Why Healthcare Businesses Are Being Left Behind In Digital

With private healthcare being one of the largest growing industries in the UK, many are left wondering why digital marketing in the healthcare sector appears to have been neglected. 

At Zinc, we meet many healthcare companies making a range of common mistakes when it comes to their digital presence. To help you out, we’ve collated a list of the top mistakes to avoid. Are you guilty of any of these?

Building strategy

Lack of clear digital strategy

One key issue we have seen is healthcare businesses not putting a clear enough focus on digital strategy, instead relying on gut feelings and snap decisions. In the healthcare field, it is extremely important to prioritise user experience, especially due to the complex target audiences within the space. Don’t forget the importance of a mobile first experience. If your website is not responsive to mobile users, you will miss out on key engagement and conversions. 

SEO optimised websites are crucial for reaching the right people, especially in the niche markets of private healthcare! This goes hand in hand with engaging content, such as blog posts and videos, which are very important when it comes to generating and sustaining consumer interest on a website.  

Internal hurdles

Internal resistance to digital marketing and new technologies

Another of the biggest challenges within healthcare businesses is a lack of literacy when it comes to technology. Some businesses make the mistake of relying on internal staff as make-shift digital marketers who do not have the right training to effectively implement digital marketing decisions. Without the appropriate time, strategy and resources, you’re setting your digital marketing strategy up to fail. 

Other businesses completely shy away from more complex areas of digital marketing, negatively impacting their visibility and relevance in the process. For example, many underestimate the importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and data-driven decision making. Keyword research is very important for understanding what your audience is searching for, as well as where your competitors are outperforming you. However, it is very easy to make mistakes with SEO if you’re not sure what to do – this is where Zinc comes in!

 

PPC mistakes

Targeting 

Many organisations don’t realise how important PPC is when it comes to targeting the right audiences, particularly within the healthcare sector. PPC allows businesses to target potential patients in a specific city, town, or within a set radius. It is also possible to target ads based on keywords and intent based targeting, making sure that ads reach people who are actively seeking the specific services that are offered. 

Budget

PPC allows organisations to have control over how much they are willing to spend, with the option to set daily or monthly budgets. You only need to pay when someone clicks on your ad, which makes targeting the right people extremely important. You’ll want to ensure that you aren’t wasting budget on the wrong audiences, and the correct PPC targeting makes this possible. 

With measurable results and KPIs like cost-per-click, conversions, impressions and clicks, it’s also much easier to determine your ROI. Data-driven campaigns and decisions are therefore much less complicated, with clearer focuses to determine. 

 

These small, simple improvements could save your business a lot of time and money.