SEO Statistics in Healthcare Marketing
An estimated one in 20 searches are health-related, so ranking on Google is an excellent way to get in front of your target audience.
In fact, about 77% of patients use a search engine before booking their next healthcare appointment.
SEO is also one of the most effective channels as it drives about 1,000% more organic traffic than organic social media content.
In addition, about 60% of marketers say that organic traffic drives their most qualified leads.
Some argue that SEO is too competitive and is no longer worth the investment. However, despite these statements, there still seems to be plenty of room for improvement.
A study from the local SEO tool, Yext, showed that about 31.5% of healthcare facilities don’t have a local listing. This statistic is nearly four times greater than other industries making healthcare still a wide-open field.
However, even those that do have local listings aren’t optimizing them efficiently. In fact, about 48% of healthcare facilities have basic errors with their addresses. For example, two different addresses for different citations or a wrong address altogether. In addition, nearly 30% had an inaccurate phone number.
Therefore, you’re likely missing all of the patients that are trying to schedule an appointment by phone.
Healthcare Marketing Reviews
Another way you can still optimize your local listings is by improving reviews. They not only have a major impact on your SEO, but they also affect your conversion rates.
One study showed that 90% of patients claimed to use online reviews when selecting a healthcare provider.
In fact, the same study showed that 43% of patients would even select an out-of-network provider if they had excellent reviews.
Studies also show that reviews are an incredibly easy way to earn trust online. In fact, some studies show that up to 91% of people trust online reviews as much as in-person reviews.
So how can you improve your reviews?
One strategy is to simply respond to negative reviews. About 66% of patients want providers to respond to reviews, stating that it is either very important or moderately important for providers.
However, improving your local SEO isn’t the only way to bring in great patients. Improving your content strategy should be a top priority, and while about 78% of companies are actively investing in content marketing, there is still plenty of room for improvement in the healthcare industry.
Even if you think blogging is too competitive, know that 92.42% of keywords have a search volume of under 10 per month, meaning your competition likely hasn’t created content for all of these keywords.
In addition, long-tail keywords convert about 2.5 times higher than short-tail keywords or head terms.
Another encouraging SEO statistic is that over 66% of pages have zero backlinks. Therefore, even if you only create a few backlinks to each page, you’ll likely start rankings.
In addition, once you get up to the top of the SERPs, you’ll naturally begin earning backlinks at a rate of about 5%-14.5% per month.
Or, if you want to automate the process of SEO in general, you can simply hire someone to help. On average, you can expect to pay about $100-150 per hour for an SEO professional or $500-1,000 per project.
Email Marketing Statistics in Healthcare
Email marketing is another channel that always seems to be dying, yet statistics show that it remains among the marketing channels with the highest ROI. Some studies even suggest that email marketing has an ROI of up to $42 for every $1 invested. While it isn’t as fresh and exciting as some of the other channels, it’s still worth investing in given.
The average email provider only charges about $80-250 per month, depending on features and list size. Compared to the price of SEO, paid ads, and video, this is a remarkably good deal.
Once you start an email marketing campaign, what are some industry average metrics to shoot for?
MailChimp recently did a study and found that the average email open rate in the healthcare industry is about 21.48%. However, the average click-through rate in healthcare email marketing is just 2.69%.
This is good news for healthcare marketers as these statistics are slightly above the average email marketing open rate of 21.33% and the average click-through rate of 2.62%.
MailChimp also found that the average hard bounce (an email that couldn’t be delivered because it was a fake address) is about 0.30%, and the average soft bounce (an email that wasn’t delivered due to temporary issues) is 0.40%.
PPC Statistics in Healthcare
The US healthcare advertising market is expected to reach 24.7 billion by 2026, and most of that will likely go into digital platforms like Google and Facebook ads.
The healthcare industry has caught on to the importance of PPC in healthcare, and about 76% of healthcare facilities use Google AdWords, while an additional 4% are planning to add it to their program within the next 6-9 months. Additionally, some 77% of healthcare facilities are using Facebook ads, and an additional 6% plan to add it to their strategy in the next 6-9 months.
The average CPC for Google Search in the healthcare industry is about $2.62, and the average conversion rate is about 3.36%.
Meanwhile, the average CPC for healthcare companies using Facebook ads is about $1.32, while the CTR is about $0.83.
