Healthcare Marketing is Changing and Challenging !!

In Healthcare industry, marketing is an important tool to generate interest and trust among the community. A healthcare marketing strategy is an investment for doctors, healthcare networks and healthcare marketing professionals. There’s no other industry like healthcare. The services we provide and the relationships we build as doctors are central to consumers well-being. It can be tough for even the most experienced marketer to catch that lightning in a bottle. What makes one doctor or clinic special? 

Dynamics in society, medicine, medical delivery systems, and the professions (generalists, specialists and sub-specialists) have changed in recent years. Marketing and advertising for physical therapists, occupational therapists and psychiatrists have shifted from simple and straightforward to being increasingly varied and difficult. While other businesses have adopted online marketing years ago, many healthcare organizations are just getting started.

Although every market has its own opportunities, the structure of healthcare limits what marketers can do and how. Working within those boundaries isn’t just important, it’s essential. Forgetting to do so can cost businesses millions or force them to shut their doors. Healthcare marketing compliance is a head-scratcher. Up until the 1970s, it was illegal to market hospitals and practices. Healthcare marketers were restricted from using certain tools, such as remarketing ads, in order to safeguard users’ confidential health data.

Being into independent Physical Therapy practice and for several years, I have realized the rising challenges of physical therapy marketing seem to cross all borders - competitors, funding, consumers, systems changes, digital technologies - you name it, each area presents its own complexities.

Health consumers are the most challenging consumers to deal with. Because the service or the product has to do with curing their body and minimizing their sufferings, it's difficult for healthcare service providers to convince their consumers (patients) regarding their therapy (its procedure and service), and meet their expectations.

Consumers are now more actively involved in making key decisions in their care than ever before. Internet research is on the rise, thanks to “Dr. Google”. With a wealth of information available anytime, consumers and patients take advantage of online resources both during initial research and ongoing care — researching health systems and services, reading physician reviews, and participating in online forums. This isn’t surprising, considering that 89% of consumers turn to a search engine to answer health questions, resulting into severe complications at time.

Another biggest challenges in healthcare today require doctors to shift their thinking to be competitive in the market. Consumer can find around 10 hospitals and Clinics within 2 km radius. With increased competition and changing patient behaviors and expectations, your marketing should evolve with the times. Patients are expecting more because professional services aren’t exactly cheap. Whether positive or negative, online reviews offer powerful persuasion to patients. we  need to know what people are saying about our hospital and healthcare providers. 

Being into Rehabilitation sector, we depend on the Physicians and specialists referrals, which ultimately requires not only marketing to patients, but marketing to the doctors themselves. Every paramedical service claims to fix back pain. Even the health insurance industry has now become a MARKETING GAME and relies on how well your clinic is marketing, acquiring leads, and converting those leads into regular patients. Poor phone skills are a huge factor in keeping patients and referrals from ever stepping foot in your office.

With few exceptions, prospective patients are not purchasers until the moment they need your service. That is particularly true with most services in my healthcare niche - Physiotherapy. No one is saving up to get a really nice Cervical or Lumbar Traction someday. Digital and social media Marketing involves continuous updation and  investment of time, money and efforts.

Lack of maintaining metrics related to patient satisfaction, stakeholder interest, and paid media has made it much more challenging for healthcare marketers to get a comprehensive view of their efforts and performance.

Healthcare marketing is not a decision that should be taken lightly, its about creating a reputation in the society and should be choosen wisely and ethically. We  need to learn about the most advanced modern marketing strategies that will not only optimize our clinic operations, but free up our time, allowing us to work on our business, not in our business.The best and ethical way for healthcare marketers to restore any sense of trust is by becoming better storytellers and sharing the real-life healthcare experiences of patients instead of creating uninformative ads for prescription drugs or advicing a therapy.

Patient care should always come first in the world of healthcare. And that dedication to  patient's well-being needs to be apparent. 

Dr. Richa Purohit (Physiotherapist) Fitwell Physiotherapy Clinic, Kharadi. Pune.