Navigating Children’s Health Marketing: A Guide for Digital Marketers

In the realm of healthcare marketing, pediatric care offers a unique and rewarding opportunity to make a tangible difference. By crafting effective digital strategies, healthcare marketers can empower parents, improve health outcomes, and drive positive change within communities. Maximizing parental engagement and education through targeted approaches is essential in today's digital age for successful children's health marketing initiatives.

A funnel-based approach 

The key to successfully engaging with parents is connecting them with relevant and actionable information and the right resources during specific moments of need. 

At True North, we focus on optimizing marketing strategies at every stage of the patient journey.

Prioritize awareness at the top of the funnel:

• Share patient stories to help parents connect with your brand and providers while highlighting your areas of specialty care.
• Promote public health topics such as vaccinations and well-child visits through blog posts or email campaigns to help parents schedule necessary health visits.
• Showcase outcomes and innovation on social media to improve brand visibility and reliability among parents and providers.

Generate engagement at the middle of the funnel:

• Provide educational care guides and resources to help parents make a decision or support provider decision-making around referrals.
• Depending on the service line, use quizzes and the offer for consultations to fill a lead funnel. This strategy may work well for a mental health practice or pediatric orthodontist.

Drive conversion at the bottom of the funnel:

• Use paid search to improve visibility on search engines, particularly Google and Bing, and drive traffic to optimized landing pages to drive conversion rate optimization. 
• Create appointment or referral-request landing pages optimized for easy navigation.
• Work internally with your call center to improve response times and efficiency when responding to leads.

Direct mail: A booster shot of vitality in your campaigns

Despite its tracking challenges, direct mail remains a smart strategy for reaching parents. Specific scenarios where direct mail can be ideal include:

• Promoting new locations, providers, and offerings like well-child visits and seasonal vaccines
• New mover programs that align with digital engagement tactics for a seamless introduction to residents within the community
• Reaching potential donor audiences

Content’s role in establishing strong and effective messaging

At True North, we believe in the power of a messaging strategy that taps into real-life parenting experiences that align with specific challenges and needs. 

Short-form content to address everyday health needs

Whether it’s a sore throat in a 2-year-old or a worrisome bug bite on a teenager, short and direct blog posts help guide decision-making. Content should be accurate, concise and authoritative, giving parents the information they need to make informed decisions, quickly. Short-form content is intended to provide reassurance and raise appropriate concerns that may prompt a visit to the emergency room if necessary. 

Calls to action on short-form content help direct parents to convenient online scheduling tools and web pages with “hold my spot” features, which streamline the process of receiving urgent, primary and emergency care. 

Additionally, online resources about telehealth options, appointment reminders, and opportunities to engage with healthcare providers and meet parents and caregivers where they are can significantly improve the experience of finding care for both parent and child. Easy-to-understand content can also be beneficial in building connections between parents and the nurses and doctors in your primary care offices.

Long-form content to educate about specialty care

Long-form content allows brands to connect with parents who are searching for factual information about their child's diagnosis. 

If a child is referred for specialty care, parents want to find high-quality, comprehensive information that alleviates fear and avoids focusing solely on worst-case scenarios. By providing the educational content parents are seeking, you also have an opportunity to directly share innovations, provider quotes and research initiatives with parents, featuring your organization in a way that a direct mail, email or social post cannot.

As children age, health-related concerns can become increasingly complex, particularly as they relate to mental health and other topics that don’t have a one-size-fits-all answer. Support parents and position your organization as a trusted advisor by providing long-form content that lacks judgment and simply provides all the pertinent information a parent might need to make an informed decision that’s right for their family. 

Final takeaways

• Precision is paramount in developing a strategy for healthcare marketing. Adapt your channel and messaging strategy to meet the specific needs of the audience. Whether it’s providing direct and authoritative information on managing a fever or offering nonjudgmental long-form content on sensitive topics like sexual health and mental health for parents of teenagers, the key is to deliver actionable content that addresses the precise needs of the audience.
• Create audience-focused content while understanding and maintaining authority to build trust. Several strategies to achieve this balance include tying your messaging to relevant cultural moments that align with your brand values. Additionally, recognizing the donors and healthcare providers who contribute to excellent care can hold great significance in this space. Ultimately, the key takeaway for messaging and brand is to showcase our ability to feature and speak to kids and their desires, making it the primary focus of our approach.‍
• Regarding partnerships in children's healthcare marketing, collaborate with strategic, agile and innovative marketing experts who specialize in this field. These partners will ensure compliance with ongoing HHS OCR guidance so your marketing efforts are effective and secure. By developing precise strategies and design plans, they can reach the right consumers at the right time with the appropriate messages. This approach can have a significant impact on provider referral pathways and donor engagement initiatives, as well as help parents navigate the healthcare system and make informed decisions about their children's care.

Finding a children’s healthcare marketing partner

True North is an integrated marketing agency with 50+ creative, digital and account specialists dedicated to healthcare marketing. Our passion lies in making a meaningful impact on the health and well-being of individuals, especially families and children. As a Google Premier Partner, we have worked with numerous hospitals and health systems to enhance children's marketing efforts and broader healthcare initiatives to drive brand awareness, patient volumes and fundraising.

Ready to enhance your children's marketing efforts? Schedule a call with one of our healthcare marketing strategists.