If you’re a marketer in today’s consumer-driven world, you know the importance of reaching prospective patients at the right time and place with the right message. A significant part of planning should be based on what we know about consumers, how they want to be reached and what kind of experience they wish to have with healthcare providers.
The following stats offer a good background and some important insights you should take into account as your plan your next marketing initiative:
1. 77% of potential patients are using search engines prior to ever booking an appointment
That’s not the only stat that jumps out from Google’s The Digital Journey to Wellness: Hospital Selection report. They also found “search drives nearly 3x as many visitors to hospital sites compared to non-search visitors.”
Wow. We know this is true because we’ve seen our clients increase website visits as much as 50% after launching a new SEO-focused website. The takeaway here is healthcare marketers need to really understand SEO, both local and organic, in order to hire the right agencies and talent for marketing search success.
Along with SEO, content is a huge game changer that not only helps SEO rankings and website traffic, but also provides vital information for patients who are looking for information related to diseases, procedures and treatments. When planning your SEO strategy, be sure to focus on the entire patient journey as well as user experience.
2. 2017 was the year digital ad spending finally beat TV
It was almost a foregone conclusion, but it’s now official, 2017 was the year digital ad spending finally beat TV. This is significant for healthcare organizations because it indicates where prospective patients are spending their time. And when people do watch TV these days, they generally skip ads altogether. So, where are consumers, including patients, spending more and more time? Mobile.
3. 51% of all digital ad budgets in 2016 were spent on mobile. (IAB)
And by 2019, mobile advertising is expected to represent 72% of all U.S. digital ad spending. This means your competition is probably part of this trend, which means you need to take mobile advertising seriously. But not all ads are created equal – banner ads are declining by 3.1%, while social media and video are projected to grow at a whopping 20.1% a year, over the next three years (Zenith Media).
4. Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users (Vidyard)
Video is now king and being used extensively for lead generation. In fact, more than 65% of video users extend video beyond brand awareness and use it throughout the [marketing] funnel. Healthcare marketers should invest in video, but also be very strategic and plan to make video part of a more robust campaign that’s tied to mobile, SEO, landing pages, marketing automation and lead scoring.
5. 92% of mobile video viewers share videos with others (Virtuets)
51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI. You can see the patten here. Video and mobile are a 2-headed superpower. Both are continuing to grow, and when you combine video with mobile, the chances of being successful continue to rise. The image below shows the dramatic rise of mobile as the best channel for video.
Healthcare marketers still spending money on billboards, newspapers and TV are losing opportunities and, in essence, wasting their budgets. It’s not too late, however; today is the day to begin focusing on digital marketing with the emphasis squarely on search, mobile and video.
