Healthcare Marketing

Overview Of The Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry is quite a fragmented industry with many companies falling into the medical sector and other parallel sectors.

The mood in the industry currently is busy; due mainly to the fact that the population has boomed and resources are stretched. Healthcare funding is always in short supply and due to the current economic difficulties cutbacks are common.

Competition in the healthcare sector is high, and indeed is growing as more companies spring up.

Marketing In The Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry is very active with its marketing using a wide range of marketing tools both for new business and also brand reinforcement.

Due to the growth and development of the healthcare market, specialist marketing companies have diversified and do concentrate on healthcare marketing. Many work exclusively with healthcare companies and use this as a USP to ensure they stand out as unique. Others have healthcare clients as part of their mixed portfolio of different industries they work in.

What Sort Of Marketing Tools Do Healthcare Companies Normally Use?

The industry tends to work in a specific way and as such do make use of certain marketing tools both for drawing in new business, but also communicating news.

The healthcare sector is unique and in many ways does not operate in the same way as other industry markets (such as retail, IT, recruitment etc.) as it is not as commercial.

Websites For Healthcare Companies

Websites are a big part of marketing for healthcare companies; giving up to date information about new products, services and any industry news.

Most healthcare businesses are quite web savvy and do make use of the internet as a form of communication. Their websites are normally quite basic HTML websites but quite a few do have flash websites to showcase their products in a creative and interactive way.

Internet Marketing also plays quite a big role in the marketing portfolio of healthcare businesses which links in to paid advertising and pay per click marketing.

PR For Healthcare Businesses

PR is a very effective marketing tool for healthcare companies. Used mainly for communicating business news and product launches it ties in well with any web advertising that is being done.

Crisis PR is something that is also used by many companies, as the industry does come under public scrutiny. Whether this is for protecting share prices, corporate espionage, or even problems that may occur within the business.

Telemarketing For Healthcare Companies

Inbound telemarketing is used by some healthcare companies, but the traditional B2B outbound calling is not really used within this industry.

This ties into what was mentioned earlier in this article, that the industry is not as commercial as other sectors that are more aggressive when it comes to their marketing and advertising.

Choosing A Marketing Company

Finding a marketing company that has healthcare marketing experience can be tricky due to the sheer number of marketing agencies around the UK. Something that could be time consuming both in terms of researching and selecting suitable agencies, but also in communicating with them.

Using a price comparison site can help save valuable time both in hunting down marketing companies with relevant industry experience; but also could save money in comparing costs – something that all businesses currently are looking for.