DIMS: Healthcare’s Digital-Internet-Mobile-Social Marketing Test

The widely popular Snopes.com website—AKA the Urban Legends Reference Pages—has a problem with a famous quote by prolific American bank robber Willie Sutton. Supposedly, his reason for robbing banks is: “That’s where the money is.”

It turns out that even Sutton denied having said it, but nevertheless, the logic is sound. The best fishing is where the fish are located. The best healthcare marketing opportunity is where patients, prospective patients and potential customers are looking for healthcare information—and mostly, that’s online, via a mobile device, often using search and social media.

Digital-Internet-Mobile-Social healthcare communications…

• About eight out of 10 Internet users look online for healthcare information; 66 percent search for diseases; 56 percent look for medical treatments; and 44 percent search for doctors.
• Some 60 percent of consumers start their research with a search engine before heading to a specific website. [RetailingToday]
• 81 percent of people click on sponsored links looking for health information.
• Around 4.8 billion people own a mobile phone. (Less than 4 billion people use a toothbrush.) [60second]
• Over 60 percent of smartphone owners have used their phone to get health information. [Pew]
• About 80 percent of Internet users use smartphones to search the web; 9 percent are using smartwatches. [SmartInsights]
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques connects people with your online presence. Moreover, healthcare SEO for mobile is local and personal to the individual.
• Almost all—90 percent—of people age 18 to 24, trust the information they find on social media; 56 percent of the people age 45 to 64 years old trust information on social media. [HITnews]
• Better than 30 percent of health care professionals use social media for professional networking. [MedTechMedia]
• The larger picture that emerges from these factoid parts (even rough-stitched together) is that digital, Internet, mobile and social healthcare marketing and communications cannot be ignored.

Consumer behavior patterns in general—and with healthcare in particular—have moved online; often via ever-present, and immediately accessible mobile devices. Plus, online search and social media are the most widely used access points.

Use the D-I-M-S challenge to closely consider your marketing plan. Digital, Mobile, Internet and Social have dramatically disrupted healthcare and the media mix that reaches prospective consumers. As Willie Sutton famously (didn’t) say, “It’s where the money is.”

Connect with us here for a confidential marketing assessment. We can help put you together with the patients and cases that you want to attract.

Steve Jacobs