6 Secrets For Marketing to Millennial Patients
Written by: Teresa Iafolla—
With an estimated 75 million millennials currently in the U.S., marketing to a millennial patient population is just smart business strategy. Many older millennials are now also starting families, making them key targets for primary care providers looking to expand their patient base.
So how do you go about attracting these younger patients you’ve heard so much about? Based on tips from industry leaders in marketing, here are a few secrets to attracting new millennial patients.
1) Get on Yelp
You’ve probably already heard the advice about building your online reputation. Maybe you decided to worry about it another time, or concluded it wasn’t that urgent.
Whatever the case, if you haven’t ventured into the world of online patient reviews yet, you need to start now to attract millenial patients. Surveys show that a majority of millennials find their doctors by looking at online reviews on sites like Healthgrades, Vitals, and Yelp.
2) Perfect your practice website
Remember what we just said about millennials doing their healthcare provider research online? Without a decent website, your practice won’t even be on their radar.
Setting up a website can be a daunting task for healthcare providers, but rest assured that it doesn’t need to be. As long as it’s clear and has basic information, your practice website doesn’t need to be anything complex or fancy. You could also consider hiring a marketing company or consultant to set one up for you.
3) Go mobile
One more note on that practice website — make sure it’s mobile-friendly. Over 85% of millennials own smartphones and do most of their internet browsing on their mobile devices. That means, they’ll probably be visiting your site from a mobile device.
If you haven’t done this recently, pick up your own mobile device and go to your practice website. Can you navigate around the site? Can you access all the information easily? If not, you may need to transition your site to a template with responsive design to make sure it’s mobile-friendly.
4) Reach out to college students
Many millennial patients are around college-age. Are there any schools in your area? Consider offering to do an open-house with the school, putting on a health workshop, or simply advertising at the school.
5) Show off convenient, online services
Do you offer online virtual visits? Can patients book appointments online? Does your practice allow patients to access their medical records online or send secure emails to staff?
In general, millennials prefer to communicate electronically, and prioritize convenience. A recent survey also found that 74% of millennials are interested in using telemedicine.
6) Become a content curator
Tech-savvy millennials tend to do a lot of their own medical research online, visiting sites like WebMD, health forums, YouTube channels and more. They’re active content seekers, who would much rather see a helpful health tips video from you than be presented with a traditional advertisement about your practice.
If you’re serious about marketing to millennials, try your hand at content marketing. You can start small — maybe try setting a health tips blog or YouTube channel. Or create a Twitter account to retweet and share helpful medical information.
When it comes down to it, marketing to millennials has a lot to do with building your exposure online and showing off your practice’s tech-savvy mindset — from online appointment booking to virtual visits. Test out some of these strategies and build from there to start establishing that millennial patient base.
Visit the article at: https://blog.evisit.com/6-secrets-for-marketing-to-millennial-patients
Photo credit: https://www.patientpop.com/blog/running-a-practice/what-gen-z-and-millennial-patients-look-for-in-healthcare-providers/