When we say automation in healthcare, the first thing that comes to mind may be innovative medical treatment technologies and state-of-the-art diagnosis methods. Marketing automation? Not so much.
With the growth of eConsulting and the digitalisation of communication, however, marketing automation has become a must-have for future-focused healthcare institutions.
With 63% of companies using marketing automation to outmanoeuvre their competitors, nowadays, and 80% attracting more leads with this kind of software, the opportunities for the healthcare industry remain compelling.
Today, a marketing automation agency can help healthcare providers eliminate the tedious manual efforts, inefficiencies and errors associated with traditional activities like campaign creation, patient follow-ups, review management, lead nurturing, and email marketing.
In doing so, they help healthcare institutions expand the reach of their services and attract and retain patients in more meaningful and engaging ways. Here’s how.
Acquire and retain an extensive database of patients by building better relationships
Nowadays, positioning your healthcare institution as someone’s go-to caregiver has a lot to do with the relationship you maintain with them. Unlike traditional methods of keeping in touch, including phone calls or snail mail, marketing automation makes it very easy to build these connections without too much effort on your part.
With the advent of automated drip email campaigns, chatbots, and automated SMS follow-ups, building meaningful relationships is much easier. These messages span healthcare and appointment reminders to free and value-added insights on how to stay healthy.
One of our favourite marketing automation tools, Active Campaign, makes this so much easier by giving you greater control over your email campaigns and generating keen customer insights.
While this is just one example, a marketing automation agency can help you add so much more sophistication to your outreach and retention strategies.
Today, 73% of people that receive news via emails and texts are likely to take follow-up action. What this means for healthcare providers is that automated email and SMS scheduling platforms can be an extremely useful way to continue engaging your pool of leads and patients, and even encourage them to recommend you to people they know.
With specific emails that don’t take too long to segment and features like broadcast message scheduling, you can send promotional or service-related messages to your database at automatic intervals or when they fulfil certain conditions.
Unlike in the past, these emails won’t be cold, mass-manufactured messages either; marketing automation agencies now support personalised content, allowing you to tailor your communication to the needs of specific groups of people without investing additional time or money.
Extend your reach to newer audiences through a well-managed online presence
We all rely on the internet for information—47% of internet users, in fact, use it to find information on doctors and healthcare professionals. To be visible to this extremely sizable audience, you need an equally powerful online presence, which, today, includes managing your reviews and feedback.
With marketing automation agencies like HubSpot or Active Campaign, for example, this activity is much more straightforward for healthcare marketers. Given the capabilities of these platforms, it’s now easier to trigger automated workflows that ensure you’re following up with patients and asking them to leave reviews and feedback.
Beyond just that, automation software also supports faster and more responsive problem solving and dispute resolution by alerting your teams when a patient is dissatisfied.
While this may be a more circuitous route to increasing the reach of your healthcare services, positive reviews and an active and engaged patient pool can ensure that more people hear about your services. It also ensures greater satisfaction and loyalty in the long run.
Leverage the support of a marketing automation agency to achieve your healthcare marketing objectives
If you’re still reliant on traditional marketing methods, there’s only so much you can do and the number of people you can reach out to. Today, old-fashion pamphlets, brochures, and newspaper advertisements aren’t just costly but they’re also largely ineffective in the age of the internet.
With the right marketing automation solutions, it’s not just easier to reach out to newer audiences, you can also boost your customer retention rates, CRM, and the productivity of your marketing team.
Here at Launchy, we support you on this journey by helping you find the right marketing automation solutions for your requirements; whether you’re looking to maintain a stellar presence on the internet or ensure your patients have an exceptional healthcare experience.
Schedule a free consultation with us today and find the tools and support you need!
