What are the 5 Ps of Healthcare Marketing?

What are the 5 Ps of Healthcare Marketing. The marketing mix plays a vital role in how business places their products in the best possible manner. Whether you are looking for health marketing or marketing for any other industry, you need to use the 5Ps for advertising your brand. Changes in marketing strategies are impacting every sector.

With digital marketing replacing conventional advertising, businesses need to capitalize on it to get a competitive edge over others. So, if you want to know about the 5Ps of healthcare marketing, we will discuss them in detail. But before that, let’s get an overview of the marketing mix is.

What is Marketing Mix?

Marketing mix refers to the process that enables businesses to promote their products to yield the maximum return. They have to consider the different elements that play a vital role in the brand’s promotion.

Usually, the main goal of any business organization is to use the marketing mix for placing their products or services in the correct target audience at the best price and time.

Though the initial marketing mix comprises four categories, the list goes on 8. As for businesses in the healthcare industry looking for health marketing, they need to focus on the 5 P’s mentioned below:

• Product
• Promotion
• Price
• Place
• People

These will help you to form a marketing strategy to ensure your business’s growth in no time. Let’s go in-depth to understand these 5 Ps of healthcare marketing.

5 P’s of Health Marketing

Marketing for healthcare services requires proper planning. They have to align with all the 5 P’s above to ensure you can increase brand awareness and target your audience in the right manner. Here are the ways to ensure you use the 5 P’s healthcare marketing accurately.

Product

The most important thing in the marketing mix is the product. It is highly important for all businesses, regardless of the industry they are operating in, to come up with a product that solves customer problems. It should cover all the aspects of customers’ needs and wants.

The main reason customers choose any service or treatment is to get well. But, the results of the treatment can vary from customer to customer. For instance:

• Two individuals can have a cancer diagnosis of the same types, but they want different outcomes
• One would like to ensure that there are no side effects of the treatment they are choosing that can impact their life
• The other might focus more on extending their chances of defeating the disease and living a long life, regardless of the side effects.

The product of the healthcare services is the treatment plan. Therefore, it has to cater to the customer’s needs and wants.

Promotion

The promotion of a product in the marketing mix entrails the way a brand promotes its goods and services. It has to tell customers how it will resolve their core problem. Promotion helps you spot the USP (unique selling point), which you can use to grab the customer’s attention.

When we talk about promotion for health marketing services and products, it entails promoting your services. You will have to show the unique services your health care system offers, which can help the customer get relief from their pain.

Price

Calculating the price is also a crucial element of the marketing mix. You need to know about the direct and indirect costs to fix a price. Also, you need to know about the price customers are willing to pay for similar goods and services.

Setting up a price that the customer is willing to pay depends on factors such as:

• Characteristics
• Experience
• Usefulness

Moreover, they need to stand up to the customer’s needs and wants and how well they are priced compared to the other competitors. For a healthcare service provider, getting a better idea of the costs help them to:

• Assess the profitability of unique service areas
• Clinical administration of particular patient populations
• Form any external partnerships
• Make informed conclusions about the areas to put in their investments

Place

No one will buy your products or avail of your services if you place them in the wrong place. Businesses need to check that they offer their products or services in the correct place at an accurate time. Most importantly, it should be convenient for the customers to find it in no time.

The best way to reduce your delivery cost is to place your care services in the least expensive settings. Furthermore, the customers’ preferences are now changing regarding where they want to obtain care from.

There are new substitutes that the customers are looking for outpatient services. Urgent care clinics are a great example of how customers want you to place your services that help them reduce the burden of staying overnight.

People

Customer satisfaction plays a vital role in ensuring businesses’ success and growth. If we talk about a retail business, it can give its customers the option to return their products if they don’t like them. But for services sectors, such as healthcare, the experience relies on the services people get.

The treatment and its effects are not known to the people unless they go with it. Therefore, it is vital to building trust to ensure you set clear expectations to meet customer satisfaction. You must be clear about what the customers can get after availing of a particular service.

If you don’t set clear expectations from the beginning, it can impact your reputation and image. So, if you want to handle this component of the marketing mix, your healthcare organization should employ individuals with the right skills and characteristics to provide top-notch services.

Final Word

With the pandemic changing the marketing strategy for many businesses, you need to be aware of the new advancement coming in healthcare marketing.

The growing reliance on online shopping and services makes it necessary for businesses to know about the new trends to make use of the 5Ps for health marketing.