The healthcare marketing industry is changing by the minute as new tools and technologies intended to provide a better patient experience are introduced in the market. Innovative marketing strategies are to be adopted to ensure the position of your hospital at the top by bringing the best results, and this is where the question of organic and paid marketing comes in.

What is organic marketing?

Organic marketing, as the name suggests, is intended to generate traffic to your brand through organic means, that is, without using paid methods. Organic marketing works with a long-term goal to build brand awareness through a variety of channels including, but not limited to blog posts, social media posts, newsletters, and case studies. By using search engine optimized content to increase the brand visibility, organic marketing enables you to promote your brand and build a community of trusted customers over time. Through attractive and engaging content used in organic marketing, you can maintain a good relationship with the potential customers and can eventually convert them to paid customers.

What are the most effective ways to build your brand organically?

When it comes to organic marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is your King. With the help of SEO, your brand becomes organically visible in search queries related to your services. Strategic content marketing, local listings, and positive reviews from your patients are all highly effective in organically boosting your rank. The higher ranking will naturally get more customers interested in the brand which leads to increased traffic. While social media channels are more helpful in building a community, your official website is the best way to attract potential customers and optimized website and content can go a long way in helping the brand achieve this result.

Is organic marketing sustainable?

As mentioned earlier, organic marketing is a long-term project. You cannot expect immediate traffic or leads through organic marketing as you are only relying on the content to drive engagements. When you’re launching a new service, or need instant lead generation, just SEO content may not be enough. Same goes for limited period services as there won’t be enough time to bring in the desirable results. In these case, paid marketing is the way to go. But when it comes to brand reputation, organic marketing can provide solid results in time which will encourage prospective patients to trust the brand.

What is paid marketing?

Paid marketing, or inorganic marketing is a marketing strategy where your brand visibility is boosted through paid ads and promotions. Unlike organic marketing that brings leads over time, paid marketing can get you quicker results by using targeted ads to reach the ideal audience who are more likely to convert. The targeted ads and social media promotions used in paid marketing can be of immense help to achieve short-term goals when you are in a time crunch and cannot afford to wait for organic methods to do the work. It should be noted that paid marketing is particularly effective when running discounts and other time limited offers.

What are the various channels of paid marketing?

Paid marketing targets your audience through a number of channels to convert them to patients. These include:

• PPC (Pay-per-click) ads
• Advertisements and boosting on social media platforms
• Advertisements on print or digital ad spaces
• Boosting through third-party platforms, including influencer and content creator marketing

Is paid marketing sustainable?

While paid marketing is effective in bringing quicker results, it’s still recommended that the long term strategy for your hospital to focus more on organic marketing. Even if budget restraints aren’t a concern, building brand reputation through paid ads cannot maintain a loyal customer base. Especially in a field like healthcare marketing which is more personal, the patients need to be able to trust their service providers to give them the best treatment and this cannot be achieved solely through paid ads. In fact, studies have shown that 96% of people distrust ads , so the best way for a healthcare brand to move forward is to use paid marketing as an accessory that can reach a wider audience to generate quicker leads while the key focus remains on organic marketing to build trust and loyalty.

When it comes to marketing a hospital, the key is in the balance and the brands need to focus on a strategy that can successfully combine both organic and inorganic methods to bring in the optimal outcome. With an effective strategy of organic marketing to keep your brand’s online and offline presence in the lives of the potential customer, you can build and maintain your brand reputation slowly over time so that your customers will choose your brand when they are in need of your service. Combined together with targeted paid ads, your brand can maintain its top position with ease as a trusted healthcare brand with the patients. But the community built through organic marketing by developing and maintaining good relationships with your patients and the word-of-mouth traffic you get from them is far more effective than depending on paid ads. In short, paid ads are to be used as a supplement to boost your brand with organic marketing as the foundation.

Moksha Media is a highly reputed digital consultancy firm based in Hyderabad with a team of dedicated experts who specialize in branding and marketing of hospitals to deliver the best results. With insights gained from over two decades of experience in digital marketing in healthcare in both India and overseas, we are highly flexible in adapting to the latest marketing trends and make use of innovative tools and technologies in our service to increase brand reputation and awareness of the hospitals which contribute to revenues far exceeding the expectations.

11 March 2024 | Digital Marketing for Hospitals/ Healthcare