levate your content’s impact. Are you truly capturing your audience’s questions and interests, or letting potential leads slip away daily?

Establish Topical Authority: SEO is increasingly focusing on demonstrating clear expertise on a particular topic, known as topical authority. This involves becoming a go-to source for information on a specific topic or niche. From a content perspective, your website content will need to go far deeper into all topics that your medical business covers. Users will ask more in-depth questions, so your website will need to have quality,
deep-level content to serve. Businesses and websites that do not have a substantial content pool will likely get penalised as SGE is rolled out.

Create People-First Content: Shift your content creation methods to focus on solving problems, as that’s what Google and potential customers are looking for. Understand how Google interprets queries to understand the underlying problem for the user and create content that provides clear steps or instructions to help with specific problems. Pay attention to user experience, as Google prioritises helpful content and user-friendly websites.

Embrace E-E-A-T: The concept of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) of a website and content creator is becoming increasingly important. With the rise of generative AI, it’s essential to highlight unique expertise and first-hand experience in your content. Engage in activities that build your brand and associated authors as topical authorities, such as writing for established niche publications, creating original research, and becoming active on social media networks.

SERP Marketing and Content Diversification: Optimise for various elements on the search engine results page (SERP), including videos, images, and quick-answer sections like “People Also Ask” and featured snippets. This approach, known as “SERP marketing,” involves taking each search result page as a whole and optimising for all its elements, not just focusing on organic listings. If you’re not currently invested in video creation, this is likely to offer even more punch in the world of SGE. 

Structured Data Will Gain More Importance: Google uses a “knowledge graph”, which is essentially everything it knows about everything. It uses “structured data” to organise these (code that tells Google what a website is about). In the new world of SGE, proper use of structured data will be important to help Google understand your business and consequently help it rank your brand better on SGE results.

Evolving Metrics: As we expect more people to find answers to their questions directly in Google Search as a result of SGE, expect traditional SEO metrics to evolve. Businesses may see lower traffic as a result of SGE, which means as business leaders we will need to adapt what good looks like when measuring SEO performance.

Damp Squid? In reality, we are still determining how users will respond to SGE results. It could lead to a big change in user behaviour. However, some people may take some time to adapt and skip to the traditional SERP results at the lower end of the screen. We don’t know for sure until we see the data. Some businesses may sit tight and hope for the best…but hope isn’t a very good marketing strategy!

An Opportunity as much as a threat: A lot of businesses are unaware of the potentially seismic changes that are to come. That includes those currently surfing blissfully high on the SERPS. It means for those who prepare now and prepare right; there is a real opportunity to increase traffic, leads and patients from the new world of
Google.

Investing in original, high-quality content tailored to your audience is set to become essential over the next year and beyond.

A powerful and coherent content marketing strategy has always offered strong returns on investment, but as SGE beds in, this will become even more important. In terms of developing a healthcare content marketing strategy, it is important to have credible, high-quality content for your website & Social Media. People are looking for answers to their healthcare questions, and they want to be sure they are receiving it from thought leaders and experts. Content marketing remains one of the most under-invested and high-opportunity digital marketing areas for medical brands. topic, known as topical authority. This involves becoming a go-to source for information on a specific topic or niche. From a content perspective, your website content will need to go far deeper into all topics that your medical business covers. Users will ask more in-depth questions, so your website will need to have quality, deep-level content to serve. Businesses and websites that do not have a substantial content pool will likely get penalised as SGE is rolled out.

 Insatiable demand for online medical content. A significant number of internet users, about 66%, search online for information related to specific diseases or medical problems. Additionally, approximately 7% of all Google searches are health-related, demonstrating a strong public interest in accessing healthcare information online. This trend highlights the need for medical brands to provide accurate and easily accessible online content.

Unfortunately, many medical brands are too passive to take advantage of this demand, often serving basic content and not updating their blogs, websites and social assets for days or even weeks on end. A good flow of hard-hitting content that solves user questions is one of the best
investments a business can make in this era.

