Medico Digital Insights

Why great digital patient experiences will matter more than ever in 2022

The online patient journey

Read time

min

When

25th January 2022

Who

Written by Emma Dowey

About

General Practice
Hospitals and Clinics
Medical Devices
NHS

As we know, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for digital transformation and a huge change for most healthcare providers. 

Various lockdowns and months of uncertainty have forced many healthcare providers to adapt quickly to the ‘new normal’ — radically changing how they work, provide services and interact with consumers. And while challenging, the pandemic and the ensuing changes have altered the healthcare landscape irreversibly. 

To survive (and thrive), healthcare providers need to evolve and keep ahead of change. 

As we enter the third year of the pandemic, we explore some insights which you can use to improve your online presence and deliver a digital experience your patients actually want. By focusing on creating a positive and patient-centred digital experience, you can drive satisfaction, reduce attrition and increase revenue.

In this article, we’ll draw on the findings of the 2021 PatientPop survey which explores patient behaviour and preferences in the new era of digital healthcare to predict why great digital patient experiences will matter more than ever in 2022.

Digital interactions favoured over in-person

COVID has rapidly accelerated how healthcare providers engage with patients outside of the traditional practice setting. 

Over 50% of people now prefer to use digital methods of communication when it comes to their healthcare. From scheduling an appointment to asking questions and paying medical fees, patients want experiences that are fast, reliable and intuitive.

And telehealth is a trend that is here to stay, long after the pandemic has eased. A global survey conducted to explore telehealth adoption found that 63% of respondents who had used telehealth in the past plan to increase their use of such services, even after the pandemic ends. 

Aligning the digital experience with the in-person experience

Patients are increasingly demanding convenience and speed through their healthcare journey. 

This doesn’t just refer to wait times and healthcare access but also encompasses a patient’s digital experience. Clunky, unresponsive and out-of-date websites won’t cut it anymore — patients expect to be able to make an enquiry and book an appointment online as a bare minimum. 

To succeed in a digital capacity, you need to ask yourself — how can you streamline the booking and payment process and reduce the time patients have to wait from making an enquiry to booking an appointment? 

A clinic management system can help with documentation, scheduling and various other administrative tasks. But ultimately, it helps to free up clinicians and staff members to provide the best possible customer experience for your patients.

Patient journeys start online

Unsurprisingly, three-quarters of people start their search for a healthcare professional online.

This is why having a solid online presence is so critical. Your website is an online window through which prospective patients can learn about your products or services — and decide whether you are the right healthcare provider for them. First impressions count and you need to make sure your site ticks all the boxes from a UX (user experience) perspective. 

Put simply, if your site is outdated and slow, users will just click away. Likewise, if it is full of hard-to-read jargon that patients can’t understand, or it is so light on content that it leaves readers confused about what is being offered, then you are going to lose prospective clients.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that online browsing using mobile devices makes up over half of website traffic. Make sure your website is optimised for mobile so you’re not losing potential patients due to bad mobile experiences. 

A robust SEO strategy also comes into play here to ensure your site is found online. There’s no point investing in a great website if it can’t be found — you need to be sat at the top of the SERPs so that you’re the first thing your prospective patients see. This is where a good content strategy, coupled with paid advertising, can work wonders.

Feedback and reviews are critical for online reputation

With 74% of people finding online reviews influential when making healthcare choices, you certainly don’t want to underestimate their power. 

Reviews hugely influence our behaviour and guide our decision-making. When we shop or research online, we rely on reviews, recommendations and feedback before making a decision. Social proof often plays a crucial part in the consumer journey, especially when it comes to something as important as healthcare.

Not only do patient reviews provide a level of social proof and reassurance to patients, but they also contribute to your search ranking — and in particular, your visibility in local search results.

When a user searches for a term that brings up local results, these results are categorised by Google based on the star rating a practitioner has. This means that sites that are both relevant to the searched keyword and have accumulated high star ratings make their way into a displayed list of the top three or four results. The rest of the results for local search can be viewed by clicking ‘View all’, but how many users bother doing that?

Here are some of our tips for maximising reviews

Ask your patients for reviews

Be proactive in collecting patient feedback and asking your patients to leave online reviews. The more patients you ask, the more reviews you will receive — which can be added as testimonials to your site and used to boost your brand reputation. 

