reputation

Another important impact of healthcare marketing strategies is the creation of reputation and brand awareness. In many cases, brand awareness is the first step in achieving marketing objectives such as new leads and sales.

If the audience coming to our website is more knowledgeable about the brand, it will increase the chances of generating conversions. Research shows that 75% of shoppers prefer to buy from a company they already know.

For this reason, marketing adds value when it comes to generating this brand awareness by improving a company’s online visibility through better organic positioning, paid advertising campaigns on search engines such as Google or on social networks, and other strategies focused on other communication channels.

 

Bottom line

Only an effective marketing strategy can make an impact and allow a healthcare company to retain its users or reach new audiences.

In a previous article, we highlighted some free digital marketing tools that can be used to implement some healthcare marketing ideas to define a winning strategy and reach a wide audience, whether for healthcare professionals or end consumers of products and services.

For healthcare companies, finding a digital partner to help them define and implement their online marketing strategy can be a complicated task. There are very few marketing agencies that specialize in healthcare marketing and have a team of experienced professionals. Global Healthcare is one of them.

There are very few marketing agencies that specialize in healthcare marketing and have a team of experienced professionals. Global Healthcare is one of these.