Among the best tips for healthcare marketing are to tune into the needs of a target demographic, clearly communicate the benefits the advertiser is offering and to use all available marketing tools, including new media options. Testing marketing strategies on focus groups and trial markets is also a good idea. Marketing approaches may vary, but healthcare marketing should always be aware of what competitors are offering, as well as areas where competitors may present a discernible weakness.
Whether the target demographic is a certain segment of the general public, such as the elderly or pregnant women, or whether it is healthcare providers, companies in charge of healthcare marketing should thoroughly understand that population’s spending trends before beginning a new marketing campaign. Data regarding the effectiveness of previous campaigns should also be assessed. Even if former marketing techniques have fallen short, information gathered on the public’s reaction to those techniques can be useful in creating new healthcare marketing campaigns.
One of the goals of healthcare marketing should always be to illustrate to the public how healthcare services or products will serve their existing needs. For this reason, it is important to also assess target markets to determine what those unmet needs are or how they may be better serviced even if another company is currently meeting them. Gauging the reactions of focus groups to particular marketing strategies may offer useful information to campaign developers. As well, briefly advertising in small test markets is one of the best ways to determine the effectiveness of new healthcare marketing before a campaign is implemented nationally.
Traditional print and digital healthcare marketing is still effective. New media strategies, however, can also be utilized to build stronger marketing campaigns. Such strategies include social media, mobile phone applications and search engine optimized websites. These business tools are commonly used by the best marketers regardless of the industry they represent.
A close study of competitor healthcare marketing strategies can be quite revealing when establishing new campaigns. In particular, public response to unique slogans, responses to press events and how often digital information is accessed indicates how markets respond to existing methods. In particular, it is important to find out what the public dislikes about these campaigns, whether they find them trustworthy and what variations they are likely to respond to more positively. While this information pertains largely to a competitor’s efforts, information garnered can be applied to the creation of new campaigns, too.