There are lots of ways you can collect patient feedback and insight. Some of the ways we’d recommend include:

  • Email surveys
  • In-person questionnaires
  • Feedback forms
  • Opportunities to submit feedback in person and online 
  • Use of social media to gather feedback
  • Traditional phone calls or texts

Make it easy for patients to leave feedback

If you’re asking patients for feedback, try to make their life as easy as possible when doing so. After all, they’re doing you a favour by giving you valuable insight into the customer experience. 

The feedback process should be simple, obvious and accessible — a feedback form or a direct link to a review site. Aim to ask clear and direct questions to guide patient feedback, and make sure you send your request soon after their appointment or treatment, while the experience is still fresh in their memory.

Respond to reviews

Responding to reviews shows you care about your patients’ experience. 

Make sure you respond to reviews — especially bad ones! This is your chance to showcase how responsive you are and demonstrate how quickly and efficiently your organisation can solve problems.

Depending on who is replying to reviews and feedback, ensure you train your team on how to respond to negative reviews online. Training and best practice guidelines can help to mitigate any further problems and give your customers a more positive overall experience

Use trusted review sites

In a healthcare setting, getting your own feedback directly from your patient isn’t enough. Your patient feedback needs to have credibility, which is where trusted review sites such as Doctify, RealSelf, Google, IWantGreatCare and Top Doctors come in.

These reviews sites are valuable hubs for high-quality healthcare information and user reviews — sending a clear signal to prospective patients (and search engines) that you are a trustworthy, legitimate healthcare provider.

If you haven’t started collecting feedback and reviews, make this a priority this year.

Summary

If we don’t modernise the digital patient experience then we lose patients. The best healthcare marketing agencies will help you keep up with the pace of digital transformation. Medico has the digital marketing expertise to help you navigate change and own the digital patient experience.

How can Medico transform your healthcare business?

I need help with
cloud
Deep understanding of the healthcare market
data
Access to vast amount of data
squared_man
Detailed patient personas

FREE guide: A Practical Guide for Health and Pharma Brands in 2024 and Beyond

Medico Digital Insights

The digital experience guide for med tech

Healthcare marketing

Read time

min

When

14th July 2022

Who

Written by Hannah Weber

About

Medical Devices

How medical device manufacturers can create innovative online experiences that wow

Recently, Medico had the pleasure of exhibiting and presenting at the Birmingham Med-Tech Innovation conference

If you were unable to join us at the conference and hear from our Digital Marketing Director, Louis Meletiou, then fear not. We’ve summarised his presentation for you in this blog post, highlighting the key points to take note of if you want to create amazing digital experiences for your audience. 

Why are medical device manufacturers increasing their reliance on digital marketing?

Medical device marketing was once solely the remit of sales representatives who might spend days travelling and speaking to clinicians across the country. Yet their access has been steadily declining with just 54% of surveyed physicians reporting to have seen a representative in person in 2019, down from 67% the previous year. And physicians are increasingly confident to turn to the internet to answer questions. In fact, nearly half of physicians in one study said they never had a question for a sales representative that they couldn’t find the answer to online.

We also know that in today’s busy hospitals and clinics, healthcare professionals (HCPs) simply don’t have the time for in-depth discussions about devices and new technologies. Instead, they need to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily online, so they can be in control of when and how they do product research.

In this blog post, we look at why medical device marketers need to improve their online presence, as well as how to do it.

What can medical device manufacturers learn from ecommerce?

Ecommerce has had years to finesse its sales techniques, and it’s come a long way since it first began all the way back in 1969. The trend shows no signs of slowing either, with sales in online stores expected to reach 22% of global retail sales by 2023, compared to 14.1% in 2019.

The medical device sector and even pharmaceuticals have tended to lag behind but they are slowly catching up. Here are some of the lessons that can be learnt from the world of ecommerce.

Understand your audience 

HCPs are humans too, which means they likely spend some of their time online and on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. But which platforms will work best for your organisation, driving the best results and return on marketing investments? 

The key is to have a solid understanding of exactly who your audience is. Building buyer personas can help identify the channels most likely to resonate with your audience. The knowledge you gain from creating buyer personas or buyer journeys for HCPs will also help you craft a winning content strategy. 

According to a report by McKinsey, “Nearly 40% of pharma companies admit they do not understand these journeys well enough to map digital touchpoints and align them with their digital strategy”. By creating buyer personas and understanding your audience’s journey in more detail, you can tailor your digital campaigns to drive impactful results.

Engaged audience

Provide valuable content

Content consumption doubled in 2020 according to Forbes, with people spending nearly seven hours online every day. 

