Use of podcasts has risen quickly from a novelty medium to a progressively popular and informative form of content. The 2017 Infinite Dial Study by Edison Research and Triton Digital unveiled how podcasting continues to boom in the United States. According to the study, one quarter of Americans 12+ said they have listened to a podcast in the last month, up from 21% a year ago. In addition, 6 out of 10 Americans are now familiar with the term “podcasting,” a number that has risen 22% in two years.

Listen Up: 5 Podcasts to Fine-Tune Your Home Care Marketing Strategy

Posted by Alice Bechtold

Use of podcasts has risen quickly from a novelty medium to a progressively popular and informative form of content. The 2017 Infinite Dial Study by Edison Research and Triton Digital unveiled how podcasting continues to boom in the United States. According to the study, one quarter of Americans 12+ said they have listened to a podcast in the last month, up from 21% a year ago. In addition, 6 out of 10 Americans are now familiar with the term “podcasting,” a number that has risen 22% in two years.

Podcast Listening is on the rise

According to Edison’s “Share of Ear,” from Q4 2016 to Q2 2017, podcast listening has also soared across various Millennial demographics by the double digits. With escalating podcast listening, it’s no wonder that advertisers are using the medium as an opportunity for reaching out to as many people as they can.

Although the competition in the podcast arena is quite fierce, there are always some stand-outs in every industry which deserve a thumbs-up for producing great content. For home health care providers, there are many outstanding podcasts that are worth listening to. Last year, we witnessed the departure of quite a few great podcasts, like “Human Proof of Concept” and “Signal”, however, that came with the emergence of many others. We have compiled a handful of podcasts that you shouldn’t miss. Take a moment, or five, or ten and listen to these popular home health care podcasts.

The 10 Minute Healthcare Marketing Podcast

It is a can’t-miss podcast for any home health care provider wanting to grow their online presence. The show is hosted by Tyson Downs, the owner of Titan Web Agency, which is an online marketing firm catering to heath care professionals. The 10 Minute Healthcare Marketing Podcast gives you insights into a host of online marketing strategies, such as Website Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and many more.

Healthcare Marketing Underground

Produced by ReviveHealth, Healthcare Marketing Underground is a podcast as dynamic as it is informational. It discusses all the trending topics related to health care marketing, including gripping subjects like ROI (Return on Investment), healthcare reform, and email marketing.

This Old Marketing

Hosted by seasoned content marketing specialists, Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose, This Old Marketing is one of the most popular marketing podcastson right now. The weekly show discusses the latest content marketing trends and features interesting conversations about them. The episodesare less than sixty minutes each, so it wouldn’t take you too long to learn about the current content marketing tactics.

The Weekly Briefing

If you have been in the home health care business for a while, you have probably read The Daily Briefingon many occasions. Although the popular newsletter has over 200,000 subscribers, it isn’t really feasible for everyone to make time to read it every day. The Weekly Briefing was later created for keeping the audience abreast of what is covered in The Daily Briefing, in brief. With these weekly episodes, you can learn quite a lot about home health care marketing.

HBR Ideacast

In the end, running a home health care agency is a business like any other. In many instances, listening tobusiness podcasts that are not exclusively focused on health care industry can still bequite helpful. HBR Ideacast is one such business podcast that offers you marketing tips from the CEOs of top brands, such as Pepsi, or shares advice on how you can build a great home care team. Plus, they do all this in just 20 minutes!

Go ahead and subscribe to these podcasts so you are always in the loop. Good Luck!

If you have been marketing your home care services for any length of time, you probably know at least some of the challenges home care agencies encounter – from the struggle to get more referral sources, networking exhaustion, yellow pages (to-do or not-to-do) to your website, social media handles, senior fairs, events, and staffing. Then there is the following up with leads, referrals, referral sources, and so on. It can be exhausting!

Here is a round-up of some clever marketing tactics that every home care business owner should know. They are like secret sauce strategies – highly valuable – and seasoned marketing pros seldom disclose them. Each of these little ideas adds a unique flair to your social voice in a way that generates more leads.

