How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps

1. Know Your Audience: Research who your customers are, their needs, and how they interact online. Create detailed customer profiles to guide your efforts.
2. Set Clear Goals: Use SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to track progress and focus on meaningful outcomes.
3. Select Marketing Channels: Choose platforms like SEO, email, social media, or PPC based on your audience’s habits and your goals.
4. Plan Your Content: Create engaging, search-friendly content that matches your audience’s preferences and solves their problems.
5. Set Up Tracking: Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor key metrics like traffic, conversions, and ROI.
6. Test and Improve: Run A/B tests on ads, emails, or landing pages to find what works and refine your campaigns.
7. Build Your Team: Assign clear roles or hire specialists to manage strategy, content, analytics, and paid media.

These steps help you connect your online efforts to business goals, stay focused, and continuously improve your results. Start by understanding your audience and setting clear objectives, then test and adjust as you go.

How to Run the Perfect Healthcare Digital Marketing Program

Step 1: Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience is the foundation of a strong digital marketing strategy.

Research Your Market

Gather concrete data about your current and potential patients. Website analytics can provide insights into visitor behavior and preferences. For example, studies show that healthcare organizations using analytics in their marketing efforts saw a 20% boost in patient acquisition.

Key areas to focus on include:

• Website Interactions: Identify which pages hold visitors’ attention and encourage engagement.
• Geographic Data: Pinpoint your service area to better target your campaigns.
• Demographics: Collect details like age, gender, income, and education levels.
• Behavioral Patterns: Track how visitors navigate your site and the actions they take.

You can also use resources like the US Census Bureau for demographic information. To gather even more insights, distribute surveys through email, website forms, social media polls, or direct interviews. Use this data to create accurate customer profiles.

Build Customer Profiles

Customer profiles help you turn raw data into actionable strategies. These profiles should be based on real research.

“For healthcare marketing professionals, a patient persona is a type of diagnosis. It’s also one that’s equally critical when identifying your most effective marketing direction.” – Practice Builders

Here’s an example of what a detailed profile might include:

To create these profiles, aim to conduct 3–5 interviews for each of these groups:

• Current patients
• Potential patients
• Industry outsiders

One multi-specialty clinic used this approach and saw impressive results, including:

• A 35% increase in appointments
• 50% higher social media engagement
• A 25% reduction in marketing costs

Step 2: Set Clear Goals

Having clear marketing goals keeps your strategy focused and ensures you’re measuring the right outcomes, not wasting time on irrelevant metrics.

Use SMART Goals

SMART goals offer a structured way to make your marketing objectives actionable and realistic. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. To apply this framework, consider these questions:

• Does this goal address key challenges?
• Can progress be tracked effectively?
• Does it align with your overall strategy?
• Is the timeline realistic?

After defining your SMART goals, focus on identifying metrics that will measure your progress effectively.

Focus on Key Metrics

Choose metrics that directly reflect your goals’ success. Avoid vanity numbers and concentrate on meaningful indicators.

“Without clear goals, you’re basically directionless – and working to achieve vanity metrics that don’t necessarily help you achieve your overall business objectives.” – Lilach Bullock ^[6]

The metrics you choose should:

• Be tied directly to business objectives
• Be trackable using available tools
• Offer actionable insights
• Enable data-driven decision-making

Step 3: Select Marketing Channels

Once your goals are set, the next move is choosing the right digital channels to reach your audience. Did you know that 77% of people rely on search engines before scheduling healthcare appointments? This makes picking the right channels a crucial step.

Compare Online Platforms

Your choice of channels should align with your audience’s habits and your objectives. Here’s an overview of popular digital marketing channels and what they bring to the table:

When deciding, consider:

• Budget: Digital channels generally lower acquisition costs compared to traditional marketing
• Audience Presence: Focus on the platforms your target audience uses most
• Content Format: Choose platforms that fit your preferred content types

“Healthcare is a competitive industry, both in small towns and large cities, and without solid digital marketing strategies for healthcare, your chances are pretty low.” – Yagmur Simsek, SEO & Content Strategist

Beyond comparing platforms, enhancing your local search presence is a key way to connect with nearby patients.

Improve Local Search

Local search optimization is essential, with around 21% of consumers using the internet daily to find local businesses.

Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Make sure your profile is complete and accurate by including:

• Operating hours
• Service areas
• Contact details
• Recent photos
• Service descriptions

Manage Online Reviews

Respond to reviews quickly on platforms like Google, Yelp, and Healthgrades. Thoughtful responses – whether to positive or negative feedback – show you’re engaged and help build trust.

Create Local Content

Write content that uses local keywords and addresses health concerns specific to your community. This not only boosts your search rankings but also positions your practice as a reliable local resource.

Track your progress using Google Analytics to review:

• Website traffic trends
• User engagement
• Conversion rates
• Geographic data
• Device preferences

Finally, ensure HIPAA compliance with regular audits to protect patient information ^[7].

Step 4: Plan Your Content

Once you’ve identified your channels, it’s time to create content that connects with your audience and performs well in search engines. Every piece of content should align with your digital marketing goals.

Choose Content Formats

Pick content formats that encourage interaction. Here are three of the most effective types of healthcare content:

“There’s no place for jargon in healthcare content – especially when you’re writing for a patient or caregiver audience. Accessing reliable health information should be the easiest part of the patient journey.” – SEMRush

When deciding on formats, think about:

• What suits your audience’s preferences and your goals
• The resources and time you have available
• What works best on each platform

For example, a dental clinic used strategic blog posts to attract 19,000 organic visitors per month, tripling its conversions in just six months.

