Expert Answers to 5 Common Healthcare Marketing Questions

Healthcare marketers face unique challenges not often encountered in other industries. As marketers, we look to leading industry resources with robust tools to support our marketing work. However, as healthcare marketers, we sometimes find the same tools lacking and unable to meet best practices in our industry, leaving us with more questions than answers. 

At True North Custom, we frequently help clients in large and small healthcare systems find healthcare industry-specific solutions to marketing issues. Here are answers to five of the most common questions we receive to help your team meet and exceed your goals.‍

1. How Do You Maximize Media Dollars With So Many Online and Offline Channels?

With several diverse online and offline marketing channels available, it can be challenging to know where to start, especially if you're working with limited resources. The first step in deciding the best channels for your campaign is to get clear on your goals.

Before you begin planning your media budget, set specific goals for what you need to achieve with your campaign, considering conditions you treat, procedures you offer, your patient demographics and the service line involved. For example, increasing patient volumes for general surgery isn’t a specific enough goal, especially if you're working with a limited budget. Instead, drill down on precisely what you want to achieve. A better goal may be to increase engagement around a specific type of surgery within a general surgery program. A campaign to build awareness about hernia procedures will look different than one targeting hysterectomies.

Once you have a clear and specific goal, develop your measurement strategy and narrow your focus to specific online or offline channels. One effective way to hone in on the right channels for your campaign is to use a channel matrix with the pros and cons of each option. This helps you choose the channels most aligned with your goals and needs.

2. Is There a Truly HIPAA-compliant Email Service Provider?

Many marketing tools are not designed to provide the level of privacy and protection needed in healthcare. Email service providers (ESPs) are no exception. Over the past year, the True North team has dedicated time to evaluating ESPs offering solutions for protected health information, or PHI. We found that ActiveCampaign is an excellent resource for email nurturing campaigns. Marketo and Salesforce are also good options. However, compared to Active Campaign, they require more development work to implement across your tech stack. If you are running an email campaign that only requires a follow-up or response, emails deployed through JotForm are another solid solution.

No matter what tools you decide on, it’s essential to remember that in healthcare, compliance is a moving target that requires staying abreast of changing policies and regulations. We recommend working with your data security officer to vet marketing platforms you’re considering to ensure they meet industry-wide and organization-specific data privacy needs and requirements.

3. How Much Video Content Should Be Included in My Healthcare Marketing Plan?

Since about 2017, video content has become a popular and effective format, providing a great way to enhance organic search discoverability and drive traffic. Developing high-quality targeted video content gives you an outstanding opportunity to elevate your search rankings and reach your audience.

From a healthcare marketing perspective, video offers several benefits. It is easier to remember, more likely to be acted upon and preferred by most people. Many of today’s most popular social media platforms focus heavily on videos or feature video content exclusively. YouTube also remains the second-largest search engine in the world. It simply makes good sense to include video content in your campaign. Plus, Google now indexes video content and shows videos in search results, which can drive organic traffic.

Engaging snippets of short-form video can capture attention and drive results in a way unmatched by other forms of content. The more video you use, the better off you'll be.

4. How Do You Stay on Top of SEO Algorithm Changes?

Keeping up with changes to SEO may feel daunting when considering the plethora of pages hosted on healthcare system websites. However, the good news is there are several straightforward ways to stay up to date with SEO changes and improve your organization’s search engine rankings.

Although Google publishes about a dozen updates annually, most are minor. The last major update was the Google Helpful Content Update, which happened in 2022. This update gave healthcare systems a unique advantage over consumer health sites, shifting the algorithm to focus on content packed with expertise. These new guidelines allowed healthcare providers to stand out in a way that may not have been possible before. Thanks to this major update, healthcare systems were able to leverage the wealth of experience from doctors and providers to create content that is both helpful and informative for their patients. This gave them an edge over consumer health sites that may not have the same level of knowledge or access to medical professionals.

Featuring your system’s physicians and other providers improves your ability to rise in search engine results. Custom blogs focused on your specific audience that include provider quotes signal to Google that you are an expert. 

Using SEO tools, such as Backlinko, Search Engine Land and Semrush, can also help your team stay up to date and fully understand how big and small SEO changes may affect your campaigns.

5. What Should We Be Doing With AI to Improve Our Healthcare Marketing Efficiency?

AI cannot replace a strategic thinker or the expertise of your team. Instead, it acts as a personal assistant, adding efficiency and allowing you to do more with fewer resources. It can take over more mundane tasks, including keyword searches and sorting through analytics, while assisting you in testing new strategies. With AI handling the monotonous tasks and helping you to analyze the results, you are free to focus your time and attention on skilled work such as strategizing and decision-making.

When it comes to creating content, AI is well suited to assist with, not replace, human-generated content and ideas. AI tools can support you by identifying gaps, developing supporting content or directing the flow of information. For example, AI can quickly create:

• Captions
• Email subject lines
• Headlines and taglines
• Outlines for blogs and service line pages
• Shot lists and example imagery for photoshoots
• Social media posts

No matter which AI tools your team uses, they require human expertise for optimal operation and impact. AI offers the opportunity to blend the best of emerging technology and SEO with unmatched human creativity and authority in healthcare.

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