1. Tweet with VIPs at Events/Conferences

Trade shows, fairs, and other similar gatherings for seniors know how social media promotions can benefit them. Many have a specific hashtag for their event, breakout session, or topic of interest.

Example: Stay informed about #HCM, #hcms, or #HCMsuccess

You may also find the username of the special attendees or keynote speakers at the event.

Example: @username or @StephanieJoasil

Do not be shy – use social media to contact the VIPs directly. It is a great mutual opportunity to ask/answer questions or exchange ideas/informationat the conference. Many VIPs are open to the idea. Often, they attend events to network with people so they happily welcome the contact. Try it.

2. Do Not Let Too Many Creative Ideas Destroy Your Business Success

Too much of a good thing can be bad. We are talking about “creative overcrowding” that may kill your business faster than anything else. Many success-oriented, intelligent agency owners are often seen working on multiple ideasall at once. Unfortunately, too many ideas- no matter how brilliant – lead to anirrational use of resources, time, and workforce.

Tip: Do not let multiple promising ideas be the reason for your failure. Write down all your ideas and set priorities. Figure out which of them can best support your goals and cultivate growth. It is better to focus on one idea rather than tripping over too many.

3. Get Involved in Community Groups

Local groups like the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club are great places for making connections with the community leaders as well as your target audience. Club meets take place on a regular basis and allow opportunities for the members to meetreferral sources and potential contacts. Depending on the group/club, you can also offer to hold a Q&A or even teach a class on any home care topic which can spark interest in the audience.

Marketing does not have to be costly or complicated. Utilizing free online platforms and participating in community groups are a great way to advertise your services. It does not matter whether you are a small home care agency operating on a limited budget or a big business with unlimited resources, the home care marketing strategies listed above are sure to help boost your presence within your community.

Are you looking to improve the readability of your home care content? Let’s take a look at what the last US national assessment suggests about the country’s health literacy rate.
Health Literacy in the US and its Impact

Health literacy has a huge impact on a person’s health,life expectancy, and their ability to navigate the home care system and make well-informed choices.Yet, it is unfortunate that very few people are “proficient”-that is the actual term-or health literate (See the Table Below). According to the research, only 12% of the U.S. population had a proficient health literacy. The rest would have trouble understanding common health-related tasks, like following directions given on a prescription label or adhering to the childhood immunization schedule according to a standard chart. Those who struggle the most are typically seniors over 65 with no high school diploma, insurance, or Medicare/Medicaid.
Descriptions of Health Literacy

Health Literacy Level Task Examples

Proficient Use a table, calculate an employee’s yearly share of health insurance costs, etc.
Intermediate Read and understand instructions on a prescription drug label, and determine at what time they can take the medicines.
Basic Read a pamphlet, give 2 reasons someone with no symptoms should be examined for a disease, etc.
Below Basic Read some short instructions, identify what they should or shouldn’t drink prior to a medical test, etc.

Most seniors with communication barriers may also feel embarrassed to accept that they cannot understand or use the healthcare information. They may be too intimidated to ask any questions. Experiencing anxiety during a health situation-for example, after a diagnosis or during a visit to the emergency department-may also reduce the ability to comprehend information to make the right choices.

The health literacy level of a person may also influence their satisfaction with the care they receive.

What Does This Mean for Healthcare Agencies?

Well, the common goals of healthcare agencies-such as helping patients to book appointments, advertising their care services, and creating a trusted brand-can be impacted by the health literacy barriers. However, to make sure their message is conveyed and easily understood by readers, healthcare agencies need to create content while considering the following key pointers.

Write for Readability

The first and foremost step to create understandable healthcare content is to research your target audience’s health literacy levels as well as demographic information. You can accordingly tailor your content using the right combination of different strategies.

Write with Clarity

Writing clearly makes you an effective communicator. This is especially true when your readers have certain barriers to understanding home care information, so writing in a simple language is most likely to make it easier for them to understand your message and take action.

