3 Marketing Tips For Healthcare Professionals As Obamacare Approaches

The marketing landscape for medical professionals changed dramatically 15 years ago when the Internet became widely available to everyone. This next year (2014) will be very similar and the landscape will continue to evolve.

Barack Obama Signature ACAThe White House announced in July that the employer mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would be delayed from implementation until January 2015. However the insurance exchanges and most other provisions of the legislation remain on schedule to commence this coming January.

A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation in August found that 62 percent of uninsured Americans don’t know enough about the new law to know how it will affect them. The Healthcare professionals that can effectively communicate with the 40 million new people now covered by Obamacare are the ones who will come out on top.

Social Media News Feed

ACA insurance exchanges across the country began signing people up on October 1. A firm’s social media accounts should post this and all other ACA-related updates daily, along with links back to your blog or website with further information. The Twitter stream for iAcquire, an SEO and content strategy company, illustrates how you can customize your Twitter feed to be more company-specific. The personal touch, along with useful, actionable information and proper hashtags, will help your firm stand out among the others. Facebook can be used in a similar way, but keep your posts brief while providing click-through links to more in-depth information on your website.

Get To Know Your Audience

An OB/GYN’s marketing techniques would not work for an Oncologists website. A North Carolina non-profit practice learned this the hard way.

CaroMont Regional Medical Center, in Gaston County, unveiled a new slogan in April it thought would pack a punch: “cheat death.” The slogan was met with harsh criticism not only from people in the community, but also the commissioner of the county. Three days later, the slogan was pulled. Jason Williams, a trustee for the hospital, said he was not surprised by the reaction because of the “conservative” population of the county.

WordPress-based websites can use the “Demographics data in Google Analytics” plugin to capture age, gender and other information about your website visitors, and transfer it to your Google Analytics account. You can also create a pop-up survey that appears as soon as someone clicks on your site.

Keep Your Name In Prominent Position

People buy Pepsi because they know the name, even though it doesn’t taste that much different than the generic cola that is half the price. Make certain your slogans, logos and color schemes are consistent throughout all your online channels. Purchasing Google Ads is relatively cheap and can get your name out there rather quickly. It’s also beneficial to write guest posts (preferably about the ACA) on prominent medical websites and these can link back to your Twitter, Facebook and home pages.

The landscape of medical care in the U.S. will go through a number of changes in the next few months. Make certain your firm becomes an authority among all the overwhelming information.

 

*Image Source: WhiteHouse.Gov

2 Comments

  1. elizabeth scala on November 7, 2013 at 9:12 am

    Really great information, Kevin. As always. I love how you share useful tips in ways that me (the non-techy type) can read and understand. Thank you for the easy-to-follow language and for keeping me up to date on these marketing tools!!! Love it!



  2. DennisMiller1 on November 18, 2013 at 11:56 pm

    I like your tips. Thanks for share useful tips



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