6 Ways to Target Patients Using Social Media Marketing

Patients have become much more active on social media, using the different platforms to research care providers, ask questions and share their experiences. With patients taking to their smart phones to provide feedback and search for providers on the go it only makes sense for imaging centers, hospitals and doctor’s offices to have a social media marketing strategy in place.

We're excited to see more and more radiologists and other health care providers recognizing the value of social media in health care; because that has been a big hurdle to overcome. The International Society for Computed Tomography for instance, will be hosting a talk by Jenny K Hoang, MD about the importance of radiologists utilizing Twitter at their upcoming CT symposium in San Francisco.

Today we’ll explore the six ways healthcare marketers can use social media to target specific groups of patients, this way their content marketing and messaging will be built specifically for different kinds of patients.

6 Tips for Targeting Patients Using Social Media Advertising:

1.     Use Facebook advertising to share a recent blog post with a specific kind of audience. Ex: Boost your post about the difference between screening mammograms and diagnostic mammograms so it is shown to women, aged 55+ who are located within a 10-mile radius of your imaging center.

2.     If you have a list of your patients’ email addresses, you can create a look-alike list from those addresses and launch a Facebook ad campaign.

3.     New to Twitter and hoping to build your following and improve your brand recognition? Create a campaign for gaining followers. You can select your audience based on one or multiple locations, filtering by other accounts they follow, interests, behaviors event event targeting.

4.     You can also create an audience to target on Twitter based on only people who have visited your website. Just put a snippet of code on your website to collect the visitors’ info and the ad you create will show to only those users on Twitter.

5.     You can limit audiences on Twitter based on their regular behavior as well. For instance, you can limit your ad so it will OR won’t show to a group of users who are “likely to have health insurance from Aetna” which has a potential audience of up to 1.82M users.

6.     LinkedIn is the best social media platform for industry experts. This article is supposed to be about using social media to target patients, but as a provider it’s also important to provide content for others in your industry. (ex: Referring Physicians or Community Organizations) These kinds of targets are regularly being active on LinkedIn where you can pay to sponsor posts and make it so that only users with certain job titles or employees of certain businesses see the ads.

< Read More: 8 Healthcare Digital Marketing Tips >

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If you're interested in an evaluation of your organization's current social media practices, fill out the form below and we'd be glad to perform a free evaluation for you. 

Using Social Media To Target Women With Your Healthcare Marketing

Women are notoriously known as the healthcare decision-makers in their families, so it makes sense that they should be at the forefront of healthcare marketer's strategies.  Social media is a great way to engage with patients and their families, and women absolutely dominate that marketing field.  They are significantly more engaged on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest than men, while men lead the LinkedIn and YouTube user-base.  

Healthcare Communication News noted that women have 55% more posts on their walls than men and 8% more friends.  Additionally, each month there are 40 million more females utilizing Twitter than males.  Women also have an average of 140 more posts on Facebook than men.

In our experience, we’ve found that women are more apt to follow a local business and provide reviews online based on their experiences. Usually people only provide reviews if they have had a fantastic experience or terrible one, which is why promoting positive engagement on your social media pages is so important. By using Twitter and Facebook to reach out to female patients and potential patients, you have the opportunity to communicate directly with those with that wield the decision-making power in their families.

Since word-of-mouth has long been considered an influential referral stream in healthcare, healthcare marketers need to find a way to build buzz about their organization amongst their community. Social media is this generation’s hub for gathering recommendations, opinions and factoids about businesses, movies, music and yes, even healthcare providers.

The first step to successful marketing is knowing where your patients are, and the next most important step is getting in front of them.  By using the data from this infographic, you can more appropriately target the women in your community on social media. 

Infographic From: Ragan's Healthcare Communication News

Learning To Shift Fearlessly In Healthcare Marketing

Working with physicians in marketing has been similar to working with bridezillas a week before their wedding.  It’s hard to tell them after they’ve been planning, or practicing, a certain way for so long, that they’re doing it all wrong. Shifting without fear is possible with the right plan though.  No one is saying to lead the warpath of differentiation off a cliff of destruction, guns-a-blazing. However, a series of small changes and perspective shifts can transform a practice for the better.

