As a healthcare provider, you need to do marketing research to identify ways to better serve customers, like any other business, to find the marketing strategies to help you attract new customers. But unlike other businesses, healthcare providers must work within the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). So rather than remarketing ads and sharing information about individuals you deem acceptable for public viewing, be mindful of the actions you take using HIPAA-compliant systems and asking patients for permission. Violations of HIPAA can result in costly fines, so putting patient privacy at the forefront of your healthcare marketing research is essential. With that in mind, here are six ways to collect extremely useful and minimally invasive marketing information. 1. Conduct a competitive analysis A competitive analysis compares your healthcare business – its products, sales, and marketing strategies – to others in the industry.
From there, you can tailor your marketing strategy to Employee Email Database showcase your competitive advantage. For example, let's say you're the only OBGYN in Atlanta, Georgia that offers water births. This is a signal to focus your marketing on future parents interested in alternative forms of work. SEO companies like SpyFu and SEMrush help you see the performance of other OBGYN marketing efforts. Their search engine optimization (SEO) analyzes the content quality and visibility of your competitors' sites. In the images below, for example, we compare the SEO of three obstetrics practices in Atlanta, Georgia. With SEMrush's Keyword Gap, you can see a side-by-side comparison between the keyword profiles of up to five competitors. In this case, we're comparing Gyn-Care, Prestige Healthcare, and Obstetrics and Gynecology of Atlanta based on their root domain – a URL that captures all of a website's information.
On the left, you can see the top Keyword Volume and Keyword Overlap opportunities, followed by a graph of all the keyword details for the three practices. On the right, the Venn diagram differs in size, revealing that Obstetrics and Gynecology of Atlanta (in orange) dominates keyword search. Keyword Gap Source: SEMrush Overall, using SEO tools helps you see which other healthcare providers in your industry rank high and how you compare to them overall. Seeing these stats will ensure you conduct a thorough competitive analysis. 2. Analyze your advertising efforts Explore analytics for your existing ads to see which ads and platforms are driving traffic and engagement. For example, do you see more success with a Facebook campaign or banner ads in your local newspaper? Use this information to plan your future marketing efforts. While you can use essential analytics tools to see how people interact with your ads, you should avoid retargeting to protect patients' personal health information (PHI).