Healthcare marketing agency
Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2025 6:36 am
Patient engagement
The best customer is the one who keeps coming back. That is true in most sectors. Engagement is the most effective way to build patient loyalty. Marketing helps create a personal connection that drives qualified leads and keeps them active.
By helping to improve patients’ health, medical brands also build their reputations within the industry. Word-of-mouth marketing is critical for hospital and treatment providers. Patients will talk about the care they receive, good or bad. It is that reputation that drives new patients to or from a healthcare provider.
HIPAA Guidelines for Healthcare Marketing
Patient health information is tightly regulated. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) establishes parameters designed to keep sensitive medical details safe. This law extends to healthcare marketing, too. All ads must remain compliant with HIPAA regulations.
HIPPA defines protected health information (PHI) that must not be part of a marketing commercial or ad. PHI includes patients’:
Names
Addresses
Contact information
Medical records
Patient ID numbers
IPs
The HIPPA Privacy Rule
The HIPPA Privacy Rule establishes regulations designed to give people control over their health information in all things, including healthcare marketing. HIPPA defines healthcare marketing as an interaction between someone protected by a healthcare organization (covered entity) and an individual. The individual doesn’t have to be a patient, either. It could be someone who visits a website via ads.
The use of any PHI would require signed consent from the patient or caretaker. Without the signed authorization, PHI is off-limits.
Look-a-likes
A common practice in healthcare marketing is to use look-a-like audiences, but even that comes with regulations. To use this method, marketers must employ a HIPAA compliance marketing tool. Many of the mainstream marketing options do not meet this standard.
For a marketing tool to be HIPPA-compliant, it must have established security features, such as:
User authentication with unique log-in credentials
Access control that limits entry to sensitive data
Audit logs to ensure data is appropriately protected
End-to-end encryption to prevent unauthorized use
Both the marketing agency and the service provider would have to sign HIPAA business associate agreements. This holds them legally responsible for compliance.
There are also specific rules an agency must follow for healthcare marketing services. To be HIPPA compliant, they must do self-audits and risk assessments and develop strategies to protect HPI and manage vulnerabilities.
HIPPA also requires annual employee training and implementation of all HIPAA policies. They must have a plan in place to track potential issues that might affect the security of PHI.
The 5 Ps of Health & Medical Marketing
Medical marketing is complex, but there are tricks lebanon phone numbers of the trade that can help you be successful with it. One such methodology is understanding the five Ps that help you master it.
Product
Any medical marketing strategy should start with a clear definition of what you want to promote. What is the product you are promoting? By identifying the product, you can develop its selling points.
People
Know your target audience, the golden rule of all marketing. It applies in healthcare, as well. You have to be able to get to know your ideal customer and create profiles to understand how to reach them.
You would engage with a parent differently from how you might a Baby Boomer, for example. The aging population needs different medical services than a new parent, too. Know the person most likely to buy the product or service before creating a marketing strategy.
Place
The third “P” is place, as in where the product is found. Is there a website that features it? That is going to be the most likely answer for most promotions. You can also set up new touchpoints for the product, especially if it is a competitive market. Look to see what rival brands are doing and take it one step further.
Price
You also need to understand the price of the product. That will help you know whether to use that price as a selling point or not. Do some research to determine the average price of similar products and how this one compares.
Promotion
Finally, it’s time to do some marketing. Once you clarify the other “Ps” on the list, you can use them to create an actionable strategy to promote the product or service. What channels will work best for the target audience? What places might they look to find that product? Use the information you have to answer these questions and establish your marketing goals.
5 Marketing Strategies for Healthcare Brands
The regulations regarding healthcare marketing are tricky to navigate, but having a plan helps. Consider five marketing strategies tailor-made for healthcare brands.
1. Email Marketing
Despite all the technological advances, email marketing remains a mainstay. It is well-suited for healthcare use because you can safely personalize the message, but still avoid PHI. Emails are a practical way to keep patients informed about developments that affect them or someone they love.
The downside is emails are also easy to ignore. Make sure you use some punchy headlines and patient-oriented messages to keep them engaged.
