In recent years, healthcare marketing trends have evolved and changed dramatically. This is largely due to COVID-19 forcing healthcare marketers to think outside the box and deliver marketing content in new and exciting ways. These changes are set to continue in 2024. So, here are the top digital marketing trends that will give you the edge in 2024.
10 Marketing Trends For Healthcare Marketers In 2024
Your healthcare marketing strategy is likely to be shaped by technology and personalisation in 2024. There will be a keen focus on patient experience and engagement. Throughout the last few years, technology has allowed healthcare providers to target potential patients by creating marketing material on platforms that their patients are using. However, there has been a lack of patient experience. We believe this is set to change in 2024, as are the healthcare marketing trends that are going to provide the best experiences and more patients for savvy healthcare providers.
Embracing The Human Touch In Digital Spaces
Genuine connections in the digital space are a tricky thing to master, but it’s vital in every online business. If your marketing efforts are put into creating spaces online that have a human touch and great user experience it will do wonders for your business. Medical services have a very clinical appearance online, yet patients want the personal touch from their healthcare professionals, just like they do in real life.
To achieve this, try to use personalised messaging, user-friendly interfaces and content that resonates with a human audience in 2024. Marketing strategies often use new digital tools but forget that at the other end of the marketing campaign, there are humans. Humans who want to become new patients with healthcare practices that care.
Tailoring Content to Voice Searches
58% of people aged 25-40 are using voice search features on search engines, this type of technology is becoming embedded in our lives so your healthcare content marketing strategy should cater towards this trend.
Tailoring content for voice search can be done in several ways, including:
- Researching keywords for voice search – long-tail keywords, questions keywords and conversational keywords are the ideal focus.
- Audit and optimize your website content – Identify potential opportunities to optimize existing content for keywords you want to target in voice search.
- Improve your site’s technical SEO – Ensure your website is crawlable, indexable and accessible. This will directly impact your website’s ability to appear in voice search results.
- Improve local SEO – Make sure potential patients can find your medical services with a local service by optimizing your Google Business Profile and other local directories.
Social Media Marketing
Social media continues to prove itself valuable in the healthcare industry. In fact, one study showed that 57% of consumers said a medical facility’s social media presence would strongly influence their choice regarding where to go for medical services.
Social media is an excellent tool to use to convey healthcare information to new patients, as well as health outcomes and a great deal more. Here are a few ideas about how you can use social media to reach your audience:
- Use user-generated content to answer commonly asked questions
- Collaborate with influencers on social media platforms to generate a discussion surrounding your medical practice.
- Humanise your medical practices
- Create a network on each of your social media platforms where your patients feel part of your practice and connected to you.
If your healthcare organization isn’t currently using social media, now is a great time to start. Every photo on Instagram, Tweet on X or Video on TikTok can bring you one step closer to converting an online user into a new patient.
Attract and Engage
38% of people will stop exploring a website if the layout is unattractive or the content isn’t engaging. This means that any snag on your site, or any bad content will cause over a third of visitors to leave. A continued look at your website and other digital channels will be needed in 2024 to keep your audience engaged.
A lot of the technical snags that can lead to an unattractive website can be solved with SEO audits which we mentioned in the voice search section above. Regular audits of your content and a solid content strategy are needed to ensure that every piece of content on your site looks great, entertains users and provides information that they will find helpful. Here’s a brief look at some content that medical practices should be using to engage their users:
- Case studies – real-world success stories from past patients
- E-books or guides – discuss the treatments provided in detail
- Webinars – host live webinars on relevant health topics, encouraging interaction and questions from participants.
- Health challenges – sugar-free challenges or fitness challenges, for example, to encourage healthy habits.
The Rise of Telehealth Marketing
Telehealth is a fantastic way of reaching patients who prefer at-home consultations and can provide advice and support improving patient satisfaction and helping with the patient’s healthcare journey. So, while telehealth marketing has been one of the top healthcare marketing trends of recent years, it is still one of the best technologies to invest in if you’re a healthcare marketer.
Telehealth marketing isn’t going anywhere in 2024. In fact, there will be an expectation on healthcare providers to incorporate it if they haven’t already, and improve upon the services available if they already have it.
Inclusivity And Accessibility
In 2021, W3C (an international organization which creates standards for the World Wide Web) released WCAG 3.0 which outlined accessibility guidelines for the internet. In July 2023, they released an update for 3.0 based on feedback from internet users. So, for many, the focus in the later part of 2023 was on accessibility and making their websites as accessible as possible. And this is a trend that will continue in 2024.
Website accessibility is complex and involves most aspects of your website. However, it is incredibly important. By implementing the correct accessibility practices, you are opening up your website to everyone who can access the web and making your website an enjoyable experience for everyone.
We Are Amnet can help get the accessibility of your medical website up to date and working for you, not against you.
Healthcare Apps
Healthcare practitioners should pay close attention to the apps their patients use in 2024. A smart marketing strategy will cover as many ways as possible for patients to stay connected and one of the best ways to connect with your patients is with an app.
Apps can be used for patients to book appointments and stay up to date with health management advice. However, to really propel yourself to the top of the medical charts, create health systems that use apps to communicate with your patients. This can increase patient engagement and be used to target prospective patients with helpful online resources designed to limit trips to practices while supporting the patient journey.
Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing is a customer-centric marketing approach. It integrates all channels (physical locations, website, social media, apps, etc.) and delivers a unified and consistent brand experience across all channels.
This way of marketing ensures the visuals, messaging and offers on all channels are the same. It limits confusion and ensures that the user experience is the same no matter what channel they are using. Omnichannel proved to be very successful in healthcare marketing last year and will continue to be a valuable trend in 2024.
AI in Healthcare Marketing
AI will continue to be utilized in healthcare marketing in 2024. AI-powered algorithms can be used to analyze patient data including medical history, demographics and preferences and create personalized marketing campaigns that improve overall user experience on social media, apps and websites.
AI is being used in many different ways in the healthcare industry at the moment and will continue to be in 2024. So, while we are only looking at this from a healthcare marketing perspective in this article, AI will be a trend across the board within the healthcare industry in 2024 and beyond.
Symptom Checker Chatbots
Chatbots using sophisticated algorithms (and sometimes AI) can give your medical website the edge over the competition. They can be used to conduct meaningful conversations with patients to determine the next steps in the treatment process.
Such solutions have become popular in every industry, and they will continue to be invaluable in 2024. They can help patients address health conditions quickly, reduce pressure on call centres and assist patients during non-operation hours.
The Future of Medical Content Marketing
In 2024, while new and exciting technology and techniques like AI, chatbots and omnichannel marketing should be used, the overall focus of your healthcare marketing campaigns should be patient experience. Delivering supportive, informative and helpful information to your patients on easy-to-use platforms is the best way to boost the health of your marketing strategy this year!
We Are Amnet can help you implement these healthcare marketing trends into your business in 2024. Our global creative production team will help you reach more clients in a wider range of platforms and ensure that your business is more successful than ever in 2024.
If you’d like to save money and time on your content production, get in touch today to learn more about Smartshoring.
