Five Online Marketing Trends for Healthcare Professionals to Keep an Eye On

Online marketing is essential for any entity aiming to exist and grow in today’s connected landscape – you are probably already aware of this. That being said, it’s more than worth it to take note and consider the intricacies and differences that an industry and its target market bring. This also rings true for Swiss healthcare professionals, who are currently in the exciting midst of an industry on the brink of large digital transformation – due to a unique situation in Switzerland, arising from a world-class healthcare system that is lacking in digitalization. This calls for a specific approach – including with online marketing.

Switzerland, while offering some of the world’s highest quality healthcare, is still a few years behind its neighbours and parts of the developed world when it comes to digitalisation – especially in the healthcare sector. A 2021 research paper by McKinsey & Company and the ETH Zürich estimates that this “gap” in the Swiss healthcare digital landscape represents a CHF 8.2 billion opportunity. A gap that can be filled with various digital solutions – from online bookings, automation to paperless tools. But what does this mean for the online marketing efforts of healthcare professionals? Here are our five top tips to help you kickstart or refine your online appearance.

This interesting situation is indicative of a broader attitude towards digitalisation in Switzerland – with the clear need for “catching up”, we can expect a steady stream of digital changes. These can in turn affect the digital behaviours of consumers – even of those that aren’t considered digital natives (a shrinking group nonetheless, with estimates that only one in twenty Swiss citizens do not own a smartphone). This calls for healthcare professionals and institutions to cater their services to an ever-digital Swiss population – including when it comes to online marketing.

Patients feel more comfortable when they have heard good things about the healthcare professional they are going to visit. And these days, you don’t have to rely on family or friends to refer you to a provider of their choice – with numerous sources of reviews, such as Google, patients can gather vast amounts of information and opinions before they make up their mind and book. But there’s more to online reviews than just the obvious – they are more essential than ever for healthcare professionals in the online marketing landscape. Studies have shown that 85% of patients consult online reviews before they proceed with their choice, meaning they are likely to choose the practitioner that has more favourable reviews – if they even have any reviews at all. This means ensuring that your patients can rate you by being present on the various portals is essential. Experts also agree that genuine user reviews are important for improving your rankings in search engines. To summarise: usually the higher the rating, the higher your ranking.

As mentioned above, search engines rate organically-generated content very highly – this also holds true for any type of content that you generate. Studies about online marketing have shown that organic content generates up to 3 times as many leads as “pay-per-click” (PPC) advertising. So, what kind of content should you be creating, you may ask yourself? The good news is that you have a world of different types to choose from: FAQs, guides, ebooks, videos, pictures, interviews, blog posts, memes…the list goes on. The defining factor is the quality of said content. Search engines are incredibly nuanced at interpreting context, quality and other factors and can basically judge how “good” a piece of content is – or isn’t. Based on this, your content may help improve your rankings and the overall reputation of your online appearance.

It goes without saying that your location is an integral part of your online marketing offering as a healthcare professional. Your patients need to be able to find you easily – whether in reality or on the web. This ensures a smooth and positive beginning of the customer journey, which often begins with your future patients finding you online (before then hopefully finding your practice just as easily). The arguably most important step you can take to making sure people can find you when they are searching for healthcare professionals in their region is to claim your Google Business profile. This enables you to provide search engines with important details about your business, such as your contact information, website and opening hours. As mentioned before, customers will also be able to leave reviews – which, as you now know, is essential for attracting and retaining patients. Check out our handy guide on how to claim your Google Business profile as a healthcare professional to get you started.

When it comes to the current king of content, look no further than video. With a whopping billion videos being viewed every single day, and 45% of people watching more than an hour’s worth of video content every day, it’s clear that video is the superstar of online marketing. Healthcare professionals can capitalise on this by creating short videos providing insight into their practice life or may choose to answer the most frequently asked questions in their specialty field – again, the possibilities are almost endless. Additionally, the production of a video may be much less time-intensive than the creation of a high-quality blog article with a few thousand words. It is also worth taking note of the meteoric rise of TikTok, the fastest growing social media network and considering whether this platform may also be suitable for your content.

It’s clear that people are happy to consume videos as a source of information. But what about video as a form of real-time communication? During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was natural that many healthcare providers turned to video consultations – with it being the only way for some health professionals to communicate with their patients during lockdowns. With most countries, including Switzerland, easing restrictions, it feels like we are back to “business at usual” – but it’s worth taking a moment to observe the behavioural changes that have happened as a result of the last two years. According to McKinsey & Company, telehealth (video consultation) usage has experienced a 38-fold increase vs. before the pandemic. This peak has sustained into the beginning of 2022, with a clear interest from patients towards being able to communicate with their healthcare professionals via video call – whether it be due to a now heightened awareness of public health, comfort or simply a personal choice. Offering your patients this modern and easy to implement service allows you to cover their needs to a fuller extent.

OneDoc is the intuitive all-in-one solution for healthcare professionals wishing to provide their patients with a truly digital experience:

• Offer your patients flexibility and autonomy with the ability to book their appointments with you online – either directly on your website or on www.onedoc.ch.
• Simplify your administration and reduce the amount of time spent on the phone – allowing you to do what you do best: treating your patients.
• Improve your online marketing and presence by listing your business on www.onedoc.ch and communicate important information to patients (and future patients).
• Offer an increasingly digital population full flexibility of time and place with video consultations.

So, are you ready to take the next step in your online marketing journey? Reach out to us today and one of our fantastic staff will get in touch with you to consult you on how you can achieve digital lift off. 🚀