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Cracking the Code of Healthcare Marketing: The 5 P’s You Need to Know!

Healthcare Marketing

Welcome to the fast-paced world of healthcare marketing, where patients are the heart and soul of your strategy. In this article, we’ll help you dissect the secrets of the 5 P’s of marketing specially tailored for the healthcare industry. So scrub up, get ready to learn, and let the operation begin!

People-Centric Approach:

Healthcare marketing without focusing on the people it serves is like a hospital without doctors. It just won’t work! Your target audience – patients and their families – are the stars of the show, and it’s crucial to tailor your marketing efforts to their needs, concerns, and preferences. Its necessary to conduct thorough market research to understand your audience better. Identify their pain points, aspirations, and communication preferences. Then, create patient personas to guide your messaging and outreach.

Healthcare Marketing

Pertinent Content Strategy:

Content is always number one in any marketing strategy. Your healthcare marketing endeavors must encompass a robust content strategy that educates, empathizes, and engages your audience. Quality content establishes your expertise, builds trust, and drives patient loyalty. Develop a diverse range of content, including informative blog posts, engaging social media updates, and helpful videos. Ensure that the content is accurate, evidence-based, and addresses the queries and concerns of your target audience.

Proactive Online Presence:

In today’s digital landscape, your online presence speaks volumes about your healthcare brand. It’s like your clinic’s virtual reception area, and you need to make a good first impression! Invest in a professional, user-friendly website that showcases your services, staff, and patient testimonials. Optimize your website for search engines (SEO) to rank higher in search results and attract organic traffic.

Performance Tracking and Optimization:

In the dynamic world of healthcare marketing, you can’t afford to set it and forget it. It’s essential to track your marketing efforts’ performance and fine-tune your strategies based on real-time data. Utilize analytics tools to monitor website traffic, conversion rates, and engagement metrics. Keep a close eye on the success of different campaigns to identify what’s working and what needs improvement. This helps you better understand what kinds of things attract your audience.

Prudent Compliance and Ethics:

In healthcare marketing, integrity is non-negotiable. It’s essential to adhere to industry regulations, maintain patient privacy, and uphold ethical practices. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with relevant laws and regulations like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) to ensure patient data confidentiality. Be transparent and honest in your marketing messages, avoiding misleading claims that cause your audience to lose trust in your business.

Conclusion:

Congratulations, savvy healthcare marketer! You’ve now cracked the code of the 5 P’s – People-Centric Approach, Pertinent Content Strategy, Proactive Online Presence, Performance Tracking and Optimization, and Prudent Compliance and Ethics. By incorporating these best practices into your set of marketing tools, you’ll create a winning strategy that not only resonates with your audience but also earns their trust and loyalty. Remember, marketing in the healthcare industry requires a delicate balance of empathy and professionalism. So go forth, spread your message of wellness, and make a positive impact on countless lives!

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy (“policy”) will help you understand how we use and protect the data you provide to us when you visit and use Procept Marketing’s website.

We reserve the right to change this policy at any given time, of which you will be promptly updated. If you want to make sure that you are up to date with the latest changes, we advise you to frequently visit this page.

What User Data We Collect

When you visit the website, we may collect the following data:

  • Your IP address.
  • Your contact information and email address.
  • Other information such as interests and preferences.
  • Data profile regarding your online behavior on our website.
Why We Collect Your Data

We are collecting your data for several reasons:

  • To better understand your needs.
  • To improve our services and products.
  • To send you promotional emails containing the information we think you will find interesting.
  • To contact you to fill out surveys and participate in other types of market research.
  • To customize our website according to your online behavior and personal preferences.
Safeguarding and Securing the Data

Procept Marketing is committed to securing your data and keeping it confidential. Procept Marketing has done all in its power to prevent data theft, unauthorized access, and disclosure by implementing the latest technologies and software, which help us safeguard all the information we collect online.

Our Cookie Policy

Once you agree to allow our website to use cookies, you also agree to use the data it collects regarding your online behavior (analyze web traffic, web pages you spend the most time on, and websites you visit).

The data we collect by using cookies is used to customize our website to your needs. After we use the data for statistical analysis, the data is completely removed from our systems.

Please note that cookies don’t allow us to gain control of your computer in any way. They are strictly used to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not so that we can provide a better experience for you.

If you want to disable cookies, you can do it by accessing the settings of your internet browser. You can visit www.internetcookies.com, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers and devices.

Links to Other Websites

Our website contains links that lead to other websites. If you click on these links Procept Marketing is not held responsible for your data and privacy protection. Visiting those websites is not governed by this privacy policy agreement. Make sure to read the privacy policy documentation of the website you go to from our website.

