Mahmoud Khattab Discusses 8 Health Care Marketing Strategies for 2022
A leader in the health care sector for roughly three decades, Mahmoud Khattab has served as chief executive officer of Elk Grove, California’s Precision MD since 2011. He also has a substantial history as a valuable senior executive in the philanthropic arena, helping to support Syrian refugees of war as chairman of the Syrian American Alliance.
Among his other areas of professional focus, Mahmoud Khattab has a wealth of experience engaging with new and existing patients through targeted and effective health care marketing and advertising. Keeping pace with the ever-changing essentials of health care marketing, he has successfully led Precision MD through an incessant series of challenges over the years, seizing every opportunity he could to take the organization to the next level.
When asked to define the qualities of a good leader, Mahmoud Khattab describes a person who constantly thinks “about how to expand, how to make things better.” He continues, “I feel especially in business, if you reach the plateau, this means you’re going to decline. You always have to think about new ideas and try different things. In many cases, you have to take some risks also. Especially if we’re talking about being a business leader, you really have to take risks. You have to be a risk-taker.”
In terms of optimizing health care marketing strategies and patient engagement, Mahmoud Khattab remains ready to embrace new trends and is determined to stay one step ahead of the competition. Drawing upon his considerable expertise, he has shared eight key tips to guide health care marketing strategy through the end of 2022.
- Mahmoud Khattab States Utilizing Social Media
When it comes to sharing information about a health care organization, the services it provides, and the culture that surrounds it, social media simply can’t be beat. By now, most businesses of all kinds have discovered the supreme importance of using social media to connect with people where they already are. However, far too many businesses fail to make the most of their social media presence or capitalize on its vast community-building potential. A wise health care organization will reach out through multiple social media platforms, regularly update social media pages with compelling content, and leverage the power of digital analytics to constantly assess social media outreach performance.
- Patient Experience
A diverse health care marketing area, patient experience is defined by its singular focus more than its many elemental strategies. As Mahmoud Khattab puts it, “I do a lot of things for patient satisfaction, from waiting room time to the management in the process — signing all the forms, the time that they spend before they see the provider — the post-care, after procedure, the follow-up, the documentation, and also the marketing.” A great path to overall patient experience improvement is website improvement. In addition to serving as the principal public face of a practice, the website can make life far easier for patients by offering appointment booking, account management, and other online services.
- Paid Ads
Paid advertisements have always been the bedrock of a good marketing campaign. Although the online environment gives organizations countless ways to reach out through owned media such as official websites and social media pages, it is still wise to target audiences for specific medical services with paid ads. Considering the large number of people who conduct online searches for health issues, one of the best places to position a paid ad for medical services today is on Google or another major search engine.
- Content Marketing
As previously discussed, regularly refreshing social media pages with informative and/or entertaining content is an essential component of marketing success in 2022. The same thing holds true for a practice’s official website and anywhere else it chooses to place content online. However, it isn’t enough to simply attract people with compelling written content. Read on for more information about structuring content for search engine optimization (SEO) and diversifying content for maximum effect.
- Website Speed
Although it may seem simple and self-evident, far too many organizations in the health care field (and elsewhere) fail to prioritize website speed as part of their overall marketing efforts. In the days of high-speed internet, people are unlikely to tolerate a web page that takes more than a few seconds to load. In light of the key role that the official website plays in overall patient experience and satisfaction, regular site-speed tests and optimization are an absolute must.
- Mobile Optimization
As people have grown accustomed to extremely high website speed, they have simultaneously grown accustomed to accessing the same websites through every device they own. This trend spells absolute disaster for any organization that has not optimized their official website for mobile browsers. Because patients frequently turn to medical practice websites to access critical information and perform a range of functions, they will generally expect those websites to look and work the same on any desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone device. To ensure that this is the case, practices must choose the right web host and designers for their website.
- Organic SEO
Organic SEO involves using common search engine “keywords” to drive online traffic to your website. Specific to each organization, these keywords might include anything from medical practice area (for example, “Lasik surgery”) to office location (for example, “Sacramento, California”). However, it isn’t enough to simply pepper your online content with these keywords. Organic SEO is a complex process with factors that range from website domain prevalence to reputable backlink building.
- Video Testimonials
When strategically designing online content, it is also important to diversify content for maximum impact. Recent studies show that one of the most effective ways to accomplish this is to incorporate positive video testimonials from satisfied patients into website and social media outreach. The reason for considering video patent testimonials in 2022 is twofold: Large numbers of people are intrigued by video content, and they’re also reliant on online reviews when making health care decisions.