15 October 2023

12 Healthcare Marketing Terms You Need to Know

Healthcare marketing plays a crucial role in promoting medical services and products, raising awareness about health issues, and connecting healthcare providers with their target audience.

It’s all about communicating effectively to inform and educate your target audience about the benefits and solutions that your healthcare brand offers.

Now, when it comes to healthcare marketing, there are specific terms and jargon that you might come across. Don’t worry though, I’m here to help break them down for you in a way that’s easy to understand. So, let’s get started!

Your Essential Online Healthcare Marketing Glossary

1) Healthcare marketing

Strategies and tactics used to promote and advertise healthcare products, services, or organisations. It involves creating awareness, building reputation, and driving patient engagement to attract and retain patients.

2) Healthcare branding

It involves creating a unique identity for healthcare organisations or professionals to build trust and recognition. It includes elements such as logos, visuals, messaging, and communication style. Effective healthcare branding attracts patients, fosters loyalty, and enhances reputation in a competitive industry.

3) Healthcare target audience

Specific group of people that healthcare organisations aim to reach and serve. It could be a particular age group, gender, or people with specific health conditions. Identifying the target audience helps tailor marketing efforts to effectively reach and engage with them.

4) Healthcare marketing demographics

Specific data points that describe the characteristics of a healthcare organisation’s target audience. This information includes factors such as age, gender, location, income, education level, and occupation.

Understanding the demographics helps to create more relevant marketing strategies that resonate with the intended audience.

5) Medical SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

The process of optimising a healthcare website to rank higher in search engine results. It involves using targeted keywords, creating relevant and helpful content, and improving the website’s technical aspects to attract more visitors who are searching for healthcare information or services.

You may also want to read: 25 healthcare SEO key terms you need to know

6) Patient personas

Semi-fictional characters that represent different types of patients based on their demographics, behaviors, and needs. They help healthcare organisations understand their target audience better and create targeted marketing strategies.

7) Patient segmentation

The process of dividing a healthcare organisation’s patient population into distinct groups based on various characteristics such as age, location, health conditions, or preferences.

By segmenting patients, more personalised marketing campaigns can be created and more relevant messages delivered to each group.

8) Patient journey mapping

This is a way to understand the steps that patients take to get healthcare, from the moment they realise they need care to the moment they’ve completed treatment and are following up with their doctor.

Here’s a simple example:

Awareness: A patient searches online for information about a medical condition they think they might have.

Consideration: The patient reads articles and reviews about different healthcare providers and treatments.

Decision: The patient chooses a healthcare provider and schedules an appointment.

Appointment: The patient arrives at the healthcare provider’s office and completes any necessary paperwork.

Care: The patient meets with their doctor or other healthcare provider to discuss their condition and receive treatment.

Follow-up: The patient follows up with their doctor or other healthcare provider to ensure that their treatment is working and that they are recovering as expected.

Patient journey mapping can be used to identify areas where the patient experience can be improved.

9) Patient engagement

This refers to the involvement and active participation of patients in their healthcare journey.

It includes activities and strategies designed to educate, empower, and encourage patients to take charge of their health, such as providing informative content, offering online resources, and facilitating communication and interaction between patients and healthcare providers.

10) Patient acquisition

The process of attracting new patients to a healthcare organisation or practice. It involves various marketing strategies and activities aimed at increasing awareness, generating leads, and ultimately converting those leads into new patients.

11) Patient conversion rate

It is the percentage of people who visit a healthcare provider’s website or office and then take a desired action, such as booking an appointment, filling out a contact form, or subscribing to a newsletter.

It’s an important metric to track because it can help providers identify areas where they can improve their marketing and patient acquisition efforts.

Imagine you have a website and 100 people visit it in a month. If 10 of those people book an appointment, your patient conversion rate would be 10%.

12) Value-based healthcare (VBHC) marketing

It represents a shift in focus from simply providing medical services (fee-for-service healthcare) to delivering measurable improvements in patient outcomes and overall health.

It emphasises the importance of aligning healthcare marketing strategies with the principles of VBHC, demonstrating to patients and stakeholders that the healthcare provider is committed to delivering high-value care.

This means going beyond simply promoting the features and benefits of services, and instead focusing on how those services can help patients achieve their health goals and improve their quality of life.

I hope these explanations will help you understand these key terms better! Is the list complete? Let me know (in the comment section) if there’s anything else you’d like to know or add.