Why Health & Social Care Marketing Matters
Want to know what’s going on in the UK? Take a look at who’s outsourcing to businesses like ours. Over the past 18 months we’ve seen huge growth in the number of health & social care providers needing the support of our services. So what’s changing in these services, and why is marketing suddenly so important?
The Introduction of Personalised Care
The introduction of person-centred care, first to the social care sector, and latterly to the NHS, places agency with the individual, rather than the provider. So rather than people fitting in with existing services, person-centred care offers a range of needs-based services delivered directly to the service user. This has been facilitated by the introduction of direct payments to individuals requiring care, making them budget holders.
Growth in Independent Provision
The personalisation agenda, alongside cuts in government social care provision, has initiated a quiet revolution in the UK. Private companies now make up 84% of care homes in England, with 13% being offered by the voluntary sector and just 3% by local councils. This means that the range of services available are being driven and largely defined by the independent sector.
A New Relationship Between Care Providers & Service Users
Until recently social care was defined by the provider. Now that the sector has switched to being defined by the budget holder (the service user), marketing has become an important element of the service. Without marketing, how are service users, or their families, to know where to find the services they need, or what they can expect from those services?
Marketing for Personalised Social Care Provision
Many of the independent care providers that we’re currently working with have minimal experience in marketing. Their careers have been developed in a very different social care environment, and they require a whole new set of skills to tackle digital marketing in the current care sector.
At Outsource Your Marketing we’re helping care providers to:
- Market their services directly via social media channels
- Understand how social care is purchased and by whom
- Provide targeted messaging in the form of content for different kinds of buyers (councils, families, service users)
- Demonstrate the person-centred nature of the care
- Find ways for users to communicate easily with providers
- Design websites that understand the buyer’s journey
- Create a range of marketing materials, including leaflets, brochures and hard copy resources
Working With Passionate Health and Social Care Providers
All the health and social care providers the OYM team work with are characterised by a passion to provide high quality care where it is needed. Their first priority is to ensure that people seeking care know about the range of services on offer, and are able to access them. For many, the creation of a clear, SEO optimised website is of primary importance in order to get their message seen.
About Outsource Your Marketing
Outsource Your Marketing is a UK-based, closely knit team of marketing experts. OYM is currently working with healthcare providers, social care providers, GP locum agencies, healthcare recruiters and wellness trainers. There’s a whole range of marketing solutions we can provide, including: social media management, pay-per-click campaigns, search engine optimisation, content creation, email marketing and website design.
