You know the importance of healthcare marketing. In fact, you’ve updated and improved your website, promoted your brand in social media like LinkedIn, created blogs, vlogs, videos, and podcasts to connect with patients, sent patient surveys, gathered online reviews, and followed all the practical tips to recruit patients to your practice.
And if you’ve not done so, click on those links above and learn how.
So now you’re stuck with the big question: how do you know if your health care marketing strategies work?
What metrics can you use to see how effective these are, and whether you need to modify your strategies?
By using the stages of the marketing cycle, you can evaluate the effectivity of your health care marketing strategy.
Ways to Gauge the Effectiveness of Your Healthcare Marketing Strategies
Identify the Target Audience
Before you began conceptualizing your strategy, you first identified your target audience or patients. And you created and implemented your marketing strategies.
Now, you want to know whether you’ve engaged them.
Ask these questions:
- How many signed up to my newsletter?
- How many answered my surveys?
- Did they open my email promotions? (Yes, there’s a way of knowing the open rate).
- How many followed my page on social media?
- How many comments did my blog post get? Is anyone even reading it?
- How many unique visitors did my website have this past week?
The answers will provide clues to the effectivity of your marketing strategy. If you’re not tracking these metrics, you’re wasting your resources.
If you have no marketing arm to track these, contact us for a free consultation. There are even additional metrics we can track and analyze for you.
Analyze the Market
Before launching your marketing plan, you made your market research and identified your niche. Instead of competing with colleagues, you looked for ways to build your network within your profession.
To find your niche, ask these following questions:
- What am I good at?
- What do I love to do?
- Which area of my profession do I find most fulfilling?
- Which area of my care do the patients appreciate the most?
- What needs of my community resonate with my own needs and the needs of my family, so I can engage in community programs for my marketing campaign without neglecting my own?
The answers won’t come in one sitting. Observe and listen for cues. Know yourself and listen to the people around you. Watch your reactions to the things that you do and watch how your staff and your patients react.
If electronic documentation drains you, and you’d rather talk to your patient, then hire a scribe to do the thing you hate. Engaging patients in deep conversations ensures that the trust you’ve built through your website will translate into a personal patient experience.
You may even unearth additional signs and symptoms that will help in your diagnosis and management. This will lead to better patient outcomes and great patient reviews!
Plan and Implement Your Strategy
After tracking your metrics, analyzing patient needs, and strengthening your niche, now you can revisit your plans and strategies.
See how you can address patient reviews from the vantage point of an eagle. Let it guide your new health marketing plan.
Adjust your new strategies. Create realistic, achievable, and time-bound plans. Implement these then go through the marketing cycle again.
Healthcare marketing may not be your niche, but you need it for a thriving practice.
If you’re struggling with healthcare marketing and finding qualified patients, we are here to help. Schedule your free practice review here.