Apr 08, 2020
With many firms claiming to provide digital marketing (but all of them performing different services), it can be difficult to understand what digital marketing actually is. Digital marketing consists of many services, most of which resemble traditional marketing.
Digital marketing consists of all online marketing efforts. Therefore, any offline marketing efforts would have to be considered traditional.
Then what defines digital marketing as a chargeable service? This comes down to what your healthcare facility needs in terms of launching a campaign to hire providers. Also, your in-house marketing team may be able to provide you with certain components needed in a campaign. For recruitment marketing, most campaigns need the following:
- Strategy - You’ll determine this with our team. By setting goals and establishing a clear message, strategy serves as a starting point for all campaigns.
- Visual Content - Last year, 86% of people said they wanted to see more video in digital marketing content. Video is hands down the most effective way to engage with candidates. Visual content can also consist of eye-catching images. While many healthcare facilities already have visual content for patient acquisition, you want to use physician-focused content to successfully engage with candidates.
- Written Content - Easier to customize than visuals, written content allows you to create a more personalized experience for your potential candidates. Through email, social ads, and paid search, you inspire your audience to take action.
- Retargeting - This part of the campaign empowers you to be even more effective in who you reach. Once candidates begin to interact with your campaign, you gain insights about what content they like and what platforms they’ve engaged with. Which means your second time reaching them, you increase your conversion rate by 51%.
What sets digital marketing apart from traditional marketing comes down to personalization and efficiency. Remembering this can help you avoid paying for services that look like digital marketing, but are really just traditional marketing in disguise.
One of the most deceiving can be email. Many firms charge for digital marketing because they send out emails on behalf of your open opportunities. But email has existed since the 70s. Simply sending emails doesn’t cut it. If a firm wants to charge you for email as digital marketing, be sure to ask how they plan to split test, retarget, and personalize content.
Another major digital marketing misconception comes from your internal team - thinking your social media pages count as digital marketing. While you absolutely should have social media pages for your facility, these hardly count as digital marketing. Your Facebook posts only reach those people who have chosen to follow you. Social ads are a bit smarter. They find the people who are most likely to be interested in your opportunities. This empowers you to hire providers who may have never otherwise known your job existed.
While digital marketing consists of much more than one article can explain, you need to know how to recognize digital marketing (and distinguish between what’s actually digital and what isn’t). To learn more about digital marketing for physician recruitment, click below to learn more from one of our digital marketing experts.