Restricting the Collection of your Personal Data

At some point, you might wish to restrict the use and collection of your personal data. You can achieve this by doing the following:

  • When you are filling the forms on the website, make sure to check if there is a box which you can leave unchecked, if you don’t want to disclose your personal information.
  • If you have already agreed to share your information with us, feel free to contact us via email and we will be more than happy to change this for you.

Procept Marketing will not lease, sell or distribute your personal information to any third parties, unless we have your permission. We will only share your personal information if the law forces us to do so. Your personal information will only be used when we need to send you promotional materials if you agree to this privacy policy.

Why is a Marketing Strategy Essential to Success?

Why is a Marketing Strategy Essential to Success? 

What exactly goes into a marketing strategy, and why is it important?

Well, the first step is identifying what your strategy is meant to accomplish. Do you want more followers, more foot traffic through the door, and so on. With the goals defined, we can understand what qualifies as a successful strategy or an unsuccessful one.

Next, we have to identify what the target audience is. This involves taking a critical look at the demographics of your consumers. The demographics also give you an idea of who is not interested in your business. From here, you can decide to lean into your target audience, or you can try reaching elsewhere to expand your customer base.  With this information, next is the planning and content creation process. 

This step allows you to keep all your marketing consistent and constant, making your efforts precise when targeting your ideal audience. So with all this being said, while you could potentially  succeed without a marketing strategy, having one allows you to be concise and efficient with your digital marketing.

Graphic File Formats

When designing graphics, you always want to ensure that you have the best quality across all devices without slowing down the page load time. Thankfully, there are so many formats to choose from, but which ones are suitable for logos, print material, etc.. let’s find out!

Before we get into file formats, let’s discuss vector vs raster. Raster images are made up of pixels to form an image. JPEG, GIF, and PNG are all raster image extensions. Pixel proportions are defined based on their resolutions and can become distorted and blurry if stretched to fill spaces they weren’t intended to fill. Vector images are a lot more flexible. They’re made using proportional formulas rather than pixels. EPS, AI, and PDF are perfect for creating graphics that require frequent adjustments.

Now let’s talk file formats. JPEG (JPG) is the most common format. They are known for their “lossy” compression, meaning the images lose their quality when edited and saved multiple times. You can use JPEGs for projects on the web, in Microsoft Office documents, or for projects that require printing at a high resolution. Paying attention to the resolution and file size with JPEGs is essential to produce a nice, quality project.

PNGs are great for interactive documents such as web pages but are not suitable for print. While PNGs are \”lossless,\” meaning you can edit them and not lose quality, they are still low resolution. With PNG files, you can save your image onto a transparent background which makes for a sharper, web-quality image. PNG and JPEG do not differ much in quality when it comes to detail-rich photographs. However, the file size of PNG is much bigger. PNG is, therefore, best used for images that contain areas with a lot of solid colors and sharp transitions.

GIFS are most common in their animated form. Due to the 24-bit RGB color support (up to 256 colors), the GIF-extension isn’t suitable for color-rich photographs. Graphics with solid colors are recommended for this file type. Since the GIF extension is pretty old, it’s not suitable for modern usage.

TIFF, a popular file format amongst graphic designers, is a large raster file that maintains its quality regardless of how often you compress or re-save the original file. It’s often referred to as a lossless compression because of this. Since TIFF extensions are big file sizes, they are less suited for web usage and are therefore better for editing and preservation. 

A PDF file is an Adobe invention and a great universal tool for sharing graphics. If a designer saves your vector logo in PDF format, you can view it without any design editing software (as long as you have downloaded the free Acrobat Reader software), and can use this file to make further manipulations.

EPS files are in vector format and are designed to produce high-resolution graphics for print. It is a universal file type that can be used to open vector-based graphics in any design editor.

PSDs are files that are created and saved in Photoshop. They contain layers that simplify the process of editing images. They only work with raster images as opposed to vector graphics.

AI, an Adobe Illustrator file, is the image format most preferred by designers and the most reliable for images in different types of projects. Illustrator produces vector images and is the easiest to manipulate. It’s the industry standard and more than likely where your logo was originally rendered.

SVGs are vector based images that are great for infinite scaling without losing quality. It’s a very versatile format and is good for the creation of print materials and logos.

Working with images is a lot more complicated than you\’d think. Hopefully this guide has provided a better understanding of the standard file types and which are most appropriate for your design needs.

