Patients often seek both inspiration and information from hospitals, but their primary needs can vary depending on their situation and mindset. When they are sick, experiencing troubling symptoms, or reacting to a trending health topic, they want information. In cases of a diagnosis or a desire to be healthier, they often seek inspiration from healthcare providers. So, how do you know which to prioritize from a marketing perspective? Know your patients and give them what they want.
Building an Information Highway
At its most basic, healthcare is about helping people. Hospitals provide services and experts to treat them when they are sick, to diagnose their illnesses, and to help them manage their health and well-being.
Clinical Information
Marketers should present relevant information at each stage of the patient journey. Patients want clear and accurate information about their medical condition, treatment options, procedures, and outcomes. This helps them make informed decisions about their healthcare.
The stages of a healthcare journey include experiencing symptoms, doing online research, receiving a diagnosis, undergoing treatment, and ongoing management. Reaching the patient at each stage by educating them on your services, providers, and technology helps strengthen trust and patient engagement.
By leveraging internal patient data and monitoring digital analytics, you can identify your audiences and track their needs. When sharing information, remember:
- Be authentic. Audiences are savvy, particularly Millennials and Gen Z’ers. If you have to think about being authentic, then you’re probably not being real or connecting to the audience. Authentic content is key to patient engagement and building community.
- Humanize the message. By its nature, healthcare can be elitist and complicated. Your messages should not be. Meet the human needs of your patients with content that informs their decisions. They aren’t impressed with pretentiousness and medical jargon; they just want the facts.
- Counter false information. With election season underway, false information is rampant. The pandemic demonstrated the deadly outcomes of health misinformation that conflicted with scientific evidence and disinformation—the deliberate spread of misinformation for money, power, or reputation. Monitor what’s trending, especially on social media, and counter falsehoods with information from your healthcare experts.
Logistical Information
Along their journey, patients may also need practical information such as hospital policies, visiting hours, discharge procedures, and insurance coverage details. Here, the role of the marketing department merges with customer service.
- Post FAQs prominently on the website, on social media, and other public-facing channels.
- Use Reels and other short videos to respond to general questions. Utilize social media channels as customer service forums.
Every marketing strategy and tactic should be patient-focused. The abundance of patient insights that you have makes that task easier than ever before. If website analytics indicate high traffic searches for providers and online appointments, that’s all you need to know. Position those modules front and center on your homepage for optimum user experience and patient engagement.
Inspiring the Patient’s Healthcare Journey
Whether a patient receives an unsettling diagnosis or wants to improve their overall health, they often seek inspiration along their journey.
Provide Hope and Support
Patients and their families often look to hospitals for inspiration in terms of hope, encouragement, and emotional support. This could be through success stories, testimonials, or compassionate care from hospital staff. Patient testimonials provide relatability and emotional connections, which may influence decision-making or bolster recoveries. A 2022 study shows that patient satisfaction can be improved by relationship marketing tactics such as storytelling, enhancing patient engagement.
Encourage Wellness and Motivation
Inspiration for patients to improve their general well-being can also come from wellness programs, patient empowerment initiatives, and educational resources that promote a healthier lifestyle and recovery.
Consistently monitor what’s trending on social media to tap into health and wellness topics that may interest your audiences. Collaborate with your providers to craft content for the website, social media, blogs, and podcasts that position your hospital as a credible source of information.
While patients primarily require accurate information to manage their health effectively, they also benefit from inspiration that enhances their emotional well-being and motivation during their healthcare journey. Hospitals that balance both aspects effectively can provide a more holistic and supportive patient experience, leading to higher patient engagement.
TotalCom is a full-service marketing agency helping brands like yours tell their story to the right audiences. Email Lori Moore or call TotalCom Marketing Communications at 205.345.7363 to learn more about how we can help you tell your story.