Lack of proper knowledge and experience is what leads to confusion, spreading of rumors and circulation of myths. Even the healthcare industry has its own set of myths related to the various aspects. There are many myths related to healthcare marketing that we keep hearing often. Interfering with marketing activities, these myths put imitations and hindrances on the way to implementing marketing strategies. Holding onto the healthcare marketing myths can narrow down your marketing choices and hamper your business growth and expansion.
Here is a list of ten such myths that we are going to debunk.
- Why Market When Presently My Healthcare Business Is Sound
- Healthcare Marketing is Unethical
- Already Have Enough Referrals, Why to Advertise
- Marketing is an Expensive Affair
- Assuming Personal Feeling to Decide Marketing Strategy
- Paid Advertisements Doesn’t Work in Healthcare
- Website Should Only Be Education-centric
- Need to Advertise Every New Equipment
- Organic Social Media Posts Are Enough.
- Marketing Efforts Are Not Paying Off
So, let’s get started:
Myth 1: Why Market When Presently My Healthcare Business Is Sound
One of the biggest myths that keep circulating in the healthcare industry is that who needs to market when I am currently doing great. That’s the thought most of the healthcare practices, and businesses believe to be true. But it is actually a myth that needs to be dumped.
It’s great that your present is flourishing with an increasing number of patients. However, nothing is permanent here. Tomorrow is entirely uncertain so you cannot just rely on today and decide your future. Patients may leave town, change their insurance provider or your referring doctor may partner with someone else. There can be many reasons that may threaten your present business success in the coming days. If you are doing well today that doesn’t mean you don’t need to market your healthcare products as the market scenario keeps changing now and then.
Myth 2: Healthcare Marketing is Unethical
The medical sector is one such field where companies deal with critical customer needs in the form of medicines, medical devices, and other medical supplies and services. As a result, it is believed that a greater responsibility lies on the shoulder of healthcare businesses who cannot promote or fake anything. Making any false claims and promises just to sell or market medical products is considered unethical.
However, be it healthcare or any other field, making baseless and wrong promises is a big no. But there is nothing wrong in promoting one’s knowledge, expertise and skills in the field of their business. If you are a seller of a medical device that can make knee surgery more efficient, then why wouldn’t you market it? Letting the world know how qualified and worth your offerings are is not against ethics. So, the healthcare marketing myth that medical marketing is not ethical certainly needs a recheck.
Myth 3: Already Have Enough Referrals, Why to Advertise
The third marketing myth that prevails in the healthcare industry is that there is no need for marketing when we have a good patient base already. Most of the medical practices and hospitals overestimate their influence in the market. For them, advertising is absolutely unnecessary when they have a decent number of patients availing healthcare services. What they miss out is that the patient base they have is only a part of the larger community and not the society as a whole.
It is crucial to run an awareness campaign to let all know what services and products your healthcare business offers. Everyone wants to grow their reach, but without advertising, there is no way to expand. Your present customer may refer to others, and like this the chain keeps expanding, bringing more customers. Hence, a brief about your business including what you offer, contact details, insurance programs your hospital accepts, etc. needs to be conveyed to the patients so that they can get back for help with varying healthcare needs. Without proper knowledge, there are chances that you may lose patients to competitors. If you want to get maximum attention, then forget the myth that you don’t need more referrals as you have enough already.
Myth 4: Marketing is an Expensive Affair
A common myth that misleads many not only in the healthcare but other sectors is that marketing incurs heavy expenses. Well! That’s not the complete truth. It solely depends on your strategy. If your marketing strategy is at fault and is not up to the mark, then the results are bound to be disappointing.
Businesses market products to gain more business and earn revenue. If marketing is done in the right way keeping in mind your business profile and the products, in particular, you are sure to make money and not loose. The moment your market efforts fail that means they need to be replaced with something more useful. But that doesn’t mean you will completely stop making investments in marketing activities. Many hospitals and medical practices refrain from marketing their business because they have fallen prey to this healthcare marketing myth. It’s time that you all wake up and check the reality by trying it yourself than blinding believing such myths.
Myth 5: Assuming Personal Feeling to Decide Marketing Strategy
Giving inputs in your brand’s advertising and healthcare marketing strategy is good only when it serves the purpose. Often, healthcare professionals or medical business make advertising suggestions keeping their personal choices and feelings in mind. This is entirely wrong, and that is why it makes up to the list of ten healthcare marketing myths here.
