For this article, I’m going to explore the mistakes that you could be making when promoting your small healthcare business. If you’re not seeing the level of interest in your business that you want or perhaps expected, it’s possible that there is already an issue in your business model.
Here’s the good news – these mistakes are easy to correct once you understand what they are and why they are causing problems. Knowing you have an issue is seventy-five percent of the solution and that’s where this article is going to help.
So, don’t worry if you think these issues are affecting your business. The solutions are easier than they seem. Are you ready to get started?
Failing To Get To Know Your Customer Or Patient
One of the most common mistakes that small healthcare businesses make is not taking the effort to develop a connection with customers and patients. The general logic here is that everyone needs a doctor, pharmacy or healthcare support so it’s a universal service. While this is true, it’s still important to think about your main demographic. For instance, your business could be located in a community where the largest demographic is 60+. If that’s the case, then these are the individuals that you should mainly be marketing towards.
This knowledge should be reflected in your marketing materials and how you approach your campaign strategy. Alternatively, you could be appealing to young working professionals. Remember, different groups have individual pain points and health problems which should also be a focus here. So, while pensioners could be interested in treatment and support for issues such as arthritis, working professionals may be more interested in treating their RSI.
But it’s not just about who they are and what their issues could be. You need to think about the marketing possibilities that are going to convince them that you’re providing the service they need. This is all about research and getting to know these individuals on a deeper level. You might even want to consider engaging through social media profiles and form a relationship with the people who are going to become your customers or patients. This will also provide you with info on the networks they frequent so that you can further focus your marketing campaign.
Wait I Need A Website?
This mistake is completely understandable so don’t worry if you’ve made it. As a small healthcare business, you probably are appealing to a local target audience. The mistake healthcare businesses make here is thinking that a local audience is not going to search online. But they will. Customers love searching for terms that include ‘the best pharmacy near me,’ or ‘the best doctor in my area.’
As well as a listing, what they’re hoping to discover when they do this is a website. Now, it’s possible that you actually have a website, but you don’t really use it as much as you should. No problem, you just need to start optimising it. You can do this with an SEO solution or you can even DIY.
One of the easiest ways to improve the SEO of your website is going to be adding content. You should try to focus on the concept of semantic SEO here too. Rather than target specific keywords, explore categories. One of the best ways to do this is to write informative content that answers a question a potential patient may have. For instance, the title could be:
What’s really causing that cough?
This content can then be based around answering questions for individuals who are worried about a recurring cough. You can then note that for certain signs it’s best to speak to a healthcare professional and this is an organic way of including a call to action.
As well as making sure that you have the right content, it’s crucial that your website does load quickly and is easy to navigate. There are two general rules here and I like to think of them as the ‘rules of three.’
First, no page on your website should take more than three seconds to load. You can fix this by choosing a new hosting solution or playing with the levels of data.
Second, a user should never be more than three clicks away from a service or product they want. This is all to do with structure. It can be fixed by adding the right links but sometimes you need to make some bigger changes. For that, a web developer is going to be your best bet.
The final point I want to make about your website is that it should be optimised for mobile. It’s worth noting that since 2016 mobile traffic has regularly overtaken levels from traditional desktop devices.
Do You Mind Leaving A Review?
It’s the age-old message of ‘there’s no harm in asking.’ Many small healthcare companies are shy or timid about asking for reviews from their customers or patients. That’s why these companies only have one five star review each on Google.
The funny thing about this is that the company would be in a better position if their business had about twenty reviews and a slightly lower star rating.
Online review sites get high rankings online. That should tell you a little about how interested users on in these options. As well as this, one survey showed that over 70% of patients look at reviews when searching for a new doctor. Here’s another important stat: 85% believe that reviews more than three months old aren’t worth reading.
What should you learn from this? Well, first, you do need reviews if you’re going to build patient or client numbers. They’re far more likely to trust the word of previous patients compared with direct marketing from your business. Second, this needs to be a constant process because old reviews are essentially irrelevant.
Again, it’s a simple fix. Just ask them to leave you some feedback on places like Google. They may not always provide the glowing review you want but that’s okay. You can respond and even this is positive because it shows you are attentive to customer concerns.
Need help fixing these issues? Don’t hesitate to contact our digital marketing experts. We’ll be more than happy to lend you a hand with your business promotion.