Different strokes for different folks. People have varied learning preferences, with some preferring to read blog posts while others may engage more with videos or podcasts. Offering a mix of content formats can help medical brands reach a broader audience and cater to different information consumption styles. While any form of content is welcomed, businesses that offer a mix of long-form written content accompanied by compelling videos perform the best in search and conversion metrics. Clever content marketing can take high-quality base content and spin it into several different formats to reach the widest audiences (websites, videos, social media).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Search Generative Experience: Optimising content for search engines is crucial for improving visibility and driving organic traffic to a medical brand’s website. With the onset of SGE already discussed earlier, we need to ensure our content is diverse and long-form,
offering concise answers to the many long-tail questions and queries that your potential patients are asking. A well-thought-out content marketing plan is now critical to performing well on SEO & SGE.

Social Media Influence: Social media platforms are key channels for connecting with the target audience and promoting medical content. For instance, 90% of young adults trust medical information shared on social media. This indicates the power of social media in shaping public perceptions and choices in healthcare. Brands need to take a long, hard look at their social assets and ask if they are sufficiently compelling to engage and attract patients.

Leveraging Influencers and Thought Leaders: Collaborating with influencers and thought leaders in the medical field can enhance the reach and credibility of a brand’s content. Guest blogging, interviews, and co-created content can tap into the influencers’ existing audience, providing wider exposure.

Video Marketing for Complex Information: Video marketing is effective in conveying complex medical information in an understandable format. Educational videos, patient testimonials, and live Q&A sessions can make medical content more engaging and trustworthy and far easier to digest.
Credibility and Trust: Building trust and credibility is crucial for medical brands. Providing accurate information, sharing patient testimonials, and engaging content helps establish a medical brand as a reliable source of information. With that comes patients.

Want to find patients through a content marketing strategy that blows the competition out of the water? Digital Thynk has been delivering content that delivers multiples in ROI for our clients – consistently. Contact us now and let‘s get started.

 We touched on video in our content marketing section, but it merits its own. Over 2024 and beyond, video marketing is poised to become increasingly crucial for medical brands. We have seen strong returns for clients who have invested in video with the right strategy, and all indicators suggest these returns will only get better over time.

The 2024 Visual Content in Healthcare survey revealed that 70% of respondents preferred watching informational videos to reading about medical procedures. 

Enhanced Search Engine Visibility: Video SEO is gaining importance. Google reports that videos are 50% more likely to appear on the first page of search engine results. This improved visibility in search results is especially beneficial for medical brands aiming to reach a wider audience online. We also anticipate videos will feature significantly once SGE sets in, further rewarding brands that have a rich array of videos and punishing those that don’t

High Engagement and Conversion Rates: Videos increase user understanding of products or services. Notably, 97% of marketers state that video has helped increase user understanding, while 76% say it has helped them increase sales and revenue (according to Personify).

Growing Preference for Video Content: The average internet user is expected to consume over 100 minutes of online video content daily by the end of 2024. This shift towards video content consumption indicates a significant opportunity for medical brands to engage with their audience effectively.

Social Media Integration: Videos on social media generate more shares than traditional image-based ads. Leveraging social media platforms for video distribution can significantly enhance a medical brand’s reach and engagement.

Why Does The Medical & Healthcare Industry Lag In Video Creation?

We’ve seen the majority of medical/healthcare brands continuing to miss out on the many benefits videos can bring.

Development is most frequently cited as the challenge, with 7/10 businesses surveyed suggesting the single most significant issues with implementing video marketing are the time and cost.

Our Solutions

At Digital Thynk, we have understood these challenges and developed medical video services to cater to every budget. Even small and medium-sized medical clinics can enjoy the multi-pronged benefits of video marketing through our service.

Learn more about our medical video development service & how we can create outstanding topical videos for your brand and distribute them across the web, social media, and search engines.

A tight social media marketing strategy is set to pay dividends over the coming months and years. It’s now more important than ever to have a social media marketing plan that integrates seamlessly with your broader medical marketing plan.

High-quality content that educates and entertains will help engage potential patients and build brand trust.

Trends To Consider When Creating Your Social Media Strategy

TikTok will continue to gain importance. Not as yet embraced by the majority of medical brands, TikTok has silently amassed over 1.3bn users in 2023. The platform boasts high engagement rates and a significant GenZ user base. Specific medical treatments can enjoy significant lead & patient
acquisition via this platform.

