Healthcare marketing is evolving rapidly, just like the actual health care and wellness market, and it is essential to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and techniques.

Today, personalization, automation, data-driven decision making and mobile-first marketing are the key components of successful healthcare marketing strategies.

To personalize experiences, marketers must focus on understanding their customers and creating tailored messages that match the customer's needs.

Automation helps to make campaigns more efficient and effective, while data-driven decision making is needed to inform marketers on the best strategies and tactics for their campaigns.

Finally, mobile-first marketing allows healthcare marketers to reach customers where they are most active - on their mobile devices. By understanding and leveraging these trends and techniques, healthcare marketers can create successful campaigns that engage customers and drive results.

Every healthcare clinic wants to grow their business, but there is often confusion about which growth strategy to follow. When you take a step back and look at the health and wellness industry and health and wellness market, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the tools and advice out there when it comes to marketing. I’m sure when you think about all you could be doing, your blood pressure goes up and you start feeling very confused.

That is understandable, because social media platforms, influencer marketing, subscription services, artificial intelligence, digital channels, video content, augmented reality, while figuring out what consumers expect and constantly adjusting to market dynamics, all present a challenging question…what am I supposed to do to obtain business growth, and are my marketing efforts working?

At the same time, there is much to learn from other healthcare marketers who have successfully tackled such challenges and have found success with their strategies.

Healthcare marketing professionals must stay on top of trends and best practices in order to remain competitive in a crowded market.

They need to understand customer behavior, create compelling content that resonates with customers, and measure their success. By focusing on these key areas, healthcare marketers can develop strategies that will lead to successful campaigns and ultimately drive business growth.

Understanding the customer journey is essential for any effective marketing campaign in the healthcare industry.

The customer journey includes everything from research to purchase and post-purchase interactions with a brand or clinic.

Marketers must be able to track and measure customer behavior across multiple channels and touchpoints in order to understand how customers are interacting with their brand. This will enable marketers to create campaigns that meet the needs of their target audience.

Finally, healthcare marketers must measure their success by evaluating the effectiveness of their campaigns against predetermined objectives.

By tracking metrics such as website traffic, conversions, ROI and customer engagement, marketers can identify which strategies are working and areas for improvement.

This data-driven approach will help healthcare marketers understand what is working, what needs to be improved, and how marketing efforts can be optimized for maximum results. It will also help you identify gain consumer insights from the people who are engaging with your content.

It’s not so much about the tools as it is creating connection in a competitive landscape, and making consumers understand why you are in business in the first place.

In my opinion, the only subjective aspect of marketing is figuring out why you are in business in the first place. Are you in business to be the best in wellness tourism, or are you in business to give patients the best health outcomes?

Are you in business to demonstrate your fast market growth, or are you in business to to help consumers have a complete picture of their health and ultimately get on the path to better health?

Often, we set business goals and mistake them with our why. You may have a goal of growing your practice by 200% this year…but if you aren’t careful your “why” will quickly become “because I want to grow by 200%.”

You have to be clear on your why. Yes, communicating your executive summary, your company overview, having competitive pricing, meeting the goals in your forecast period etc. are important…but never confuse those things with your why. Maybe you’ll get some new customers but just talking about your WHAT, but you will miss out on the increased demand of focusing on your why.

The purpose of content marketing is just to announce that you have better weight loss programs or anti aging products…it’s to connect to your target audience and help them understand your why.

Most growing brands understand this. Think about Apple vs. Dell. They both sell computers, but Apple sells their WHY and Dell sells their WHAT.

When you think from the perspective of using content marketing to help your customers understand your why, you will create connection and you will create brand loyalty.

This ultimately will lead to increased market share as you begin to understand consumer behavior, and narrow down your audience from a broad audience to a group of loyalt customers.

When you have that voice, and you understand consumer trends, then you will be able to clearly market your health and wellness products and wellness services. Your why will be a key factor driving your growth.

When you understand your why, you will be able to easily execute on the key areas and trends in digital marketing in 2023.

How personalization, automation, data-driven decision making and mobile-first marketing are key components of successful healthcare marketing strategies

Personalization in marketing is a strategy that involves tailoring communication to the individual. This means that instead of sending generic messaging to a mass audience, marketers create content that is tailored to the individual consumer's characteristics, interests and preferences.

Through personalization, marketers are able to better target customers and create more meaningful experiences for them.

Automation is the use of technology to automate manual or repetitive processes. Automation helps marketers save time and money by streamlining processes, ensuring accurate data collection and analysis, and driving more efficient campaigns.

