Service line marketing tips for hospital marketers
Optimize your search efforts this month
Marketing a particular service line such as cardiac care, cancer care, neurology or women’s health can be a challenge in an industry where competitors offer the same quality services at the same rate as your organization. How can your hospital build awareness of its nationally recognized cardiologists or drive volume to its award-winning cancer center, when the academic medical center from a neighboring town is offering a similar level of care?
The answer may reside in search. In a blog post last year, we talked about how paid search is the perfect fit for service line marketing because of its ability to target web users searching in detail. But standing out from competitors is difficult in a sea of ubiquitous content and it takes an experienced hospital marketer to get crafty with adwords.
How, then, can you optimize search?
A simple, but effective way is to pay attention to what’s trending in the healthcare industry. A trick is to research national health observances ( e.g. Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Men’s Health Month, Ovarian Cancer Month etc.) and piggyback on the hype they create. For example: February marks American Heart Month, which opens up ample opportunities for your hospital to promote its cardiac care services. A quick look at Google Trends tells me that during the month of February, search for the keyword “heart health” spikes year-over-year (as seen in the chart below).
Digging deeper, we found that people who search the keyword “heart health” also use relevant and insightful keywords in their research. Your hospital or health system can use this information to generate long tail keywords in its paid search or organic search marketing. According to Google Trends, recent top searches include:
- heart and health
- health heart rate
- heart healthy
- heart health diet
In addition to paid search, your organization can increase organic search by creating a blog that provides heart healthy recipes or trendy workout plans. Offer patients free educational wellness courses that encourage them to quit smoking, reduce their sodium intake, or take blood pressure medication.
In addition to its search benefits, piggybacking on health awareness months (such as promoting cardiac care during American Heart Month) also adds a humanistic element to your hospital or healthcare system. It’s likely you know someone with high blood pressure, heart disease or that experienced a cardiac emergency. If your hospital educates its target audience on how to maintain a healthy heart, you could bring awareness to life-threatening diseases and contribute to population health.