The healthcare industry is booming currently, with more and more patients beginning investing time into their own health. The issues for healthcare businesses themselves is that the market is now becoming extremely overcrowded which means they to entrust a healthcare marketing agency to discover innovative ways to help their brand stand out from the rest. There are a number of services that health specialists can provide, but it’s becoming more difficult to differentiate how services can be different to your own.
So then, how can your brand stand out from the rest with all this going on?
Here are 5 opportunities that you can consider to achieve this.
Unique Identity
Probably considered the most impactful way for healthcare brands to stand out is by providing a refresh to your brand logo. Historical logos or logos that have remained throughout the businesses’ existence can appear outdated and perhaps have less of an engaging colour pallet to audiences that are looking for healthcare services today.
When brainstorming about your brand, it’s important to consider that branding can make big strides to make your business appear memorable. How the large ‘M’ logo in McDonald’s is a symbol that’s familiar worldwide, it can help to portray meaning for the audience and help your brand to find an identity.
There should also be a level of consistency with your branding as this helps the audience to acknowledge the brand as well as feel trusted that what they see is relatable to your business.
Engaging & Reliable Content
The healthcare industry is based upon trust and authoritative information that’s knowledgeable. This means that the content is extremely important and requires to be useful and compelling for your users.
Luckily, for healthcare brands, there are plenty of internal patient stories that provide compelling and life-changing content to use on their website. In doing so, it can be a great way for audiences to connect closely with your brand and build a relationship with them.
You also need to be able to inform your users with educational content about relatable health topics.
There are many ways that healthcare brands can offer this information to their users including using blog content, providing videos and creating infographics for their users to engage in. Similarly, B2B brands can offer their insight through whitepapers, case studies and webinars.
Showcasing this information on your website reassures consumers that the branding they’re choosing understands their industry and has the right solutions for their needs.
Use of Digital Marketing
The internet has become one of the prime sources for users to find information, whether its search engines, websites or video content, it’s quick and incredibly easy to find. Health information is one topic of conversation that is heavily searched for online which means healthcare business’ need to have a digital presence in order to be found.
The problem they have is that it’s an extremely regulated industry where many laws are present. This can sometimes restrict businesses from how they can utilise digital marketing, but this shouldn’t stop them from making the most of it. It can be a powerful way to attract audiences and engage with them and this should all start with a clean and interactive website for your brand that’s user-friendly for your users.
As well as this, it should be able to cater to your audience’s needs regardless of whatever device the customer is using. For example, if you find that the majority of your users are arriving from mobile, it would be fair to say that you need to make sure that your website performs well on mobile.
Social Media is another form of digital marketing which is practically a no-brainer when it comes to reaching your audience and increasing your visibility as much as possible. Platforms in particular such as Linkedin and Facebook are considered most useful and relevant for healthcare needs due to the extended reach and qualified audiences that they attract. By utilising what these social platforms offer, you’ll be able to project valuable content to your users and make the most of social media as a form of digital marketing for your business. The key is to be different from your competitors and be unique in the way you showcase your brand on social media.
Other forms of digital marketing practice are paid advertisements which enables you to put your brand right in front of consumers. Google Adwords works perfectly to put you in front audiences that are actively looking for what you do by placing your adverts in relevant spaces on the web and search engines.
Providing a Good Customer Service
Whilst being online helps consumers to find you, it won’t be as effective if the experience they have after this isn’t one they enjoy. This is why healthcare services pride themselves on providing brilliant customer service in order to retain patients for the long-term. Considering this, it’s important that your services meet the needs of your patients which begins from the experience that you provide and ensure that it’s consistent throughout.
From a health service point of view, it’s all about encapsulating trust and reliability. This can be achieved right from the website’s interface to the face of your employees. The same way you project what your brand is about through your online channels, the people within your organisation should act as brand ambassadors for your business who are proud of inspiring culture throughout.
To gain an idea of how well your business is doing, consumer research can help you to gain a better understanding of what is going well and what isn’t. Asking patients to conduct interviews or do online surveys are just some of the ways you can see exactly how customers feel about your brand. The insights that come from the research provides you with actions that you can incorporate within your business to help your brand to stand out even further.
Final thoughts
Whether you specialise in cosmetic surgery or pharmaceuticals, your brand has plenty of opportunities to define its differences in an industry that’s surrounded by legislation, technology and large demand from consumers.
Utilising digital marketing, producing valuable content, continuing with good customer service and adopting a unique identity are the places to start for healthcare brands looking to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowded market.