Step One: Think Like Your Patient

The hardest thing for physicians to do when it comes to marketing is to forget the clinical aspects of their services. Of course it's important to patients that their doctors are top notch and that they are equipped to care for their lives, but everyone knows patient care goes beyond just wellness. What keeps you with a practice for years and years are the relationships you build. What captures the attention of new patients is how you relate to them, understanding their needs and standing out in comparison to the others that simply do not.  Terms like “clinical expertise,” “fully accredited” and “high quality services” are over used and ambiguous and mean about as much to patients as this:

Step Two: Get In Front Of Your Patients

When was the last time you made any purchasing decisions based on a billboard or commercial you saw? Okay so the E*TRADE baby is pretty hilarious, but I only recently discovered what the website even did and I still don’t use it. So why is it that DOCTORS think the greatest place to advertise is on local cable and on billboards on random highways? Never have I ever driven down the interstate and thought to myself, “Yep, today I am going to get an MRI from that white haired man in front of that big white machine.” No matter how spectacular their font is, telling me that they have weekend appointments is not a decision making call to action. You need to capture patients where they are actually making their decisions, and that is ONLINE. To quote NBC’s The New Normal:

JANE: “The internet is for people too rude to write a proper thank you note, besides I’m a people person. I did fine in Ohio with just a flyer and an ad in the yellow pages”

ROCKY: “Well you know in today’s world, if you don’t exist online, you don’t exist.”

Harsh, but true. If you’re not taking the steps to develop an online presence, you won’t even be in the running for patients searching for “family practice doctors in Tampa.

Step Three: Think Like a Sea Cucumber

Yes, you read that correctly. Everyone keeps saying that transparency is necessary but seemingly impossible in the health care industry, so taking the steps to give your patients transparency will automatically set you apart. So what do we mean by think like a Sea Cucumber? If you remember from high school biology, sea cucumbers do this crazy, gross trick called evisceration, where as a defense mechanism they turn themselves inside out and show off their organs.

Somewhat gruesome analogy, but practices can use the little buggers as inspiration to show off the inner-workings of what makes them great. We’re talking price transparency and quality transparency. Show your patients why you’re the best with testimonials, videos, resources and a glimpse into your practice. Don’t want to show people the behind the scenes? Time to shift. Not sure your pricing is competitive so you want to keep that behind the curtain? Be sure that you’re matching quality to cost. Showing patients this side of your practice makes you memorable and trustworthy as a care provider.

Step Four: Always Exceed Expectations

If you want something you’ve never had, then you have to do something you’ve never done. It is a pretty obvious statement, but it is abundantly true. If you want to build volume and revenue in a time of lower reimbursement and decreased utilization of care while reaching and helping new patients, you have to step out of the box and go beyond expectations. 

Don’t be afraid to be a little different with the delivery of your messages. For example, take a look at your website in comparison to other practices in the area. How do they compare design-wise? Be different. Are other practices only open certain hours? Be more convenient than them. Send birthday cards out, it makes your patients smile. Hand out lollipops to kids and adults that wish they were kids. Have fun things for people to do in the waiting rooms. Hold events. Don’t be absent in your patients’ lives and make them have an experience when they’re in your office. Don’t settle for standard.

Step Five: Embrace Marketing

Health care marketing is a broad term, but it's kind of like that confusing IKEA shelf you put together one time. So many screws and parts, but if you don’t use them all correctly then your TV is going to fall off and crash into a million pieces. Keep in mind the pieces of marketing: Advertising (online/print)

• Public Relations (events/media relations)
• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media
• Web Presence
• Face-to-face Marketing with Physician Relation Representatives

 If you have a creative and effectively executed meld of all of these components, you’re geared for success.

We've established that our industry is an incredibly complex beast, and it's a beast that keeps growing and evolving. The most important thing you can do for yourself as a healthcare marketer, or anyone in the healthcare industry, is to not be afraid of change. Learn to shift without fear, because the rest of the world is doing it, and it’s only a matter of time before the health care industry will be swept up in it too. 

