Healthcare facilities are always looking for ways to draw attention to their services. If you operate a medical facility or work in the healthcare field, great marketing is important to attract patients and keep their business. Marketing can be difficult in this industry because it is so heavily regulated, but there are still many ways that healthcare providers like poughkeepsie optometry can market themselves effectively.
There are many marketing strategies online for healthcare businesses, but they all boil down to organic marketing or paid advertising. And the debate between the two marketing strategies has been going on for some time.
Which of these two provide a better marketing value? Which of them will get me the most out of my investments? Should I wait for it or aim for instant results? These are just a few of the most common questions that we face in building our company’s marketing strategy.
Below are some essential tips for healthcare providers like poughkeepsie optometry on how to grow their business. To help you decide, here is a side by side comparison to guide you in choosing the best kind of approach for your business.
The Know-How Behind Organic Marketing
Organic advertising is getting your customers to come to you naturally without the help of paid ads. One example for this is when you type a search query on Google or any other search engine for that matter. The results that you see below the promoted ads are what we call ‘organic results.’
Organic traffic is one of the essential forms of traffic which a site can get. Google ranks the website higher thus giving them a higher trust rating. Research even shows that 92 percent of all traffic goes to the front page result, with 33 percent of organic clicks going to the first result. Some of the pioneers in organic content marketing are:
- Print Advertising. You might be thinking, “Don’t we have to spend money on print ads?” But in reality, a lot of marketing strategists coordinate their offline content with their online efforts. One such product of the new era of print advertising is called native advertising. Native advertising is a type of publicity that matches the functionality of the platform on which it appears. There are even interactive print business card designs nowadays, with QR codes and whatnots.
- Social Media Marketing. With approximately 3.7 billion people on social media, it proves to be an essential tool in organic marketing. Not only does social media give you a bigger audience, but it is also free! Even without investing hundreds of dollars on promoted posts, you can earn sustained traffic in the long run, with long-term benefits.
- Email Marketing. Email marketing is an excellent way to engage your clients personally, but only when you email people from an organic email list. Organic email lists allow you to quality check your recipients regularly and accurately monitor your ROI or Return On Investment.
The Strategy Behind Paid Advertising
From the name itself, paid advertising is any form of advertising that you have to pay to use, with emphasis on ‘use.’ Think of paid ads as leasable spaces. Online marketplace auctions usually determine the owner of the ad space through bidding.
Smart marketing campaigns take advantage of the different advertising channels, and that includes paid mediums. Paid advertising is an effective means to target a particular demographic, and they deliver quick results. The most common ways to invest in paid ads are through:
- Pay Per Click. PPC are ads that you pay for only when somebody clicks on them. They’re straightforward and measurable since you only pay for the clicks that you need. They can also be very flexible as PPC costs are modifiable in real time, and you can choose to place budget caps to avoid overspending.
- Cost Per Mille. More commonly known as Cost Per Thousand, CPM is measured using user impressions and billed every 1,000 impressions. CPM is an inexpensive solution that will guarantee you the amount of exposure that you paid for it.
- Retargeting. Also known as remarketing, it uses cookies that follow your internet browsing patterns. For instance, you might be searching for ‘affordable business cards in Manhattan.’ The retargeting provider will then show you ads about cheap business cards in the area. These cookies let your retargeting service know which ads to show you based on your browsing preferences.
The Pros and Cons
Now that you have an idea about organic and paid advertising, the gears in your mind are working the calculations and weighing out the characteristics of each strategy.
- Cost. Organic ads are free of charge, except time and effort. Paid ads can vary in price, but can be expensive.
- Credibility. Paid ads have the tendency of being seen as spammy and unreliable, unlike organic ads. Organic ads have higher trust ratings and are more likely to be clicked through.
- Audience Targeting. Paid campaigns can be tailored to target a specific audience according to demographic. This method is very advantageous in making sure that your content reaches your audience.
- Long-term. Since organic ads aim for high rankings, they are more reliable in driving more sustained traffic even without constant monitoring.
- As long as the page’s quality stays top notch, organic ads are going to stay on top of the search results, unlike paid ads, which disappear the moment you stop paying for them.
Takeaway
There is no cookie cutter marketing strategy. What you need is a solid knowledge of your business and the industry. For instance, online course programs might benefit more from email marketing, and shopping sites may see more engagements with social media updates.
Paid ads can help jump start your business, while organic marketing can help you sustain your traffic for the long term. What may work for one, might not work for you, so use both organic and paid strategies and get the best of both worlds.
