As an industry, in spite of the pandemic set-back, healthcare is booming like never before. As a healthcare entrepreneur, you must be aware of the cut-throat competition that exists in the healthcare space. There are numerous hospitals mushrooming at every corner. If you have to stay a step ahead of competition and garner profits, it is essential that your Healthcare facility is perceived as the best and only choice by your potential customers. This is possible if you have a stupendous branding and marketing campaign in place.

A hospital branding or marketing strategy can help you put your hospital or healthcare facility on the top of the memory consciousness of your potential patients.

You will be able to establish a strong connect with your potential customers on the strength of your branding endeavor and develop your corporate identity externally and your brand perception internally.

As with every sphere, healthcare branding and marketing is evolving rapidly with the changing patterns like social media explosion, pandemic scenario, and technological advancement. If you want to stay abreast of the trends in healthcare branding and marketing …read on.

1. “Patient-first” marketing

If you wish to hit the bullseye and gain points, you will have to ensure that your hospital’s branding and marketing strategy revolves around your potential customer, left, right and centre. Your patient will have to be made to feel special and valued and not just any case number. This can be done through personification of healthcare marketing.

Tips

1. Remember, each patient is special and his/ her needs are also unique. You have to customize your branding messages, your content, and your offerings in such a way that you meet your customers’ specific needs.
2. To do this marketing exercise, an in-depth analysis of your customer base, competitors and core strengths will be mandatory.
3. Your patient data base should be enriched and informative to help you reach out to a specific group of patients with a specific branding and marketing campaign.
4. You should map your messages and content to match with particular milestones in a patient’s journey. This will help you to captivate attention at the right point.

2. Be unique and convey that you are unique

In what way is your hospital better than all the other hospitals in your specialty. You will have to find this one attribute that sets you apart and places your healthcare services a notch higher than all the others in the market. After brainstorming with your team, you will be able to arrive at this USP…it may be that you have the best diagnostic equipment or that you provide many services under one roof or that you have a physician who is experienced in a particular type of treatment in your panel.

Whatever the USP< make your entire brand story evolve around it and communicate it with your target audience at every change you get through conventional means like posters, leaflets, banners as well as modern means like web testimonials, videos of success stories and client reviews.

3. Multi-channel marketing

The days when you could rely in word-of-mouth publicity for driving your healthcare business has long gone. Today, the web-savvy potential clients can gain information about a plethora of healthcare units with just a click.

To combat with so many competitors and emerge victorious in this arena of competition, you have to have a multi-edged spear …that is you have to market your healthcare facility across a multitude of channels.

Your healthcare marketing strategy should be spread over some or all of the following channels

1. Print advertisements
2. Website
3. Social media posts
4. SEO
5. Call centre services
6. Videos, podcasts, and interactive seminars
7. CSR activities like free health camps, vaccination drives etc.
8. Online support groups.

Remember, that the brand messaging of your hospital should remain consistent across all the channels, or the impact will get diluted.

4. Digital transition

Your hospital marketing plan will have to be in line with today’s tech-fuelled times. Your branding and marketing strategy will have to be digitalized in order to facilitate

1. Seamless communication with your potential patients.
2. Appointment booking
3. Scheduling.
4. Tracking engagement data.
5. Counselling and advice
6. Sharing relevant medical information.
7. Interactive sessions with physicians
8. Customer relationship management

Your website should be as user-friendly as possible. It should also be interesting and appealing so that your potential clients linger on.

If you need any help in this exercise, be sure to contact Hospertz hospital consultancy firm, a leading healthcare marketing consultancy firm of India. Our team of experts will help you synergize your branding strategy in line with the evolving trends and orchestrate a comprehensive marketing plan.

Blog has been written by Dr. Vishal Jadhav, a veteran in the field of hospital consultancy with a rich experience of more than 20 years and founder of the Healthcare Consultancy Firm, Hospertz.

Dr. Vishal Jadhav, Director
hospertz@gmail.com
+91 9867712705/ 9820833149