Valuable content that people actually want to consume can make or break a marketing campaign. Think about any online activity as transactional. The HCP visiting your site is giving up their time and possibly data (like an email address) in exchange for information. Make sure that information is presented as helpful, educational content which is worth sharing an email or phone number for. As mentioned in the point above, buyer personas are key to informing what type of content will resonate best. These research-based profiles should describe what your ideal customer looks like, their challenges and decision-making processes – all valuable information for informing your content marketing strategy.

As you may have heard marketers say before, content is king. Consistently high-quality content should be used throughout each stage of your customer’s journey. Awareness pieces can be used to highlight a specific issue or concern that clinicians may have. Educational content can be a great way to generate leads and serve as the entry point to your sales funnel for further lead nurturing and follow-up. Consideration pieces such as research, insights and case studies should be used to introduce your organisation as a possible solution. 

Collect data effectively and efficiently

When it comes to digital marketing, data paves the way to success. Using data gathering tools like Google Analytics and CRM systems is essential for driving data-led decisions. By capturing and interpreting this data, medtech companies can tailor digital strategies to meet audience needs. Effective data and analytics mean the insight you capture on your audience and their behaviour enables you to reach HCPs with additional products or services, as well as the ability to nurture them further along their buyer journey. 

Person using google analytics on a laptop

What are the benefits of digital marketing for medical device manufacturers?

There are so many reasons why going digital makes sense for medtech companies – scaling up, the ability to test and adapt, reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and maximising return on investment is just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s dive a bit deeper.

Scale fast

Changing your business to an online-first approach gives you an incredible opportunity to scale up. You no longer have to worry about limits to your physical resources. Online platforms are available 24/7 and the 24-hour nature of online platforms means you can be available to anyone in any time zone.

Moving online also dramatically increases your reach. You can expand into new markets with low upfront costs, and often without having to send sales representatives on long and costly trips. 

You’ll also be increasing the leverage of your sales representatives’ time. The data you receive will filter out viable and engaged audiences that you can pass on to sales reps, so they can have more meaningful conversations with clients. Nurturing existing leads, rather than pursuing unengaged users, increases the value of the time spent by expensive representatives. 

Test, learn, adapt

A digital approach to medical device marketing gives you the opportunity to test, learn and optimise at scale. By testing messaging, channels and design, you can find out quickly what resonates with your target market. 

A combination of qualitative and quantitative data can answer questions such as:

  • Do HCPs in country A care about the same USPs as HCPs in country B?
  • What are the primary health conditions clinicians are faced with in a particular region?

Using digital assets like surveys is also a vital form of low-cost intelligence gathering, and can be used in combination with the data you collect every day on platforms like Google Analytics.

People looking at wireframes and designs for better user experiences

Creating a frictionless user experience 

Being online allows you to create a frictionless user experience (UX), from initial search through to purchase. And we can’t stress how frictionless this needs to be. Keep in mind that 83% of consumers say they are less likely to re-purchase from an online retailer after a negative experience with a website, shipping or delivery.

So how can you create great user experiences?

  • Provide high-quality, informative content that matches their original search intent.
  • Show them how a medical device or devices meet their patients’ needs.
  • Anticipate the questions they might have and maintain a robust FAQ.
  • Provide real-time information, including details about stock and delivery times.

Being transparent about your stock will help alleviate supply chain fears and can help a buyer make decisions based on when the product will arrive. This is particularly crucial for busy clinics where wait times increased during the pandemic. The pandemic also saw devastating shortages of certain medical devices, like ventilators, so HCPs are keen to avoid similar situations.

A frictionless online experience can also reduce the need for in-person demonstrations — something that is particularly vital in the post-pandemic world. Many healthcare professionals are continuing to reduce unnecessary in-person contact, and a wide variety of healthcare services have moved partially or fully online.

The bottom line is to reduce friction at every opportunity. By anticipating and meeting all of the user’s needs on one webpage, you’re saving them time — arguably the HCP’s most valuable asset.

Learn more

Want to check out the full slide deck? Grab the presentation here

Ecommerce for medical devices is just the start. We are experts in healthcare digital marketing. Explore more here:

Speak to us today to find out how we can help you create innovative, online experiences that wow. 

How can Medico transform your healthcare business?

I need help with
cloud
Deep understanding of the healthcare market
data
Access to vast amount of data
squared_man
Detailed patient personas

FREE guide: A Practical Guide for Health and Pharma Brands in 2024 and Beyond

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