We’ve all heard the old saying from “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “Know thy enemy.” While the word “enemy” may seem a bit dramatic, especially for the healthcare industry, the sentiment is still accurate. By learning about your competitors, you can hone your own business plan and respond accordingly.
If you’re a healthcare provider trying to establish a successful clinic, then understanding and responding to competition from other providers should be a priority. By learning about the other providers in the competitive market, you can gain a grasp on the strengths and weaknesses that you can capitalize on while marketing.
We’ll talk about the importance of understanding other providers in a competitive market. Then we’ll discuss what a perfectly competitive market looks like for a healthcare provider and how it compares to a monopolistically competitive market.
How your clinic can benefit from understanding competing healthcare providers in the market
To put it plainly, a competitive market in the world of healthcare means that neither patients nor providers can influence the market. The cost of healthcare services is based on supply and demand. It allows providers to keep their cost equal to sales by being OK with charging the cost of the service based on what the market pays.
When it comes to your priorities as a healthcare provider, your patients are always at the top of the list. But the best way to give your patients the care they deserve is by making sure that you’re tracking the supply and demand of services. Then you can fill in the gaps of the market. That’s why understanding your competitors should also be high on your priority list.
By analyzing the competitive market, you can see what’s missing from the patient journey. Every type of consumer has their pain points with their provider, including patients (healthcare pun intended). Common patient pain points that they may be struggling with in the current market include:
- Ability to schedule online.
- Lack of telehealth options.
- Extensive waiting room times.
- Insurance coverage.
By learning about how your competitors handle these pain points, you can refine your own practices and provide the quality of care in ways that other providers aren’t. For instance, having an extensive list of covered insurance carriers that your neighboring provider doesn’t or offering virtual appointments will make you stand out.
How to understand your competition among healthcare providers using SEO
Search engine optimization is all about helping you rank as high as possible in search engines for clinic-related keywords. Essentially, you want your website to rank higher than your competitors. With proper SEO, you can gain an advantage over your fellow healthcare providers in any type of market, leading to higher click-through rates, conversion rates and web traffic.
With competitive analysis, you can find their strengths in their SEO to see where you can improve, as well as their weaknesses that can give you a step up over them.
By digging into the SEO of your competitors, you can improve your rankings by:
- Capitalizing on competitive, high-volume keywords.
- Optimizing your website for relevant content.
- Recognizing how to create more effective meta descriptions and title tags.
What a perfect competition market looks like for healthcare providers
There are a few different market structures, some of which are competitive and some of which aren’t. SEO can be beneficial in both. The perfect competition structure in healthcare means that the cost of service is beyond control of both providers and patients due to the high quantity of both. It allows for all providers to serve the demand without putting up barriers for the patients.
Perfect competition is the market that usually applies for the healthcare industry because it encourages accessibility to a wide variety of provider specializations. It allows for help in every aspect of the patient’s health and wellness, from physical therapy to mental healthcare.
This structure provides infinite possible options of providers for patients to go to. By seeing what patient care looks like from competitors that offer the same services as your clinic, you can see what they’re missing and capitalize on it for your own patients.
What a monopolistically competitive market looks like for healthcare providers
A monopoly market means that one provider controls the supply, allowing that provider to determine the cost of the service. A monopolistic competition puts a little twist on that by taking similar services that can be provided by many suppliers while emphasizing their differences. This is applicable to clinics that provide a common treatment, such as manual therapy or sports performance therapy, but the process can vary from provider to provider.
If you’re in a monopolistically competitive market due to your specialization, analyzing the way that services are carried out by other providers can help you determine what benefits of your services you can promote to your patients. For example, you may have an employee who has a certification in a technique that can provide better results than your competitor’s options.
Want to attract new visitors to your clinic’s website in a competitive market? BURG+CO. can help
Increasing traffic to your website plays a role in increasing conversions and leading to new clients. However, it’s difficult to attract visitors to your site when you don’t know what to do. Fortunately, this is what we specialize in at BURG+CO.
Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