To simplify the healthcare content:

Take a conversational and user-focused approach. Speak directly to your readers. (For example, “Our experts may ask you questions about your health history and your current symptoms during your first appointment.”)
Use common terms rather than medical terms (for example – write “cancer doctor” instead of, or along with, “oncologist”). For clarity, you can provide some context clues by writing – “Our oncologist shave extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of all types of cancers”.
Break down medical terms or concepts. You can add simple definitions or give examples to explain them better. (e.g. – “Your doctor may recommend that you have a bone density scan. It is an imaging test performed to measure the bone strength.”)
Avoid idioms or cliches that a particular segment of your audience may not be familiar with. (like “clean bill of health”).

When organizing information, begin with simple concepts and gradually build up to the complex.

Use Person-First Language

Use ‘People First Language’ to tell your readers that you view them as people, not health conditions. For example, write “a person with diabetes,” rather than “a diabetic.”

When possible, allow different ways your potential clients can be active in their own care. For example, you can tell them that they can bring a family member or friend to the appointment so the latter can help them remember the discussion and important information. You can also suggest that they write down their questions or concerns prior to the consultation.

Web Writing for Everyone

Do readers with high literacy levels or specialized knowledge prefer complex content? The answer is “No”. Everyone typically chooses content that is easy to skim through and simplicity on the web even if they are a subject matter expert. Feel confident when you are representing your home healthcare brand-through content as straight-forward as possible.

Good Luck!

With thousands of home healthcare websites jostling for online supremacy, getting your brand the attention it deserves can be an uphill battle. What makes it even harder to manage is picking the right marketing strategies that can drive hordes of potential clients to your website.

A winning digital marketing plan involves various components, but ‘paid advertising’ is the most direct route to your bottom line.

Let’s put it this way: you can pray for clicks if you use a few SEO strategies and hope they get you to the top of the search engine results page (SERPs) – or you can pay for clicks and see results. That is where PPC or Pay-Per-Click marketing comes in.

There are primarily two ways you can run a PPC campaign for your home healthcare business:

• Paid Search
• Display Advertising

Paid search works by putting your brand’s name at the top of search results, while display advertisements are slightly passive but can still greatly boost your brand image. So, how do you know which strategy to focus on?Let’s begin by discussing the differences between the two.

The Differences between Paid Search and Display Advertising

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising lets you target specific keywords related to your home healthcare business and get your website in the top three or four results on the SERPs. There is only one thing that distinguishes your paid search ad from the organic listings i.e., the word-“ad”-off to one side that some users may not even notice.

The SERPs are much like the “low-hanging fruit.” For example, when people are actively searching for care services like “in home care in Florida” or “Florida caregivers”, you can easily reach them and possibly convert them into clients.

Display advertisements, on the other hand, are more passive. These are ads which show up at the top of a site (banner advertisements) or off to one side, the results of which may not have to necessarily do anything with the site your potential clients are browsing. They can view these ads while they are reading articles, blogs, or browsing any of their favorite sites. Typically, they are able to see the advertisement because it’s relevant to the content on the page or is based on their search behavior in the past.

Display Advertising in Healthcare Marketing

Display advertising helps in ensuring that people recall your brand whenever they need your service. Your potential clients might be browsing The Washington Post website, watching a video on YouTube, or searching symptoms of a disease on WebMD when they suddenly notice your image/video advertisement.

Display ads allow you to target users based on their behavior or the type of content they’re currently browsing. For example, they may be searching for an ideal care solution for their loved one and when they’re ready to find a senior care agency, they would recall your brand if you had already planted a seed.

Targeted PPC Advertising through Paid Search

Paid search is more intent-based, which puts the results on the top of SERPs.

You may think that most people tend to skip these ads. Well, yes,some people do skip the paid ads, but many others do not even realize that they are paid results. In fact, some users prefer paid advertisements when they’re ready to hire a care provideras it shows that you’re actively looking to serve seniors in need of care.

So, Which Paid Healthcare Marketing Strategy is Best for Your Business?

Which is better – Display advertising or paid search? Here is the thing: digital advertising is not just about display advertisements, search ads, and YouTube campaigns. You must use all of them together as a solid PPC strategy for your healthcare business.If you are already doing paid advertising, layer this strategy with image/video ads which cross different platforms. Search ads are an amazing way to reach out to those who are actively searching for the kind of services you offer, but display advertising brings online synergy between all your ads.