Best Marketing Strategies for Telehealth Services

According to the Center for Connected Health Policy, Telehealth is a broad term that encompasses all the tactics and technologies to enhance virtual medical, health, and educational services. 2020 has been the most tectonic year for telehealth up till now. After the recent COVID-19 outbreak, we can not stress more on the urgency of telemedicine in our healthcare system. This pandemic has carved out a permanent niche of telehealth programs in healthcare and it is no secret that telehealth is going to grow exponentially in times to come. The total U.S. telehealth market has been predicted to reach 90 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2022. ‘Digital first’ models of care are under consideration, which means the care providers will have an incentive for virtual care as opposed to traditional in-person visits when required. Furthermore, reimbursement laws are also improving for the better which is indicative of the rise of telehealth in the near future.

Best Marketing Strategies for Telehealth Services:

    A number of strategies have been put forward to market telehealth services. However, most of the time, they don’t work out in favor of healthcare providers, for they are exhaustive and time consuming for those whose primary profession is not marketing. So tag along if you are looking for the most effective, time-saving, and reliable inbound telemarketing strategies, tools, tips, and tactics to get way better results with way less headache.

1-Step into the shoes of your patients:

It is human nature that we stick to the ideas and practices we are well acquainted with and so what hurdles the patients to approach virtual visits is the lack of trust. According to a global survey, about 75 % of the patients feel dubious about the diagnosis made on virtual visits. And if they don’t trust the process, why would they trust the treatment?

Remember that you are offering a service. It is not a tangible product that patients can touch or smell, so you need to develop a highly creative strategy in order to produce a clear and compelling message of why patients should seek help from you. It is all about the end product you are offering when it comes to providing telehealth services. Your objectives and message should be so powerful that they compel the patients to break off the traditional in-person visits and seek help within their homes’ comfort.

Know your audience and then build your objectives. This will help you sort out what exactly your patients are looking for. Structure your message in such a way that it reflects that the service is more about your patients and less about you. This may sound cynical, but let’s accept the reality because this is just what your patients are looking for. Understand patient psychology and try to wash away all the common doubts and ambiguities they might have. Map out all the benefits of e-visits in front of them and suggest in-person visits for those who require it. This will win their trust.

 Online Advertisement:

   Online advertisements can serve significantly in getting potential patients to your website. This includes many marketing channels; some of the proven ones are listed below:

• Google ads/PPC ads: When patients search for their problems on google, they immediately want their answers. Google ads allow these potential patients to reach your website. If you are a startup, they might be pricey, so conduct proper keyword research on the problem to get the traction.
• Google SEO: Another cost-effective way is a good google SEO. However, it takes time to show results.
• Facebook and Instagram ads: These should be clear-cut, concise, and catchy.
• Mobile ads: Captivating mobile ads are also another source of bringing patients to your website.

Create Compelling Website Content:

    Once a patient has landed on your website, your goal is to earn his/her trust. The critical components of your website include:

• SEO friendly blogs and articles: A survey has shown that 81 % of companies consider blogs an integral part of their websites. Optimized blogs are an inexpensive way to drive more traffic. Content on common medical issues and their solutions through telemedicine can grow customer’s trust. Try to create how-to guides and articles that may help your patients. Hiring freelancers for creating SEO friendly blogs and articles can be way more cost-effective than hiring staff.     
• The landing page: The landing pages can have tremendous effects. They must be concise, to the point, and engaging. One useful tip for the landing page is to create short and catchy headlines. Once a patient lands on your website, it is the moment to build trust. Clear their doubts by answering their questions on your landing page. Share premium offers and discounts for existing patients on the landing page.
• Share success stories: Mentioning that ‘we serve better’ or ‘we provide the best quality service’ won’t make you better than your competitors. It is not enough to just say claim. You have to show it, and the best way to do this is to back up your claims with patients’ success stories and reviews. You need to show how your service has helped patients get results to win trust.
• Make it Innovative: Videos, podcasts, and infographics on your website can generate lead by engaging patients. Try to put as much visual content as you can.
• Live webinars and video conferences: They can be extremely fruitful in earning the credibility of patients as they involve a two-sided interaction between patients and physicians. Answer their queries right at the moment. It will save time and grow credibility.
• Social media Content: Research has shown that many people usually get to know about a business on social media. A statistical analysis has revealed that about 2.4 billion people use social media. Maintaining a strong social media presence and engaging with patients in the comments can help build trust and credibility.

Try to create only relevant and interesting content on your website to engage your patients and convert them into leads.

Ease your Patient’s Journey:

 According to HubSpot, a buyer’s journey consists of three phases:

1. Awareness: It is the stage when a patient will get to know about your telehealth website either via an ad or some reference.
2. Consideration: When the patient visits your website, finds relevant content and realizes that your service holds the possible solution
3. Decision: When he/she is determined to book an appointment.

 Your patient’s journey from clicking the ad to booking an appointment should be comfortable even for those who are technologically less inclined. Try to recognize each phase and sort out what objections or difficulties your patients may have and then move on to solving them. One of the best ways to make this journey easy for the customers is to use video tutorials on the landing page, sharing a step-by-step guide. Make it easy, simple, and concise.

Nurturing Emails:

According to a study by emailmonday, about 70% of businesses get the most ROI by email marketing. Once you have provided valuable content to your potential patients and converted them into leads, it is now the task of maintaining connectivity with them. This is where lead nurturing emails come to play their role. Consider placing signup forms on your landing page to retrieve the email address.

Now that you have accessed the email address of your visitor, here is what you can do with marketing emails:

• Not all emails need to be an advertorial. This is one of the biggest mistakes that most of the telehealth businesses do. Try to create an interactive atmosphere with your patients. Send educational content including blogs, ebooks, articles, biographies of your doctors, video tutorials, podcasts, and customer reviews with attached CTAs to engage with your patients. According to WordStream, placing only one CTA in your emails increases the clicks by 371 % and sales by 1617 %.
• After your patient has booked an appointment, you can follow-up using automated emails. Ideally, it should include reminders, workflows, technological requirements, contact information, step-by-step guides, consent forms, and online payment methods.
• You can also put survey questionnaires in your email copy to assess the satisfaction level of your patients.

Word of Mouth:

 Word of mouth is still one of the best forms of marketing. In fact, 92% of customers trust referrals from their relatives. It is the most uncomplicated strategy that you can adopt, and it is highly effective. People always listen to their peers’ recommendations. You can spread awareness through your existing patients. Create premium offers for them and schedule their virtual visits when required. When your service satisfies one patient, it is highly likely that he/she will spread awareness among family and friends. Consider conducting seminars and spread the word in your fraternity as well.

Measure your ROI:

Measuring your success rate is crucial for better services. The simplest way to measure your ROI is to send survey emails, review requests, and thanking notes to your patients. If you are looking for proper ROI measurements, HubSpot offers complete analytical tools.

The bottom line:

           The COVID-19 outbreak followed by lockdowns as a protective measure has urged the healthcare providers and the patients to re-analyze the necessity of telehealth. Without any doubt, telemedicine will be considered an integral part of all healthcare services. Therefore, it is essential to follow the most effective strategies to serve healthcare workers as well as the care recipients.