Your drug rehab marketing campaign can undoubtedly make or break your company's reputation, capacity for client care, and overall revenue. It's one of the most important strategies your business can focus on, and it matters during every stage of growth.
Digital marketing strategies constantly evolve, and it's imperative that you stay up to date on the latest trends. At Navix Health, we offer cutting-edge solutions and comprehensive support to help facility leaders manage the evolving logistical needs of behavioral healthcare.
Here are some of the main mistakes all CEOs, owners, and marketing representatives need to be aware of as we move into the new year.
Deceptive Marketing Practices
It's no secret that many treatment centers rely on inaccurate and fraudulent marketing campaigns to secure lead generation. For-profit treatment has opened a chasm for greed and has created what Assistant State Attorney Alan Johnson cited as the Wild West where "the good providers were being driven out of business by these rogue bad actors."
Not only is deceptive marketing unethical and ineffective, but it's life-threatening. Overselling a service that your company doesn't render preys on some of the most vulnerable people and their families seeking assistance.
In all cases, clients seeking treatment undoubtedly deserve to know the full truth about what your company can provide for them. That means all digital marketing efforts must accurately showcase what your program genuinely entails.
Weak Search Engine Optimization Efforts
Unless your team truly knows how to engage in advanced keyword research and track an ad campaign, you'll probably need to work with a professional SEO agency. Unfortunately, this can be its own tenuous task, as many agencies oversell their services and make grandiose claims that they can't achieve.
If you want to outsource your SEO strategy, here's what you need to ask before hiring any contractor or company:
- What kind of SEO strategy does your organization specialize in (i.e. technical SEO, UX, off-page, creating content)?
- Which specific metrics do you use to track campaign success?
- What turnaround time can I reasonably expect to see results?
- What's your specific strategy for engaging in keyword and market research?
- What's your approach to building a social media presence?
- What particular SEO tools do you use and why do you use those ones?
- How will we collaborate to create quality content and work in tandem?
One mistake that many treatment centers make is to simply hand off their marketing plan to a third-party company. While this may be feasible after several months of working together, you want someone who can closely review the work at first. This ensures that content creation accurately reflects the business and that your SEO strategy is securing relevant leads.
Overlooking Mobile Optimization
Research shows that mobile browsing accounts for nearly 50% of all web traffic worldwide. Mobile optimization is non-negotiable, and failing to prioritize may inadvertently alienate your target audience.
Your website needs to be as aesthetically pleasing and intuitive to use on a smartphone or tablet as it is on a desktop. Research shows that users generally expect a site to load within about 1-2 seconds, and more than half of all mobile site visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Spreading Marketing Campaigns Too Thin
There's a lot of pressure to have an active and large following on numerous social media platforms, maintain a robust and informative blog, attend in-person networking events, and create dynamic videos- all at the same time. Unless you have an unlimited budget, your digital marketing strategy may need more refining.
Most marketing experts agree that it's far more valuable to deeply focus their efforts on 1-2 platforms/marketing channels rather than take a more scattered approach.
Over time and with proven results, your treatment center can expand its reach. But at first, you want to ensure that search engines are picking up on the highest-quality marketing your company can offer. It's better to have less exposure that's far more comprehensive and accurate than to waste your time, money, and resources on haphazard advertising.
Relying Too Much (Or Too Little) On Word-Of-Mouth Advertising
While word-of-mouth advertising certainly has its merit (and undoubtedly saves costs), treatment centers need to be aware of its inherent limitations.
Depending too much on word-of-mouth referrals constricts your facility's visibility to a fairly narrow population. This strategy will generally overlook many potential clients who might benefit from your company's service. In addition, when you heavily rely on word-of-mouth leads, you may be more susceptible to the pitfalls of negative feedback.
At the same time, your professional, in-person reputation matters. People talk- they will absolutely share their failures and success stories, and they will have no problem turning to the Internet to review your organization.
Incongruent Admissions Process
Just as marketing campaigns need to be accurate, your admissions team needs to be acutely aware of what is and isn't being advertised about your company. One of the biggest marketing fails is a potential client or family member referencing something about your business without your team being aware of what that service is.
Staff should be aware of what comes up in local search results and on social media. In other words, make sure you're in front of what your website visitors will see. If you're not, you risk losing a hold of your overall marketing strategy.
Focusing Too Much On Your Brand
Most people recognize the importance of company branding, which refers to having a distinctive design, message, and tone. All businesses need a strong brand- it's what helps them stay consistent with everything they do (both online and in-person).
At the same time, people seeking treatment need to know that you truly understand their needs. They care about your team's background and expertise, but the overarching concern they have is: Can you actually help me? Do you understand what I'm dealing with? Are you fit to provide me with support?
While some of this comes down to branding, your company must strike a balance of focusing on what the reader needs (rather than littering your brand throughout the page). This can, in so many ways, come across as desperate and gimmicky.
Streamlining Your Admissions and Operations With Navix Health
At Navix Health, we work closely with large-scale mental health and addiction treatment facilities. We also support individual mental health professionals operating solo practices.
Navix Health is proud to offer fully unified software that combines customer relationship management (CRM), electronic medical records (EMR), and revenue cycle management (RCM) into one comprehensive, easy-to-use platform. We are here to support you with your company's onboarding, management, documentation, and billing needs. Our Navix Hub business feature includes a wide array of professional tools, including shared event calendars, live employee time reporting, business directories, and streamlined workflow widgets.
Contact us today to schedule a custom, complimentary demo.
