One of the tenants of successful marketing is to meet your customers where they are. With 80 percent of consumers looking for health information online, now is the time for healthcare marketers to engage with these potential patients.
For those who question the need for rich, patient-centric content on their websites, consider these facts:
- When researching health information, 76 percent of potential patients look on hospital websites
- Before booking an appointment, 61 percent of patients visited two or more hospital sites
- Of those, 48 percent took more than two weeks to complete their research
- Of those patients who booked appointments
- 83 percent looked at hospital websites
- 54 percent viewed health insurance websites
- 50 percent used health information sites
- 26 percent read consumer generated reviews
In the past, patients may have patiently accepted their doctor’s advice and recommendations. They have now embraced their role as healthcare consumers, actively seeking out information about health conditions, healthcare facilities and medical professionals.
This creates tremendous opportunities for marketers. If a hospital is able to engage with a potential patient, provide valuable information regarding a health condition or treatment options, they start to build a relationship that will drive appointments, revenue, and loyalty.
Despite this obvious opportunity to engage with patients online, healthcare marketers are behind the curve in the adoption of content marketing. According to Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute, 89 percent of healthcare marketers use some form of content marketing. As an industry standard, however, that is almost two years behind marketers in general.
While concerns over patient privacy and a reliance on doctors for information may have been obstacles to engaging directly with patients online, forward-thinking marketers are embracing the opportunity and driving business through online media.
As always, if you have questions, give us a call.
Source: Pew Internet Study and 2012 Google Compete Study