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Unless there’s an emergency, a patient does not enter a healthcare facility without enough awareness and information about its brand and services offered. 

In a 2020 study by Software Advice, 94% of patients use online reviews to find new doctors and validate provider choice. Online reviews are part of a healthcare digital marketing strategy. 

Creating effective marketing strategies is crucial for healthcare organizations today. Why? If modern patients can’t even search you online, they wouldn’t become aware of your brand. They wouldn’t be able to see your services and what your patients have to say about you.

Your digital presence encourages your target market to begin their patient experience with you. Amidst this increasingly competitive industry, it’s becoming more difficult for medical practices to work on their marketing on their own. 

Hence, many have partnered with a healthcare digital marketing agency to take care of their online presence, boost their marketing, and elevate their practice’s growth.

But how do you know if you’re making business with the right agency? Continue reading to find out the things you should look for when hiring your healthcare digital marketing experts!

7 Factors To Consider When Hiring A Healthcare Digital Marketing Agency

1. Experience in Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry is uniquely complex. It requires the right expertise to deal with people’s lives every day. Healthcare providers commit to high standards and regulatory influences. 

Marketing a healthcare business is not the same as with other organizations under different industries. It requires a deeper understanding of the field to communicate issues and answer them as a middleman between the provider and a patient.

When hiring a healthcare marketer, it’s best to look at the agency’s list of past and present clients. Ask for their projects and if they were able to deliver results that are relevant to your business.

Remember that these people cannot commit any mistakes that might violate the health standards and codes. 

They cannot post any private and sensitive information about your practice and any of your patients. Consider checking their healthcare background and knowledge first before proceeding with other hiring processes.

2. ROI-driven

Marketing is an investment. The objective of your healthcare marketing efforts is to produce proven marketing strategies and measurable real-world results. Ask a prospective healthcare marketing agency to present their proposals on how they can meet the goals and objectives of your hospital.

How can they achieve these objectives? What are the systems they’ll use to deliver measurable and satisfying results? Can they actively report the return on investment (ROI)? 

Don’t settle for platitudes and empty promises. Analyze their proposals and current market standing. Since you’re investing in results, don’t move forward with the contract if you aren’t convinced enough with the healthcare digital marketing services they’re offering. 

3. Full-Service Digital Marketing Experience

Of course, you would expect your prospective healthcare digital marketing agency to be experts in creating digital marketing campaigns. 

Check for the portfolio of their previous digital marketing projects. Some agencies specialize in a particular marketing area or technique, such as social media marketing, search engine optimization, or advertising. With 90% of customers expecting a cohesive brand experience across all channels, it’s best to find an agency that can meet the expectations of your potential patients.

Your healthcare marketer should be capable of creating and implementing polished and well-branded content across all channels – from your social media platforms to your website. 

It’s crucial to find one who can offer expertise in full-service digital marketing, from healthcare SEO, lead generation, social media marketing, website design, Google ads and PPC, inbound marketing, user experience, and even video marketing.

Doing so will ensure you have high-quality and cost-efficient digital marketing strategy development.

4. Ahead of Trends

The healthcare industry can be a highly competitive and saturated market. What are the recent trends that may have influenced the industry landscape? 

What are their experiences in working with a healthcare organization? Are they familiar with the challenges of telemedicine? What are their insights about bringing AI tools into your business to provide a better user experience and drive patient acquisition?

If the agency you’re working with isn’t updated with the latest trends and evolutions in healthcare, you risk creating an ineffective healthcare marketing strategy and falling behind your competitors. 

On the contrary, if you work with a highly experienced one, your digital presence will rise, and you can become the go-to source of healthcare information.

5. Creativity And Style

Creativity is a must in creating and implementing digital marketing efforts. Take a glance at the agency’s content marketing portfolio, including ad copy, videos, infographics, and ad banners. 

Do they meet your creativity criteria? Are they capable of creating content that sells to your target market?

Check their mindset and style of work too to see the team’s intangible personality (creativity and unique style). Are they energetic, thoughtfully reserved, or somewhere in between? Are their approaches fit for your practice? 

In a successful business relationship, people work best with those they like. Invest time in discovering your mutual compatibility with them.

6. A Business Partner, Not Just a Service Provider

Trust is at a premium when it comes to healthcare marketing. Instead of a mere service provider, choose a healthcare marketing agency whom you can treat as a business partner. Doing so will help you work closely with them at a strategic and tactical level. 

Look for an agency that can serve as an extension of your in-house marketing team. They should adapt to your branding, understand your unique products and services offered, and appreciate your unique selling proposition, buyer personas, brand positioning, and market opportunities.

7. Rates And Billing Process

Nothing breaks a business partnership faster and harder than unwanted financial issues.

As a general rule in business, make sure you understand the rates, monthly marketing budget, and billing processes of your prospective agency. 

Both the agency and you as the client have to agree with the rates, fees, retainers, and additional charges that may incur in your contract. Discuss thoroughly your authorizations, change orders, and approvals. 

Read: Cost-Effective Healthcare Marketing (Then and Now)

Hire the Right Healthcare Marketing For Your Practice!

Hiring the right healthcare marketing agency for your practice is highly significant! To authenticate an agency’s experience and credibility in healthcare digital marketing, try these 3 ways:

• Validate the agency’s industry expertise. Visit their website, browse their portfolio, and if possible, look for testimonials and reviews from their previous clients.
• Get helpful healthcare insights from them. Look for long-form content resources (ultimate guides, eBooks, infographics) that showcase the agency’s comprehensive knowledge about creating a healthcare marketing strategy. If they can teach you something or change your perspective on a specific topic, issue, or trend, then they succeeded in building trust and credibility/
• Ask for tangible proof of results. Find out if the agency has the right technologies, strategies, and resources to deliver on promises. Look at their previous works, ask for data and statistics of the results they delivered, including the percentage of sales increase and patient acquisition.

Do you want to drive satisfactory results for your healthcare organization?

Connect with Digitalis Medical today! We are a team of seasoned healthcare marketers and digital geeks ready to partner with you to boost your practice’s growth!

We have proven marketing strategies that can drive more sales to your healthcare practice in a cost-efficient manner. Contact us today to know more about our services! 

Ready to boost your healthcare marketing today? Share your thoughts and questions by leaving a comment below!