The healthcare industry has been rapidly changing, meaning healthcare professional (HCP) marketing strategies need to follow suit. Digital burnout has led to HCPs requiring structured and highly targeted content to keep them engaged. It’s more essential now than ever to have an arsenal of effective digital marketing tools to gain and keep the attention of busy healthcare professionals.

We put together 10 HCP marketing strategies and trends to be on the lookout for in 2023 and beyond:

1. Online Reputation management

2. Growth of Telehealth

3. NPI Targeting

4. Digital-first mindset

5. Increasing use of voice search

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6. Use of interactive media

7. Use of key opinion leaders/influencers

8. Content marketing strategies

9. Social media strategies

10. Marketing automation

Online Reputation Management

Online reviews of your practice directly affect how new and existing patients find your practice during an internet search. This is why it’s important to proactively ask patients for online reviews and feedback, monitor reviews, and respond in a timely manner. 

Reviews are a way for your practice to stand out from the competition – They’re also often the first exposure a potential patient has to your practice. 

This is why reputation management software will continue to increase in 2022 and beyond. Reputation management software can help manage your online reputation by bringing negative reviews to your attention so you can respond to them while encouraging positive reviews. This is done through a variety of features such as:

• Email & advertising campaigns that are automatically sent to customers, encouraging them to write and share positive reviews about their experience

• Monitor the web and send you alerts for any new mentions, so you can further encourage positive reviews and address negative reviews in a timely manner

• Generate reports about how your practice is being discussed online

• Format SEO-friendly positive reviews for you to display on your website and social media

Growth of Telehealth

The telehealth market is expected to reach 89.3 billion in 2022 – and this is with good reason. It gives HCPs a way to expand their patient base, increases patient flexibility, increases collaborations among medical disciplines, and allows for easier patient follow-ups and improved patient outcomes. 

As the use of telehealth continues to soar, it will become essential for medical device, pharmaceutical, and other healthcare-related companies to advertise to telehealth professionals to sell their products or services.

NPI Targeting

In order to target HCPs in a more personal and impactful manner, healthcare marketers will continue to capitalize on National Provider Identifier (NPI) targeting. NPI targeting involves targeting HCPs via American Medical Association-recognized specialties, subspecialties, and more. Some of the many benefits gained through NPI targeting include:

• Smarter optimization and scale of campaigns

• Accurate campaign reporting

• Reduces common concerns HCPs may have about privacy and third-party cookies

Digital First Mindset

As a successful healthcare marketer, you’ll need to embrace tech to influence how people, including healthcare professionals, interact with one another. HCPs use a variety of different devices, from smartphones to computers and tablets. That’s why it’s essential to optimize your marketing efforts for a variety of platforms. 

Increasing Use of Voice Search

Not only are many people using multiple devices, but the use of voice search (via Siri, Google Home, Amazon Echo, etc.) has also continued to rise. According to recent reports, there are 135.6 million people in the United States using voice search, up 2.7% from the previous year. In addition, 32% of US consumers own smart speakers.

Optimizing your voice search results includes steps such as:

• Creating a Google My Business listing

• Designing a mobile-friendly website

• Using a conversational tone in content

• Optimizing local searches (if applicable)

• Using schema markup 

Using Interactive Media

Another rising digital marketing trend is the increasing use of interactive media to generate physician engagement. While traditional media, such as print ads, billboards, radio ads, and television ads can still be beneficial, they only offer limited interactivity, not to mention they’re often more costly than digital media. Even when examining online banner ads and pop-ups, many are ignored by audiences due to ad-blocking browser add-ons and extensions.

Interactive media includes everything from assessments and GIFS, to quizzes, games, and calculators – engaging your readers more than blocks of text and keeping them on the web page for a longer period of time. In fact, visual content, such as quizzes and GIFS, are 40 times more likely to be shared on social media networks.

Use of KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders)/Micro-Influencers

Have you ever purchased something after seeing a well-trusted personality promoting a product or service? According to HubSpot Blog Research, around 58% of marketers said influencer marketing was the most effective marketing trend.

Now you might be wondering how this can translate into healthcare marketing. If you were served content for a new medical device or procedure, who would you trust more – a well-known seasoned expert or someone you’ve never heard of? Statistics show that 71% of marketers believe the quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing is better than other sources. 

Use a Content Marketing Strategy

When you think of content, you probably think of blog posts. While highly optimized blogs can greatly influence website traffic, they aren’t the only type of content to focus on. Other forms to add to your toolbox include:

• Videos

• Infographics

• Case Studies

• eBooks

• User-generated content

• Checklists

• Memes

• Testimonials/Reviews

• Whitepapers

• How-to Guides

• Influencers/Paid Ads

Current healthcare marketing trends include using a healthy mix of the aforementioned tools, depending on what you’re trying to promote.

Social Media 

Social media is a must for healthcare marketers trying to reach their target HCP audience and increase physician engagement. Instead of posting on every social network, sharing highly focused content on social media platforms that your target demographic frequently visits is the best strategy.

Think to yourself, what social media platforms does my target audience visit the most? For example, Instagram may be beneficial for companies selling consumer goods such as makeup or skincare products, but not for marketing a medical device. It’s been found that physicians most frequently visit platforms such as LinkedIn, Doximity, Twitter, YouTube, and Hootsuite.

Marketing Automation 

Another healthcare marketing trend is the use of marketing automation to increase campaign conversions. 

The fact is, the majority of visitors to your website aren’t going to make a transaction on the first visit – around 97% will leave your website without making a purchase. 

Just because visitors leave your website, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the story.

Marketing automation strategies, such as behavior triggers, push notifications, and email automation can increase efficiency, nurture leads, increase revenue, and provide priceless analytics. 

How Will You Ramp Up Your Healthcare Marketing?

If the constantly changing atmosphere of healthcare marketing seems overwhelming, there are platforms that can help make things less daunting. 

If you’d like to chat with a BroadcastMed representative to see how we can help your healthcare marketing efforts, click here to schedule an appointment.

For more information on healthcare marketing, visit our blog.