Data-driven decision making refers to using data to inform marketing decisions. This involves collecting customer data on preferences and behaviour, analyzing it, and using the insights to inform decisions about which strategies and tactics to use.

Mobile-first marketing is a strategy that focuses on designing campaigns for mobile devices first, then optimizing them for other channels. This involves understanding customer behaviour and preferences on mobile, designing content specifically for these channels, and creating seamless cross-channel experiences. Mobile-first marketing helps marketers reach customers in their preferred channels and creates more personalized experiences.

Data-driven decision making also helps you to identify the best distribution channels to work with, identify if their are supply chain issues causing a decrease in customer satisfaction, and can also allow you to create dynamic ads.

How to personalize experiences by understanding customers and creating tailored messages

Personalizing experiences starts with understanding your customers. Marketers need to take the time to gather data and gain insights on their customer base so that they can create personalized messages for each individual.

This includes collecting demographic, behavioral, psychographic and transactional data from both existing and potential customers. Once marketers have collected this data, they must analyze it to understand customer preferences, interests and behaviour.

Using these insights, marketers can create tailored messages that are more likely to resonate with customers. This could include using personalized greetings, creating unique content for different segments or targeting customers with relevant offers based on their past purchases.

By understanding customers and personalizing their experiences, marketers can create campaigns that are more likely to engage and convert customers.

The trend in the global health industry is towards personalized medicine as well…which is direct evidence that personalization is key.

Think about how even products on the market today focus on this…personal care brands, personal care, focusing on your own health, consumers wanting personalized services and products, personalized physical training and physical activity programs. Everything is becoming personalized, so your marketing should be too.

What exactly could that look like? Here are some examples of personalized email subjects. Notice how much more appealing these are:

• Get fit with us Brandon

• Pop quiz: how healthy are you Brandon

• Brandon - We have the Prescription for What Ails You

• Hey Brandon - It’s Time to get your health on track

How automation helps make campaigns more efficient and effective

Automation is a key tool for marketers looking to streamline their processes and drive efficiency. Automating mundane tasks like data entry, customer segmentation, campaign creation and reporting frees up time for marketers so that they can focus on more important tasks such as developing strategies and creating content.

Automation can also ensure accuracy by eliminating human error.

Automation is especially useful for marketers who are running campaigns across multiple channels.

By automating the creation and delivery of messages, marketers can create more consistent experiences for customers and make sure their campaigns are reaching the right audiences at the right times.

It’s also important to note that automation can help marketers save money, as it eliminates the need to hire additional staff and reduces overhead costs.

Data-driven decision making helps marketers target audiences more effectively

Data-driven decision making is a crucial part of any successful marketing strategy. By collecting and analyzing customer data, marketers can determine who their target audiences are and what kind of content they respond to best.

This data can also be used to segment customers into groups based on preferences and interests, allowing marketers to create more personalized experiences and better target their campaigns.

Data-driven decision making also helps marketers measure the effectiveness of their campaigns by providing insights on customer behavior, such as what content they are engaging with and how they are responding to offers.

This data can be used to optimize campaigns in real-time and make sure that marketers are reaching the right audiences with the right messages.

Overall, data-driven decision making and automation are two key elements of a successful marketing strategy. By understanding customers and using the right tools, marketers can create more personalized experiences for their audiences and drive better results for their campaigns.

Why mobile optimization will be even more important.

As the world becomes increasingly digital, so too does the customer journey. More and more people are using their mobile devices to access websites, purchase products and engage with brands.

This shift means that marketers need to consider mobile-first marketing strategies in order to reach customers where they are most active.

Mobile-first marketing and traditional computer marketing both aim to reach customers where they are most active. However, mobile-first marketing takes this concept a step further by optimizing content and experiences specifically for mobile devices.

It focuses on creating seamless user experiences across all devices, including smartphones and tablets, as well as leveraging the capabilities of these devices to target customers at the right moments.

By leveraging mobile-first marketing strategies, marketers can reach their audiences in a way that is more personalized and effective.

Mobile-first marketing requires a focus on creating a seamless user experience across all devices. This could include optimizing web pages for mobile, adjusting ad copy to fit smaller screens and making sure content displays properly on different devices.

It’s also important to consider how customers are likely to use their mobile devices when it comes to engaging with brands, such as accessing product information or contacting customer support.

In addition to creating a seamless mobile experience, marketers should also be leveraging the capabilities of mobile devices. This could include taking advantage of location-based targeting or push notifications in order to reach customers at the right moments and with the right messages.

