Healthcare Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid
discover the 7 healthcare marketing mistakes you should avoid.
Healthcare marketing may be among the most challenging marketing subdivisions today. Its challenges span direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), where it enjoys legal status, its B2B nature otherwise, and more. Still, it remains a form of marketing at its core – if not a field that incorporates marketing disciplines, at least. With this in mind, typical healthcare marketing mistakes abound where this subtle distinction fails.
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That is, healthcare marketers may either approach it as mere traditional marketing, which it essentially is not, or as a field completely detached from traditional marketing, which it also is not. So first, let us solidify this distinction. Then, within this context, let us explore seven among the most harmful healthcare marketing mistakes you should avoid.
Healthcare marketing versus general marketing
First and foremost, from enhancing your lead generation strategies to having your sales strategy improved, it’s an essential first step to understand exactly where the two differ. Of course, in the interest of text economy, this section must remain brief.
Thankfully, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide a thorough, concise explanation. Their very introductory definition asserts that “Health Marketing is a multidisciplinary area of public health practice[, which] draws from traditional marketing theories and principles”. They continue to explain, however, that it “[draws] from fields such as marketing, communication, and public health promotion”, so as to “[provide] a framework of theories, strategies and techniques that can be used to guide work in public health research, interventions, and communication campaigns”.
Finally, among disciplines that inform, and are informed by, healthcare marketing, they identify the following:
Health communication
Social marketing
Health promotion
Therefore, we may safely conclude as they do, consolidating the distinction down to the following:
Healthcare marketing overlaps with traditional marketing in practical applications and principles, especially as regards customer-centricity.
Healthcare marketing differs from traditional marketing in purpose. Rather than simply selling a product, it is “creating, communicating, and delivering health information and interventions.”
Healthcare marketing incorporates other disciplines traditional marketing does not. It is “a new area of practice that is still being refined,” evolving in ways traditional marketing is not.
7 healthcare marketing mistakes you should avoid
With the above context in mind, let us now highlight some of the most impactful mistakes to avoid – and how online marketing best applies to healthcare.
1. Lacking an overall strategy
First, the most fundamental mistake a marketer of any industry can make is to begin without a clear plan. That is, marketing without having defined clear, SMART goals for each campaign, as HubSpot defines them:
Specific – what are each campaign’s exact desired goals, and which exact courses of action will produce them?
Measurable – which metrics will accurately measure a campaign’s effectiveness?
Attainable – how attainable are said goals in relation to one’s resources and market position?
Relevant – how valuable are said goals, and how will they benefit operations and subsequent campaigns?
Time-bound – when exactly should the campaign’s goals be achieved?
This is the cornerstone of successful marketing across all industries, and healthcare is no exception. In fact, as Smith & Jones highlight in their 2022 Healthcare Marketing Trends report, approaching the post-COVID healthcare audience requires due diligence and careful planning.
2. Failing to identify the ideal customer
The second among healthcare marketing mistakes to avoid ties very closely to the first and also relates to planning. Unlike marketing goals, however, this one relates to marketing audiences; who are you marketing to?
According to Prav Solanki, a healthcare marketeer, "This distinction is crucial, as it will drastically affect the style, tone, copy, channels of delivery, and more. For an initial industry-specific example, DTCA will require a drastically different approach than B2B marketing targeting practitioners and institutions. Similarly, marketing to different audience segments also requires different methods, as each will respond differently. Here, it is crucial that you pinpoint your audiences as accurately as possible:
Craft buyer personas; buyer personas will represent your main customer, from their interests to their pain points.
Segment your buyers further; audience segmentation, on the grounds of demographics, psychographics, and more, will further refine your insights.
Engage in content mapping; finally, your marketing content will use said insights to better align with your customers’ journeys.
3. Neglecting the website
A similar healthcare marketing mistake lies in neglecting one’s website. This mistake is prevalent across different industries, but it arguably bears more significance for the healthcare industry due to its focus and intended purpose – as the CDC definition above outlined.
Pharma websites remain one of the most effective ways to attract audiences, especially when coupled with inbound marketing tactics. This is in no small part because customer trust is crucial to healthcare marketing, as the product addresses health concerns.
To avoid this mistake, consider such website qualities as:
Search engine-friendliness; Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will enhance your website’s online visibility and, in turn, your inbound marketing efforts.