How To Network During a Pandemic

Around my Junior year of undergrad, I started to be aware of the importance of networking. Like many budding professionals, when I entered the workforce in my career field I found the task of breaking into an established field mildly challenging. Over the course of a decade, I learned from colleagues, mentors (and YouTube videos) how to master the art of walking into a room of strangers and finding those valuable, meaningful connections. I felt confident starting conversations, learned to discover events and venues that were worthwhile and unsaturated and had a healthy contact list of individuals in diverse industries.
Then the Coronavirus pandemic happened.
I spent the first week of the mandatory quarantine making my way down my client list making calls to offer reassurance, educate on what steps we were taking and simply listen to individual perspectives–shared plans, insider insights, and fears. Things quieted down for several weeks as businesses worldwide battened down the hatches and braced themselves for the inevitable economic impact. I began to describe entering the quarantine as similar to preparing for a hurricane. You prepare for the worst and pray for the best. I wasn\’t far off. However the effects of COVID-19 are largely unseen and so far-reaching that even experts don’t know when we will return to “normal.” So as a community of professionals and entrepreneurs, we embrace this “new normal” and continue to operate as best as we can with a spirit of innovation and determination.

How do you network during a pandemic?

I polled the Procept Marketing team, customers and professional acquaintances and asked them “How are you guys networking in this new socially distant climate?” Here’s what I found:

Throw your old familiarity out the door. 

Now is not the time to be too comfortable. I had a client tell me a story about a medical sales representative disregarding their posted clinic policies. “They just breezed past the signs on the door–no respect. The majority of my patients are elderly and at risk, so we are taking screening at the door very seriously.” The rep’s casual entrance offended my client enough that they chose to no longer do business with that company.

It’s important to remember that at the root of relationship-building is respect. Even if you have a long-standing relationship with a customer, never get too comfortable or assume. Remain professional and allow your customer to do business in conditions that they are comfortable with.

Make it personal. 

When reaching out, don’t be afraid to mention the pandemic and the effects it is having. Ask people how they are coping and give them the opportunity to acknowledge the challenges they might be having. Taking the time to chat puts people at ease. Simply asking “How are you honestly doing? This pandemic has certainly taken a toll on all of us” allows you to establish rapport in less than 10 seconds. A little bit of empathy goes a long way.

Get comfortable with technology. 

Everyone has either experienced or heard of a technical difficulty horror story. Coworkers using the restroom while not realizing their video is on, presenters unable to start their meeting on time because they couldn’t get their platform to work. We have to accept that using technology to communicate is a way of life. By learning to use these platforms effectively, we save ourselves the inefficiency or embarrassment when something goes wrong.

However, if something does go wrong–it’s ok. Remind yourself and others that we are all human and subject to error. People are all a lot more forgiving of technology as so many of us have or are still working from home. It doesn’t matter what platform you use–the important thing is to show up.

Take the extra steps to network after a virtual meeting. 

Completely virtual conferences are a relatively new concept. Obtaining attendee lists may not be feasible, but you can easily get speaker and panel representatives, along with their company names. Consider emailing these individuals after the event, to ask questions or offer feedback. Ask if they would be willing to speak with you briefly to brainstorm on individuals and companies in the space you are targeting. Take a risk and put yourself out there – the worst that can happen is that they will say no.

Finally, consider how you can bring value to a conference – if you or one of your clients participate in a session or panel, it could open new opportunities to expand your network.

Creating and maintaining virtual relationships is now fundamental to maintaining mental health as well as business success. Leaders, you can help by encouraging employees to attend online networking events, webinars, and chat rooms in groups not specifically related to their jobs.

Evaluate your network. 

It’s a good time to say hello to dorman connections in your field. Recognize that you have value and something to offer and work to find those that need your help. We should always consider ways to help others, especially in our community.

Be honest if these connections make sense for the direction your business or company is going. If not, identify what connections would be beneficial and get in touch in a sensitive way.

Talk to strangers. 

Connect with different people who may not be like-minded. Find people who are different, who aren’t in your industry or social circle. Keep diversity in mind. And don’t stress if you struggle with meeting new people; introverts can be great at connecting because they have a natural ability to listen and ask questions.

Be consistent

Effective networking takes time to pay off. Remember to schedule webinars or virtual meetings ahead on a weekly basis to ensure you are connecting with others regularly. Pick a day of the week each week to carve out time to send out messages to schedule virtual coffees. 

An old mentor used to tell me “It’s not no, just ‘not right now.’” If you continue to sow the seeds of connection, you will find a harvest once this stormy season has passed.

 

Are you interested in powering your website to create connections for you while you sleep? Chat with our team about SEO strategies to bolster your business page in web searches.