Adapting Strategies For New Digital Media

Target niche healthcare audiences with focused digital channels

With the rise of digital media consumption has come new digital marketing opportunities that help healthcare organizations target niche audiences. Below are some new media channels that have gained momentum over the past year and provide great opportunities to reach targeted audiences.

Search Ads/Pay-per-click (PPC)

It is rare for patients of today to crack open a phone book when they are in need of a new physician. They simply open a browser and type it into their search bar. If you don’t have search ads popping up in the results, you’re missing a huge opportunity. In addition to plain text, there are many extensions you can attach to search ads that include: office location and phone number, live chat with a receptionist or physician, and images of the office or physicians.

Social media marketing

Social media has become a self-publishing hub for hospitals and physician practices. Through different platforms, organizations are able to share content with patients that is relevant to them. In addition, through social ads, healthcare organizations are able to target prospective patients in a way that looks like news content through Facebook Newsfeed ads, Twitter promoted tweets, and Instagram promoted posts.

Mobile marketing

There are a few ways healthcare marketers can reach patients through mobile channels:

• SMS/text message appointment reminders and updates
• Mobile search/PPC click-to-call ads
• Mobile display ads on tablets and mobile devices
• Mobile apps with information about the hospital or practice, including: location, hours, physicians, basic health information, and ER wait times
• Mobile gamification to incentivize patients to lead healthy lifestyles

Digital television & video streaming

More and more people are opting out of a traditional cable subscription, or simply watching television programs on their own time, through video streaming services such as Hulu+, Netflix, Aereo, Apple TV, Roku, and network and broadcast station apps on phones and tablets. Get more mileage out of television spots by taking a portion of your television media spend and putting it towards digital video streaming. Here’s how:

• Purchase in-stream video or video pre-roll online through an ad network
• Purchase in-stream video from specific services, such as Hulu+ or PBS to give you more control over what type of programming your spots are in
• Purchase Facebook Newsfeed video ads or LinkedIn promoted video posts

Internet radio

Instead of flipping on a station in the car, people are now streaming music through apps on their phones, including Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio, news site audio player apps, and radio.com. This provides an opportunity to reach patients on radio beyond local stations with targeted programming and an expansion of geological reach.

Native advertising

Native ads are commonly found on websites like BuzzFeed, Mashable, and The Atlantic, and they disguise advertisements as news stories. Sponsored content allows organizations to get more information out to consumers without the question of whether it will be published, as is the case with earned media. Patient education and wellness is a great topic for native advertising because it supplies the readers with information they will actually find useful, and a news story can share much more information than a headline in an ad could.

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