10 Tips For Healthcare Bloggers

Blogging for healthcare isn't easy. Why, you may ask? The answer is simple. Every day you're faced with the challenge of creating content for a stereotypically boring industry that will be exciting, interesting, and engaging to readers. One of the pitfalls of healthcare blogging is that it's such a specific industry, which makes coming up with ideas for content hard. Really hard.  Because here's the thing. There are plenty of people out there who love reading blogs about baking or gardening or beauty products or humor. There are a billion DIY-ers who eat, sleep, and breathe on blog. But healthcare? Do people really care?

The simple answer is yes, and it's important that as a healthcare marketer you firmly believe this. If you write something interesting, something useful and intriguing, something relevant, something that connects on an emotional level, then people will read it regardless of the industry. If it's relevant to their daily lives or the lives of their loved ones, they'll take the time. If it makes them smile, if it makes them cry, if it makes them think? They'll read it. You just have to think about the people in your community and determine what aspects of health they actually care about.

That being said, we know it can still be difficult to come up with ideas for content on your healthcare blog, especially if you're blogging multiple times a week. If you're struggling for inspiration, here are a few go-to ideas for healthcare blog content that will go a long way towards boosting your website's volume and engaging your audience! We've also included a few tips on what to do with that content once you've go it as well. Distribution is key. 

1.     Share the love. 

Your blog isn't just a place for self-promotion, it's a place to celebrate the healthcare industry as a whole. Spread some love around and spotlight other local practices. Maybe there's a new chiropractor in town who could use a shout-out, maybe there's a referring physician's office that you want to show appreciation to. You should always be looking for ways to better network with your referring physician community, and there’s no better way to add value to your relationship and let them know how much you care than by giving them some free publicity! Share a blog post about them and rotate different offices each week.

2.     Spotlight your staff.

If you’re looking for a way to incentivize your staff without giving them bonuses or gift cards, a little old fashioned attention can go a long way. Spotlights are an awesome way to do this, and when they're featured on the blog it's easy for employees to share this recognition with their family and friends through social media. Staff spotlights also give your blog readers an insight into your practice, and help them establish an emotional connection with your crew. Personal relationships are key, especially in healthcare.

3.     Consider highlighting video interviews. 

It's important to remember that great blog content doesn't have to be text. You can use videos or photos for a blog post either in conjunction with or in lieu of text. In fact, these types of posts are often more engaging! Film a few short video interviews with your staff, physicians and even willing patients. (Be sure to have them sign a waiver that says you can do this.) Post them on your blog, this is GREAT for search engine optimization.

4.     Throw some image content in there. 

If you have photos of staff or your office or if you have images with inspirational quotes or facts, post them on your Facebook, but ALSO post them on your blog. Then, you can link the photos from your blog to Facebook or websites like Instagram, so that when people click through they will land on your website. Not all blog posts need to be information heavy...sometimes it's nice to just have a few photos to scroll through and bring out a smile. 

5.     Repurpose your previous posts. 

Although this won't work if you're just starting out in healthcare blogging, it's definitely something you'll want to remember for later down the line. For those of you who have been blogging for years, this is one of the best tips we can give you. Don’t forget about the blog posts you worked hard on in the past. Chances are you've got a gold-mine of content archived on your blog where no one is likely to stumble upon it, and a lot of that content is still relevant to your readers. Don't be afraid to use it! Go back a year or so, find one of your best performing posts, snazz it up a little bit and repost it. It'll save you time if you've got a crammed work week, and it's great for SEO purposes. (As a general rule, even if you're not repurposing you should always remember to link back to older articles that relate to the topic you’re covering. This is good for SEO but also it helps your readers navigate your site.) 