User-friendliness; a pristine User Experience (UX) further fosters trust and enhances SEO, especially as Core Web Vitals take effect.
Mobile-friendliness; finally, both hinge on mobile-friendliness. Not only does mobile traffic consistently surpass desktop traffic, but Google itself indexes mobile versions of websites first.
4. Overlooking customer distrust
Having touched on the subject of customer trust, this mistake warrants its own section to cover. That’s because healthcare marketers will face more scrutiny than most, given the nature of their proposition.
Research on this subject abounds and typically reaches very similar conclusions. In 2010, a research team from ESCP Europe Business School identified severe customer mistrust across all industries, in stark contrast to the continued trust of one’s peers. Ten years later, the Edelman Trust Barometer they cited continues to identify the same, highlighting the need for transparency, clarity of messaging, and social proof. The Smith & Jones report cited above also agrees, cementing the notion that now, in the post-COVID era, the healthcare industry needs to regain customer trust more than ever before.
5. Not leveraging social proof
For that matter, social proof comes as one of the best ways to foster trust and humanize marketing. It only follows that failing to leverage it constitutes one of the most serious healthcare marketing mistakes to avoid.
One of the finest examples of social proof in healthcare contexts comes from Wired magazine. Citing Amino, Wego Health, and others, it identifies the emerging trend of “patient influencers”. Analyzing Wego’s operations, it notes that “the company is democratizing the lucrative business of health care by bringing in people who actually live with the disease”. Indeed, while choosing such influencers to work with can entail challenges, the practice bears results.
A similar example comes from Greenbook, offered by Daniel Ghinn, CEO & founder of Creation. In it, he identifies the similarly lucrative and effective trend of “nurse influencers”. In both cases, the basic principle is one of traditional marketing; that influencer marketing denotes authenticity and inspires trust. But its application delves into factors unique to healthcare, such as first-hand experience in the former case and authority in the latter case.
6. Overvaluing outbound marketing
Returning to traditional marketing blunders, outbound marketing remains a favourite of some marketers – healthcare or otherwise. While outbound marketing does indeed remain valuable, overvaluing in an increasingly digital world can only harm one’s efforts.
In function, the two are polar opposites. Inbound marketing relies on inbound traffic, as the name suggests, and is primarily digital; SEO, personalized emails, and so forth. Outbound marketing is traditional and relies on print ads, billboards, Pay Per Click (PPC) ads, etcetera. In purpose, Neil Patel defines both in a brief but concrete way:
Inbound marketing caters to “those who go out of their way to find your product or service when they need it”.
Outbound marketing, in contrast, addresses “those who you must go out of your way to bring your business to their attention”.
Of course, outbound marketing does offer benefits; it often requires less effort and a smaller budget, and it still resonates with older demographics. However, marketing to healthcare professionals requires an increasingly digital approach, and so does B2B healthcare marketing. Thus, while balancing the two may be reasonable, inbound marketing must not be overlooked.
7. Failing to monitor campaign effectiveness
The final among healthcare marketing mistakes to avoid is simple and equally universal; failing to monitor one’s campaigns. Indeed, eMeCert notes this unfortunate mistake as well, rightly noting that “[it] is absolutely imperative to have this information at hand to monitor the successes or failures of your advertising campaigns.”
For one, this all too common mistake comes with universal, self-evident disadvantages. First, monitoring will ensure adherence to SMART goals, identify shortcomings, and inform subsequent actions. Without an attentive eye on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), any marketing campaign is substantially more likely to fail.
In healthcare contexts, however, monitoring campaigns holds even more practical value. Any pharmaceutical brand strategy requires much of the aforementioned; great website design, impeccable UX, social proof, perceived authenticity, and more. Such a multifaceted undertaking, spanning across internal and external factors like risk management, brand management, and competition, absolutely requires monitoring.
Healthcare marketing mistakes you should avoid
To conclude, many of the most impactful healthcare marketing mistakes hinge on traditional marketing shortcomings. Examples of these may include poor planning, an underperforming website, lack of campaign monitoring, and more.
Others arise from oversights regarding the healthcare industry’s unique needs, such as a higher need for customer trust, more careful influencer selections, and so forth. Nonetheless, both of these types require urgent attention as pharma digitization continues to take hold.
For more on strategic marketing approaches in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, and how we can help you, visit our section on strategy.
