5 Hospital Marketing Ideas to Get Positive Consumer Feedback

Marketing Hospitals in a Digital World 

Hospital marketing efforts used to be easy. If you paid for a billboard, ran a few ads on TV and in magazines, and had good relationships with physicians, patients would walk through the door. 

But now, the way clients seek healthcare has changed. Clients can search the internet for hospitals that offer the services they need, and choose their preferred facility instead of relying on their physician to select one. Medical practices need effective marketing strategies to appeal to healthcare consumers. This turns what used to be an effort primarily targeted toward physicians into a consumer-focused marketing program — making it a challenge to find healthcare marketing strategies that balance creativity and compliance.  

Hospitals are already spending a lot on marketing, to the tune of $30 billion per year. When you target consumers, they have different expectations and want to engage with you differently. Consider this: 

• In 2022, healthcare digital ad spending increased by 14.3%. 
• 85% of patients use mobile phones to engage with their healthcare providers. 
• 92% of consumers pick a business from the first page of search engine results. 

As you target your advertising, you’ll want to ensure you are meeting clients where they start their searches. That means investing in a marketing strategy for your hospital. To appear on the largest search engine and have your hospital’s services on the map, follow our guidelines to attract existing clients and prospective clients. A digital presence will put your healthcare practices show up on social media channels, video content, and easily searchable on a mobile device.

Here are five healthcare marketing strategies you can use to get started today to attract prospective clients. 

5 Effective Healthcare Marketing Ideas

1. Custom Website Marketing Strategy and Responsive Website

Clients are using online resources to learn about healthcare facilities — and that includes your hospital. If you want them to find you, you need to have a custom website that helps them learn more about your services. This can include a physician liaison, healthcare marketers, and a referral program in place. Ideally, this will be easily available on mobile devices and makes online reviews easy.

While a drag-and-drop website from Weebly or Wix might be a decent website placeholder, it can’t compare to a website that’s optimized to attract new clients. A custom website, built by a partner who understands how to build a scalable backend, how to manage fake third-party reviews, search engine optimization (SEO), and web tools and integrations, is easier for potential clients to find and navigate. Modern tools can also provide them with a waiting list, chatbot, and online booking features even for an in-person visit. 

Your hospital website needs to have: 

• User-friendly design so that patients can find the information they’re looking for 
• A mobile-friendly interface that can be accessed from a phone as well as a computer 
• Descriptions of services that explain what you offer  
• Calls-to-action that are clear so that clients can easily reach you 
• Personalized content based on a visitor’s location and how often they’ve visited the website to increase the chance they will choose your facility 

These elements create a site that best represents your hospital, clarifies your values and vision, describes how you deliver services to clients, and helps them understand what to expect when they visit. 

2. Web Content and SEO Healthcare Marketing Marketing Ideas 

A custom website is just the first step in today’s hospital marketing environment. Now you need to rank in the search results. Fresh, relevant content and blog posts are great ways to boost SEO and increase traffic.  

Informative content educates potential clients about your services and keeps them on your website for a longer period of time. Newly-published content and long web sessions also alert search engines that your website is up to date — which helps it rank higher in search results.  

SEO requires finding the right keywords and keyword phrases, then creating content that Google sees as “helpful.” The right SEO partner helps identify what clients are searching for, then can help build content around it. 

An experienced digital marketing partner like Socius can help you build SEO-friendly posts such as: 

• What clients can expect from a particular service 
• Profiles of physicians and other healthcare workers 
• Explanations of the latest technology used at the hospital 

3. Paid Media Healthcare Marketing

Improving your organic search ranking takes time, but paid media and PPC campaigns can help put you at the top of search results right away. The Google Display Network reaches 90% of worldwide internet users — by running paid ads that target the keywords your audience uses, you can get a piece of that pie. 

When done right, paid media will get visitors to your website, but choosing the keywords and pricing model can be confusing. It’s important to have a trusted provider that can research keywords that will rank you at the top for search results and select a pricing model (pay-per-click vs. pay-per-impression) that helps you get the most value for your marketing dollar.   

4. Social Media Hospital Marketing Ideas 

Love it or hate it, social media marketing is an essential part of hospital marketing. Clients spend a lot of time on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms, creating an opportunity for you to build awareness of your facility and have a high site rank number. The trick to successful social media marketing is to be both consistent and creative — which takes time to incorporate into your hospital marketing strategy.

The basis of a social media strategy is useful and engaging content. Our social media team recommends posting this kind of content to your social media accounts at least three to five times a week to inform your patient base. Consistency helps you build trust with your target audience, improve your online presence, and stay top-of-mind for future clients. 

Most hospital leaders don’t have the time or staff to manage an active social media presence. That’s why it makes sense to work with a partner who understands online engagement and can maintain your accounts so you can focus on client services and less on healthcare marketing ideas. Paid advertising, leverage social media, healthcare SEO, and local SEO are our areas of expertise, yours are healthcare services.

5. Customer Review Marketing as A Marketing Strategy

Clients tend to look at local review sites before choosing a hospital, particularly for elective procedures, keep note of this in your healthcare marketing strategy. While you can ask clients to leave online reviews after they’ve been discharged, only a few of them will. And there’s no guarantee they’ll leave a positive review. This is why paid search advertisements and video marketing is key to getting patient engagement and spreading awareness of your services.

Rather than reaching out for reviews manually, consider ways that you can automate the process in your hospital marketing plan. At Socius, we have a system that can automatically send an email asking for feedback after a client has received a service. When the client responds, you’re notified of their experience, whether it’s positive or negative. Client reviews lead to sharing client stories and medical services your patient base will appreciate. Past clients and new clients will have a good experience with your healthcare marketing ideas if they aim to make their experience more personal.

Positive experiences get published on your website or a public review board, and negative experiences are flagged so you can follow up and attempt to resolve them. As a healthcare professional, you want current clients to feel that your healthcare brand has their best interest and focuses on a positive client experience. Even engaging with unhappy clients can help past clients feel that your medical practice cares about their client experience.

This can be a lot of work. A partner that can help implement an internal marketing system will let you focus on your own practice — like caring for your clients and focusing on your medical specialty and promoting services for healthcare consumers and less on healthcare marketing.

The Cure for Hospital Marketing Woes 

These five strategies can help you create an online presence that positions you as a trusted customer relationship management system for existing and prospective clients. But these steps take time — time the healthcare professionals don’t have. Socius Marketing can help; we have the experience and knowledge to implement healthcare marketing strategies that reach healthcare consumers and those in the healthcare industry. When they need care, they’ll immediately think of your hospital and the care you provide with a platform that gives a memorable client experience. 

Ready to put this healthcare marketing strategy to work? Socius Marketing’s team members are experts in the healthcare industry and know how to balance creativity and compliance to maximize medical practice and foster a good online reputation and allow your staff to focus on what’s important, medical practices. 

Check out the services we offer for Healthcare practices, and we’ll help you maximize the value of your hospital’s online marketing efforts.