Should you avoid social media in your healthcare marketing strategy?

Social media is often thought of as integral to creating a robust content marketing strategy. But how effective is it, particularly when it comes to healthcare? Oliver Capel, Co-Founder of healthcare marketing agency Medico Digital, says social media often acts as a tick-boxing exercise for many – but the effectiveness of these platforms might need re-evaluating.

Understanding engagement rates

Engagement on social media – likes, comments, shares and more – can be a misleading metric for many. Organic posts across the likes of Facebook and Instagram will often garner low engagement rates, making it challenging to build a more substantial online presence without a significant investment of time and resources.

“Social media has become an integral part of marketing strategies across various industries, but when it comes to healthcare, I think the dynamics are slightly different,” says Oliver. “If you’ve got really low engagement rates and no ability to target a particular audience, you have to accept it’s not going to be your go-to channel for unlocking return on investment.”

Building an organic social presence is not necessarily a futile task by any means – but it can take a huge amount of your resources which, as a medical professional, is likely a supplement to your day job that already makes you fairly time poor.

Targeting challenges

This low engagement rate on social media is further compounded by the inability to precisely target the audience who sees your content. It can be useful for targeting broader demographics through paid advertising, but, as Oliver says, “there isn’t an ‘I want to target people with osteoarthritis’ button.

“If you’ve got a specific set of treatments you offer that are relatively well known, your safest bet will always be investing in search [marketing, the process of acquiring traffic and patients via search engines]. You are much more likely to achieve success focusing on people who are actively seeking information from you.”

Semble’s Head of Marketing, Alex Norman, also notes there could be a potential outlier to this rule.

“A cosmetic practice may need to build demand for their service because it’s not necessarily something a client needs instantly – it could be something that they would like in the future, so that desire can be built through continual social advertising.”

The role of retargeting

Social media does, however, play a key role in ‘retargeting’. This is a marketing tactic that uses online ads to target someone who has already visited your website, providing the opportunity to convert patients who didn’t become a customer during that first interaction.

Retargeting uses tracking pixels, or ‘tags’, to collect information about your site visitors – it doesn’t collect personal data such as names or addresses, but can monitor things like page views, clicks and add-to-carts.

You can use this pixel to retarget potential patients with more personalised and relevant messaging that you know will resonate, increasing the chance of converting them into patients at your clinic. However, this technique is considered most effective when combined with other marketing strategies rather than relying on this alone.

The power of search

So if not social media, then what? Where should you concentrate your marketing efforts?

For practices that offer recognisable treatments, search marketing is likely to be far more effective. According to Google, search drives 3x more visitors to hospital sites than non-search. Patients actively seeking information about specific health issues or treatments are more likely to use search engines, and they search for symptoms and condition terms towards the moment of conversion, so make sure you’re targeting those keywords that specific to your practice.

In reality, patients don’t just use one way to find healthcare information. Oliver says a ‘holistic search’ strategy that includes SEO, paid search, and social media can help you reach a wider audience.

“Being present across different channels is crucial,” says Oliver. “A patient might start on Google, but then check Reddit, or seek advice on a Facebook group, or watch an explainer video on YouTube.

“What we’re talking about is, rather than broadcasting information across Facebook because you feel you need to tick that box, it’s thinking about how patients might use that platform to find relevant providers, in the same way they might do for Google.”

So, what does this mean for your healthcare marketing strategy?

Social media has its benefits, and shouldn’t immediately be discarded by any means. But it shouldn’t be the sole focus of your marketing strategy. By understanding the limitations of social media engagement and targeting – and by leveraging other marketing avenues such as search marketing – you can more effectively reach your target audience and achieve a better return on investment.

A balanced and integrated approach will help you navigate the evolving digital landscape and maximise your marketing impact.