The best customer is the one who keeps coming back. That is true in most sectors. Engagement is the most effective way to build patient loyalty. Marketing helps create a personal connection that drives qualified leads and keeps them active.
By helping to improve patients’ health, medical brands also build their reputations within the industry. Word-of-mouth marketing is critical for hospital and treatment providers. Patients will talk about the care they receive, good or bad. It is that reputation that drives new patients to or from a healthcare provider.
HIPAA Guidelines for Healthcare Marketing
Patient health information is tightly regulated. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) establishes parameters designed to keep sensitive medical details safe. This law extends to healthcare marketing, too. All ads must remain compliant with HIPAA regulations.
HIPPA defines protected health information (PHI) that must not be part of a marketing commercial or ad. PHI includes patients’:
Names
Addresses
Contact information
Medical records
Patient ID numbers
IPs
The HIPPA Privacy Rule
The HIPPA Privacy Rule establishes regulations designed to give people control over their health information in all things, including healthcare marketing. HIPPA defines healthcare marketing as an interaction between someone protected by a healthcare organization (covered entity) and an individual. The individual doesn’t have to be a patient, either. It could be someone who visits a website via ads.
The use of any PHI would require signed consent from the patient or caretaker. Without the signed authorization, PHI is off-limits.
Look-a-likes
A common practice in healthcare marketing is to use look-a-like audiences, but even that comes with regulations. To use this method, marketers must employ a HIPAA compliance marketing tool. Many of the mainstream marketing options do not meet this standard.
For a marketing tool to be HIPPA-compliant, it must have established security features, such as:
User authentication with unique log-in credentials
Access control that limits entry to sensitive data
Audit logs to ensure data is appropriately protected
End-to-end encryption to prevent unauthorized use
Both the marketing agency and the service provider would have to sign HIPAA business associate agreements. This holds them legally responsible for compliance.
There are also specific rules an agency must follow for healthcare marketing services. To be HIPPA compliant, they must do self-audits and risk assessments and develop strategies to protect HPI and manage vulnerabilities.
HIPPA also requires annual employee training and implementation of all HIPAA policies. They must have a plan in place to track potential issues that might affect the security of PHI.
The 5 Ps of Health & Medical Marketing
Medical marketing is complex, but there are tricks lebanon phone numbers of the trade that can help you be successful with it. One such methodology is understanding the five Ps that help you master it.
Product
Any medical marketing strategy should start with a clear definition of what you want to promote. What is the product you are promoting? By identifying the product, you can develop its selling points.
People
Know your target audience, the golden rule of all marketing. It applies in healthcare, as well. You have to be able to get to know your ideal customer and create profiles to understand how to reach them.
You would engage with a parent differently from how you might a Baby Boomer, for example. The aging population needs different medical services than a new parent, too. Know the person most likely to buy the product or service before creating a marketing strategy.
Place
The third “P” is place, as in where the product is found. Is there a website that features it? That is going to be the most likely answer for most promotions. You can also set up new touchpoints for the product, especially if it is a competitive market. Look to see what rival brands are doing and take it one step further.
Price
You also need to understand the price of the product. That will help you know whether to use that price as a selling point or not. Do some research to determine the average price of similar products and how this one compares.
Promotion
Finally, it’s time to do some marketing. Once you clarify the other “Ps” on the list, you can use them to create an actionable strategy to promote the product or service. What channels will work best for the target audience? What places might they look to find that product? Use the information you have to answer these questions and establish your marketing goals.
5 Marketing Strategies for Healthcare Brands
The regulations regarding healthcare marketing are tricky to navigate, but having a plan helps. Consider five marketing strategies tailor-made for healthcare brands.
1. Email Marketing
Despite all the technological advances, email marketing remains a mainstay. It is well-suited for healthcare use because you can safely personalize the message, but still avoid PHI. Emails are a practical way to keep patients informed about developments that affect them or someone they love.
The downside is emails are also easy to ignore. Make sure you use some punchy headlines and patient-oriented messages to keep them engaged.