Blog / Digital Marketing tips for healthcare

Last week Numan – Europe’s leading digital platform for men’s health – announced the final funding injection of its recent Series B round. $20M has been raised from growth debt specialists Kreos Capital, taking the total capital generated to help fuel Numan’s expansion to $60.1M.

Fast becoming a household name in men’s digital health, Numan is revolutionising the way men receive healthcare by providing direct online access to medical professionals, prescription medication, at-home blood testing, and holistic health advice.

The growth of new health and medical care providers, using digital and technological innovation is exciting to watch. Just recently, the Sport Technology Awards unveiled another new generation of scaling businesses offering a range of solutions to address human performance through sport, participation and injury recovery.

The global human healthcare market is undergoing rapid and transformative change, innovation and opportunity. Covid19 kicked in a wider adoption of online purchasing amongst customers of all ages and demographics worldwide. From medtech innovators to IoT products in personal healthcare, software services that enhance mental wellbeing and hardware products that aid joint and muscle recovery. New brands with budget are being launched on a global stage on a weekly basis.

It’s a time of great opportunity and also a time of huge competition. How can a healthcare business stay ahead of its competitors? What is the secret sauce to maintaining visibility, ranking and engagement? What’s the 101 rulebook and where are the challenges and future trends?

At Somebody Digital, we’re here to help. Our expert team has been shortlisted for multiple awards in digital healthcare marketing and we’re here to apply the remedies to help your campaign reach peak performance.

We get to know our patients

It all starts with audience understanding. A deep dive analysis of your customer. This initial piece of research is so important and where significant exploration time should be invested. Often the audience profile goes way beyond a ‘patient persona’. A case in point are elderly customers who receive product research & purchase support from partners and family members.

Even a business has an occasional misperception of who their customer is or how important a secondary market is. And sometimes our analysis discovers an unexpected market. We recently undertook some research for a glucose reading product and discovered that professional athletes are a large secondary market for blood sugar monitoring. A very different customer profile from their vertical audience adversely affected by diabetes.

We find the right language

Once we understand the audience profile, we need to understand what the problem the customer is trying to find a solution for. And then the associated language we need to use to successfully connect. We usually hypothesize a number of different message clusters and test which ones work most effectively.

Building trust for your healthcare product is a fundamental principle (we talk about how to do this later in the blog). Healthcare is a well regulated industry and being mindful and considerate about using appropriate language is very important.

In searching for healthcare online, customers often know what product they’re looking for because they’ve already taken professional advice from their doctor. Here education is not the highest priority and price plays an important role.

However when it comes to bringing new products to market, educational content is key. And that could start with an open ‘did you know’ content conversation to provoke interest and engagement.

Do remember that healthcare messaging should never be too pushy. Personal healthcare products are about people’s health and wellbeing so messaging should always be professional, easy to understand and not overwhelming. Our healthcare mantra sits around 3 central pillars. Expertise. Authority and Trust. Putting your customer at ease as well as enabling trust is a key consideration.

Also remember this fascinating fact! 80/90% of healthcare purchases are by women. Even when the product is for men. Bear that in mind when you craft your language.

We build brand trust

As already mentioned, trust is fundamental in healthcare advertising and often educational information can help build a trusting customer relationship. This is where a well designed landing page plays a powerful role in the sales funnel.

Naturally, there are a significant number of questions in a customer’s healthcare research so we often create a resource where the client business answers those questions and effectively markets that content through organic keyword search and paid too. Through research, we find which questions are frequently asked and by providing useful answers, we can increase the click through rate. A well designed landing page is key to its effectiveness so ensure clarity and a friction free user experience. Be helpful and clear about what you can do for the customer without over-selling.

A useful tool in building brand trust are independent customer reviews. If these are delivered through authentic video testimonials – that’s all the better – as it demonstrates the customers are credible and their feedback can be trusted.

The power and visibility of your brand will play an important part in the speed of customer engagement. It’s a well known fact that potential customers need to be exposed to your brand at least 3-5 times before converting.

Usually healthcare marketing is what we call ‘a 5 touch journey’. However remember that all those multiple touches could happen in the same day! Often 70% of sales happen on day one. 25% of sales happen in the next 5 days and the remaining 5% happen later. Be as effective and engaging as possible in those early stages.

We find the right tools

From PPC to SEO, digital marketing offers us a wide selection of available tools with built in data measurement systems but healthcare marketing also comes with its own set of challenges. Health industry advertising is highly and justifiably regulated.

Re-marketing through Google advertising is not always permitted so programmatic displays are alternative ways to bring traffic back to the website without re-marketing. Knowing about and working with restrictive marketing is an extensive area we will return to in our next blog!

A well designed and nurturing campaign that brings your customer through a responsive sales funnel is key. You may start with educational content at the top of the funnel but at customer conversion stage, don’t leave the follow up too long. Competing for customer attention in healthcare is intense and so ensure there is an aligned approach between the performance marketing agency and in-house sales team.

We recognise that digital marketing in healthcare can feel complex and overwhelming too. Or just contact us to help guide healthy outcomes!