Healthcare marketing is no longer confined to the traditional form of advertisements and business promotions. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the industry has adopted tech-savvy marketing approaches to serve prospective patients with urgent care needs. It is expected that urgent care marketing in 2021 will be much more impactful and effective for the patients.
The urgent care section of the healthcare industry aims to serve the patients who are looking for immediate care and treatment. To take care of the patients seeking immediate medical service in a fraction of seconds, many new urgent care centers have popped up in the market. The statistics below will prove the growth of this subset in the past few years.
- In 2019, the total number of urgent care centers in the USA experienced a hike of 6%.
- As per the Urgent Care Association (UCA), 89 million patients prefer to visit an urgent care every year.
Be it a general sickness or a serious injury, people are more likely to visit urgent care outlets. However, in 2020 with the outbreak of coronavirus, there was a slight change in the picture. Since people were advised to stay indoors, new rules of internet marketing emerged for the urgent care centers.
The new form of urgent care marketing strategies includes online marketing. Let’s discuss!
Topics We Have Covered in the Blog
- An Overview of Urgent Care Centers
- 10 Trending Urgent Care Marketing Ideas That You Should Consider In 2021
- Optimize Google My Business Listing
- Invest in Zero Clicks
- Invest in Engaging Pay-Per-Click Ads
- Create More Educational Content
- Focus More on Video Content
- Prioritize Online Reputation Management
- Email Marketing is not Obsoleted
- Improve Social Media Activities
- Boost User Experience on Mobile
- Create a Patient Portal on Your Website
Before we discuss the recent urgent care marketing ideas, we would like to state what urgent care centers are all about.
An Overview of Urgent Care Centers
Urgent care centers are an integral part of the comprehensive healthcare industry. It takes care of the patients looking for emergency medical services or healthcare professionals. They drive in new prospective patients to the clinics and help them to make connections with the primary doctors. This makes healthcare marketers think about urgent care marketing with priority.
Moreover, patients looking for emergency healthcare needs hardly spend time researching urgent care clinics. Instead of comparing among many, they look for the most convenient one that is easy to access. Hence, to remain top of mind, online marketing for urgent care organizations is mandatory.
10 Trending Urgent Care Marketing Ideas That You Should Consider In 2021
The top trending care marketing ideas that you should consider opting in 2021 on an urgent basis is as follow;
- Optimize Google My Business Listing
- Invest in Zero Clicks
- Invest in Engaging Pay-Per-Click Ads
- Create More Educational Content
- Focus More on Video Content
- Prioritize Online Reputation Management
- Email Marketing is not Obsoleted
- Improve Social Media Activities
- Boost User Experience on Mobile
- Create a Patient Portal on Your Website
Let’s view the detailed version of each care marketing idea;
1. Optimize Google My Business Listing
When a prospective patient looks for an urgent care clinic, it is the Google My Business Listing that makes the authentic brands appear to the audience. This is nothing but a tool that lists down all the business information in the directory and portrays the same in the search results.
With a properly optimized Google My Business Listing, potential patients find it easier to schedule an appointment, make a contact, send a message, or reach out to the clinic directly. This is because every business listing that shows up on Google contains healthcare clinic name, location, hours of operation, services provided, contact number, brand images, website link, map direction, and other necessary details that are enough to educate the viewers about the clinical brand.
The best thing about this GMB listing is patients can easily leave a review and rate the business as per their experience. Remember, the online searchers are likely to click on the listing that contains complete information about the urgent care business. So, if your listing is lacking any data, make sure you put them all in place and run them on Google.
Here’s how you can optimize your Google My Business Listing for urgent care marketing.
- Make sure you have your own Google business account. If not, create a business profile in your Google account and start the process.
- Claim your business if you are not yet listed on Google.
Note: You can check your business listing by browsing Google Maps with your business name, location, and contact details. - Optimize your GMB listing with services offered, payment types, contact details, photos, videos, hours, business logo, and advertisements.
According to the recent updates, you can add user ratings, various posts, booking options, and FAQs to complete the overall information.
2. Invest in Zero Clicks
Zero click situation occurs when a user searches for urgent care and makes an immediate decision of performing any action from the very first page of the search results. This is when no click is performed, referring to the whole process as a zero-click situation.
Let us explain this in our own way. Suppose, you have your urgent care clinic listed on Google. A potential patient searches for your service and finds you listed on GMB where all necessary information is piled up. The patient makes no further clicks to visit your website and perform an action immediately.
Such scenarios are also witnessed when a person makes a search query and the “Featured Snippet” of the site delivers the exact information on the Google results.
Zero click investments are in the picture since 2017. Based on the Jumpshot research, 49% of US searches are zero clicks. This is because maximum online users believe in attaining results with minimum efforts. Since this particular marketing approach helps people to get their answers immediately, zero-click investments are so in demand.
