Today’s customers don’t blindly trust health care companies like they once did, and increasingly they also don’t trust traditional advertising techniques. But marketing has a valuable role in the health care industry, and used correctly it can help your company improve care processes, provide a good customer experience and build long-term relationships with customers.

But poor marketing tactics can cause poor patient experiences and cost your brand credibility in the field. Keep reading to learn 5 marketing mistakes your business might be making and what you can learn from them.

Not Investing in Marketing At All

The first and most glaring marketing mistake health care companies make is not marketing at all. Today, companies that provide health care products and services are competing in a crowded field. Relying solely on referrals and word-of-mouth to bring in new customers isn’t a sustainable way to grow your business anymore. With more choices at hand, customers are performing ample research and comparisons before choosing a health care provider. If your brand isn’t promoting how you stand out from others in the field, potential customers will move on to a brand that is actively engaging with them.

Learn from this marketing mistake: Brands that want to stand out from their competitors must take a proactive approach to finding and retaining new customers. Marketing is especially crucial for finding and engaging customers who don’t know who you are but are searching for your products and services.

Publishing Poor-Quality Content

If you’re not blogging, posting on social media, making videos and publishing other forms of content, you’re wasting an opportunity to engage with and educate customers. Content marketing allows you to provide education, build credibility and establish your brand as an expert in the field. Long-form content like blogging is a prime way for you to address the specific questions and concerns your customers have and build trust among your audience.

Quality content that’s optimized for SEO can also increase your search engine visibility and ranking to target the potential customers searching for key terms about your products and services.

Learn from this marketing mistake: Use content marketing to start building long-term relationships with customers. Publish content that is humanized, natural (i.e., skip the complex medical jargon that leads to confusion) and empathetic. Remember that your customers may be scared or anxious over health problems, so your job is to provide understandable, education information that addresses their questions, worries and concerns. Don’t make a marketing mistake and use content marketing as a “hard sell” tactic — instead, use it to demonstrate your expertise and establish a connection with customers that will ensure your brand is top of mind when they’re ready to make a purchasing decision.

Not Having a User-Friendly Website

Let’s assume that many people are already frustrated, anxious or in pain when they’re looking for health care services. Health-related websites can be complicated and filled with unfamiliar jargon, not to mention daunting for people who are experiencing health scares and trying to find the best help possible.

Now let’s assume that your website takes a long time to load, there’s no page organization to guide visitors to specific topics and there’s no visible phone number for customers to call for more information. Potential customers won’t spend time searching for this information on your site — they’ll move on to a brand where the info they need is readily available.

Learn from this marketing mistake: Make sure your website is optimized for site speed and upload speed. On the customer-facing side, create an easy-to-navigate structure with a clear path for visitors to click through to different topics on your site. Make sure your contact information, hours and location are correct and prominently displayed to avoid this marketing mistake.

Ignoring Online Reputation Management

Is your company actively monitoring reviews on popular sites like Yelp, Google My Business, Healthgrades, RateMDs, Zocdoc, Vitals.com and social media sites? Because today’s customers have multiple choices for products and services, reviews carry more weight than ever before. Approximately 70% of people look at online review sites before choosing a health care provider. And that same percentage of people say a good online reputation is an important factor in choosing a provider.

But monitoring review sites isn’t enough. Your company needs to respond to reviews and comments, especially negative ones. Research found that customer satisfaction doubles when a health care provider addresses a negative online review.

Learn from this marketing mistake: Customer satisfaction plays a big role in customer retention. And online reputation management plays a big role in customer satisfaction. Make sure a company representative is engaging with reviews and comments online. Use negative reviews as a chance to showcase excellent customer service and a willingness to solve problems and improve practices. On the other end, don’t be afraid to encourage satisfied patients to post their own reviews on review sites and social media.

Not Tracking Marketing Efforts

Data tracking is an essential tool to help your team determine marketing return on investment. The truth is that not all marketing channels will generate results, so more is not always better when it comes to marketing. Effective marketers study performance data to determine the media channels and messaging that are most effective for generating quality leads with a high chance of conversion. Performance strategies allow you to allocate marketing resources more effectively to high-performing efforts.

In the big picture, tracking conversions from the first touchpoint with your company to the final sale helps you prove marketing ROI.

Learn from this makteing mistake: Go through every marketing goal your company has and list out the most important metrics you need to track progress toward each goal. Different types of goals align with different metrics, so it’s important that you have a concrete, measurable plan in place for every goal on your list. Aligning metrics with goals helps you understand if you’re staying on track during a campaign, or if you need to make adjustments to optimize the campaign for better performance so you don’t make this marketing mistake.

Let NewGen Marketing Help You Achieve Better Marketing Results

The executive team at NewGen Marketing has extensive experience driving marketing and sales initiatives for leading health care brands. Our team can help you navigate common marketing mistakes in health care.

We specialize in performance-driven strategies that help increase your company’s revenue through print and digital marketing efforts. We monitor and track the data for every campaign so we can invest in the place we see results, find new channels and opportunities for lead conversions and adjust our strategies in real-time to optimize campaign performance.

Performance-driven marketing produces measurable results that will optimize marketing spend and drive more to your bottom line. Contact NewGen Marketing today and schedule a free consultation to discuss how we can use performance-drive strategies to increase your ROI.