8 Proven Health & Wellness Digital Marketing Strategies for Growth

8 Digital Techniques For Your Practice or Business in 2022

It has become absolutely critical for healthcare providers, wellness businesses, and various types of medical practices to understand the importance of (digital) online marketing. It has become common practice for clients or patients to turn first to digital channels in order to take any medical action. Whether that be education, research, ask questions, or book appointments, they are going online first for anything related to health.

As health providers, we must understand how to create the experience online your user’s desire. A solid understanding of the proper areas of investment and a ‘user-first’ strategy will lead to higher conversions, more engagements, and firm brand loyalty.

In this article, we touch on 12 of what we feel are the most important and useful health & wellness digital marketing strategies, techniques, and tools that you need to be investing your time and marketing budget dollars.

1. A beautiful, functional website that is focused 100% on user experience

A website is no longer just about creating a page on the internet with some static information about your practice and some contact information. Understanding your user and your target market will quickly reveal that they are looking for much more. It is worth every penny you invest in creating a well-designed and properly optimized website that has gone through a thorough UX design process to ensure that user experience is at its core. A site for someone in the medical industry can be the single most crucial marketing tool at their disposal. It must be done right the first time.

On top of understanding your target market personas and how they will use your interface, it is necessary to ensure that the site is optimized for search and conversions. With over 500 factors contributing to your organic search results, having help with your site optimization from the professionals is a great plan. They can help you make sure that all necessary factors, such as on-page technical improvements, off-page strategies, mobile usability, website loading time, crawl errors, content, and keyword strategies are all aligned to maximize organic search results. A total quality management strategy to assist in continual improvements to the conversion paths you desire your visitors to take is also a great way to satisfy your users during their visit while having them take actions you wish. To get your own free, no-obligation SEO audit from Crown North Marketing to test your current optimization situation visit us here.

2. An improved CRM and medical software system that will assist you in maximizing your bottom line

In the world of government, in-direct, and direct billing, it can be challenging to manage all your revenue streams. Having the right software which offers a balance of security and modern functionality can help you manage your patient or client information while centralizing billing through one digital tool. Great medical software providers help you keep track of your clients information, link clients information to marketing efforts, help with shared health information, offer the highest protection of PHIA, and help you find new revenue sometimes through streams you didn’t know existed.

Max-Gold is that company. They have helped clinics, hospitals, chiropractors, dentists, physiotherapists, etc. across Canada, The United States, and Europe. Time after time, their clients come back raving about the ways the software has made their business better or how the software support team was able to find loopholes or missed billing opportunities leading to hundreds of thousands of new revenue. Most excitingly, with all the changes coming into play for 2020, Salubritas Agency is working with Max-Gold Software to develop new and innovative options for Telehealth services. Our goal is to create digital offerings that can rival in-person appointments in terms of quality of care while exploring new billing opportunities for increased revenue models.

To learn more about the CNM/Max-Gold Partnership and how they can make your customer management and billing more efficient and effective contact us here.

3. Google is king. And Google likes us Using Google tools.

Tag Manager, Analytics, DataStudio, Search Console, Google Ads, and Google My Business. These are just some of the fantastic tools Google has created for individuals to use in conjunction with their web presence to help maximize their digital footprint. As we all know, Google is the King of search. We optimize our website with them in mind first and the second most used search network, which also happens to be owned by their parent company Alphabet, YouTube. Together these two hold over 70% of the search market share. The rest are just followers. Still relevant, but usually follow Google’s lead a year or so after changes to the Google search algorithms come into play.

It is vital to note that Google loves to see us using their tools, and reward it generously when they start dishing out page rank scores to all their indexed websites. The more we use their tools (which are extremely useful for the user), the better and faster we start to see our organic results improve. We have more free content on our site, which touches on the benefits of using these tools, but in this article, we will focus on the #1 Google tool for small businesses.

Google My Business

Your Google My Business listing is one of the top local search ranking factors for SEO. If not done previously, this is the first thing we set up for clients when they sign on to any package or service with CNM. It is that powerful for local SEO. Setting it up is not enough; it must be optimized. We want our results showing in organic searches, maps, and more when searchers are looking for our services or products within our service area. How we optimize? Here are our steps:

1. Claim & verify the listing with Google

2. Optimize the entire profile, ensuring all information is filled out to the absolute best of our ability with special focus on keywords and phrases we have highlighted as our targets.

3. Write thorough descriptions and include said keywords in the copy.

4. Include as many relevant photos and videos as possible. Also, when available, include facility ‘walk-through’ option. Try and do this regularly to keep things updated and new.

5. Build positive reviews and mitigate the impact of any negative reviews on-going.

6. Make use of Google’s “social” application. This is one of the most under-utilized applications. By just posting updates, images, and offers using this channel through Google My Business, we have seen overall organic rankings make huge jumps within weeks of starting.

