Three Strategic Goals to Guide Advertising for Healthcare Companies

From labor shortages to system inefficiencies, today’s healthcare companies are battling a number of economic and industry-specific challenges affecting both their business models and the quality of patient care.

Even worse, these problems have the ability to make each other worse: poor patient care leads to lower revenues and profits, while reduced earnings strain resources and impact patient outcomes.

But this also means that addressing one of these issues can be a rising tide to lift all boats, delivering benefits across a healthcare company’s operations. Whether faced with small patient rosters, employee recruiting challenges, a lack of incoming referrals or all of the above, digital advertising can take aim at these business challenges and forge a path to higher profits, more efficient operations, and better outcomes for your patients.

Here’s a look at the three main goals today’s healthcare companies are eager to address with digital advertising, along with tips on how to reach these goals through your own campaigns.

1. Attracting New Patients While Increasing Retention Rates

New patient growth is the most direct path to growing healthcare revenues and profits. But the addition of new patients only delivers value when you’re able to retain your existing clientele, which is why campaigns aimed at growing patient rosters should focus on engaging both of these audiences.

To connect with new prospects, healthcare companies should create campaigns that emphasize new healthcare services being offered by your company. As Insider Intelligence notes, rising demand for innovative services like remote patient monitoring, as well as more flexible virtual care options, can be one strategy for attracting patients in search of a new healthcare provider.

Specialized healthcare services should also be promoted through targeted campaigns aimed at a niche audience. More broadly, new patient ad campaigns can be targeted to rival healthcare facilities where unsatisfied patients may see the ads via social media, mobile display, digital video or other channels.

Existing customers can be similarly targeted, with ad campaigns promoting new or expanded healthcare services that upgrade the patient experience. Geofenced and geotargeted ads can help you prioritize specific geographic areas for both new and existing patients while also delivering ads at and around your own facilities—which disrupts rival efforts to steal your patients through a similar strategy.

2. Recruiting New Hires for Front Desk, Nursing and Provider Positions

Labor shortages across the United States have hit healthcare companies particularly hard. According to a February poll by HealthDay/Harris, 35 percent of U.S. consumers had either noticed or been affected by healthcare staffing shortages, one of the highest rates of any industry.

Of the American adults who sought out healthcare services within the prior six months, 73 percent experienced delays or other challenges in receiving that care. These staffing shortages are shaking confidence in the availability and quality of future healthcare: 52 percent of poll participants said they worry future staffing shortages will prevent them from accessing the medical care they need.

In addition to patient outcomes and the overall patient experience, staffing shortages limit the amount of revenue healthcare companies are able to generate, compounding economic hardship across the entire organization.

Digital advertising can help fill open positions faster while improving the overall quality of your applicants. Campaigns targeted to both active and passive job-seekers can highlight flexible work arrangements, improve the diversity of your applicant pool, and speak directly to the pain points facing healthcare workers today.

3. Strengthening Your Healthcare Referral Program

Most healthcare companies depend on a strong referral program to generate new patients and revenue for the organization. For both new and established healthcare businesses, an emphasis on building referral channels can deliver long-term ROI by forging new relationships that deliver new patients for years to come.

Digital ad campaigns can help improve your referral program through the following strategies:

• Promoting referral incentives. Geotargeting and other ad filtering tools can promote new rewards to individuals or businesses referring new patients to your company. This can serve as a supplement to any direct outreach being conducted with local healthcare providers that may be a source of referrals for your business.
• Raising awareness of specialized and innovative services. From remote care services to other specialized healthcare not widely available in your area, advertising can help spread the word about the full range of services you offer—particularly in regards to new healthcare services.
• Build brand awareness in high-priority locations. Eager to add new patients in geographic areas where your business has room to grow? Digital campaigns can deliver local advertising exclusively to these locations, helping you build brand awareness as you expand into new markets and become a more familiar name among local referral sources.

From local clinics to regional healthcare systems, localized advertising is a cost-effective channel for building brand awareness, engaging current and potential patients, and promoting new healthcare services and job opportunities to a relevant audience.

A marketing strategy consultant can help you develop campaigns to support your advertising goals and stabilize your company in a volatile business environment. Contact Cox Media today to learn more.