Video will gain prominence within social media marketing. YouTube is itself a Google owned search platform, meaning well optimised videos act as a powerful conduit to your medical brand website. But videos have so much more power beyond this. Social media platforms prioritise video content,
leading to higher visibility and broader reach. One video can serve several marketing aims – improved SEO, traffic and conversion rates, engaging social media content, trust building and so much more.

Top Social Media Marketing Tips For Medical Brands

Quality Content delivered frequently: Post high-quality, engaging content regularly to maintain visibility and engagement. This includes educational posts, patient testimonials, and health/treatment tips. Ideally, posting at least once daily can help position your brand for maximum visibility while promoting top of the mind recall.

Video Captions: Consider adding captions to video content. Many users watch videos without sound, and captions also improve accessibility for those with hearing impairments.

Cross-Platform Presence: Develop a presence across multiple platforms to reach a wider audience. Different platforms cater to different demographics and user behaviours.

Link Back to your Website: Use social media posts to drive traffic to your website. This can be done through direct links in posts, bio sections, and through call-to-action buttons.

Omnichannel Marketing Approach: Integrate social media marketing into a broader omnichannel strategy. This ensures a consistent brand message across all channels and touchpoints, enhancing patient experience and brand trust.

Engage with the Audience: Respond to comments, messages, and reviews. This interaction helps build a community and fosters trust. Showcase positive reviews from popular customer review websites.

Monitor and Analyse Performance: Regularly analyse social media metrics to understand what content performs best and to refine your strategy.
Leverage Influencers and Partnerships: Collaborate with influencers and other organizations to expand reach. This can be especially effective on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Engage with the Audience: Respond to comments, messages, and reviews. This interaction helps build a community and fosters trust. Showcase positive reviews from popular customer review websites.

Monitor and Analyse Performance: Regularly analyse social media metrics to understand what content performs best and to refine your strategy.

Leverage Influencers and Partnerships: Collaborate with influencers and other organizations to expand reach. This can be especially effective on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

The ability to weaponise social media for patient acquisition gets stronger each year. Brands that opt not to have a substantial social media marketing plan will continue to miss out. Most small to medium businesses who do not have a social media marketing system cite cost and lack of resources as the reason why. These brands will continue to lag competitors who actively post on various social assets.

Digital Thynk Social Media Marketing Solutions 

We have seen the importance of social media grow in marketing importance over the past few years. Many small and medium sized medical & healthcare businesses are still missing out on the many gains that a high quality SM marketing engine can deliver.

We understand that cost and resources are the main limiting factors – that’s why we can create a bespoke social media marketing campaign expertly tailored for your healthcare business. Contact us to see how we can help

Clickflation & Conversion Rate Optimisation 

If medical brands achieve less traffic from the advent of SGE, this will likely impact paid advertising costs. Many brands will increase reliance and investment on paid media to maintain their traffic levels. This increased demand will lead to higher costs to acquire traffic. Ad inventory on platforms like Google Ads operates on a bidding system; increased competition for ad space typically drives up prices (clickflation). In short, expect Cost Per Click and Cost Per Sale to rise over the coming years.

How medical brands can prepare for Clickflation – In a phrase, Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).

With SGE potentially limiting website traffic, it’s become more important than ever to ensure your medical website and landing pages are painstakingly optimised to convert for the different types of traffic your website gets.

It is surprising how few brands invest in improving conversions for their website, given the potentially dramatic impact successful CRO can have on revenue. It’s an investment brands should make, at least alongside, if not before, investing in paid advertisements. After all, once your website converts at a higher rate, it essentially translates to more patients at no additional cost, pretty much forever.

Top Conversion Rate Optimisation Tips For Medical Brands

While CRO cannot be summarised or taught in a report, on a more fundamental level, implement the following for simple CRO success:

Clear CRO Roadmap: Develop a structured plan for website changes based on data-driven priorities. Random testing can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities. Prioritising tests based on potential impact and ease of implementation can significantly improve conversions. Have a clear CRO roadmap laid out for the year.

Simplify Form Fields for Opt-ins: Request only essential information in opt-in web forms. This encourages higher completion rates as users are likelier to engage if the process is quick and straightforward. Use Action-Oriented Language: Incorporate strong, action-oriented verbs in calls to action. This prompts immediate engagement and encourages visitors to take the specific actions you want.

