Digital Marketing in Healthcare

Miljenko Grbic1, Danijela Stimac Grbic2, Luka Stimac3, Zvonimir Sostar1

1
Andrija Stampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
2
University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia
3
Faculty of Medicine Novi Sad, Serbia

We live in a digital world when people rely more on smart devices such as mobile phones, tablets
and laptops, and dedicate their time to searching information online. According to some research,
85% of users now compare and check reviews of products or services prior to their selection, and
Google states that as many as 77% of patients search the Internet before they are scheduled for the
review term.
While traditional marketing such as TV and radio commercials or print editions has its role to
consumers, the internet is where users spend the most time. That is why more and more health
organizations, health clubs and private healthcare institutions recognize the need for online presence
and the use of digital channels to attract new patients.

The benefits of Digital Marketing

Targeted Groups: Techniques and a quality digital marketing strategy make it easier for target users
to target. A health organization can either easily promote a product or service to the target group, as
it is possible to determine who you want preventive campaigns, services, or products to show.
Digital Marketing expands the reach of potential Clients - If the goal is to expand the range of
preventive activities, programs or healthcare services, digital marketing is the best way to do so.
Fast and effective promotion of new health information, preventive health services and services -
Digital marketing facilitates the promotion of existing and new services.
Measuring and Optimizing Results - In the digital world, you can easily measure and optimize results
and gain accurate data as much as the range of activities. After a detailed analysis, the reach of target
groups and clients can quickly optimize and expand the strategy to achieve better results.
Social media marketing helps in bringing out regular updates from the organization to the follower
base. The prime role of social media marketing is to keep the leads interested and updated. It also
acts like word of mouth marketing, because people tend to share recommendations for good
hospitals and doctors.
Majority people between the age group 18-24 (90%) trust information shared on social media
The age group of 18-24 consists of the millennial generation which trusts social media and easier
forms of communication when it comes to important decisions. This gives healthcare professionals a
platform to engage with such an interactive audience easily.

Digital marketing in practice

How to measure the reach of shared public health information on social networks?
The massage and story that you are sending can be very interesting and useful for people but will not
achieve the goal if small amount people see it and without the analytic tools like Google Analytics,
Facebook Insights etc. you would not rich audience, they are essential.
Reach, Engagement, CPC – what is this?
Reach shows how many users have seen the posting, and what is higher, it is spreading more widely
among people, and thus the ability to find out about one of the target audience. Reach can be either
organic or paid, meaning that you can see how many people have seen your post just posted on your
Facebook page, but paid reaches allow your postings to be displayed to many users, but also to those
users you are targeting. For example, you can direct your postings to all those who are fans of your
Facebook profile, their friends, or the interest group you are setting for them. If you currently have a
special offer to a group, by age or location, you can target paid releases to that target group of
people.
In the digital world, it is very important to understand what the goal is and what is the target group
and thus adapt communication.

Quantity Relationship between paid and organic reach.

Engagement - User interaction as a performance indicator

When you find that your postings are shown to a sufficient number of your desired audience, so-
called. engagement can show you whether the content you are publishing really and reaches them.
Engagement is the interaction you achieve with your fans and customers. It is shown by the number
of colours, how many people commented on the publication or shared it with your friends, and what
this interaction is larger, this is your communication by publishing more interesting to the audience.
Remember that social networking users are important to provide, in addition to all the relevant
information in one place, quality content that will motivate you to regularly track and read your
content on a regular basis, which allows you to achieve the best results for the minimum budget in
the long run. Of course, the greater the reach of people who see your posts, the greater the chance
of interaction. Therefore, although reach for many is not a real indicator, it is important to take care
of it and invest in its increase, as therefore we influence the larger engagement of the user.

CPC - How do we know if the activities in digital marketing worth?

How can you determine that you have paid off and that you have achieved your goal? One of the real
indicators of many parameters is certainly the CPC (Cost per Click). In digital marketing, CPC is an
advertising payment model according to which an advertiser pays each time a user clicks on a link.
With Facebook advertising, you can gain insight into how much CPCs are, if your goal is to get as
many visitors as possible, for example, visiting your website. If you notice that many users see your
postings and have a solid number of interactions on postings, it means that users are interested in
your services or cause.
By CPC, you can see the value of your advertising, and hence its cost-effectiveness. For example, if
the CPC is 0.50 euros and you have invested 100 euros in paid publisher budget, 200 people will click
on your ad or cause.

Most popular social networks worldwide as of April 2019, ranked by number of active users (in
millions)

Conclusion:
• The healthcare industry remains behind other industries in the scope of digital marketing
efforts.
• 2018 Social media efforts are similar to 2017: Healthcare organizations are either already
utilizing social media or have no plans to do so. Very few organizations not currently using
social media are planning to do so in the future.
• In 2017, only 50% of the survey respondents reported using a CRM system, while significantly
more (65%) report using a CRM in 2018. Significantly more respondents say their CRM is
integrated well with their website, compared to last year.
• Use of a marketing automation tool has doubled from last year’s survey, from 23% to 48%.
• There is a lot of room for improvement in achieving the digital goals of healthcare
organizations.
• A significantly higher number of survey respondents this year reported that they plan to
upgrade or change their CMS platform or redesign either their website or intranet in the
coming year.
 • Advanced or emerging digital activities, such as wearables, IoT or beacon technology, are still
not being used much by healthcare organizations.

Reference
https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
https://www.greystone.net
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/why-is-digital-
marketing-critical-in-healthcare.html