PPC will continue to work for years to come, though you’ll see diminishing returns as it becomes increasingly popular. In fact, the US healthcare advertising market is projected to see a CAGR of 6.10% from 2021 to 2026.
So how can you better optimize your campaigns to maintain your PPC ROI?
About 63% of people choose healthcare providers based on the proximity to their home, so leverage Location Targeting in AdWords (and optimize for those local listings!).
Another hack is to optimize your landing pages for mobile and tablet, as over half of all healthcare website visits (53%) come from a phone. Even if you have a responsive design, make sure that your mobile version displays key information clearly and isn’t cluttered.
Social Media Marketing Statistics in Healthcare
Even as PPC becomes increasingly costly, few healthcare companies have truly unlocked the power of organic social media. In fact, about 95% of survey respondents said that social media is one of the most effective ways to reach patients following the outbreak of COVID-19.
There are also plenty of statistics to support this. For example, the Mayo Clinic’s podcast rose to 76,000 listeners just one month after implementing its social media strategy.
In addition, about 40% of patients agree that social media has impacted their decisions in healthcare. Another study showed that 41% of people said social media directly affected their choice of doctor, hospital, or medical facility.
In addition, baby boomers are using social media more than you might think. An estimated 43% of baby boomers turn to social media when they have a healthcare-related question, so it only makes sense that you should meet them where they are.
However, few healthcare clinics have realized the ROI of social media. In fact, only about 15% of hospitals hire a full-time social media manager, while about 6% hire an intern to handle it.
While Facebook is the most popular social media platform in healthcare, it is still wide open and other platforms like Twitter and Instagram are even more underutilized.
As you begin your social media strategy, be sure to read up on HIPAA compliance regulations. One study showed that approximately 56% of all HIPAA violations are a direct result of improper social media usage.
Unfortunately, only 31% of healthcare organizations have written guidelines on proper social media usage, so be sure to make your clinic among the 31%.
Patient Experience Statistics
The healthcare industry is changing at a rapid pace. Consumer expectations have changed dramatically as well. In the past, patients tended to stay with providers long-term. However, with increasing provider options and educational information available, many people switch providers more frequently.
In fact, about 43% of millennials will switch providers in the next few years, while about 54% already made a switch within the past two to three years. However, only roughly 20% of baby boomers are likely to switch within the next three years.
Therefore, as millennials make up more and more of the marketplace, customer experience is increasingly critical.
So how can you improve the patient experience?
Adopt an SMS platform like EZ texting to send patients reminders. About 70% of patients say that they prefer providers that send SMS or email follow up reminders. Some 56% say that they expect providers to send automated reminders regarding scheduled appointments and medications.
Once your patient arrives for their meeting, one of the most important aspects of patient experience is reducing wait times. In fact, 30% of patients have walked out because of long wait times. 20% of patients have switched doctors due to wait times.
Therefore, stay in touch with other departments to determine if you can handle more patients. If your practice can’t handle more patients, focus your marketing messaging on upsells and improving patient lifetime value.
Statistics Show Key Challenges in Healthcare Marketing
Almost 60% of healthcare marketers claim scaling marketing best practices across the business is their top challenge. Therefore, technologies that improve internal processes and communication will be essential to succeeding in unified brand marketing.
Hiring is also a significant challenge in healthcare, with about 50% of marketers struggling to find great talent. In fact, the same report stated that this problem was well ahead of budget.
If you’re struggling to find great talent, think about how you can improve your work environment. You can also ask your employees for referrals.
Healthcare Marketing Messaging Statistics
Having a digital presence is essential if your clinic wants to remain a competitive force.
In fact, an estimated 60% of patients check that the clinic has a website, and 71% of patients will look for a different provider if the website lacks information.
Your marketing efforts should also focus on informing patients of current events in your clinic. In fact, only about 27% of patients received communication from their provider about when it is safe to come into the clinic.
In addition to informing patients of current events, include detailed information about new offerings such as telehealth. About 83% of patients are prepared for long term telehealth access, so if you offer telehealth, be sure to tell your customers!
Creating a Data-Driven Strategy
Now that you have the data create a strategy that fills in untapped opportunities and fulfills your customer’s needs.
Whether it’s investing in increasing positive patient reviews or leveraging Instagram for social traffic, try incorporating one new strategy into your marketing plan each month.
If you’d rather have an expert execute your entire marketing strategy for you, consider partnering with the Stodzy team. Call us today and learn how we can help you increase your patient volume and reduce marketing costs.