Hospital advertising is all about earning the attention and trust of its community. This kind of advertising requires a sensitive approach towards marketing a hospital as a business, while maintaining a genuine and personalized connection, which people expect from their healthcare providers.
Although digital marketing has become the standard method for branding and advertising, it should not be the only marketing method to invest your resources in.
Here Is Why
Millions of companies are using the same marketing methods to compete for digital space. In an effort to stand out in increasingly saturated feeds, US brands have pushed PPC investments from $10 billion in 2017 to $21.57 billion in 2018. With rising CPC “sweet spots” and sinking organic digital reach, it is time to start thinking about a different way to generate lasting awareness.
This is where physical outdoor advertising comes in. While a hospital’s marketing strategy should certainly include digital components, physical, out-of-home (OOH) ads might hold the key to truly connecting with their community and providing for its unique needs.
Finding the right locations for OOH billboard advertising can be tricky. Displays have to be situated and available in areas where target audiences will be able to see and interact with them on a regular basis. Without consistent, repeat interactions, billboards may harvest impressions but fail to generate consumer awareness and connections. This is why it’s important for advertising hospitals to search for display areas, where people regularly spend time and feel comfortable being marketed to.
What is the perfect area for hospitals to connect with their local community?
One such place is the local grocery store. By advertising your hospital in the community supermarket, you ensure that a large percentage of your community’s population will be exposed to the ad. When a hospital focuses its advertising on a local, personal level, it sets a positive example for the care and investment it can offer to its patients. Messaging should be hyper-localized to truly speak with the community within your service area, and show that you too are a familiar part of the neighborhood fabric. Consistent, year round displays ultimately go a long way towards developing a healthy reputation for the hospital and its services.
A Trustworthy Reputation
Despite fast growing online shopping trends, millions of consumers are still shopping for goods in-store on a weekly basis as part of their deeply ingrained routine. Thanks to this routine, retail locations are thriving as the hub for community interaction. In result, advertisements and promotions, located in retail areas, are guaranteed consistent exposure to billions of repeat impressions.
With so much traffic, malls can be one of the best places for hospitals to set-up a long term marketing strategy. The displayed ads should offer quick tips, advice and services that are locally high in demand. Addressing local issues, such as allergy or flu shot season, with quick and easy answers, will attract the right audiences and create positive impressions.
What is the perfect area for hospitals to connect with their local community?
One such place is the local grocery store. By advertising your hospital in the community supermarket, you ensure that a large percentage of your community’s population will be exposed to the ad. When a hospital focuses its advertising on a local, personal level, it sets a positive example for the care and investment it can offer to its patients. Messaging should be hyper-localized to truly speak with the community within your service area, and show that you too are a familiar part of the neighborhood fabric. Consistent, year round displays ultimately go a long way towards developing a healthy reputation for the hospital and its services.
The Bottom Line
Pharmacies and retail locations are the staple of every community. Aside from the conventional and costly digital marketing methods, local hospitals can quickly build community awareness by emphasizing physical, OOH marketing strategies. Sponsored wellness kiosks have become the ground-level, genuine investment in a community that every hospital should exemplify.
Visit our Local Solutions to connect with your community today.