For the urgent care marketers, investing in zero clicks marketing approach is a great thought. Nothing can be better than delivering the right message in an emergency without consuming more time and effort. Moreover, this improves the user experience and enables the potential patients to meet their needs on time.
Following are a few zero-click marketing applications that should be incorporated under urgent care marketing strategies 2021.
- Creating engaging content for a featured snippet.
- Responding to queries in short paragraphs.
- Prioritize questions that are based on locations.
- Focusing more on trending topics and keywords.
To benefit from zero clicks, an urgent care center must take care of these things seriously.
3. Invest in Engaging Pay-Per-Click Ads
Besides updating the local business directory for the urgent care center, another thing where you need to pay more attention to is the pay-per-click ads. When potential patients search for an urgent care service, they focus more on the local ads.
Usually, the searches are made with keywords that include the “near me” phrase in the end. This indicates that the patients are more likely to get in touch with the urgent care service provider available in the nearest location. Hence, staying at the top of Google search results is an absolute need when you are talking about urgent care marketing.
The easiest and effective way to attain such a marketing goal is by entertaining PPC ads that are focused on the immediate area. PPC, as you all know, is a rank-driven marketing approach that brings the site to the top of the SERPs through advertisements.
Create engaging ads on your urgent care services and display them on the search engine. Make sure you develop your PPC ad keeping all trending factors in mind.
4. Create More Educational Content
Reaching out to potential patients and grabbing their attention are the primary intentions of an urgent care service provider. You can perform this by introducing educational content to your websites or sharing such content on different online platforms.
When people search for urgent care services, it is necessary to provide them with the right information and high-quality content relevant to their queries. Moreover, there are many who lack knowledge in urgent care facilities. Educational blogs and articles are the best way to gain knowledge and get an insight into the business along with its services.
It is nothing new that content is considered to be the king of digital marketing. Whether you create promotional ads, social media, perform email marketing, or share knowledge, in every step you need to seek the help of the content marketers to market a quality piece of content across the specific platform. The same goes for the urgent care facility provider.
Your urgent care articles may include the following topics –
- Tips for visiting an urgent care center.
- Guides to treat common injuries without urgent care facility.
- Situations where you may need an urgent care service provider.
- Expectations and cost information for every urgent care visit.
- FAQs.
Not necessary, you need to use the above-mentioned topics related to urgent care services. You can definitely look for other trending topics and at the same time take care of the “Featured Snippets” on Google. Whatever it is, make sure you maintain proper keyword density and create high-quality, unique, and engaging content for the readers.
5. Focus More on Video Content
Creating video content is among the most engaging urgent care marketing ideas to consider. Video marketing is highly preferred by marketers for being responsible for high customer engagement.
It is proved that be it social media channels or video marketing platforms like YouTube, people nowadays spend more time watching videos. In fact, the statistics gained in the previous year is quite higher than earlier. Here are a few stats and facts that make video marketing a very good marketing attempt.
According to a HubSpot survey, videos that are used on landing pages are likely to generate 80% more conversion rates for the site. Even if a video is attached with email content, 19% of people tend to open such mails and give it a read. It is no wrong to conclude that 90% of online buyers make a decision after watching a video.
To ensure better engagement through videos, the video should have a compelling story, should be concise, relevant, and engaging, should have a positive viewpoint, and be empathetic to the audience. Develop a strong video based on your urgent care niche and share it on several platforms.
6. Prioritize Online Reputation Management
The Local Consumer Review survey (2012) conducted by Search Engine Land has stated that 72% of online buyers trust online reviews and make purchasing decisions accordingly. Among them, 52% have highlighted that decisions are made on the basis of positive reviews. If the reviews are good and up to the mark, it is better to place an order. Otherwise, not.
The percentage of buyers seeking the help of online reviews and ratings is almost the same for urgent care service providers. That’s the reason why marketers are always recommended to prioritize online reputation management.
Online reviews are the primary factor responsible for setting up a strong brand reputation online. To ensure that your urgent care business website attains a high reputation online, you should concentrate more on cultivating positive reviews from your patients and make them visible on the popular review generating sites.
Look for the sites that are under the healthcare niche. For example, RateMDs, ZocDoc, Healthgrades, WebMD, PlushCare, etc. Potential patients visit these sites to gain more information about an urgent care center.
For a better reputation, you must take care of all your reviews and ratings published online. We have the following tips for you regarding this.
- Keep track of both positive and negative reviews generated by your patients.
- Respond to every review promptly.
- Leave a “Thank You” note after every positive review.
- Apologize and try to solve the issue by sharing home remedies or other options, if any negative review appears.
