In more complex, traditional industries, it’s important to have a digital marketing agency that is specifically focused on your niche. This way, you can reach customers more efficiently, use the right terminology, adhere to compliance rules, and more.
iHealthSpot is a good example. We spoke with Mary Hall, founder and former CEO of iHealthSpot and vice president of marketing growth at Medical Advantage Practices, which acquired iHealthSpot in 2021, to learn more about the details and how to strategize in such a complex environment. Please introduce iHealthSpot to our audience
iHealthSpot is a digital marketing agency specializing in healthcare. The vast majority of our customers are healthcare organizations, hospital systems and large clinics. We also serve some billing companies, some medical device companies, but the majority of our clients are healthcare providers.
We provide clients with end-to-end, data-driven marketing services, including website design, SEO, social media management and advertising, online reviews and reputation management, online directory management, and onboarding on Google and Facebook , paid advertising on social channels such as Instagram. We are also a Google Certified Partner.
We are truly committed to helping our clients attract and educate new patients to grow their businesses. The Internet has become a major source of information for patients. This is where they look for health information online and where they find and learn about potential providers. Even if a patient is recommended to a clinic by another doctor or a friend, they will still go to Google to check out their website and read their reviews. So, in today's market, it's very important for doctors to market themselves specifically on the Internet, and that's what we're here for.
We are well established in the healthcare industry and have been a leading provider of healthcare marketing services for over 15 years. About a year ago, we were acquired by a company called MedicalAdvantage, which is part of TDC Group (The Doctors Company), the leading medical malpractice insurance company in the United States. MedicalAdvantage provides EHR consulting and medical institution consulting services to medical institutions, and they have indeed seen the necessity of providing marketing services to customers. It suits us perfectly. For myself, I am the founder and CEO of iHealthSpot and now serve as the Vice President of Marketing Growth for Medical Advantage Practices. How did the acquisition process work for iHealthSpot and you? What benefits does it bring to both parties
MedicalAdvantage brings a wealth of experience and operational efficiencies to help customers integrate and get the most out of their EHRs. They also provide data analysis and in some cases we provide assistance to clients to help them manage their business, working with large equity-backed businesses.
This is a perfect fit for us to partner with Medical Advantage to be able to provide marketing services to their clients and allow us to expand our products to our client base. Obviously, there's a lot of funding behind companies like MedicalAdvantage and TDC, and that really gives us the opportunity to grow our product and add more technology to our service lines and the products that we offer to our customers. In terms of medical advantages, this allows them to expand their customer base and service offerings. What are the key differences when it comes to strategizing and managing a digital marketing plan in the healthcare market compared to other industries
The healthcare industry is slightly different than other industries. If you own a restaurant, obviously in order to let people know and make sure they come to visit you, you have to advertise. For healthcare providers, the need for advertising isn't always there. For years, in the healthcare industry, people just picked a doctor from an insurance list or went to see another doctor or a doctor recommended by a friend. Doctors don't really have to sell it.
With the development of the Internet, the situation has changed dramatically.
Patients are making smarter choices online, so healthcare providers have to be at the front, at the center of searches, have a good presence on the website, and they have to make sure they're getting the Good review. Good online visibility ensures patients can find them. We know that more than 70% of patients now use the Internet to find and select healthcare providers, so it has become critical for healthcare providers to market themselves online.
There are also some very specific things that must be considered when advertising in the healthcare space. First, in the medical industry, it is important to use friendly messaging when talking about the conditions they treat and the treatments they provide. HIPAA privacy must also be considered when providing websites that may capture PHI (Protected Health Information). Local marketing is also often very important, as most providers provide care within a local market or region.
Also, it is important to provide convenience and simplicity for patients: a link to the patient portal; the telemedicine application is within the website so they can easily provide online access, which has become a necessity during the pandemic. A big deal. Also important are interactive features for online appointment requests, prescription refill requests; paying bills online and completing paperwork via HIPAA compliant spreadsheets prior to your visit. Do you think healthcare organizations can achieve good results on social media without having to explore their personalities as much as in influencer marketing?
We bring customers to social media, specifically Facebook, to do Very well, Facebook is by far the best medium to practice with. You can set up a business page that contains all the information about your organization: address, phone number, office hours, business description, categories, pictures, etc.
We may publish information that allows patients to interact with and comment on the facility without violating any privacy laws or HIPAA. We can post interesting information about a specific provider or facility; about their services and the specific conditions they are treating, and really help educate and communicate with the patient population in a controlled environment.
We help clients gain new followers on social media and gain more patients. We can post appointment request forms on our social media pages. We might focus on different providers in the office; we might do a live broadcast on Facebook, posting questions and answers in the form of an interview; we might post videos of clients sharing their care philosophies and gain insight into the personality of the facility.
Everything we do is fact-based but also provides a comfortable place for patients to interact with the practice. Does the medical marketing department use results differently than other industries?
We are all trying to acquire new patients for our clients, while other industries may be looking to sell a product or deliver a brand. From this perspective, it is about increasing business through Internet marketing. Patient acquisition and practice growth are always an important part of our clients' goals. Of course, we look at traffic analytics and measure things like traffic and page views, bounce rate, site time, pages per visitor for other industries, and then we also monitor appointment conversions specific to healthcare. What are iHealthSpot's plans for the next 5 years?
Now that we are part of Medical Advantage, we hope to continue growing, launching new products, and expanding our offerings and employees. Currently, we serve approximately 4,000 suppliers across the country, and we hope to grow exponentially over the next few years.
We are discussing adding a scheduler that would allow people to schedule their own appointments online. We are looking at more detailed dashboard results for our customers. We currently provide very detailed results in the form of reports. We want to make this report interactive and usable through an online dashboard.
In addition, we hope to expand market analysis opportunities through data analysis. We have access to industry information which enables us to work with practices to identify for them where they need to market.
We can show them the availability of markets, the competition in those markets and help them understand what the best growth opportunities are. All in all, we see a bright future. As providers face more competition and the internet continues to be people's main source of information, we see a great opportunity to help these practices grow online.