What Patients Expect From Healthcare Organizations in 2023

Healthcare marketers face the ever-growing challenge of maintaining patient privacy in a world where data reigns supreme.

That’s one of the reasons healthcare organizations have avoided adopting emerging tech into their patient and marketing processes until years (and sometimes decades) later than other industries.

However, the seismic shifts from the pandemic and the increased use of AI have fundamentally changed how consumers interact with brands — especially when it comes to healthcare. Here are some of the biggest healthcare marketing trends of 2023.

Patients Think Like Consumers

Patients no longer take the word of their healthcare provider or insurance company as fact. Instead, many people approach their healthcare and wellness as if shopping for a high-end purchase.

Patients think like consumers: They conduct their own research, read reviews on procedures and prescriptions, and get feedback from others who’ve been through similar situations. Then, they take their findings to their provider for discussion. This need for research fuels the demand for high-quality content — and that requires healthcare organizations to double down on SEO.

Innovative healthcare companies that rank #1 on search engine results pages (SERPs) produce quality content that answers patient questions and educates their target audience on solutions available to them.

To ensure your content is easily accessible, make sure your website is easy to navigate and creates a seamless user experience on both desktop and mobile.

Patients Want Personalized Experiences

When it comes to interacting with their healthcare providers, patients are no longer okay with being, well… patient. They expect to find what they’re looking for on a provider’s website without combing through every page to find the answer.

Your patients are looking for tailored content when they need it. That should always be your goal. Deliver the right content to the right person at the right time and through the right channel.

This tailored experience requires you to:

• Ensure your website is designed with your patient in mind.
• Empower your patients with relevant content on various channels.
• Produce content in formats that appeal to your patients.

How do you accomplish this? As a healthcare organization, it’s important to understand your patients and what they want from your organization.

Do they like receiving emails? Would they rather read a blog that informs them about a specific ailment? Are they engaging on social or watching videos to learn?

Patients Appreciate Convenience

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth, similar to Zoom meetings, was relatively new, significantly untested, and certainly not preferred.

Since the early years of the pandemic, however, consumers have grown to appreciate the convenience of telehealth. It saves them time in the waiting room — especially when they need treatment for non-emergency care.

Giving patients the ability to schedule an appointment online goes a long way to bridging the gap between inconvenience and accommodation. Chatbots can also be a convenience, as they provide an interactive way to answer frequently asked questions your organization receives on a daily basis. Embed it on every web page, and the chatbot can single-handedly prevent the patient from having to search your site for the information.

This convenience factor goes a long way to improving your company’s relationship with your patients. You give them the ability to schedule and get basic answers quickly. Plus, you’ll save precious staff hours, eliminating the need to return endless phone calls and manually schedule appointments.

Healthcare Marketers Must Adapt or Be Left Behind

Because patients have drawn the conclusion that their healthcare (and how they access it) shouldn’t be different from any other area of their life, healthcare marketers are faced with a challenge: adapt or be left behind.

Sounds simple, but if you’ve been in healthcare marketing for more than a minute, you understand the hurdles. Government regulations aim to maintain patient privacy, healthcare leaders abide by specific structures and processes, and the organization’s legal team is often hesitant to adopt new technology or processes that may put them at risk.

However, many healthcare organizations are finding ways to take the leap — and they’re discovering how to access data that maintains privacy while still enabling marketers to provide personalized experiences that the organization’s patients crave.

Not sure where to start? Here’s the good news: We’ve uncovered five healthcare marketing trends of 2023 that organizations can implement right now to gain traction with current and future customers. Download your copy of 5 Content Strategies Transforming the Patient Experience today.