BE FOUND ONLINE
HO M E C AR E
“IN HO ME HE ALT H C ARE ”
ONLINE MARKETING
PREDICTIONS FOR 2010
Be Found Online | 1022 W. George Street, Chicago, IL | (800) 288-1426 | sales@befoundlocal.com

H
ome Health Care Providers are in a great business, they’re in the business of keeping our families
together, of keeping Parents and Grandparents out of dreary – and occasionally frightening – nursing
homes or elder care facilities and in their own homes. They may even be involved in assisted newborn
and pediatric child care. They provide an essential service that they’re uniquely qualified to offer.
Unfortunately, the growing demand for affordable homecare solutions is leading to an increasingly
competitive marketing environment among home health providers. It’s getting difficult for qualified
agencies to be heard over the din.
We started off knowing that homecare providers rely on the latest senior care technology and
treatment developments in fields ranging from wound care and pain management to Parkinson's
disease, Alzheimer's and geriatrics to offer their specialized healthcare services. So we asked a simple
question … Have they made the same commitment to innovation when it comes to online marketing?
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Since there are obviously more than twenty home health care providers operating in the United States,
the answer is obviously… no, not really. Home health services providers, are not, in the main taking
advantage of the opportunities online marking offers. But why would that be? Why would industry
decision makers decide not to market using the most effective tools and techniques available to them?
Maybe there just isn’t enough interest in home health care online to sustain it? Let’s take a quick look.
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The Pew Internet & American Life Project revealed that 80% of adult
Internet users, or roughly 93 million Americans, have searched
health topics online, making searching for health care information
one of the most popular activities online … second only to e-mail!
Half a million plus per month launching searches on a topic seems like a substantial assemblage of
consumers. In fact, at least at first glance, it does seem like the sort of concentration advertisers want.
But maybe that traffic is the result of a current events driven spike? Health care issues certainly are top
of mind at the moment and have been in the news constantly for months. Especially since the election,
health care has been under a spotlight. From the boomer retirement index and universal health care to
electronic health records, health care news items are in the headlines daily. So of course there’s traffic.
Online marketing can be an effective way for in home health care organizations to reach out to
consumers, but only if those consumers are online to say. So let’s find out how long they’ve been there:
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You can see for yourself that while interest in home health care services has grown over the years, the
volume that should be attracting advertisers in droves has been there since at least 2004. And in fact,
back in 2006 a Pew research project revealed that 80% of adult Internet users, which was at the time
roughly 93 million Americans, had searched Google, Yahoo or MSN for health care information, making
searching for health care information one of the most popular activities online … second only to e-mail!
Still, it’s possible that those numbers could have concentrated in a particular region of the country. After
all, if Texans or Californian were all obsessed with the issue it’s not hard to imagine the result looking a
lot like those numbers. To be certain of what we’re seeing, we’ll need to drill down to a regional view:
Those are consumers from Minnesota and North Carolina to Missouri and Illinois shopping for
home health care services online. The only thing missing from this picture are the advertisers.
It’s not difficult to understand why home health care decision makers have been slow to adopt online
marketing. Until now, demand for in home health services centered around a generation that never
really adapted to the Internet. But that’s all changing, and it is changing quickly. Thanks to aging Baby
Boomers and the children and grandchildren who’re shopping for home health care services for them,
providers won’t be able to depend on Yellow Page Ads, direct mail or cold calling to fill their client rolls.
The technology of marketing has moved on. It’s time for providers to move with it. Establishing and
maintaining a marketing edge has always meant effectively making use of whichever techniques were
capable of tapping into your audience. You have to meet their expectations and deftly respond to their
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Why should you have an online marketing campaign? Because that’s
where your patients are! The Internet accounts for 33% of media
consumption or 85% among adults age 30-50 and 51% of among adults
65-75. And because it’s how they make decisions … 75% of users research
healthcare issues online … 12% will visit a health-care related site today!
needs to be heard. Today that means incorporating targeted Search Engine Optimization and Social
Media Marketing into your existing efforts.
ONLINE MARKETING WILL PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE IN YOUR INDUSTRY
Going forward, online marketing will play a crucial role in every homecare business’s success or failure
whether that business is taking advantage of it or not. It’s where today’s patients and future patients
alike will search for providers. The Internet already accounts for 85% media consumption among adults
age 30-50 and 51% of among adults 65-75. And more importantly, it’s a part of how healthcare
consumers make decisions … 75% of users research health care issues online and 75% of users with a
chronic medical condition said that their online research had affected their eventual treatment decision.
RIGHT NOW THE PLAYING FIELD IS ALMOST EMPTY, BUT IT WON’T BE THAT WAY FOR LONG
Today, the marketing environment for in home health service providers is increasingly competitive,
increasingly fast-paced, and that means that success will increasingly depend on aggressive-effective-
bleeding edge online marketing. Growing competition from not-for-profit and for-profit entrants, will
collide with a new generation of healthcare consumers—and make establishing a brand online critical.
It’s a new environment that will require new tactics, tools and techniques. That’s where we come in.
We’ll design and deploy Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Optimization campaigns
to ensure that your business and your services are in front of consumers; in the right places and at the
right time.
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FORTUNATELY, THAT ENVIRONMENT HAPPENS TO BE OUR SPECIALTY
Be Found Online can offer you every applicable skill-set, from those of traditional copywriters to the
industry specific know-how required to design and direct a scalable Paid Search, Search Optimization,
Local Submit and Social Media Marketing campaign within your staggeringly competitive market space.
SEM, SEO, SMM, SMO, PPC, PR 2.0, Reputation Management —they aren’t just buzzwords. They're
critical pieces of an effective online marketing campaign. If you're ignoring them, chances are your
competition is not. Don't let online efforts fall to the bottom of your day-to-day marketing priority list.
We’re in the business of making reaching out to families easier for you, and finding you simpler for every
potential client. We can make you, your services and your website search-engine-friendly. We can
deploy an arsenal of new media marketing and online communications tools and techniques, but only if
you let us. Let us help you and we’ll introduce you to online marketing tactics and techniques that will
drive consumer perception, boost patient volume, organizational revenue and get the results you’re
looking for.
Once you’re ready to start … call us at: (800) 288-1426 or e-mail sales@befoundlocal.com
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BE FOUND ONLINE
Targeted Online Marketing
1022 W. George Street #2
Chicago, IL 60657
(800) 288-1426 O | (773) 305-1917 F
sales@befoundlocal.com
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