How To Competitively Advertise A Healthcare App

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March 20, 2021 Marketing

Healthcare apps are becoming an important part of how both patients and health care providers (HCPs) understand medical information. It’s a booming sector of the app market, as well. So many healthcare apps are being launched that not only are researchers trying to understand if and how they work, but other researchers have begun compiling those studies to get an overall view of the impact that apps are having in patient care. They are also attracting increasingly rapt attention from regulators. (1)(2)

This shouldn’t come as any surprise. Electronic medical records and increasingly powerful handheld electronic devices over the last decade have proved irresistible for both HCPs and patients looking for ways to save time and money on healthcare. Doctors use apps to consult reference works and manage patient communications. Patients use apps to track everything from sleep to calories, with or without wearable technology added to the mix. (3)

What all this means for anyone developing a healthcare app is that they need to focus on developing a marketing strategy that will help the app to stand out, rather than the building of the app alone. That strategy will need to account for the design of the app, the marketing, and the onboarding process.

Design

Your app’s design will play an important role in how you market it. While you’ll likely want to consult a health care advertising agency to formulate a fuller plan, you can keep these three tips in mind from the beginning of the process:

1. Security

While security is important in all apps, it may be especially critical in a healthcare app. Whether your app is analyzing confidential information, or simply logging data that users upload themselves, you need to take the security of the information your users share with you very seriously.

2. Medical Expertise (and Experts)

In the eyes of its users, a healthcare app is only as good as the expertise behind it. One way to lend some more to your app is to make sure medical experts are involved in each step of your app’s design. You can then have them speak about that process—and the specialized knowledge that went into it—as part of the marketing for the app down the line, which can help to build trust in what you’re offering.

3. International Regulations

All apps need to abide by the policies of the app store in which they appear, but when designing healthcare apps, it is especially important that you pay attention to international regulations around data. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the United States’ Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) are both critical to consider. Making sure that you’re compliant should start at the beginning of the design process, not the end.

For example, when starting the development of a cloud-based application, make sure that you opt for a HIPAA-compliant cloud. It will provide you with a secure platform for PHI storage, processing, and analysis.

Marketing

Now comes the “marketing” itself, though you need to think about how you’re presenting your app at every stage of the process. Here are four things to consider in terms of marketing your healthcare app:

1. Audience

Who is your audience? This is a question to ask at every stage of development, but you definitely need to have a clearly-defined audience in order to make a marketing plan. Your strategy will look very different if you’re making something aimed at HCPs as opposed to patients. It will also look different if your audience is mothers in a specific age bracket versus senior runners, for example.

2. Press Kit

This is yet another place where consulting a healthcare advertising agency can help. You need a single unified source for information when launching your app. It should include an overview of the highlights of your app, screenshots, and possibly some video of the app in-use. People in the press, and users, need to see what they’re getting in order to get excited; think of it like a trailer for a movie.

3. Support

Make sure to have customer support ready from day one. Users will have questions, and they’ll want answers right away. On the one hand, that’s great, as it shows that people want to use your app and they’re stretching its features. On the other hand, it could hurt your overall marketing strategy if users have a negative experience out of the gate.

4. User Reviews

The opinion of users—assuming its positive—will help to encourage more people to become users themselves. As your app grows, user reviews and responding to any problems or complaints will play an important role in your overall marketing strategy.

Onboarding

As outlined above, the users’ experience with your app will play a big role in how effectively you can market it. An app that sounds great but proves confusing may well mean that you’ve squandered a good deal of your marketing efforts. Keep these four tips in mind to ensure a smooth onboarding process:

1. Mobile First

Your app’s users will want a good mobile experience. Even if you anticipate your app having an important desktop component, you cannot neglect the mobile experience, since many users will prioritize it.

2. Easy Website

You also need to make sure that the website for your app works seamlessly. In order for people to learn about your app, and to see what they’re getting before they download it, an easy-to-navigate website that answers common user questions is a must.

3. Intro Video

One way to help with onboarding is to film an introductory video answering frequently asked questions. You can also walk a new user through the process of setting up an account, and show them what they’ll be able to do with the app once they have.

4. Keep the Level Appropriate

Again, keep your audience in mind. If your healthcare app is patient focused, remember that too much detail may actually discourage use. If you’re targeting HCPs on the other hand, you’ll want to be able to provide any obscure information they may be looking for.

Final Thoughts

Advertising your healthcare app competitively is something worth thinking about at every stage of the development process. Keep the tips above in mind, and remember that it’s worth consulting experts when you need advice. As with everything healthcare related, it pays to speak to people who have experience navigating the complicated regulatory realm that surrounds the sector.