As per the report by bankmycell.com, currently, there are 6.92 billion smartphones in the world which translates to 86.11% of the global audience having access to smartphones.
Today, the internet, social media, and other forms of communication have been overtaken by mobile, which has turned into the primary means of communication, with every 1 in 2 people having access to it.
Mobile marketing for the healthcare industry opens wide opportunities to connect with potential patients and retain existing ones. Leveraging mobile marketing is cost-effective and also helps in improving customer satisfaction.
Let us read in detail about the advantages of mobile marketing in the healthcare industry
Benefits of Mobile Marketing for Healthcare Industry
1. Making Healthcare Convenient
From school students to adults and senior citizens, one of the notable facts is that all age-group of the target audience have one basic resource i.e., Mobile.
Mobile is the basic and convenient form of communication and mobile marketing is the accessible way to connect to all the target audience to provide the latest information.
It is important for the healthcare industry to make all the information easily accessible to their patients. Mobile Marketing is one such convenient way for the healthcare industry to connect with its audience compared to desktops and other resources.
2. A Cost-Effective Way to Improve Patient Engagement
It is not possible that a target audience will use other communication channels 24/7. For instance, a person might browse healthcare through a desktop only at some indoor hours and not all day, also one can use social media at their leisure but mobile is the major touchpoint of the target audience as it is handy and people tend to use it every few minutes.
According to a recent report by Glance, on average, mobile phone users unlock their smartphones 70 times a day.
So, it is evident that the content consumed by mobile marketing is more quickly consumed by users than any other means of communication, and healthcare organizations get an average of 70 opportunities to build customer engagement through cost-effective mobile marketing.
3. Easy Access to Telemedicine and Virtual Consultations
The definition of healthcare was drastically changed during Covid-19 when everybody has to take care of their health remotely. This pattern continued post-pandemic, when patients were able to sit in their comfort and consult medics through telemedicine.
Healthcare Mobile Marketing has been majorly used to access telemedicine and virtual consultations.
In a recent survey, most patients have been found to use telemedicine and virtual consultations to follow up on medicines, ask queries, discuss further diet, and do other routine check-ups.
The major benefit of mobile marketing in the healthcare industry is that patients can avoid unnecessary traveling to routine consultations, due to easy access to telemedicine and virtual consultations. This not only increases patient satisfaction but also is a cost-effective way to manage the time of medics.
Also read: The Role of Telemedicine in Healthcare Marketing
4. Health Tracking and Personalization
Mobile marketing facilitates health tracking and personalization, by enabling patients to track and monitor the status of their health, set goals and health metrics, and track progress over time.
Mobile applications and healthcare devices that are connected to mobiles are one of the convenient ways to stay connected to patients 24/7 and monitor their health patterns.
For instance, wearable devices that are connected to mobile applications help patients to monitor their blood sugar levels, nutrition consumption, physical activities, sleep patterns, and other health-related data.
5. Helps in Search Engine Rankings
Mobile marketing helps in SEO rankings because search engines consider mobile-friendly websites as one of the crucial ranking factors.
Search engines consider optimizing websites to be mobile-friendly, improved loading speed, and enhanced UI and UX as key to user satisfaction.
Hence, using mobile technology in the healthcare industry indirectly contributes to improved search rankings of a website, improves customer engagement, and provides an opportunity for a healthcare brand to distinguish itself from competitors.
6. Opportunities to Personalize
Personalization is no more a mere buzzword, indeed has become one of the crucial strategies to grow customer relationships.
Mobile marketing in healthcare provides various opportunities to personalize strategies through location-based push notifications, in-app messages, SMS marketing, QR codes, mobile shopping experience, etc.
Personalization through mobile marketing is one of the cost-effective ways to engage patients since most of the customers use mobile as the primary means of communication and this provides various opportunities for interactions with patients.
Conclusion
Leveraging mobile marketing in the healthcare industry is a proven method that increased patient engagement rate, satisfaction, and conversion rates in the healthcare market.
The healthcare industry will continue to benefit from mobile marketing and, healthcare marketers will extensively use mobile marketing for personalization (a highly in-demand requirement of potential customers across all industries).