7. Email Marketing is not Obsoleted
Email marketing is one of the most result-oriented urgent care marketing strategies that is still dominating the market. Many users assume that it is backdated and needs to get updated. But trust us, without email marketing, you can’t hold back your patients for a long period of time.
When you already have served so many patients in your contact list, you can use this marketing technique to showcase your patience and trigger them for making any action. You can send email blasts to your patients just like a normal physician. However, you can even play the role of a doctor if you want to.
Through email messages, you can send emails regarding emergency care visits. Many patients with flexible insurance plans and health saving accounts find this quite friendly. Newsletters and updates about your urgent care services can also be delivered through an email marketing approach.
Email marketing is thus among the most effective urgent care marketing ideas that should need special attention. If you have missed out on it, just draft a marketing strategy and run the email marketing campaign.
8. Improve Social Media Activities
Like other businesses, urgent care centers also require social media panels to share health-related information and urgent care services. Nothing can be better than the popular social networking channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
The total number of users found on different social media platforms is around 3.8 billion. Among them, a huge percentage of users look for brands, go through the recommendations, and shop on social media. Likewise, there are many who prefer to browse social media to reach out to an urgent care service provider in no time.
Therefore, developing a social presence for your urgent care center is equally essential as catering to other business needs. Here are certain things you need to consider.
- Start with creating a business profile on any popular social media platform.
- Create engaging posts that can be videos, image content, GIFs, advertisements, or any textual content.
- Share posts as many as possible.
- Showcase your consistency by connecting with your followers.
- Don’t miss out on responding to the comments made by the patients on different posts.
- Go live to connect with your patients and talk about your urgent care services.
- Launch ad campaigns or any events on social media.
By doing so, you can reach out to the audience looking for urgent care centers and set up a strong digital presence online.
9. Boost User Experience on Mobile
The percentage of mobile users is growing rapidly day by day. As a consequence, people looking for healthcare emergency services often use mobile devices to search for their queries. This makes the urgent care service providers think about providing a good mobile experience to the users.
Among the list of urgent care marketing ideas, boosting user experience on mobile should definitely be added for attaining result-oriented goals. To ensure that your urgent care website gets visible to the mobile searches, you need to optimize your site based on mobile-friendly factors.
Whenever you think about a mobile-friendly website, think from the scratch.
- Develop a website that can run on both desktop and mobile platforms.
- Accelerate the page loading speed on the mobile platform.
- Redesign your page popups for different mobile devices.
- Build more accelerated mobile pages (AMP) for your urgent care website.
- Use Google’s mobile-friendly tool to test your website for the mobile experience.
The better you design your urgent care website on mobile more patients will find you on your fingertip. Remember, that your mobile-friendly urgent care website contributes a lot to enhance the patient experience. So, guys, before saying no to boosting the mobile user experience, think twice about its benefits.
10. Create a Patient Portal on Your Website
Does your website has a separate portal for your patients? A patient portal must be included when you are designing your urgent care business website. In fact, you should think about this as a part of your 2021 urgent care marketing strategies.
You may find this a little weird of using a patient portal on an urgent care website. Because a patient portal is more often used by the primary physicians so that patients can easily make an appointment, renew prescriptions, download or view lab results, take doctor advice, and so on.
Surprisingly, you can prefer creating this kind of portal for your site as well. There is no wrong with integrating such web pages to your site. Instead, this can be one of the most amazing urgent care marketing ideas that you can ever think of.
Urgent Care Marketing Benefits
Urgent care online marketing is no longer just an option. It is a need that every healthcare professional should understand if he is serious about attaining success. However, it will be no wrong to say that after the impact of the pandemic last year, healthcare marketers have somewhat understood the importance of urgent care online marketing and online advertising.
Confused? Here is a list of few benefits that you can attain once you move your urgent care clinic online.
- It brings the urgent care center more visible to potential patients.
- Also, makes the center accessible to everyone.
- It improves the user experience and makes it more convenient for the patients.
- Not only that but also helps to manage the online reputation of the brand.
- It excels in the online presence and promotes the brand to the targeted patients.
In short, urgent care marketing can assist prospective patients whenever there is any medical emergency.
Key Takeaway
In today’s date, every healthcare marketer requires an urgent care center to draw in prospective patients to the clinic. Hence, optimizing the urgent care marketing ideas based on recent trends and techniques is very essential.
For urgent care organizations, marketing may not be the top priority. As you are more focused on how to serve the patients immediately after they approach. But guys, without marketing it is unusual to expect prospective patients to appear at your doorstep.
When patients need urgent care, they look for an urgent care service provider. They hardly spend time browsing the best one from Google. They simply click on the first few results that appear against their search queries. Hence, implementing the recent urgent care marketing strategies is necessary to get your clinic on top of the search results.
