Why Healthcare Marketing Requires Industry-Specific Expertise
Marketing a dental practice or medical office is not like marketing a restaurant or retail store. The rules are different, the psychology is different, and the stakes are much higher. An off-the-shelf marketing agency might know how to fill a funnel and generate leads. They’ll be blind to the nuances that make healthcare marketing work (or not). The difference between what a generalist understands and what you really need often becomes painfully visible when practices hire the wrong kind of help and end up scratching their heads over why they see so little return on their investment.
Healthcare Marketing Has Real Restrictions
Healthcare marketing has to operate within real constraints that do not apply to most other areas of marketing. HIPAA privacy restrictions limit the information that can be shared in marketing material even when a patient gives permission. Advertising claims need to be worded carefully to avoid causing issues with medical advertising regulations. Before-and-after photos can’t just be used freely. Testimonials and reviews should not be handled without understanding privacy regulations.
A marketing agency with no healthcare experience will take risks that generate complaints to regulatory bodies. They do not know instinctively which claims need disclaimers and how to couch them, what images are going to be an issue, and how to construct patient experiences in a compliant way. This isn’t something they’ll be able to figure out quickly — it requires deep understanding of the landscape.
Patient Psychology Is Different
The psychology of choosing a dental or healthcare service is not like that of a consumer looking at a pair of shoes or planning a vacation. Potential patients will have anxieties, including fear of pain, worry about costs, embarrassment about health issues they might have neglected for years, and fear of being judged.
Their marketing needs to deal with these anxieties — it can’t just ignore them and proceed to an average discussion of services and prices.
Off-the-shelf marketing approaches focus heavily on features, benefits, and value propositions. This approach is good if someone is considering purchasing a new product. Patients need reassurance before they can commit to taking any action. They need trust-building messages, that show them the practice is a safe space where they won’t be judged for their past health habits.
The buying cycle is also completely different. Someone thinking about buying a new pair of shoes might see an ad and make a purchase in under five minutes. Someone considering visiting your dental practice may see your marketing material or website, read reviews, discuss it with friends, and take months before deciding to make that call.
Healthcare marketing must manage these lengthy buying cycles rather than push for immediate action.
Competence and Trust Take Precedence Over Flamboyance
Dental practices do not need to come across as flashy or trendy. They need to tick the boxes of competence, professionalism, and trustworthiness as quickly as possible.
A “too cool” website might be suitable for a 2023 start-up tech company — but it is going to raise concerns about professionalism if potential patients have any doubts about the dentist who will be handling their dental issues.
The tones of communication and presentation need to be calibrated in ways that generic marketers often struggle with. Patients want to see — not just a picture of the practice or dentist but also someone who took the time and effort to present sound information about the practice, its services or products (e.g., orthodontic options), and pricing on its website.
Patients want to see proper pictures of offices that are modern yet clean rather than someone who tried too hard with “trendy” furnishings.
They want to see credentials as qualifications hanging on the wall; they want to see evidence of continuing education and involvement in professional associations. These are things that businesses like this dental marketing agency truly understand, whereas generic marketers tend to miss these priorities in search of something flashy that should really only be on Instagram.
Local SEO Requires Different Approaches
Most healthcare services are local in nature. People are searching for local dentists or doctors while also searching for specialized medical providers. However local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for healthcare marketing is not just about generic local SEO actions.
Medical and dental practice searches often involve keyword searches related to symptoms as well as procedure-specific search phrases (e.g., “braces for adults” or “invisalign”). Medical practices must also learn the ins-and-outs of a changing search landscape and algorithm that evaluates medical content quality.
They often experience corporate-level competition for local organic traffic, which makes national chains or even hospital systems look like rookie players in this arena. The specialists that dentists hire for local SEO know which ranking factors matter most in SEO (hint: it’s different from ordinary local ranking factors).
They know how Google evaluates responses from practices such as “Where can I find a really good orthodontic practice near me,” which requires completely different keyword analytics than average local SEO analysis.
Content Marketing Is Its Own Beast
Healthcare practices need a steady stream of new content marketing output to engage with and build authority for organic traffic acquisition purposes. However, generic content writers struggle to produce viable and credible content on their first go.
This includes topics like how/when to use orthodontic equipment and dental procedures (particularly when advice varies based on specific use scenarios). They can’t just put something together without careful guidance.
The risks of providing inaccurate health information are high enough that even well-meaning writers should not try this at home. Agencies that focus on the medical or dental industry employ staff with relevant backgrounds or otherwise have developer processes for content review that involve experts in medicine or dentistry.
They know which topics resonate with patients and how they can explain complex procedures while still making it easy for patients to relate to their content. They also know which content formats work best for people looking for answers while in various stages on their journey through the healthcare system — not generic content templates.
Online Reputation Management Has Different Constraints
Online reputation management in healthcare is sensitive because one negative review could destroy a practice’s effectiveness. However, reviews cannot be responded to in ways that apply in other sectors of the economy.
Practices cannot mention specific treatments or details surrounding negative reviews even if they feel they have grounds for defense. A generic response will also often bring up issues with regulatory boards investigating complaints that really should be avoided at all costs.
Marketers focused on the healthcare sector know how to handle these sensitivities. They also understand how to incentivize happy patients who had excellent experiences at their practice to leave good reviews without being offended or feeling pressured to provide feedback.
Conversion Systems Need Medical Practice Expertise
Getting traffic on your website to convert into patients requires using an entirely different system than asking them all to buy a pair of shoes. The systems help them find your contact details; book an appointment; download necessary forms; access pricing guides; order products; access appointments; and utilize dental expertise (like orthodontic options) at every stage.
Dental practices need scheduling systems which may require integration into existing management software. They need systems based on an understanding of how patients will change their minds after booking appointments. For example, if they feel that they were not fully informed on all the options available to them at the time of booking.
Agencies that focus on the healthcare and medical sector understand that the conversion funnel processes people differently than generic businesses. They know how to identify friction points that prevent people from using these services and develop ways to make sure these are minimised.