Overall, mobile-first marketing is essential for reaching customers where they are most active. By considering how customers are likely to use their mobile devices and taking advantage of the capabilities they offer, marketers can create more personalized experiences for their audiences and drive better results.

Leveraging these trends and techniques to create successful campaigns that engage customers and drive results.

In order to be successful in today’s marketing landscape, it is important for marketers to embrace the trends and techniques outlined above.

By combining automation, data-driven decision making and mobile-first strategies, marketers can create campaigns that effectively engage customers and drive results.

When building a campaign, it’s important to consider the customer journey and how each element fits together. This could include leveraging automation tools to send timely emails, using data-driven decision making to target the right audiences and creating a mobile-friendly experience for customers.

By leveraging these trends and techniques, marketers can create successful campaigns that engage customers and drive results. With the right tools and strategies in place, marketers can create personalized experiences that drive customer loyalty and improve their ROI.

So what are the actual activities you should be focused on?

Leverage SEO to grow search traffic

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a way to make sure your website shows up when people search for something on the internet. To do this, you have to use keywords in your content, create links from other websites to yours, and make sure that your webpage loads quickly so that people don't get frustrated and go somewhere else.

SEO plays an important role in mobile-first marketing, as it helps your site rank higher in search results and drives more organic traffic.

When optimizing for SEO on mobile devices, focus on keyword research and optimization, content optimization, link building, page speed optimization and technical audits.

One of the most powerful tools that I believe clinics aren’t using enough is Google My Business.

Most Google searches are local searches…so focusing on building out your GMB profile is key, as is regularly updating it. This will ensure that your clinic will show up in search results for local searches, driving more people to your website.

Email Marketing is Definitely Not Dead

While email marketing is a North America dominated practice, due to restrictions in other countries, it’s absolutely worth doing. Email marketing allows you to remain in contact with your customer base and nurture relationships.

When doing mobile-first email marketing, it’s important to focus on subject lines that are short and punchy (as the majority of emails will be opened on a mobile device). Additionally, make sure the body of the message is easily readable and that the CTA is clearly visible.

Influencer marketing will evolve into a common marketing tactic.

Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular in the mobile-first world, as it allows brands to engage with their audiences through social influencers. When leveraging influencers for your campaigns, focus on finding the right fit and creating content that resonates with their followers.

Video will remain the top marketing content format.

Video content is becoming increasingly popular, as it allows marketers to reach a larger audience and engage customers in more meaningful ways. When creating video content for mobile-first marketing campaigns, focus on creating short videos that are optimized for mobile devices and capture viewers’ attention quickly.

Inbound marketing will remain a best practice for growing brands.

Inbound marketing is a great way to engage customers and nurture leads into conversions. When leveraging inbound techniques, focus on creating content that resonates with your target audience, optimizing for SEO and building relationships with customers.

Most marketers will focus on just three to five social media platforms.

Social media is becoming increasingly critical for mobile-first marketing, as it allows brands to reach and engage with customers in more meaningful ways. When creating a social media strategy for mobile-first initiatives, focus on building relationships with your core audience rather than trying to be active on every platform.

More than half of all successful businesses, whether they are physical stores or e commerce brands, focus on a few key platforms.

Statistics Matter

Data analysis, or the practice of taking in data and understanding what it means, is important for any business, regardless of size. When optimizing your mobile-first marketing campaigns, focus on collecting relevant data and using it to inform decisions and measure success. Using tools like Google’s DataStudio (which is now called Looker Studio) can help you quickly gather insights and make better decisions.

Focus on Reviews

Finally, it’s important to remember that customer reviews are a big part of mobile-first marketing. Consumers trust reviews more than they trust advertising, so make sure your customers know there is a way for them to leave feedback on your website or social media channels. This will build trust and will go a long way in helping you create successful campaigns.

Make sure you are also responding to every review!

Cima understands the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest healthcare marketing trends and techniques.

That is why Cima's focus is on helping naturopathic clinics establish a holistic marketing strategy. By leveraging personalization, automation, data-driven decision making and mobile-first marketing, Cima can help ensure that naturopathic clinics can reach their target audience, engage them with tailored messages, and drive results.

Cima's experienced team of naturopathic clinic marketing strategists helps clients understand customer needs and develop a comprehensive strategy to grow their presence in the digital world with effective campaigns that generate leads and increase conversions in existing and new markets.

Not only can we create these things, but we aim to take away the stress and strain of managing your own marketing and systems, and consolidate it all in to one easily manageable platform, called GRO (www.cimagrowth.com).

Download our free 96 page eBook on how to employ these strategies in your clinic here: www.cimagrowth.com/social.