2018 was an important year for the team at Xavier Creative House. We expanded our creative business into exciting new areas, strengthened our team with impressive new hires, and won a bunch of awards in the process.

Not one to rest on our laurels, we’ve already looking at the healthcare landscape in 2019, identifying new markets to pursue and brainstorming ways to deliver increasingly impactful creative.

In the process of doing our homework, we noticed several interesting trends changing the way healthcare industry experts engage with clients and customers. Specifically:

• Adoption of digital health solutions is accelerating. 2019 will likely see increased market share and share of voice for digital health tools and technologies, which are becoming heavily integrated in everyday life. Technologies that were previously novelties, such as Fitbit and other wearables, are becoming much more common as patients seek new and diverse ways to take control of their health and rely less on formalized touchpoints with HCPs.

For industry, success in 2019 may mean investing more time, resources, and focus in meeting patients not just where they are, but where they want to be. For agencies and creative partners, it means being open to – and passionate about – embracing new and dynamic digital technologies, emphasizing app-based engagement.

• SEO and tailored content are still worth pursuing. The last few years have seen content generators grow increasingly nuanced about their approach to SEO. In 2012, SEO was as simple as ensuring you used the right keywords to “win” at page rankings and get reads. But over time, as readers became inundated and Google’s AI got increasingly intelligent (and picky), efforts naturally shifted from “check the keyword boxes” to “generate organic, valuable content.”

Today, as patients keep turning to “Dr. Google” for medical information, a robust, engaging content strategy is more important than ever, representing an important compliment to powerful creative branding and assets. Marketers seeking authentic, actionable patient engagement need to be ranking in SEO efforts – or face getting left behind.

• User experience is as important as ever. As the industry continues to service patients by providing increasingly relevant, targeted content and experiences, it’s important to remember that user experience can make or break a brand. When patients feel they’re taking an active role in their own care, perceived value of a product or brand increases; and the best way to cultivate that active role is by building the best patient experiences possible.

Engaging new mediums, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) demonstrate high viewer information retention rate. These are exciting tactics to explore in 2019. HCPs and patients alike are busier than ever, making any tool that helps an organization stand out from the crowd a valuable one.

Research References:

https://www.mdconnectinc.com/medical-marketing-insights/what-healthcare-consumers-want-2019

https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/blog/healthcare-digital-marketing-trends-innovations-seo-ppc-2019/

https://www.healthworkscollective.com/5-top-digital-healthcare-marketing-strategies-for-2019/