Digital PR in the healthcare industry

With figures revealing nearly 50 million health-related Google searches were made in the UK in 2023, it’s clear that people turn to search engines for healthcare advice. 

And as the industry continues to grow, healthcare companies need to ensure a strong online presence to effectively manage their reputation, communicate important updates, engage with their audience, and build trust.

Digital PR is an effective way for those within the healthcare space to establish themselves as leading experts in the industry, and boost online visibility in a highly competitive sector, while also strengthening their backlink profile and gaining greater online visibility. 

But how can this be done?

How to broaden your reach with digital PR?

Promoting health expertise through reactive PR

With health stories hitting the headlines day in and day out, healthcare expertise is invaluable to journalists who are keen to use unique insights to give more depth to a news story. 

As qualified experts in the healthcare industry, providing comments, additional arguments, or internal data on topical news stories or industry updates, and pitching to journalists is the most impactful way of implementing reactive PR. 

Having a spokesperson to attribute commentary to will ensure greater credibility and authority. A ready-to-go comment bank to utilise when relevant health stories arise will also be useful, allowing you to react quickly, putting you ahead of competitors and therefore will more likely result in online coverage. 

The reactive approach is a great way to stay current in a fast-paced industry and presents you as up-to-date with industry trends as well as keen to share your knowledge and raise awareness about specific topics.

Promoting healthcare expertise through thought-led or data-led articles

Similarly, you can use your health expertise to create thought-led articles to share with journalists. In creating and pitching articles on specific health issues, changes in procedures or regulations, you can demonstrate that you have authority in your field, establishing yourself as a thought leader in the industry.

Access to any internal data will also help identify newsworthy hooks that can be put into an article. For example, if there were a large number of enquiries for a particular product or service you offer, it could create a story that would generate coverage with reputable health or national  publications.

What are the benefits of Digital PR?

Broaden your reach: Getting coverage in top-tier publications including health publications will help you reach new audiences and drive them back to your website organically as you’re providing them with new information associated with your industry.

Building trust and credibility: Consistent and reliable digital content establishes healthcare brands as authoritative sources. Patients are more likely to trust information from healthcare organisations that actively share valuable content.

Generate links from relevant websites: By having lots of authoritative and trustworthy sites linking to your site, search engines will begin to view your website in the same way. This will have a positive impact on your visibility and trust levels in the industry. 

How does it look in practice?

UK Meds is an online clinic and prescription service. They are one of the biggest online clinics in the industry. They supply medication for: men’s health, women’s health, chronic conditions,  sexual health, travel health and more general health and well-being.

• We’ve been able to deliver over 204 pieces of coverage for UK Meds in total from August to March.
  
• This has been an average of 25.5 links per month.
  
• We’ve received coverage in a range of publications, including UK nationals, regionals and trade publications. The average DR of all coverage in the past 8 months has been 70.1.
  
• In all, our reactive approach has allowed us to establish UK Meds as experts in the industry who are keen to share their knowledge, raise awareness about specific topics, and keep up to date with industry news.

Key tips:

Get yourself an expert to attribute your commentary to.  Positioning the content shared by a medical professional ensures greater credibility and authority therefore will be more likely to be picked up by journalists.

Be time-sensitive and accurate when making these comments or sharing articles. The quicker you react, the more newsworthy your story and therefore the more likely you are to be featured by a journalist. 

Prepare commentary or utilise your blog content. This goes hand in hand with time sensitivity, preparation is key in these moments so you get there first. 

Offer something unique and interesting. It could be a piece of data, it could be an alternative viewpoint, or anything additional, will be interesting to a journalist. It will also set you apart from competitors. 

Key takeaways:

• Digital PR can be an effective way to boost online visibility in the highly competitive health sector.
• Through different approaches, you can share your expertise and brand message with new audiences. 
• In building links to your health site, you will boost your SEO authority.

• Find out how we can support you with your reactive Digital PR activity here or enquire today.