Make Content Search-Friendly

After selecting the right formats, ensure your content is easy to find online.

“Listen to your audience. Interview them to understand their problems and language. Find out what words they use to talk about their industry, and adapt that into your writing.” – SEMRush

To improve your content’s visibility:

1. Build Topic Authority
   Focus on creating in-depth content hubs around specific topics.
2. Structure for Readability
   Use clear headings, keywords, short paragraphs, and descriptive image tags to make your content easy to digest.
3. Maintain Quality Standards
   Share accurate, clinically-reviewed information to ensure your audience gets reliable insights.

Content marketing has proven to deliver results, with 99% of companies reporting positive outcomes. Success lies in creating accurate, helpful content that addresses audience needs while adhering to technical and compliance guidelines.

Step 5: Set Up Tracking

Tracking helps you understand what’s working and ensures your resources are spent wisely, allowing for informed decisions based on data.

Install Tracking Tools

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for understanding website performance and visitor behavior. To get started with GA4, create an account, set up your website as a property, and add the Google tag to your website’s <head> section or through your CMS ^[11].

Once that’s done, set up tracking for individual campaigns to dig deeper into performance data.

Configure UTM Parameters

Use UTM codes to track specific campaigns. These codes help pinpoint which channels and promotions bring in the most valuable traffic.

Add More Tools to Your Setup

Consider integrating tools like Google Search Console and Google Tag Manager. These tools improve the accuracy of your data, making it easier to analyze performance effectively ^[11].

Focus on Key Metrics

With your tracking in place, shift your attention to essential metrics. For example, a multi-location dental practice saw a 164% jump in inbound sales and a 381% ROI in Q1 2024 ^[12].

Here are some metrics to monitor:

• Patient Acquisition Cost (PAC): The cost of bringing in a new customer.
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors completing desired actions on your site.
• Return on Investment (ROI): The financial return from your marketing efforts.
• Patient Lifetime Value (PLV): The long-term value of each customer relationship.

These metrics offer valuable insights to refine your campaigns ^[13].

Google Analytics organizes this data into clear reports, showing user engagement, traffic sources, landing page performance, load times, and session duration ^[11]. Regularly reviewing these reports helps you spot trends and continuously improve your strategies.

Step 6: Test and Improve

Testing your digital marketing efforts helps you figure out what works best and delivers the results you’re aiming for.

Run A/B Tests

A/B testing helps you compare different elements to see which performs better. Surprisingly, only 33% of healthcare organizations currently use A/B testing in their marketing efforts ^[15], leaving plenty of room to stand out.

Focus on testing one variable at a time. For instance, you could try different versions of your appointment scheduling process to minimize cancellations and no-shows ^[15].

“A/B testing is a must in the healthcare industry in order to effectively identify what works for your target audience and to increase patient acquisition.” – Response Mine Health ^[14]

Once you’ve identified what performs best, adjust your strategy to reflect those findings.

Update Based on Results

After running your tests, use the data to refine your approach. McKinsey highlights that improving appointment scheduling has become a key area for growth among healthcare providers.

Here’s how to make improvements:

• Adjust your messaging: Experiment with different text and ad formats.
• Improve user experience: Test landing page designs, features like cost calculators, or virtual assistants.
• Drive engagement: Explore mobile app features, such as in-app messaging.

For example, systematic testing and adjustments led to a drop in bounce rates from 12.3% to 2.1% over 60 days, which boosted deliverability by 34% and added $2.3M in revenue.

To measure progress:

• Keep a close eye on key metrics
• Compare new results with your baseline
• Document what changes work best
• Scale the strategies that deliver the best outcomes

Step 7: Build Your Team

A strong digital marketing team is essential for bringing your strategy to life.

Define Team Tasks

Organize your marketing team with clear roles and responsibilities:

Assign tasks based on each team member’s strengths. For instance, analytical thinkers may excel in performance tracking, while creative minds can focus on content creation. Clear roles allow your team to test, analyze, and refine campaigns effectively – essential for ongoing improvement.

While your internal team is the backbone, bringing in outside expertise can take your efforts to the next level.

Work with Specialists

Collaborating with industry specialists can complement your in-house team.

“It is a pleasure working with Mazzi Studios and they have become an extension of our marketing team. They have been very responsive to our needs and their services have been great! I would recommend them to anyone looking to build a website for their business!” – Craig Neita, CEO, Vascular Simulations ^[17]

When choosing external partners, prioritize:

• Proven industry expertise
• Services that meet your specific needs
• A solid track record with documented successes
• Communication styles that align with your team

A combination of skilled internal staff and carefully selected external specialists can significantly boost your digital marketing efforts. This setup should adapt as your business grows and evolves.

Don’t Stop Optimizing

An effective digital marketing strategy isn’t just about planning – it evolves alongside your business. Success requires action across all seven steps, from truly understanding your audience to assembling the right team.

As market conditions and performance data shift, your strategy should adjust in real time. Regularly tracking key metrics allows you to make timely changes, uncover areas for improvement, and stay aligned with your business goals.

The best strategies are measurable, with clear performance indicators, and flexible enough to adapt based on data. By applying the principles from all seven steps, your strategy can meet today’s goals while preparing for tomorrow’s challenges.

Continuous optimization is essential. When audience behavior or performance metrics change, use these insights to fine-tune your approach. Regular measurement and refinement ensure your strategy stays effective and focused on achieving your objectives.