HealthTech is one of the fastest growing industries right now and is expected to grow even more in the upcoming years. The worldwide revenue of the Digital Health market is estimated to grow from $170.25 billion in 2023 to staggering $274.93 billion by 2028.
The high stakes make the healthcare technology industry highly competitive, prompting VPs of marketing, CMOs, and marketing directors at HealthTech companies to invest millions in digital marketing. They’ve recognized that digital marketing is crucial for attracting leads, new customers or partnerships, boosting their brand’s value, and delivering significant ROI.
To reap the benefits of online marketing, HealthTech companies first need a well-planned online marketing strategy.
In this article, we’ll look at the reasons why online marketing is important for the HealthTech industry and explore 5 key digital marketing strategies that will move the needle for your HealthTech company in the upcoming years.
Table of contents
Why is online marketing important for HealthTech companies?
Here are 5 main reasons why your HealthTech company needs digital marketing.
Brand recognition & differentiation
In a competitive market that HealthTech is, differentiation is key. Through online marketing efforts, you can clearly communicate your brand’s value proposition, vision and highlight your product’s benefits – in essence, what makes your company better than competition.
Increased reach
Online marketing helps companies expand their reach through social media, search engine marketing, and mobile marketing. HealthTech providers employing techniques like website optimization can reach more people by ranking higher in search engine results. Encouraging current users to write reviews or recommend your product through digital marketing further helps attract new prospects and build trust.
Cost-effective, sustainable growth
While the traditional advertising methods like print ads, TV ads, or billboards were relatively expensive, digital marketing is much more budget-friendly. Advertising on platforms like Google, YouTube or Facebook doesn’t have to break the bank while sharing information and connecting with clients and prospects through organic online content costs you practically nothing.
Personalized information
Online marketing enables healthcare companies to personalize their information and offers. Through tracking website pages and social media searches for healthcare information, and leads segmentation, HealthTech companies can tailor offers to match the interests of their target audience.
Repeat the above steps with all your other competitors. Once you have exported all your data, create a single master sheet to input it into.
Make sure each dataset is separated by its source – paid keywords and organic keywords. Create either two separate tabs in the sheet or add an attribute to the data (PPC/organic) to differentiate them. This will allow you to easily filter the data whenever necessary.
Relationship-building with customers
Digital platforms, social media in particular, provide valuable avenues for HealthTech brands to establish relationships with customers and prospects and build awareness around their brand and niche. Having a strong online presence also helps increase customer retention and referrals.
Strategies for 2024
Here are the key tactics to strengthen your digital marketing strategy and gain a competitive advantage if you’re in the healthcare industry.
1. Content marketing: Publish expert content to establish topic authority
To maximize your online impact, a well-designed and informative blog can be an incredibly effective channel to leverage. Google reportedly receives more than 1 billion health questions every day!
A blog based on high-quality, SEO-optimized content can improve your visibility in search results for various queries. Identify the main questions your target customers have, and provide answers on your blog.
Be mindful of the fact that healthcare is a very specialized industry. Whether it’s written or video content, platforms like Google and YouTube favor content written or narrated by qualified experts in the field.
If you’re aiming for high Google rankings in healthcare topics, consistently build topic authority through unique executive thought leadership content or involve expert authors with established authority in the field. Identify a topic that positions you as a valuable resource for your key audiences and cultivate thought leadership in that area.
Another effective method to establish authority is by leveraging original research data in your content marketing and PR strategy.
Additionally, featuring expert content on your site can help you establish authority in the industry, demonstrating thought leadership. Great examples of healthcare content can be found on websites like Healthline and Harvard Medical School. They regularly publish expert articles authored by doctors and medical experts, addressing trending topics in the field as well as tackling the most fundamental questions.
2. Provide easy website navigation & great user experience
Your website is the main gateway of communication between you and your customers. The user experience of your website and its overall performance (e.g. how fast it loads) can be crucial for doctors or patients to choose your products or services. In other words, if your site is hard to navigate or it loads slowly, they might move on to your competitors within seconds.
In April 2023, Google added page experience to the list of Google’s guidelines for creating helpful, quality, people-first content. Providing an overall great user experience on all pages across your website is one of the ranking factors Google evaluates when showing the most relevant content to searchers.
Mayo Clinic’s website is a great example of a user-friendly web. It’s easy-to-use, patient-focused, has a wide range of useful information and also includes the top Mayo Clinic locations in the US. On the site, you can easily find a doctor or book your appointment.
3. SEO done right: Optimize your website for organic reach
You might have the best-looking website or the most insightful blog posts, but they amount to nothing if you get no organic traffic. Through the process of search engine optimization (SEO), you can become visible on Google, Bing, and other search engines to reach thousands of potential patients. With local SEO, you can also appear on Google Maps, making it easy for people nearby to find you.
SEO is essential for long-term success. With a modest initial financial investment, you can get your website to the top of search engine results. This will bring a steady stream of traffic to your site. Depending on your niche and the keywords you rank for, you could gain between 1,000 and 10,000 new visitors every month.
What’s truly remarkable about organic traffic is its high conversion rate. People actively seeking solutions to their medical problems are ready to book a consultation or make a purchase. All you need to do is be there for them by providing an offer they can’t refuse.
Important:
Consider who writes your articles. Topics related to healthcare are high-stakes, which is why Google takes extra care when selecting content that ranks at the top spots in the search engine result pages. Only content created by a qualified medical professional or an author with authority in the medical industry will have a chance at ranking well (see point #1).
4. Establish a strong social media presence
Your presence on social media determines the way your potential customers perceive your brand. In 2023, it’s no surprise that patients want to connect directly with doctors and healthcare facilities on social media. They seek direct access to the doctors they’re about to work with.
That includes digital healthcare products too. Whether you’ve developed an AI-driven tool, medical wearable, home-based DNA test or telemedicine kit, your target audience will want to know who stands behind the product.
By facilitating this access and ensuring your staff and brand are active on social media, you can significantly enhance your return on investment.
Social media can be either paid or organic. You can invest in ads, but you can also leverage it for free. We recommend creating accounts on all major social platforms, linking them to your website, and maintaining an active presence. Engage with users who leave messages on Facebook, comment on your business page, connect with your Twitter followers, and respond to all inquiries on your LinkedIn page.
Share videos, blog posts, updates, and essential information. Be particularly responsive to reviews, especially negative ones; address them candidly.
5. Fine-tune your PPC (Pay-per-click) advertising campaigns
PPC, or paid media, encompasses all the traffic generated through advertising on platforms such as Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn. PPC is essential for driving traffic to your website. While SEO may take months, in some cases years, to bring desired results, PPC can deliver traffic and conversions within days.
Google Ads is the best platform for advertising. It allows you to target customers precisely when they’re seeking answers or solutions to their problems. You can direct them to your site and promptly convert them using effective marketing tactics.
When executed effectively, PPC has the potential to double or even triple your ROI. This means that for every $10,000 you invest, you can expect to generate $30,000 in client revenue.
Read case study: Increasing equipment utilization and patient volume for medical imaging centers
Partner with the best in healthcare digital strategy
Implementing these marketing strategies may require some assistance. As an extra tip, consider collaborating with experienced digital strategists and marketing data analysts who will help you accelerate your online growth.
At Tomatoes, we have over a decade of experience in working with healthcare companies. We provide a comprehensive marketing package, from crafting a tailored digital marketing strategy to executing paid, organic, and earned marketing tactics, which includes Search Engine Marketing, PPC and social media.
Contact us today, and get your free consultation with one of our strategists on how your company can unlock the full potential of online marketing.
