The healthcare industry has undergone significant changes in recent years and is growing rapidly. By 2028, the global healthcare market is projected to reach $665.37 billion. The country's healthcare spending is projected to reach $5.7 trillion by 2026, and healthcare companies continue to innovate and evolve their digital experiences to stay agile in an increasingly competitive environment. need to do it.
Trustworthy content and convenient access to care have become top priorities for healthcare consumers in recent years, and studies such as the Kyruus 2023 Care Benchmark Report show that the general public cares just like any other product or service. It shows that people are starting to buy. This means people are evaluating where to receive care based on a matrix of quality, cost, and convenience.
To meet these evolving expectations, providers must have a strong digital marketing strategy and online user experience. Here are five healthcare marketing trends to watch in 2024.
- The rise of retail in the healthcare sector
In recent years, we've seen big-name retailers invest seriously in primary care services and medical technology. Multinational retailers are spending billions of dollars on acquisitions and developing new technologies such as remote patient care and wearable devices, disrupting the entire healthcare supply chain and making it easier for retailers to protect consumers and their health. They are expected to have more influence than ever before on decision-making.
Retail healthcare brands excel at delivering clean, easy-to-use digital experiences designed to convert site visitors into loyal customers. The “retailization” of healthcare prioritizes patient convenience as a primary goal, given that 83% of consumers say their experience with a brand is as important as its products and services. can be expected to influence the expectations consumers have about all healthcare. Companies, especially those that have traditionally relied on a physician-centric model.
Healthcare brands that want to compete with retailers should audit their website user experience, appointment scheduling, and content to ensure they are appropriately addressing consumer needs around cost, location, and convenience. there is.
- Improving share of voice through content marketing
With retailers poised to position themselves as health authority voices, and the rise of AI-generated content, consumers are increasingly concerned about the trustworthiness and trustworthiness of the health content they read online. I am. About half of U.S. consumers are concerned that the health information they see is trying to sell them something rather than providing accurate information to answer their questions.
Healthcare marketers can leverage content marketing to improve their organization in a way that provides relevant and trusted information to consumers while continually improving brand expertise, reputation, and commitment to patient experience. You should consider ways to expand your digital footprint. This can be supported through a small in-house team of experts or even by outsourcing content creation to external resources or agencies. In a recent survey, 62% of healthcare organizations said they outsource content creation so they can publish new materials at scale.
- Consumers prefer internet searches when purchasing care products
Although many consumers still rely on traditional resources such as loved ones, their health plans, and insurance company websites to make health care purchasing decisions, more than half make their health care purchasing decisions through general Internet searches. I'm starting a journey. When looking for routine care, consumers often start with location-based queries like “primary care near me.” This query generates over 27,100 searches per month.
Healthcare organizations should prioritize SEO and SEM efforts to maximize their presence on search results pages. This includes creating an SEO strategy to drive consumers to the above content and his marketing efforts.
Marketers looking to attract potential patients to nearby communities need the right schema to get rich results and increase their chances of appearing in the first few positions of location-based searches. You need to make sure your website includes markup and structured data. Marketers also need to make sure their page content is optimized for voice search devices to better capture the 50% of consumers who use voice search every day.
- Online patient reviews as a conversion driver
Online reviews are important in any industry, but consumers are increasingly looking to patient reviews when deciding on doctors, clinics, and other health care providers. According to a recent survey, 74% of consumers say the quality of online patient reviews is very or very important when deciding where to receive care.
Online reviews can be a powerful tool to motivate consumers to choose a particular doctor or clinic, but they can also act as a deterrent. In a recent survey conducted by HealthGrades, 84% of consumers said they would refuse to see a provider if the provider had a 4-star rating or lower.
Online reviews can impact everything from organic search visibility to a prospective patient's likelihood of booking an appointment, so healthcare providers should regularly ask patients to share feedback online. It is recommended.
- Digital accessibility and telemedicine
With the consumerization of healthcare, consumers expect constant access to care through digital channels, including the ability to book appointments online, receive telemedicine, and communicate with healthcare providers through mobile apps. Now it looks like this. According to a recent survey by KeyCare, 45% of consumers said they prefer telemedicine visits over in-office visits for minor but urgent issues. Healthcare providers are increasing awareness of telehealth options and booking online as retail healthcare brands emphasize the ability to schedule appointments at a convenient time and location, and in many cases as a telehealth visit. You need to consider how to invest in a satisfying process for. His 2022 Kyruus Survey on Patient Access to Healthcare found that 40% of consumers prefer to book appointments online and about half of this demographic are willing to switch to another provider to do so. has become clear.
The increasing consumerization and digitization of healthcare has highlighted how important it is for healthcare systems to provide patients with a seamless digital experience throughout their journey. Healthcare marketers who take the time to audit and improve their organization's digital experiences will not only increase patient volume and satisfaction, but also improve patient access to care and outcomes overall. .
