healthcare marketing for millennials
How to reach millennials as a medical practice?
In this article, we focus on healthcare marketing for millennials and how your medical practice can adapt to the millennial generation.
healthcare marketing for millennials
How to reach millennials as a medical practice?
Els Van de Veire
March 15, 2022
How to meet Gen Y’s needs?
Gen Y and medical marketing
Quick recap: millennials are people born between 1980 and 1999. They are also called Generation Y. According to the ABS Australian census (2017) there are 6.42 million millennials down under.
Gen Y often neglected generation?
It’s easy to forget Gen Y when you work in the healthcare industry. This generation, with the oldest millennials now over 40, has not traditionally been associated with urgent needs for healthcare services, other than maternity and general practice services. But as millenials get older, they will need healthcare services more often, such as orthopaedics, cardiology and urology.
What do millennials expect?
Millennials are known for being tech-savvy. Mobile phones and the internet were omnipresent in their childhood and adolescence. Long story short: millennials are comfortable with new technology and they expect businesses to adapt to this reality. The only reality they know.
So how do you reach this generation as a healthcare business?
Yes, social media is a great channel
Social media for doctors
"It’s not just about posting on social media as a healthcare business, it’s about really engaging with this entire generation."
In other words, this is about asking yourself before you create a post, if this information is worth sharing? As in, the receiver of your post, sharing it with their friends on social media. If you are unsure about social media for doctors, contact Digital Practice today and book a free strategy session.
Human connection is important
Connect with millennials
Yes, millennials are tech-savvy but it doesn’t mean they totally dismiss the importance of human connection. What is important to remember is that their definition of ‘human connection’ can be a slightly extended one compared to traditional definitions.
"Chat services are a great way to reach millennials. Check out Google Business’ messages or services like Podium."
Millennials ask questions on social media. For example, they may respond to one of your posts by asking a question. Always bear in mind the patient’s privacy and guide the conversation towards a private channel, getting it ‘off the platform’. In any case make sure that if you do get questions via social media, your team responds.
These questions are the starting point of a real conversation, a human connection. And as we have covered many times in our online magazine: trust being one of your key currencies as a specialist doctor in private practice, you don’t want to miss this opportunity.
Millennials are used to websites that work well on their mobiles. We have mentioned before how critically important it is to have a responsive or mobile-friendly medical website. The time you spend double-checking if your phone numbers are ‘call-able’, rather than having to depend on a copy-paste operation… that time is well spent. Millennials simply expect this type of functionality, with good reason. And if your website does not offer that experience, you may already be missing out on potential new patients without ever knowing it.
Online reviews to build trust
Medical online reviews
Online reviews are the new word-of-mouth and millennials don’t see a difference between the traditional word-of-mouth and the digital version. Online reviews are an important part of healthcare marketing for millennials.
If you have a Google Business profile for your practice, patients can post reviews, and as a practitioner you can not control them. It means that you may receive positive and negative reviews, and you can not delete the negative ones unless they violate the Google terms.
"If you do have questions about how to delete or manage negative reviews, I urge you to download our free ebook or book a free one-on-one consultation."
Back to Gen Y and their relationship with the online review. Millennials have found their way to user reviews and their decision to contact you will depend on the reviews they find. Make sure to acknowledge your reviewers if you can, always bearing in mind patient privacy rules and applicable advertising guidelines.
"Simply guide the online conversation to a private conversation, off the platform."
In Australia, medical professionals can not use their online reviews for advertising purposes. In other words, if you have 50 five-star reviews on Google, you can’t just copy-paste them to your medical website and promote your healthcare business. American readers of our Grow! Magazine – or for that matter anyone in a jurisdiction without these strict guidelines – do not have to worry about this.
Think social, connect and build trust
Conclusion healthcare marketing for millennials
To capture the attention of the first digital generation:
- Think social
- Expand the concept of human connection to the technological tools and use them to connect with people in your community. Future patients or referring family doctors.
- Build trust, and do it both online and offline so you get the best of both worlds.
Are you a little bit daunted, unsure? No worries, we’ve got your back. Book your free online meeting today.
- Tags: Marketing for doctors