Contact us today to help you get started with the various Google tools available to you.

4. Reviews and Review Management

Another essential online marketing strategy, especially when it comes to the healthcare industry, is online review management. This strategy is two-fold. First, acquiring positive and fresh reviews on all the necessary review pages. Second, mitigate any negative reviews. We know that people form their opinion on a brand based on what others are saying about them. That opinion will be solidified with as little as 2 reviews. How are your reviews? Are they positive? If not, are you mitigating? Consumers trust other consumers, even if they do not know the person who has written the review. But consumers also respond positively to a brand’s response to a negative review. A reasonable response to the situation can help mitigate any negative sentiment and more or less ‘cancel out’ what negativity was stated-effectively building your online reputation.

With over 90% of local business shoppers online using reviews in their decision-making process, it is vital to make sure we have a proper online reputation management strategy in place. A great way to make sure that you have control over the reviews that go up is to create an automated system that can link to your medical software and/or CRM. Ask us more about this and what we can offer for reputation management strategies here.

Great places to build reviews?

1. Google My Business

2. Facebook

3. Yelp

4. Yellowpages

5. WebMD

6. Local Directory (e.i. ebrandon.ca)

7. Any Industry-Specific Sites

Some of these will be pulled directly into your organic listings. So making sure scores are balanced and reviews are spread across multiple channels will be necessary.

5. Content Marketing & Social Marketing

A book could be written about the importance of Content and Social Media. They both play a part centre stage of any digital marketing strategy. The need for quality content marketing in the health and wellness industry cannot be overstated. With more and more individuals researching their health online prior to making a care provider decision, the importance of being found with the right information is key. Blogs are the most common forms of content marketing with well-written articles about relevant information, helping to skyrocket their connected websites up the search ranks. Yet, not everyone wishes to read a long blog article, nor is it always a convenient answer to the searcher's needs. Content marketing is branching out into so many new avenues. Short informative videos, podcasts, infographics, webinars, pdf’s, audiobooks, white papers, etc. are all viable options to create and share valuable content. The more useful and relevant your content is to the reader; the quicker you can establish yourself as the industry expert and market leader for your competitive area.

A social media marketing plan should always be coupled with a content marketing strategy. Often, businesses have the mentality that social media is ‘free advertising’ and stop short of extricating the true value quality social channels can create. They tend to create their platforms, post a few pieces of content without any type of strategy behind the posts, and expect new patients or clients to be banging down the door. Well, nothing is further from the truth. Social media, like the rest of the digital landscape, it is an overcrowded medium with way too many options and distractions to pull the eyes of your target market away from your brand. Most brands come to realize this and stop moving forward with their social media plans. DON’T BE THAT BRAND. Social media has exponential payoffs but works much like compounded interests on investments. It takes time and continual investments, which leads to incremental growth.

Creating engaging social media platforms takes a significant amount of work, combined with an actionable strategy to make the most of these channels. Any time you can use these channels as touchpoints for your brand, and in conjunction, with your content marketing strategy, you will see growth and return from social media that will rival your other lead generation. The best way to do this is by answering the needs of your target market. If you are a dentist, create content about dental care, or what tooth-aches to watch out for. Pass that content through all your social channels you have preemptively outlined as gathering places for your target market with a great call to action and watch the business flow.

Here are a few tips for building your social media strategy:

1. Focus on the needs of your patients/clients

2. Be real and humanize your brand

3. Develop a 4-1 strategy (4 health-related posts that add value to every 1 sales focused)

4. Invite them in to your business, and let them get to know the people behind the brand

5. Use video and imagery as much as possible

6. Actively listen to your audience and get involved in the conversation

7. Build great alliances with influencers and leverage brand evangelists

You don’t need to be active on every channel. Just the one’s which your target market conjugate. In healthcare or wellness, these tend to be the following:

1. YouTube

2. Facebook

3. Instagram

4. LinkedIn

Want to find out more about social media and how CNM can get you on the right path to a valuable social media program? Contact us today!

6. New Lead Generation through Pay-Per-Click

PPC is one powerful tool for driving new leads when used the right way. Most PPC platforms allow for a hyper-targeted ad strategy, that allows you to pick and choose who your marketing efforts will reach. If leveraged the correct way, this can be one of the main drivers of new customers or patients through your doors. If done incorrectly, it can lead to large losses of ad budget. It is important to understand the in’s and outs of each ad platform you plan to use. Almost across the board, we have found that a strong SEM plan (including SEO tactics) using Google’s search network in conjunction with Google’s remarketing tool has brought positive results unanimously, regardless of the business. This brings together ads that are shown in search engine results pages in the top 3-5 positions on keywords that you deem as expressing intent through the searcher. Meaning you can tell they are indeed looking for your product or service. This should be done along with display (image) ads which serve as reminders and are shown to your visitors after they leave your website to explore the internet. Using cookies and the Google Ad network we have control over what ads are shown to who, where they are shown, and when. Very Powerful.