6.     After posting, send out snippets. 

Got a lot of content on your blog that you know people would read if they just knew about it? This is where distribution comes in. It's one thing to write great content and post it, but it's another altogether to get people to actually know it exists and read it. Snippets are a great way to accomplish this. Do you have an email list? Send out the first part of your blog post in an email or electronic newsletter with a “Read More…” link to the full post on your blog. It could help bring some of your email leads to your blog if they haven’t read it yet!

7.     Remember to take advantage of those tags. 

You know that section where it says "add tags" on your blog posting site? Please don't ignore that. Tagging your blog posts is incredibly important, not just for SEO but also for archiving and organizing your posts by topic. You should use anywhere from 2-4 tags to let search engines and readers know what your post is about. For this article for instance, I will use: "blogging", "healthcare marketing", "tips for healthcare bloggers", and "healthcare blog ideas". 

8.     Sharing is the pathway to success. 

Don’t just assume that if you post an article on your blog that tons of people will immediately be notified and that they will start reading and loving it. You are not Mashable or Buzzfeed or The New York Times, and unless you already have a super strong and loyal blog following (you're in healthcare, so we're going to go out on a limb and guess that you don't), the reality is that if you're not sharing that content on every platform possible, it's likely that no one will see it. Be sure to share links to your articles via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ so your friends and followers will know they're there! Tip: see if you can get other members of your staff to share company posts as well. The more people you have sharing, the more people you'll reach and the higher your chance for success will be!

9.     Easy access is key. 

This goes hand in hand with the concept of "sharing". If your readers can't find your blog, they won't be reading it! Be sure to have your blog built into your website and positioned as a link on your homepage in a spot that is easily visible to your visitors. Avoid having it as an unlinked page, since the likelihood of people finding your posts in search probably isn't great. 

10.  Remember that it's not about you.

If you don't take any other tips to heart, be sure to remember this one. You're not writing for you, you're writing for your patients and providers. Don't let your personal biases cloud your judgement or impact what you write about. When you're coming up with topics, keep in mind what your patients and referring physician offices would want to read about on your blog, because they are your target market, not yourself! Try to avoid covering topics that are too “medical” because people will lose interest. It’s okay to be educational, just be sure that it’s interesting, understandable, and above all relatable. 

See, healthcare blogging really isn't that tricky after all! If you read that list and are feeling overwhelmed, at a loss, or incredibly intimidated, don't freak out. The best thing about healthcare blogging is that you don't have to do it yourself. Most healthcare providers don't have time to blog because they're, you know, saving lives. That's why we're here! If you're looking for help with your healthcare blogging, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We've got a lot of experience and tons of great ideas to help you kickstart your content marketing!

"The Importance of Infographics": As Told By An Infographic

If there's one thing we all know with certainty, it's that we're in the age of the infographic. At first it was all about content marketing: write as much as you can, make it compelling, churn it up and expel it onto as many platforms as you can. Then things changed, and it wasn't just about content anymore, it was about visual content marketing: don't just write as much as you can, find a way to make it pretty, make it visual, make it engaging. We're still living in what will most likely end up being the decade or even century of visual content marketing, but it's clear that we've already segmented even further. In today's marketing world it's all about infographics, baby!

When you look at the statistics out there, it's obvious why marketing has shifted in this direction. We came across Hubspot's 37 Visual Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know In 2016, and we found some visual content and infographic statistics that were literally eye-popping. We don't have time to share them all, but here were a few that we thought were particularly relevant:

1. Researchers found that colored visuals increase people's willingness to read a piece of content by 80%. That's insane.

2. 65% of senior marketing executives believe that visual assets (photos, video, illustrations and infographics) are core to how their brand story is communicated. We can tell you for sure that this is 100% at our company as well.

3. Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images. 

4. Infographics are Liked and Shared on social media 3x more than any other type of content.

5. People following directions with text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions without illustrations. 

At this point it's undebatable that infographics are one of the hottest trends in our industry, and for good reason. That being said, not all infographics are created equal, and if you're going to put the time and money and effort into creating an infographic then it's vital that you're making sure it's one stellar information-packed piece of visual glory. Because we love the irony of this, here's an infographic from the content marketing geniuses at OneSpot that will help you do just!