Importance of Strong Branding for Healthcare Success

Dr.Aakash Healthcare, 4 mins read

Healthcare is one of the fastest-growing industries, valued at USD 21,222.5 billion in 2023 and is forecasted to reach USD 44,760.73 billion by 2032. This is great news for everyone related to this sector. 

But like a coin, it has another side as well. That is increasing competition among hospitals to grab the maximum market share. In this heat, organizations are doing their every bit to claim themselves as the best. 

Most are promising to have “world-class expertise”, “state-of-the-art infrastructure”, and “cutting-edge technology”. But guess what? The result is not up to the mark. You know, why? 

That’s because patients have become immune to such terms because of hearing them from almost every hospital.

So, how to differentiate? How to position in the market? 

That’s where strong branding bats on the front foot. It helps healthcare organizations stand out, build trust, and attract patients. Effective branding can make all the difference in establishing a reputation, driving growth, and delivering exceptional patient care.

On the other hand, unplanned and unoptimized branding can throw the organization under the bus. The choice is yours. 

Why Is Branding Important for Hospitals?

Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for an organisation to make it stand out. It is how people perceive an organisation. This includes offline and online branding. 

Offline branding includes brochures, leaflets, posters, hoardings, newspaper ads, patient information literature, etc. 

Online branding means marketing on online platforms. As most people have access to smart devices and the internet, digital marketing is now in trend. It allows businesses to reach the maximum audience and stay connected with them. This is even more relevant for the healthcare sector. How?

• Around 7% of Google searches are healthcare-related. 
• 44% of patients who research a hospital on mobile schedule an appointment.
• 84% of patients use both online and offline sources for hospital research.
• Searches drive 3 times more visitors to the hospital than non-searches.
• 94% of patients check online reviews to evaluate healthcare providers. 

Now, you have an idea why you should focus on digital marketing alongside offline marketing for healthcare success.

What Are the Benefits of Strong Branding?

• Establishes Trust: Strong branding helps build trust with patients, families, and the community.
• Differentiates: Unique branding sets a hospital apart from competitors.
• Communicates Values: Branding conveys a hospital's mission, vision, values, and a story that can resonate with the community.
• Drives Growth: Strong branding attracts patients, physicians, employees, investors, and stakeholders. A total win-win situation! 
• Enhances Reputation: Consistent branding helps maintain a positive reputation and build long-term relationships with the community.

How to Create a Strong Branding Strategy for Healthcare: A Step-by-Step Guide

To develop a successful branding strategy, follow these effective steps:

• Conduct Market Research: This is the first and crucial step. Understand your target audience, competitors, and market trends. You can use different marketing analysis tools for this purpose. 
• Define Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP): Clearly articulate your hospital's mission, vision, values, and story. Jot down how you want to present your brand. 
• Develop a Brand Positioning Statement: Outline your brand's unique personality, tone, and messaging. Accordingly, craft each element of your branding. 
• Create a Visual Identity: Design a consistent logo, colour palette, typography, and imagery. Make sure each visual element well defines your brand’s story and values. 
• Establish a Brand Voice: Develop a tone and language that resonates with your audience. Create a content style guide to ensure consistency across all your content. Having clear and consistent branding will improve the brand experience and make it more recognizable and memorable. 
• Develop a Content Strategy: Create engaging content that showcases your brand's expertise and values. Take help from content marketing experts who know how to present your services to the community. Develop an 80:20 content strategy. This means 80% of content should be informational and the rest should be promotional. Make sure the content meets SEO (Search engine optimization) guidelines. Provide value to your users and avoid plagiarism and paraphrasing. Also, use a simple, clear, and positive tone.  
• Promote Your Brand: Roll out your branding across all channels, including your website, social media, and internal communications. Use a creative way to hook patients to your content. Create an omnichannel marketing strategy for a comprehensive and seamless brand experience. 
• Continuously Improve: Keep an eye on your marketing strategy. You can access your results through various parameters like patient surveys, feedback, analytics, and other analysis tools. Based on that, you can make necessary changes to your strategy. 

Branding Model for Healthcare

There are various branding models you can choose from based on your vision. You can go with an evolutionary brand cycle model. This model involves:

• Awareness: Create awareness about various health aspects, including disease, annual health checkups, treatment, etc. 
• Engage: Create engaging content to keep users engaged with your content through short videos, bite-sized social media content, push notifications, and WhatsApp messaging. 
• Convert: Offer exclusive benefits, memberships, or discounts to turn the potential lead into sales. 
• Retain: Provide memberships or foster long-term relationships to build a chain of beneficiaries and increase word of mouth. 

FAQs

Why is brand positioning important in the healthcare sector?

Brand positioning helps communicate value, establish a clear & memorable identity, and break through the noise.

What are examples of strong healthcare branding?

Strong healthcare branding examples include the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Johns Hopkins Medicine.  

Who are considered customers in healthcare?

Healthcare is the need of everyone. So, any human being who is ill or wants a health checkup is the customer of healthcare.