Leverage the Power of Testimonials: Testimonials build trust and credibility. Include positive feedback on your homepage and landing pages to provide social proof and reduce perceived risks for potential customers.

Abandoned Cart Email Strategy: A strong cart abandonment email strategy can help recover lost sales. On average, 45% of abandoned cart emails are opened, and conversion rates increase by 18% after sending such emails. This can be especially powerful for medical brands with an online booking
facility.

Fast Websites for More Bookings: Ensure your website loads quickly, as slow-loading websites can lead to a 30% increase in shopping cart abandonment and significant revenue loss.

Humanise Your Brand with Video: Videos can add a personal touch and enhance trust. Simple videos on landing pages explaining treatments or services help create a connection with visitors.

Mobile-Optimized Websites: As an average, over 40% of online transactions happen on mobile. A mobile-friendly website is essential as 52% of people are less likely to engage with one offering a poor mobile experience.

Craft Compelling Headlines: The headline is the first thing visitors see. Test multiple options and choose the one that resonates most with your audience.

Communicate Benefits: Include the most compelling benefits on your sales pages – do you offer a free consultation? Are your success rates industry-leading? Do you have world-renowned surgeons and facilities or advanced technology? Don’t just list features. With medical brands, there is the
danger of a landing page sounding more like a science paper than the benefits and quality-of-life enhancements your treatments can deliver to patients.

Suit your webpage to the traffic type: Create dedicated landing pages based on your web channel to optimise conversions. A one-page-fits-all approach, more often than not, will lead to sub-par conversion rates and higher cost per acquisition.

Engage in Qualitative and Quantitative Research: Combine insights from user interviews, surveys, and website analytics. Understanding user behaviour, motivations, and pain points through this dual approach helps tailor the website to meet the exacting needs of patients.

User-Friendly Website Navigation: Simplify the navigation to make it easy for visitors to find what they want. This is especially important for medical websites where patients seek specific treatment information.

Secure Online Appointment Scheduling: Offer an easy and secure online booking system. This convenience is significant for medical practices, as it can lead to increased patient appointments and improved satisfaction. However, retain the option for patients to book or contact your clinic via
telephone or email (often preferred by older demographics).

AI-powered tools like chatbots and virtual assistants can enhance patient engagement in myriad ways – such as offering support for highly detailed and personalised queries, appointment scheduling, and medication reminders.

A powerful way to improve conversions is by implementing the right new emerging AI tools to answer the most intricate and detailed questions about your medical business, treatments, pricing, and more.

The AI tools we’re working with can remarkably answer complicated patient queries accurately without the user scrambling through several website pages to learn about different treatments. For example, a layperson with no knowledge about laser eye surgery might need clarification as to
which of the different types of treatments are suitable for them (e.g., LASIK, LASEK, SMILE, Presbyond, etc.). Today, an advanced AI chat tool can request some basic details such as their age, vision goals, and lifestyle preferences and present them with the likely treatment best suited for them, along with a call to action to get in touch.

The more specific the user query, the more impressive and personalised the answer. Here’s a sample of what our experimental AI bot came up with when asked a detailed question from a sample patient:

These AI solutions will become more powerful and cost-effective at lead generation than human chat operators, offering another route to enhancing conversion rates.

Medical brands that are first adopters will likely reap large rewards via improved conversion rates and user experience, as their websites can provide detailed answers to patient questions without the need to troll through numerous website pages. Think of it as bringing Google SGE on your own website.

With SGE potentially eating into the search traffic share of many medical brands, 2024 is a big year for investment into Google Ads. It means, now more than ever, brands investing in Google Ads must have a ruthlessly efficient PPC strategy that puts your brand front and centre to potential patients. Anything less means losing money, leads, and patients. While creating an ad strategy that delivers maximum ROI is complex, here’s our top-level advice for medical brands:

Optimise Landing Pages for Conversion: Directing users to well-optimised landing pages is crucial. This involves ensuring that landing pages directly address the user’s search query with relevant information, clear calls-to-action, pricing, and testimonials. We still see many medical brands throwing money down the drain via unsuitable, generic landing pages that are not fit for purpose.

