The Ultimate Guide to Healthcare Marketing in 2020 During COVID-19

By  //  August 23, 2020

2020 has been a year of many lessons, especially the ones surrounding healthcare. Countries across the world have realized the importance of sound medical facilities – an opinion that seemed far-fetched just last year.

2020 has been a year of many lessons, especially the ones surrounding healthcare. Countries across the world have realized the importance of sound medical facilities – an opinion that seemed far-fetched just last year. 

Nonetheless, with the advent of the pandemic, there is a global frenzy and governments all over the planet are trying to rethink healthcare.

Governments and owners of private healthcare facilities. That being said, it is necessary, more than ever, to employ some powerful healthcare marketing strategies to raise awareness among the public. 

A guide to healthcare marketing in the current time

Healthcare marketing has been prevalent for years now. However, most of those campaigns revolved around lead generation for their respective hospitals, and seldom to raise awareness. 

But 2020 is a different year. This is the year that has taught the most powerful governments to rethink their healthcare systems. And hence, it demands a different approach to marketing for the same, as well. 

Given below is a list of ideas that marketing officials must take seriously. These have the potential to engage their patients more than ever. Moreover, it adds moral value to the kind of services healthcare facilities provide. 

1. Evaluation of pre-existing campaigns to suit the current scenario: As a healthcare marketer, you have campaigned about the services you provide. They must have worked and worked well. But it is time to scrap all of it! Why? Because the times have changed drastically. Right now, your agenda is to help people understand the exact scenario of the system. And that can be gauged at by the cumulative campaigns of healthcare facilities. Include lucrative packages in your ads. Tell people about the high standards of treatment at your facility. Therefore, your marketing strategies must be more value-driven for the audience, and not just for your company. 

2. Ensuring that your patients are aware of the changes in time tables and rules: Due to the outburst of COVID-19 cases, hospitals are busy catering to those patients first. Most healthcare facilities, which previously treated other ailments, have been converted into isolation centres. However, to ensure people know that, it is essential to campaign accordingly. Hence, share your time tables and revised policies with the common masses highlighting their added benefits clearly. This will help them know exactly where they should go in case of an emergency. 

3. Updation of local listings: Local listings should be a big part of your revised marketing campaigns. These listings help patients identify their nearest healthcare facilities within a short period. Moreover, updating the listings acts as a constant reminder of the services you provide. This, too, can be a great healthcare marketing strategy.

Companies like Google provide these listing services wherein a company, a healthcare facility, in this case, can enroll and keep updating their services according to availability. Patients in and around the area will be given the information when they attempt to find something similar nearby. 

4. Promote awareness: 2020 and COVID-19 have been as bad as it is due to one simple reason – lack of knowledge, especially in the healthcare sector. Throughout the years, there has been a steady lack of awareness about various diseases that humanity has been facing for too long. Instead, healthcare facilities have been found concentrating on leveraging their businesses. They have done this by offering their services to cure diseases but not talking enough about preventing them. That is where marketing campaigns went wrong all these years. But now is a time to correct all of that. By using video marketing tips, you can promote the prevention of diseases, instead of offering services to cure them, thereby adding quality to your campaigns. 

5. Be sensitive about your patients: The world is in shatters, and some say the doom’s day is not very far away. Millions are suffering from a deadly disease that has already pushed hundreds of thousands of patients into the arms of Death. This is the time to be sensitive towards each other. Economies are crashing around the world, and many people have been affected severely by this. Hence, it is more important than ever to be supportive as a community. As a healthcare professional, the most you can do is be a little sensitive towards your patients and their families. Some of them have lost more than one member of the family in the last few months and all of that, plus the economic difficulties, can cause a lot of stress. Lending a helping hand to such people does greater good for the reputation of the facility too. 

Conclusion

2020 has been an eye-opener in many senses. It is essential to learn from the things that this year has been teaching us.

The lesson humans must learn immediately is empathy. We have failed as a community an ample number of times. Let us take the pledge to build each other up from here on, with healthcare as the pivot. 

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