Medical practices while planning marketing activities, assume that they are the audience and based on what they like or dislike they guide the strategist. Instead of relying on metrics and what the customers want, they begin to make assumptions on how they would feel in receiving a particular campaign. This practice is a big no as customer insights and data should be the base of your strategy, not your assumptions because your targeted audience is not you; it’s the millions on the opposite end. If you think that you do not like a particular campaign, even the audience will not like it then you must change your thinking.
Myth 6: Paid Advertisements Doesn’t Work in Healthcare
If you do not click on a paid advertisement that doesn’t mean others will do the same. The logic applies in case of your audience as well. A common myth that holds back many of the healthcare marketing investments is that medical practitioners like doctors believe that as they don’t end up clicking on paid ads, their patients will do the same. This thought is completely wrong as data do not drive such claims. If one checks market analytics, the reality will be opposite to what they think. Many patients click on paid advertisements. So, stopping to invest in ads just because you don’t like them can prevent you from getting more patients.
Myth 7: Website Should Only Be Education-centric
Medical practices often get confused with the purpose behind having a website. We all know that businesses develop a website to establish an online presence and helps to reach a wider audience via the Internet. Customers searching online can quickly come across your medical practice for their relevant search related to your business. However, it is seen that healthcare businesses fail to understand the real purpose of having a website. They plan to use the site as a platform for sharing educational content related to their industry. The idea is excellent and is useful for search engine optimization.
However, education is not only the purpose in hand. A greater objective lies in the backdrop which is spreading brand awareness and letting customers know who you are and what products your brand offers. You can create a separate blog section to publish educative content and make it accessible to the readers. But in doing so don’t shift your focus from the essentials. There is nothing more important than promoting your medical business and your work. Use your website to let people quickly know about your brand and product details. Remember other considerations come later; your focus should be on business first. This is yet another myth that’s restricting healthcare marketing efforts.
Myth 8: Need to Advertise Every New Equipment
There are cases when healthcare professionals make unnecessary investments and efforts in marketing. Without understanding the proper need and relevance, they insist on promoting or advertising every new equipment they get hands on. This is one of the myths that’s been hindering the right implementation of marketing strategies.
Medical practices invest in buying new devices and equipment to make healthcare services better for patients. Hence, consumers should be kept in mind before planning any advertisement campaign. If the new machine is useful for the patient, then only they will respond positively to your respective campaign. But if it’s not that relevant, there will be no use of marketing it.
Patients care only when the new equipment helps them. For example, a new X-Ray machine with high resolution that promises finer details while the diagnosis is what patients will care about and so you need to advertise it. Whereas if slight changes like the new X-Ray machine with faster image processing arrives, it is not worthy of the hype as it won’t have a considerable impact on the patients.
Myth 9: Organic Social Media Posts Are Enough
Digital advertising is not just about social media posts. It goes beyond the limits of social networking sites, and this is what healthcare businesses fail to understand. This is one such myth that’s been there for quite some time now. Marketers think that relying only on organic social media posts as part of digital advertising is enough for reaching their marketing goals.
What medical professionals don’t estimate is the productivity of social media marketing and its various aspects. They think that just by sharing Facebook or Twitter posts among friends and families is what it takes to spread the brand message and attract new patients. Most of them don’t run any paid ads and just keeps posting on social sites which helps to retain existing customers only. It no way work to get new patients. Using paid advertising, the reach gets better and works wonders for your brand awareness. Organic posts alone will not help in specific targeting efforts of your healthcare business.
Myth 10: Marketing Efforts Are Not Paying Off
Any marketing effort should be measured in terms of analytics and not in a hurry. However, mostly healthcare businesses measure marketing campaign performance based on the patient visits they get or the appointment calls they receive. They set a particular number in mind and failing to reach that makes them conclude that their marketing isn’t working.
Jumping to conclusions that the marketing campaigns are not generating desired results is one such myth that needs to be debunked. Without tracking performance data, medical practices begin to judge the effectiveness of the advertising efforts. And as a result, ends up giving up their marketing because they fail to evaluate performance in the right way. Eliminating marketing budget based on mere assumptions is what at fault for decreasing healthcare marketing investments and efforts.
Lauren Williams
My name is Lauren Williams, currently working as a senior marketing manager at MedicoReach. My hobbies include watching football, basketball and free time writer. I love traveling and food geek — this all about me in simple words.