In recent conversations with organisations across medical services, pharma, and medtech, one recurring question clients have been asking was: “What’s the best way to launch and promote our services to patients?”
It’s a deceptively simple question. The answer lies in understanding two things:
- Where your treatment sits on the elective-to-condition-dependent spectrum.
- How patients move through their journey from symptom awareness to treatment choice.
These two factors determine not only who you target, but how you connect with them. They provide the foundation for a strategy that reaches the right people, in the right way, at the right time.
To put this into action, there are 6 steps every healthcare brand should follow.
Step 1: Elective vs. Condition-Dependent Treatments
The first step in any healthcare marketing strategy is to identify where your offering sits on this scale:
- Elective treatments – Services chosen by the patient without medical urgency, such as general health screenings or certain cosmetic surgeries.
- Semi-elective treatments – Treatments like Ozempic or other weight-loss medications for patients who are overweight or obese.
- Condition-dependent treatments – Urgent or critical interventions such as cardiovascular stents or cancer therapies.
Understanding this helps determine the potential size of your market and the urgency of your marketing. For example, a cardiovascular stent has a smaller, more specific target audience than a general wellness screening, but the urgency and willingness to act may be far higher.
Tip: Look at incidence rates for the conditions your treatment addresses. The higher the prevalence, the larger your potential market, but also the more competitive the space.
Step 2: Mapping the Patient Journey
For niche, high-specialisation treatments, understanding the patient journey is essential. This journey typically spans:
- Symptom onset – The first signs something might be wrong.
- Search and information gathering – Patients consult Google, forums, Reddit, and YouTube for insights.
- Screening and diagnosis – Confirming the condition.
- Evaluation of treatment options – Comparing different approaches, providers, and outcomes.
- Decision and action – Choosing a provider and beginning treatment.
Most of the early and middle stages are research-driven. Patients are typing questions into search engines, exploring online communities, and consuming content in multiple formats. This is where a strong inbound marketing strategy becomes your greatest asset.
Step 3: Building Your Digital Headquarters
Your website (and, if needed, microsites) should be your home base or the anchor for all your patient-facing content.
- Showcase your products, services, and treatments.
- Optimise for relevant search terms, and not just product names, but symptoms, conditions, and treatment comparisons.
- Build authority over time with credible, well-structured content.
- Integrate patient stories, expert interviews, and evidence-backed resources.
Once the core site is in place, expand your footprint:
- YouTube for patient education videos and doctor Q&As.
- Social media to build awareness and amplify key content.
- Local SEO to appear in searches for nearby treatment providers.
Step 4: Meeting Patients at Every Search Stage
To truly connect, you must meet patients wherever they are in their search journey. That means creating content for:
- Symptom-based searches (“persistent cough causes”)
- Condition-specific searches (“stage 2 breast cancer treatment options”)
- Treatment comparisons (“radiotherapy vs surgery outcomes”)
- Local variants (“oncologist in Singapore”, “best heart surgeon Jakarta”)
Go beyond standard blog articles and build a richer content mix that engages patients in different ways. This could include:
- Doctor and consultant interviews.
- Case studies and success stories.
- Research summaries.
- Podcasts and webinars.
- Social-first videos optimised for Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
With Instagram now indexable by Google, even short-form content can contribute to search visibility.
Step 5: Search-Everywhere Optimisation
The days of keyword-stuffed blog posts are over. Google and other search platforms now prioritise helpful content and understand search intent far beyond exact keywords.
Your strategy should be search-everywhere optimisation, thereby ensuring your content can be found:
- On Google Search and Google Maps.
- In YouTube results.
- On Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
- Within niche communities like Reddit or Quora.
Patients are no longer finding answers in one place; they’re piecing together insights from across the web. Your job is to be visible in all of them.
Step 6: Expanding Beyond Intent-Based Marketing
For treatments with broader appeal (especially elective ones), you can go beyond patients actively searching for solutions.
- Paid social campaigns to build awareness among those not yet problem-aware.
- Repurpose inbound content for mass media, broadcast, or print to reach wider audiences.
- Use remarketing to stay top-of-mind for prospects who have visited your site but haven’t acted yet.
The key is to funnel all this traffic (from search, social, and media) back to your website as the single source of truth for your brand.
The Patient Marketing Blueprint
At IMPACT, we call this holistic approach the Patient Marketing Blueprint. It’s built on three principles:
- Anchor your presence with a strong, authoritative web HQ.
- Map and meet patients at every stage of their journey.
- Be findable everywhere and not just on Google, but across all digital touchpoints.
By following this framework, healthcare brands can educate, build trust, and ultimately connect with the patients who need them most.
About the Author
Donald Chan is the Founder of IMPACT! Brand Communications, a digital and content marketing agency headquartered in Singapore. With over 12 years of agency leadership and 20 years of marketing experience, he helps brands in B2B, technology, and emerging industries achieve real marketing impact.