Now more than ever, people have a renewed focus on health and wellness. Patients are demanding better services to improve the quality of their lives. As a result, many options for care have appeared and competition is fierce in many healthcare markets. If you continue to use dated marketing techniques, the chances of growth are minimal. In the digital era, people have access to an incredible amount of information and are using it to make informed healthcare decisions. As a result, healthcare marketing techniques are evolving quickly to adapt to consumer behavior.
Here are 12 medical marketing trends you need to watch in 2020:
1. Content Marketing Moves Beyond Blogs
As you know, when people get sick, they go online to figure out what might be the problem. They search for their symptoms and then try to figure out a solution, which often includes a visit to a doctor. If healthcare providers want to attract more patients, they must create helpful, high-quality content that answers patient’s medical questions.
In addition to educational content on cardiac conditions and treatment options, MaineHealth Cardiology’s website features a patient-to-patient forum and patient portal.
To do this, an increasing number of physicians are using blogs to share information on specific diagnoses and how to prevent and treat different medical conditions. However, content marketing is more than just blogs and can take many different forms.
Savvy healthcare providers are thinking beyond blogs and developing innovative resources to meet their patient’s needs. They’re creating personalized digital healthcare centers that not only include written content, but also educational videos, patient-to-patient communication forums, and smart tools and apps to aid in healthcare monitoring. To do this, they’re expanding their marketing teams or working with trusted agency partners.
When developing new digital content assets, be sure to keep SEO best practices in mind. Google wants content to be well organized and meet their E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) quality rating standards. Web pages must also be secure, load fast, and adhere to UX best practices.
You can strengthen your credibility by publishing informative blog articles—but I encourage you to think beyond blogs in 2020.
2. The Era of Zero-click Search is Here
Zero-click searches have increased year over year. In 2019, 48.96% of all U.S. Google searches ended without a click, according to Jumpshot’s research. People go to Google to ask questions and they’re often given answers through the Featured Snippets or the Google Knowledge Graph. In many cases, users have no need to click through to a website.
After reading this featured snippet, the searcher may conclude that they don’t need an eye exam this year and stop their search. Or, if they’re searching for information for their child, that may lead them to a new search on children’s eye exams.
Zero-click searches affect some industries more than others. Hospitality, travel booking, weather reporting, sports, and event websites have been hit hard—but what does zero-click mean for healthcare marketers?
In many instances, the impact will be slight. Healthcare consumers still want to conduct deep research to understand their symptoms, medical diagnosis, and treatment options. However, the impact of zero-click search may be felt when people are making low-consideration healthcare purchases like ordering new eyeglasses or scheduling their yearly dental cleaning. In an emergency, they don’t have time for exhaustive research, they quickly need to find an urgent care or ER.
Here are a few things you can do in the era of zero-click:
Claim your Google Knowledge Graph Panel
Healthcare providers should claim their Google Knowledge Graph Panel and ensure the information is accurate. Search users may not click through to your website, instead, they may decide to call to schedule an appointment directly. Or if you change your hours, you need to update the information so people know when you are open.
Examples of Google’s Knowledge Graph Panel with varying levels of completeness and information.
Optimize Content for Featured Snippets
While Google’s Featured Snippets may reduce click-throughs to your website, they’re still highly valuable and you should evaluate your SEO strategy to determine if you can claim the top spot with any of your web pages. Consider adding FAQ sections to address commonly asked questions.
You can also use Featured Snippets to guide searchers to additional information or prompt additional search queries. As people are researching, they often don’t know what the solution is—they’re searching for symptoms. If you rank well for search terms that fall within the problem awareness stage, your answers can lead the consumer to possible solutions.
And while some people will be satisfied with a quick answer, there are still many others that crave rich information. As I mentioned earlier, focus on creating high-quality comprehensive content that answers people’s questions.
3. Digital Video Consumption Increases
If you’re a healthcare marketer and you’re not using video to promote your practice, you are missing out. Videos are driving serious engagement today. Many people enjoy watching videos over reading articles. A report released by HubSpot shows that about 45% of people spend more than one hour a day watching videos.
On top of that, 39% of potential patients call to make an appointment after watching a video on a healthcare topic.
