Healthcare Marketing Myths

Digital marketing is a new venture for many healthcare organizations and, if you’re championing to implement it, you may be getting pushback from your decision makers. There are quite a few myths swirling about on what digital marketing is and how effective it is within the healthcare industry. Much like a nasty blood clot, these myths get in the way and could even potentially cause the demise of your organization.

Let’s break down the common misconceptions around digital marketing for healthcare, so that your organization or company can make informed decisions in the future.

Myth: “There’s no way to track ROI online.”

This one comes up quite a bit and it couldn’t be more wrong. In many ways, digital marketing is much more trackable than traditional marketing. While you probably don’t know how many people have seen your billboard or magazine ad, you can easily see and track metrics for website traffic, social media engagement, keyword ranking, views to your blog, plus many more activities and campaigns. In fact, digital marketing produces so much data that it can be overwhelming for those new to the field. Knowing your specific goals from the outset will give you a lens to analyze data and allow for great reporting.

Myth: “Marketing only works for the big companies.”

You can absolutely market effectively online with just a small budget. The key is to be very strategic about what type of campaigns reach your key audience and what platforms work best to host your campaign. The great thing about email marketing and social media is that they even the playing field for small-to-medium companies.

Myth: “HIPAA regulations prevent me from marketing my healthcare organization online.”

This myth is a result of fear-mongering. You’ve probably heard media reports about a nurse or doctor being fined millions because they posted the wrong thing on social media. Let’s pick that apart a little though—emphasis on posting the wrong thing. A quick guideline is that it’s never okay to include patient information in your marketing efforts. Instead, stick to topics that set your organization up as a thought-leader, such as general, non-patient-specific information about medical conditions, treatments and research. Better yet, partner with a digital marketing firm that specializes in the healthcare industry to ensure that your organization is conducting marketing within HIPAA guidelines.

Myth: “My B2B medical equipment company doesn’t need to market to patients.”

When marketing a product, it’s absolutely essential to consider the end user. Think about pharmaceutical companies—they need doctors to prescribe their medications, so they market directly to physicians, but they also spend a good portion of their advertising budget on running commercials and ads in places patients are likely to see. These pharmaceutical companies understand the value of a patient saying to their doctor, “I heard about XYZ drug on TV and I’d like to see if it would help my condition.” In the same way that pharmaceutical companies understand the value of marketing to patients, medical device companies should allocate a portion of their budget to target their end users as well.

Myth: “It takes up too much of my time.”

Ironically, we also hear the exact opposite myth being spread about, “All it takes is 10 minutes a day.” Neither is accurate. Building an engaged audience online takes effort, persistence and a thoughtfully planned strategy. Digital marketing works best when you partner with an expert, someone who understands the industry and can help you build those strategic campaigns that will set your healthcare organization up for success.

Next time you hear one of these myths being spread around, share your newfound knowledge. When it comes down to it, digital marketing for healthcare is all about finding and interacting with your audience. And you wouldn’t want to ignore that audience, would you?

Now that we’ve got those pesky myths out of the way, learn how you can implement digital marketing for your organization by taking a peek at our white paper, Inbound Marketing for Healthcare.

Updated: Apr 13, 2022