5 Healthcare Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2017

The healthcare marketing field continues to be one of the fastest growing fields in the nation. It is very important to watch out for the evolving trends and changes going on in the field as a marketing professional. Below I have listed 5 healthcare marketing trends to watch out for in 2017:

1.) Social messaging apps are becoming marketing platforms. Big names such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all very popular social hangout spots but, what is growing to popularity are social messaging apps. Social messaging apps such as Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp are convenient apps that are fast evolving to multi-purpose platforms. Healthcare marketers can now reach out to patients more quickly and efficiently through these social messaging apps.

2.) Live video speaks louder than text. Internet technology has been on the rise lately and now is able to support online video deliver, far more than YouTube. Video also has a more of a stronger audio appeal than text. For example, healthcare marketing can share stories by video content and live streaming videos on their website and blogs.

3.) Location-based marketing. Smartphones today allow marketers the ability to target and reach a patient or audience by their current location. For example, in one strategy using the device’s location to alert the customer about a nearby facility. Furthermore, location-based marketing can detect and adapt to the social and personal preferences of the specific user.

4.) Patients as informed consumer/buyers. Patients in today’s world do way more research than before. They research their medical and health information, treatment options, provider selection criteria, and dozen of other considerations are made way before they schedule their first appointment with a provider. Their research alone guides their decisions about treatment as well as their selection of provider and/or hospital. Today’s patients are also willing to post physician ratings online, and to offer recommendations to one another.

5.) Smarter content wins patients. The Internet is healthcare marketing’s front door. Patients search for valuable and relevant information on the Internet everyday. Patients are interested in content that is authoritative, interesting and share-worthy. There is an increase in competition for reader’s attention so today’s marketers need to have content that is fresh, social-shareable and reliable to earn respect and build trust among users.

In conclusion, there are many more marketing trends that can be included in this blog but these are the ones that have definitely stood out to me the most. As the year continues, we will see a lot more trends in the healthcare market. Be in the lookout for those healthcare marketing trends, there are definitely big bucks in that field!