Unveiled for Healthcare Marketers

I think the one thing that everyone can agree on is that healthcare marketing is not what it used to be. Due to the boom in technology and social media, in just under a decade healthcare organizations have needed to come up with more creative ways of advertising and more creative healthcare marketing than ever before. Instead of figuring out how to get the name out in the local community, now healthcare organizations need to figure out how to get their name out there in the social media world as well.

If you want to have a business in healthcare, it is important to have creative marketing ideas to constantly and consistently put you first in front of your competitors. Here are four basic marketing ideas to get you and your healthcare organization started.

Waiting Rooms

The amount of time that a patient spends waiting in the waiting rooms are usually the top complaint of patients within healthcare organizations. In a waiting room, a patient has very little to go onto social media and complain about the wait at whatever healthcare organization they are in. So many healthcare professionals are missing on opportunities to not only keep patients from being bored, but also to market within the waiting rooms. It is a goldmine of opportunity that is often overlooked. If there is a place where you know that you have patients and their attention, why not take advantage of that and make it prime real estate for your healthcare marketing needs?

So what are some creative ideas to do in your waiting rooms to get the ball rolling on your marketing? Get on the social media part of marketing as much as possible! Use QR codes on posters for any information you want them to read. Promote different questions for them to answer on social media with specific hashtags for a chance to win prizes (things that you could easily offer for free). Refer them to your blog to read while they wait. The more ideas that will get them engaged to not even notice the wait the better.

Marketing Content on Initial Paperwork

If there is one thing that does take up time in the waiting room, it is filling out the initial paperwork when a patient comes to an office for the first time. More often than not, the patient normally rushes through all of the pages and fills it out as quickly as possible, just to get to the waiting room and sit. However, what if there was something that stopped what they were doing and quickly caught their eye just for a moment in time to remind them to check out more later?

What if there was a bright blue box in the corner that said: “tweet us @_______ and let us know how we did today?” or something that gets the patient engaged? This would mean that when the patient leaves the office, they would still be engaged with your office, which would make them much more likely to come back.

Those initial forms provide an opportunity for any type of marketing that you want all patients to see, especially any type of marketing you want a patient to see before anything else.

Social Media Ads

Want a chance to really be known as the number one healthcare place in your area? Place ads on Facebook and/or Instagram. As people in your area scroll through their newsfeed, seeing a healthcare organization that goes out of its way to connect with a patient is extremely noticeable.

Many people will want to check out the company solely off of the fact that they are active with their social media. Finding clever and catchy ads will help get patients to stop scrolling and check out what there is to offer.

Patient Challenges

Are you looking for a way to increase patient involvement and get patients coming back? Starting a patient challenge at your healthcare organization is a great marketing tool!

Any type of healthcare organization can start a patient challenge that revolves around the type of healthcare that they provide. The patient is most likely to get involved because it will involve their healthcare which means the patient is likely to put more effort in on their end. If the challenge is done correctly, it can also be an incredible way to promote your organization on social media.

For example, let's say that the focus in on weight loss. There can be different prizes either for the weight loss, or there can be prizes for the actual participation. If you create prizes for how involved the patient is in the challenge, the patient is doing the marketing for you. By having the challenges on social media, creating specific hashtags, and more, the patient is getting rewarded for helping you get your organization’s name out there.

These are just a few simple ways to maximize the space that you already have within your healthcare setting to use creative content marketing ideas. Find spaces in your area that you feel you could maximize marketing, and then go out into your community to see where they are in social media and engage with them there.