6 Steps to Creating an Actionable Healthcare Marketing Plan

Why a strong healthcare marketing plan matters

An effective marketing plan for healthcare organizations can help providers acquire new patients as well as keep their current patients satisfied. Set high patient expectations through your marketing tactics and exceed them by delivering exceptional care. While there are tremendous benefits to gain, building a healthcare marketing plan isn’t without its challenges.

You not only have to build trust among your audience but also be sensitive to a patient’s privacy per HIPAA compliance standards. How can you achieve your goal while being mindful of industry requirements? This guide explores six simple ways to develop a plan to attract and retain patients.

Follow the tips below and rely on Weave’s communication platform to capitalize on your marketing efforts. Our proven tools for healthcare organizations aid in improving patient engagement, appointment volume, and much more. Check out the primary ways that you can grow your practice and give yourself a competitive advantage.

Step 1 – Define clear objectives

Successful healthcare marketing campaigns always begin with specific goals. Are you focused on patient acquisition? Do you want to improve patient care and retention?

Setting clear goals is critical for marketing teams. They must create initiatives aimed at achieving these goals. How exactly can you determine the direction of your targeted campaigns?

Experts recommend using the acronym SMART when setting goals. These five simple adjectives can shape your ultimate goal:

Specific: This isn’t the time to be vague. Be as specific as possible when defining what you want to achieve.
Measurable: How will you tell when you accomplish what you set out for? It must be measurable, such as office call volume or website visitors.
Achievable: While you can adjust your goals over time, make sure you start with ones that you can achieve within reason.
Relevant: All of your healthcare marketing ideas should be relevant and realistic for your practice.
Time-based: Create a schedule to motivate you, such as striving to acquire 10 new patients each month.

In many cases, marketing goals can align with practice management initiatives. You may be looking to increase patient engagement through multichannel marketing strategies, but you could also achieve this by offering online scheduling.

Weave’s communication products suit many organizations’ operational and marketing goals. Whether you’re looking to connect with new patients and build lasting relationships with existing ones, Weave’s tools can support your practice.

Step 2 – Identify your target audience

Give your healthcare marketing plan some direction by looking at target audience personas and needs. The patient population can be diverse, but every person is seeking quality care from providers. You may be more successful in building brand awareness when you market a particular service to a relevant segment of your audience.

Use the following to help you identify your target audience effectively:

Demographics: Descriptors like sex, age, marital status, and income can all be used to build a patient persona.
Psychographics: Healthcare systems shouldn’t ignore someone’s values and beliefs, as they may be key to their target market.
Conditions treated: Narrow down the type of care that your audience needs and include it in your healthcare marketing strategy.
Payer types: Do you cater to patients who carry health insurance or those who pay out of pocket for their care?

Creating a marketing campaign is much easier when you have a patient persona that you can target. What does this look like in practice?

For a plastic surgery clinic, many of the procedures are cosmetic and not covered by insurance. Many of the patients may be females between the ages of 35 and 50 who value a certain aesthetic. Healthcare providers can lean into this persona when promoting their services.

On the other hand, a fertility clinic could largely cater to women between the ages of 20 and 45. Many of these patients are married and value starting a family, despite health issues standing in the way. Based on this persona, the clinic could lean into patient education so the target market understands their options regarding fertility care.

Call analytics, patient surveys, and appointment history data can help you learn more about healthcare consumers. For additional insights, rely on Weave’s innovative solutions. Two-way texting features, digital forms, and review requests make it easier to understand a patient’s needs.

Step 3 – Conduct competitive and internal audits

You should take a closer look at your current marketing strategies as well as those of other healthcare entities. Revamping your healthcare marketing plan must include a comprehensive review of your existing marketing activities and results. Perform an internal audit examining your:

Paid advertisements
Website
Search engine optimization efforts
Patient engagement measures

Internal audits are much easier with the right technological advancements. Weave’s review platforms and communication analytics simplify the process for healthcare providers.

Then, you should see how your practice compares to local competitors. See what type of patient feedback they receive through online reviews, compare their service offerings to yours, and track website traffic.

Proper market research will enable you to perform a SWOT analysis, identifying all of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that your medical practice faces.

Suppose you run a mental health counseling clinic but face the threat of similar practices opening in your area. A key strength could be your staff’s experience, while failing to stay up to date with emerging trends is your practice’s main weakness. A potential opportunity to take advantage of may be offering convenient telehealth services as a way to attract prospective patients.