Some other great PPC options for lead generation are as follows:

1. Social Media Platforms (Specifically Facebook & Instagram)

2. Taboola

3. Bing Ads

4. Yellowpages

5. Buying up local banner space on popular sites for your target market

We will write a lot more about PPC in the future, but if you are looking to learn more now, contact us today for a free no-obligation consultation for your business.

7. Email Marketing

Tried and true. Email marketing continues to be almost every organization’s top-producing marketing channel. Why is this? Well, you are selling to individuals who have already interacted with your brand in one form or another and have expressly given you consent to send them marketing materials. We can thank CASL for that. This means you are working from a position of power and usually further down the sales funnel, allowing you quicker sales or decisions to take your desired actions, say, book an appointment. The old adage still rings true, it is always easier and cheaper to sell to an existing consumer than to go out and try to acquire more. Make sure to leverage email.

Although email is relatively the same concept as it has always been, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t changed. New tools available for us allow us to take our email marketing to the next level. Email automation, drip campaigns, CRM integration, and email personalization allows for us to tailor marketing messages specifically to each individual we have in our email lists based on numerous dimensions and characteristics we have gathered on them. This allows us to prepare target people based on their individual needs as well as where they fall within the sales funnel.

For example:

Say you are a physiotherapist who has just finished their training in ART (Active Release Technique). You are looking to drum up new patients who would benefit from ART treatments.

You could run some targeted Pay-Per-Click Ads on various ad platforms with a landing page bringing interested parties to a pain evaluation tool or a ‘what physio treatment is for me’ survey. At the end of the survey, each person who fills it out would be required to leave you their information in order to receive their results. After giving over their information (including an email) and finding out the tool or survey's answers, they would be asked if they would like to book an appointment for a ART treatment.

If they set up an appointment, CONGRATULATIONS! They just had a macro conversion and became a patient. If not, their information goes into the email system, and the marketing automation can begin. We could craft a variety of email sequences to be released to each individual based on the answers to their survey in a strategic manner to help nurture them from their current position to finally making the decision to try out the treatment. This could take multiple emails, and requires some valuable content creation to be mixed in with your ‘hard ask’. But through automation and your CRM, the messaging will be tailored specifically to the situation and completely automated.

To learn more about email marketing and our offerings, visit our email marketing page here.

8. Use your analytics! data-driven business decisions for better results

Data, data, data, and more data. The number one tool available to all digital marketers is the proper integration of analytical systems. Using multiple data tools to understand our digital activities and track actual progress against our hypothesis on-going is a very potent thing. The goal is to get past basic clickstream data and dive deep into our qualitative and quantitative data to reveal valuable insights into our business activities.

We always recommend starting with a WAMM (Web Analytics Measurement Model) to help navigate the mountains of available metrics and data to pinpoint our analysis to what really matters in terms of measurements toward our business objectives. Clear, concise SMART goals with realistic targets and specific key performance indicators will help set you on a path to successful marketing campaigns and digital activities.

Test campaigns, track progress, fail faster, and keep your team accountable. All things that can make your business operate more efficiently and effectively. Stay tuned to our upcoming webinars as we do annual analytics training and introductions to strategies and tools. We teach the basics to getting web analytics working for you while testing your online marketing vs. your traditional using primary keys.

Some of our favourite analytics tools for real insight that drives data-driven business decisions are as follows:

1. Google Analytics

2. Google Tag Manager

3. Adobe Analytics

4. SEMrush, Alexa, iSpionage, ahrefs, and other competitive analysis tools

5. Google Ads, Search Console, & Bing Webmasters

6. Social Media Platform’s analytics & insights

Not sure how to get started with web analytics? Contact our team to walk you through the basics of how and why to get started. Learn more about our web analytics 2.0 services to take your business to the next level using data as the stepping stone.

In closing

We need to understand wherefrom the maze of digital marketing options to spend your time, focus, and money. Every business is different, and depending on the situation, some digital platforms will be more effective than others. With this article, we wanted to highlight some of the most effective strategies and tools that can have a positive effect across the board regardless of industry. When you get them working for you, they can provide your company with absolutely outstanding results.

Looking for assistance to get started? We are always available to help get you started or take your efforts to the next level. Check out some of our free resources which include a FREE SEO Audit, free webinars/online learning opportunities from our team that includes university/college educators, and as well our most valuable free tool, a free, no-obligation consultation in which you will receive a quick audit on your current activities, a half hour meeting with our team, and a suggested plan of execution to help you reach your business objectives.

Thanks for reading! Check out our service offerings and pricing for user-focused marketing programs now or contact us to get more specific information.