What Is a Healthcare Marketing Plan?
A healthcare marketing plan is primarily a set of activities and strategies that pharma or healthcare companies deploy to achieve specific marketing goals over time. It can also be called a marketing blueprint used by these companies to achieve quantifiable and measurable objectives that must be achieved within a fixed period of time.
Most often, healthcare or pharma companies outsource their marketing plan to a healthcare digital marketing agency for better execution and implementation.
A marketing plan is not something formulated in a hurry and hoping for a positive outcome. Rather the effort here is to carefully define and arrange together a set of tactics and strategies with consensus from internal stakeholders to lay out a clear marketing road map for the year ahead.
Normally, it is suggested that one should not cut corners or go the easy way when creating a medical practice marketing plan. Instead, the healthcare plan needs to be created with a major emphasis on trust, and it does take time to build it. Companies need to take an incremental approach to build client confidence.
Now that we have understood what is a healthcare marketing plan, let’s focus on how to create a marketing plan:
- 1.
Self-assess Your Current Marketing Plan
Before you step into creating a new marketing plan, you should assess the previous plan to find out where you stand; it will help you decide how to go forward. Incidentally, there needs to be an emphasis on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the previous marketing plan. Some of the steps might have given you results, while some may be redundant in the prevailing circumstances. Moreover, eliminate the ones that are not working.
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The eventual goal of every pharmaceutical company is to increase the patient base, and it does take effort to enhance it. Start thinking in terms of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) goals for your marketing plan.
- 2.
Create a Mobile-first Website
According to the latest available reports, an astonishing 81% of consumers conduct research online before making a purchase. This makes it imperative for companies to have their website where products can be presented and positioned in a manner for what they really are. Moreover, 52% of all website users are coming from mobiles, and with Google giving more weightage to mobile traffic, it becomes even more essential to have a responsive web design.
To begin with, a company need not invest in a high-end website. A simple WordPress-themed website can get the job done. However, ensure that the website content is laced with strategically placed keywords to find a high ranking on Google search.
- 3.
Claim Your Google Business Listing
This is a free service provided by Google for all local businesses. With Google being people’s primary research tool for information on healthcare services, getting the company profile listed on Google listing can make a huge difference for your business prospects. If you are a business that has not claimed your listing, then it is time to do so.
- 4.
Build a LinkedIn Profile
The professional network with 500 million members is a gold mine for B2C and B2B businesses, especially healthcare marketing. Many patients claim that they could discover their doctors in the vicinity using LinkedIn.
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With numerous features at your disposal in the form of articles, posts, and hashtags, you can customize the content as per your business needs and position to come on top as a healthcare brand.
- 5.
Add Your Listing on Popular Websites
Many websites can enhance the credibility of your business in the form of customer reviews. Further, there are online directories, like justdial.com, where getting listed makes it easy to be discovered by potential patients. There are also service provider websites that list your healthcare services for a fee. Leverage the reach of both of these mediums to ensure your healthcare brand reaches the maximum number of people online.
- 6.
Respond to Each Comment Online
Now that you have an online presence, it is time to ensure you remain engaged with your target audience. There could be both positive and negative comments on the content you posted on LinkedIn but reply to all comments with kindness and tact as far as possible. While positive comments may be easily answered, negative comments need to be dealt with diplomatically and with firmness. Additionally, there can be a whole lot of automated messages that can potentially negate genuine comments; therefore, ensure to remove them as quickly as possible.
Conclusion
Making an effective marketing plan takes time and effort. Pharma companies in India need not create a healthcare marketing plan by themselves. They can partner with a healthcare digital marketing agency with expertise and experience in healthcare marketing. We at Amura are a best-in-class pharma marketing agency providing exclusive services for healthcare brands. Rely on Amura to stay on top of all pharmaceutical digital marketing services. Connect for a quote immediately!
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