Step 4 – Choose the right marketing channels

Strategic marketing in healthcare is all about the platforms you use. With the digital landscape evolving rapidly, you can take advantage of a wide range of channels to promote your practice, including:

Your website and blog
Google Business Profile
Social media platforms
Email marketing and text campaigns
Paid digital ads

An easy way to engage with existing patients is by utilizing texts, email, and other omnichannel communication methods. From there, you can build brand awareness through other digital marketing initiatives.

To keep your marketing costs low, focus on building social media engagement and improving your search engine ranking through content marketing. Paying for social media or pay-per-click ads can expand your audience and can be especially helpful for urgent care facilities or dental practices.

Step 5 – Create messaging that builds trust and drives action

Patients need to trust healthcare systems. If you don’t demonstrate expertise and quality healthcare services, your strategy can fall flat. Here’s how to perfect the messaging in your healthcare marketing plan:

Be clear and empathetic: Put yourself in your patients’ shoes and use language that they can understand and relate to.
Focus on the patient experience: Highlight the many benefits your practice offers patients, such as convenient online scheduling, automated appointment reminders, and telehealth services.
Remember regulatory compliance: Avoid HIPAA violations by protecting sensitive information about certain patients.

Your content marketing can focus on a wide range of topics, from educational content to testimonials and success stories. Don’t forget to include preventive care reminders and calls to action when appropriate.

For example, an email newsletter your primary care office sends may feature content about heart health. In addition to naming tips for improving cardiovascular health, you could include a link to an online scheduling portal so patients can discuss these concerns with their doctor.

Weave makes healthcare advertising simple with message templates and automated technology. Through these features, healthcare professionals can better connect with their audience and improve patient engagement.

Step 6 – Measure, optimize, and improve

Healthcare marketers rely on feedback and analytics to track the success of their campaigns. You should monitor various key performance indicators to see how well your strategies are working, including:

Appointment bookings: If your goal is to acquire more patients, track how your appointment volume changes over time. Weave offers call tracking and real-time analytics for seamless monitoring.
No-show rates: Some marketing efforts directly impact clinic operations and reduce the number of no-show appointments.
Website traffic: Digital marketing strategies should lead more people to view your website. Evaluate the total page views, as well as metrics like bounce rates and organic vs. paid traffic.
Ad conversions: You must see if your healthcare marketing plan leads to more conversions when you advertise through social media, content marketing, and community outreach.
Patient satisfaction scores: Online reviews and survey feedback will measure how the patient experience changes. With the right tools in place, you could improve satisfaction scores and build trust.

It’s not enough to just monitor these metrics. You must be proactive and adjust your campaign based on the results you receive. A/B testing is an excellent way to gauge the success of your tactics and find lasting solutions.

Using two different variations of online ads, email content, and other marketing materials will help you see which elements people respond to. For instance, an email campaign may have a higher open rate when you include the patient’s name in the subject line. If data analytics confirm this, you can adjust how you compose marketing emails moving forward.

Common mistakes to avoid in healthcare marketing plans

The healthcare industry is constantly evolving. How can you tell if your marketing strategies are paying off in a somewhat unpredictable landscape? Be wary of the following mistakes that hurt many healthcare organizations:

Relying too heavily on one marketing channel: Don’t be afraid to expand your tactics for maximum effect. Split your marketing budget between SEO efforts, paid ads, and other efforts.
Failing to measure results: You won’t know whether your marketing strategies are working if you don’t track the results. Keep tabs on your campaign’s progress by monitoring various metrics.
Non-compliant messaging or use of patient data: Prioritize regulatory compliance in your messaging and take robust measures to protect sensitive data.
Ignoring mobile friendliness: Optimize your website for mobile users to avoid alienating a large segment of your target audience.
Underestimating the power of online reviews: Many patients use online reviews to get a better sense of a healthcare provider’s services. Pay attention to feedback and acknowledge both positive and negative reviews with professionalism.

Keep these tips in mind for strategic marketing. Avoiding careless marketing mistakes can introduce more people to your healthcare services and improve your organization’s reputation.

Final thoughts: Turn your marketing plan into action

Now that you know the steps to crafting an effective healthcare marketing plan, why wait to put one into place? Start establishing small, measurable goals today and scale them up with consistent marketing efforts.

Your practice won’t stand out unless you optimize your plan with patient-centric approaches and track your progress. Take charge of your market research and outreach with Weave. We support healthcare businesses with a comprehensive suite of communication products.

Request a demo today to learn how Weave’s advanced solutions can enhance your practice’s operations.