By now, chances are high that you have used some form of artificial intelligence (AI) assistance, such as interacting with a chat bot. Where machines have replaced physical labor, there are now inroads into having software applications replace mental labor such as customer service and data analysis.
Many medical practices are looking to outside resources to handle digital marketing, so it would only make sense if they were to be curious about how automation might also help offload some marketing tasks.
Where Automation Fits in Healthcare Marketing
AI is all about automation. Can you design a program to do certain tasks that take up too much time and stand to benefit from level set consistency? So many action items have become automated that we often take it for granted.
Healthcare marketing needs consistency to be successful, and automation tools help. For example, patients will receive a text message or email reminding them they are due for a follow-up appointment, or they receive a request to take a survey within 48 hours of a visit. Making these patient retention tools automated ensures follow-through where manual workflows are subject to staff availability.
How AI Enhancements Impact Each Aspect of Healthcare Marketing
While there are hints of how AI and other advancements like machine learning (ML) integrate with some aspects of healthcare, some may not realize where it can impact the many aspects of digital marketing for healthcare. Here we share some examples to illustrate how AI can be used to enhance the many facets of medical practice marketing.
How AI Can Analyze and Protect Your Medical Practice’s Website
Google has been using automated bots called “web crawlers” for many years now. With this programming, Google can analyze the quality of a website, checking for site speed, broken links, mobile-friendliness, and more. With AI-assisted tools, like our free website analytics tool, you can perform your own assessment of your medical practice website to uncover website improvement opportunities.
Medical websites are an entry-point to sensitive patient data, so there needs to be a line of defense against intrusion and alert you to possible HIPAA violations. AI-based tools can also assist with website security as they can detect and prevent cyberattacks on websites. This can include identifying and blocking suspicious activity, monitoring user behavior for signs of fraud, and detecting and mitigating DDoS attacks.
How AI Can Improve the Patient Experience
Tools like chatbots give patients the option to gain information interactively from websites, or even social media channels like Facebook messenger. These tools can answer common questions such as what insurance the practice takes, does the practice have flexible payment options, are extended hours offered, and more. Rather than comb through a FAQ page, patients can simply ask the website’s virtual assistant.
How AI Can Operate Reputation Management on Behalf of a Medical Practice
Today’s healthcare consumer relies on reviews from other patients to help them make the best choice for a new care provider. This makes online reputation management an indispensable part of medical practice marketing.
Responding to all reviews is a core best practice of online reputation management. With tools like Birdeye, the sentiment of the review can be detected and then an appropriate response is auto generated. For example, a positive review will get a thank you.
How AI Can Improve Ad Campaigns
With a limited marketing budget, it is wise to refine ad campaign planning wherever possible. When ad campaigns are not carefully managed, wasteful spending happens. With Google ads, the medical practice pays each time the ad is clicked. AI-based tools can guard against spending waste that may result from click fraud, impression fraud, or bot traffic.
AI-based tools can assist with creating targeted advertising campaigns by analyzing user data and behavior. Zeroing in on the right audience means ads are displayed in the right places at the right times. Real-time analysis of ad campaign performance means timely adjustments for ad placements, targeting, and bidding strategies to ultimately improve ROI and increase conversions.
Keep in mind that ad campaigns cannot be effectively managed without a human at the helm. As an experienced PPC agency, we recommend you turn to the experts who will ensure that AI tools are best utilized and working as expected.
How AI Can Assist with Social Media Outreach
As mentioned before, chatbots can help medical practices respond to incoming messages from patients through social media such as Facebook Messenger. Another way AI can assist medical practice social media marketing is through competitor monitoring.
The more competitive the area of practice, the more necessary it becomes to respond to competitive threats. AI-enabled competitive analysis tools can analyze competitor social media strategies, and from these insights medical practice social media campaigns can be better optimized.
Creating Medical Practice Content Through AI
Again, consistency is needed for marketing to be successful, and when it comes to publishing content this cannot be overemphasized. AI creation of blog posts and social media posts helps content marketing stay on schedule when some of the work can be done for you. However, the quality of this content should always be evaluated by a human and edited as needed.
Summary: AI is Everywhere, Even in Healthcare Marketing
Automation has been a reality for decades now, but advancements like AI and ML show us just how far automation can go. AI programs are quickly flooding the marketplace and competing to do more and to do better, even in the digital marketing arena.
Medical practices have the opportunity to consider where the assistance of AI can fit in to digital marketing strategy to spur growth and allow for more ambitious goalsetting. With the help of AI, medical practices can improve patient experience, better guide campaigns, and gather fresh insights.
Explore Opportunities to Enhance Your Medical Practice’s Digital Presence
When it comes to digital marketing, there is always room for improvement. Investing in enhancements such interactive website design helps your medical practice keep pace with evolving patient expectations in an age where capturing patient loyalty is now more difficult. Read The Complete Medical Practice Digital Marketing Success Blueprint to learn more about healthcare digital strategy and reach out to us with any questions you have about optimizing your practice’s digital marketing.
