The end of the year is the ideal time to review marketing spend mix and resulting marketing ROI. According to the 2019 Healthcare Digital Marketing Trends Survey from Geonetric, “The majority (64.3%) of digital marketing budgets are growing, and only one in 20 respondents indicates that their digital marketing budgets will decrease in the coming year.” This is no surprise to anyone operating a healthcare system marketing budget. The ability to identify and target consumers via digital outreach is only growing. The challenge comes with optimizing what consumers do once identified

To turn a prospect into patient, the call-to-action must be more engaging than it ever has been before. Consider the retail experience for example. As the department stores gears up for the holiday season, supply and demand increases and so do targeted ads. Once clicked on, which option would have better engagement? A product search page or a coupon code? Most would agree that the latter will spark greater interest in a shopping experience. Give the consumer a reason to stick around.

Healthcare is no different. The same Geonetric survey share that leading organizations are placing their greatest focus on “Consumer awareness” and “Consumer engagement.” What are people doing once they reach the health system website? Besides poor website design, an unclear next step is one of the fastest ways to get a consumer to exit the page. To maximize marketing ROI, landing pages should be well organized but place the most engaging content front and center. For instance, a “Find the Doc” search should live beneath video testimonials, and video testimonials should live beneath your health risk assessments. The most engaging tactics should be the most prominent.

HRAs are unbeaten as a means to help increase consumers awareness of their conditions, provide talking points, offer clear suggestions, and enter them into a nurturing stream. If done well, an HRA can be your top performing digital outreach strategy because of the direct Point A-to B-to C path that consumers follow. The easiest example is to identify a core group of targets via CRM and promote the landing page via search, social and email. Once the consumer hits the page to complete the HRA, convert them into a patient via multiple lead nurturing tools. Depending on the service line and patient access, many HRAs can show positive marekting ROI in a matter of weeks.

If that sounds like a great way to wrap 2019, let’s talk strategy.

Link to the Geonetric Survey

If you missed our webinar in which Ben Dillion of Geonetric explains the results of the the 2019 Healthcare Digital Marketing Trends Survey you can find it here on our website.