5 hospital marketing trends to watch: data personalization, chatbots & more

by | Jul 30, 2019 | Portfolio News

Health systems are transitioning toward a value-based model of care, and so too must their marketing. Rather than just highlighting available services, health system marketers must also promote improved patient outcomes. Here, according to Evariant, are five data-driven, digitally minded trends that will help hospital marketing efforts keep up with the ever-changing health infrastructure.

Video marketing is first on Evariant’s list. Hospitals can build trust, encourage patient engagement, and seem much less intimidating by sharing videos of patient success stories, question-and-answer sessions with physicians, and demonstrations of their patient-centric care.

Local search optimization is also key. Rather than prioritizing generalized keywords focused on a hospital’s care offerings, a hospital’s SEO strategy should include strings of keywords that include the hospital’s location, which will provide much greater odds that its information will be shared with actual potential patients.

Evariant also says real-time data personalization is an important marketing strategy. Taking advantage of existing patient information and interaction databases will allow hospitals to provide more individualized marketing toward their patients, which will leave patients feeling more satisfied with and better understood by their providers.

Mobile-friendly website and email design is crucial. Many health care organizations have not yet optimized their website and email design for viewing on a mobile device. However, considering the number of people who use their phones to access these media, mobile-friendly design is crucial to improve patient experience. As an added bonus, it will also boost hospitals’ SEO rankings.

Finally, Evariant says, AI-powered chatbots integrated into a hospital’s website can help streamline scheduling, information gathering, and basic troubleshooting. It also adds convenience in that patients can access services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and ensures that providers don’t have to take time to complete these mundane, repetitive tasks.

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