Use Ad Scheduling and Dayparting: Analyse historical data to identify the best times for ad performance. Adjust the ad schedule to maximize ad spend and reach the target audience when they’re most active.

Monitor and Optimise Campaign Performance: Keep an eye on key performance metrics like click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and cost per conversion. Regularly revising ad copy based on performance data can help resonate better with the target audience.

Test Different Ad Formats: Google Ads offers various formats, including text, image, video, and responsive ads. Experimenting with these formats can help determine which drives the highest engagement for a specific target audience.

Stay Informed About Google Ads Updates: Google frequently updates its advertising platform. Keeping abreast of these updates ensures the use of all available tools and opportunities.

Leverage Google Ads Smart Bidding and Automation: Smart Bidding strategies powered by machine learning can optimize bids in real time, enhancing the effectiveness of ad spending. Automation features like responsive search ads and dynamic ad features also help in optimising ad messaging without additional manual work.

Strategic Budgeting and Bidding: Set a budget and bid strategically, adjusting bids based on keywords driving the most conversions. Monitoring campaign performance closely enables the reallocation of the budget to the most effective areas.

Targeting Strategies: Utilize geographic, demographic, and device targeting to reach the right audience.

Measure ROI Meticulously: While Google Ads can assist conversions via other channels, funnel refinement to measure the direct patients your Google ad brings is essential.

Adapting to Emerging Trends

Staying ahead by adapting to future trends will be crucial in the coming years. Over 2024, we believe the following will be important emerging trends to consider:

Increased Emphasis on Automation: Automation is expected to play a more significant role in Google Ads. This includes smart bidding strategies and automated ad creation, leveraging advanced machine learning and AI. This automation will allow advertisers to optimise their campaigns more efficiently, making real-time bids and ad messaging adjustments based on a wide array of signals.

Rise of Voice Search Advertising: With the growing popularity of virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, voice search advertising is becoming more important. Medical brands will need to optimise their strategies for voice search queries and create ads tailored to spoken language and conversational tone.

Integration of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR): As AR and VR technologies become more accessible, there will be new opportunities for engaging users through immersive ad experiences. Interactive ads that allow users to visualise treatments and facilities are expected to become more common. Imagine offering potential patients a virtual tour of your clinic followed by a call to action.

Continued Growth of Video Advertising: The popularity of video advertising is expected to continue to rise. This format offers a highly engaging way of storytelling and showcasing products or services. Increased investment in video ads on platforms like YouTube and the Google Display Network is
anticipated.

Increase Adoption of Responsive Search Ads (RSA): While these have been around since 2022, this form of Google Ads will continue to offer better conversion rates and CTRs to brands that are set up correctly. RSA allows the creation of multiple headlines and descriptions, with Google’s algorithms testing different combinations to find the most effective ad variations. This testing can help identify the best-performing ad elements.
Staying up-to-date with these developments in Google Ads will be crucial for medical brands to effectively reach and engage their target audience, optimise ad spend, and stay competitive in the digital advertising landscape of 2024.

As we navigate the digital transformation that the coming months and years will bring, it’s evident that medical brands face unprecedented challenges and opportunities.

We’ve outlined the critical role of strategic digital marketing in new patient acquisition. We’ve delved into the seismic shifts heralded by Google’s Search Generative Experience, the escalating importance of high-quality content, video marketing’s dominance, and much more. Take all these seriously.

The landscape is evolving rapidly, with patient acquisition and brand visibility hinging on your ability to adapt and innovate. In this era of clickflation and competitive digital spaces, a coherent and dynamic digital strategy is not just beneficial – it’s essential for survival and growth.

Why Work With Us?

With two decades of expertise in digital marketing specifically tailored for the healthcare sector, we are uniquely positioned to take your healthcare brand to the next level. Our approach integrates cutting-edge tools, data-driven insights, and a deep understanding of the healthcare industry’s nuances to craft bespoke strategies that resonate with your target audience.

With an average customer retention time of 5.2 years, our boutique agency is seen by our valued clients as partners in achieving digital marketing excellence. This report holds a fraction of the experience we have gained, and results we can bring to your business. To turn these insights into actionable strategies that not only prepare you for 2024 but also set you on a path to long-term success, contact us for a bespoke audit, and let’s explore how we can elevate your medical brand to new heights.