Marketing technology is continually evolving. Therefore, it makes sense to stay up to date with digital marketing trends for drug rehab centers. Failing to pay attention to what’s on the horizon is one sure way of falling behind your competitors in the addiction treatment space. The following are some of the more prominent marketing trends that you’re going to hear more and more about.
Voice is Going to Be More Powerful Than the Keyboard
Natural language processing existed for many years as an inefficient and unreliable novelty. Those days are long over. If you need examples, look no further than people using voice commands on their smartphones. Sometimes, it’s to ask a virtual assistant questions. Other times, it’s to say—rather than type—a text message.
The technology has clearly gotten much more sophisticated. In fact, virtual assistants are capable of learning in ways that weren’t possible just a few short years ago. Consequently, this makes voice processing one of the top digital marketing trends for drug rehab centers.
Roughly 3.5 billion searches are conducted on Google each day. Nearly a third of those inquiries are now voice searches. As technology is enhanced, that number will likely grow exponentially with each passing year.
When people do searches using voice, the dynamic is significantly different than if they’re typing search inquiries. For example, if you type a search term into Google, you’ll get back many pages of search results. To get your addiction treatment center into those pages isn’t terribly difficult (although it takes good addiction treatment seo marketing).
Contrast that with asking Siri a question. Usually, you’ll only get a few results—possibly only one. Therefore, your chances of acing a vocal search are significantly lower. This has enormous implications for your drug rehab center SEO strategy. Among the many emerging digital marketing trends for drug rehab, this may be the one that your facility can’t afford to be behind the curve on.
This brings us to a topic that’s unavoidable. When vocal commands, we’re talking about keywords searches that are going to be different than typed searches. In turn, that affects both keyword research and SEO strategy.
Clearly, people are more informal when they speak than when they write. That means keywords meant to rank for vocal searches have to be more conversational. For example, let’s say you have a drug rehab center in Cleveland. When individuals do a written search, they may type “drug rehab Cleveland.” A vocal search may be more like, “Where is there a drug rehab in Cleveland?” A Google search may possibly piece together “drug rehab” and “Cleveland” and deliver your page as a result. However, what happens if another webpage contains the exact phrase, “Where can I find drug rehab in Cleveland?” The answer is obvious: it’s probably going to rank higher than your page in a Google search.
Chatbots Are a Thing
For many types of businesses, chatbots are proving to be beneficial for customer service. One aspect has particular appeal: it’s very cost-effective. For consumers, chatbots respond faster than humans. They typically provide faster answers to questions, which appeals to people who don’t like waiting for anything.
For drug rehabs, chatbots are in no way a replacement for trained staff answering the phones. After all, some phone calls are coming from desperate people who need help immediately. However, when individuals have casual inquiries about addiction or addiction treatment, chatbots can be helpful. Maybe it’s not high on your list of digital marketing trends for drug rehab that you wish to adopt. However, over time your view may change, depending on how the technology progresses.
Some experts predict that chatbots will be responsible for something like 80% of business communications. Already a billion-dollar enterprise, chatbots seem poised to become a big deal. A year or two from now, chatbots may be the thing no addiction treatment center can do without. Only time will tell.
Video is the Big Picture
As the average attention span of consumers gets shorter, the value of video grows. As valuable as quality content is, it’s impossible to ignore the growing prominence of video on websites and social media. When faced with the opportunity to watch a video or read a blog, more and more people are opting for the video. For drug rehab centers, video has many applications. For example, it may be a good way to educate viewers about various treatment therapies.
In many industries, live video is becoming increasingly popular. Things like Facebook Live are tailor-made for products looking to grab attention. Although live video is an excellent way to sell a product, uses for drug rehabs appear more limited. Live video may not make it into your grab bag of digital marketing trends for drug rehab. And that’s OK.
One thing is certain—video is like an unstoppable train. It’s estimated just adding a video to an email can increase click-throughs by more than 200%. Putting a video on a landing page can boost conversion rates by 80%, according to some sources. These are numbers that drug rehabs can’t afford to ignore. Each facility must decide to what extent they should incorporate video. However, given the direction of the internet, drug rehabs ignoring video do so at their own peril.
Digital Marketing Trends for Drug Rehab – Are You Up To Speed?
Not all trends affect all companies equally. However, it’s likely that at least some of these trends are going to influence future marketing campaigns for your drug rehab center. As always, it’s wise to keep an eye on competitors. It’s a good way to gauge whether you’re keeping up with trends or getting left behind.
As always, working with a reputable digital marketing company is your best bet for integrating new trends smoothly into your marketing campaigns. As a Premier Google Partner, Dreamscape Marketing is well-positioned to keep your rehab center at the forefront technologically.
Call us today at 888-307-7304 or use our “Contact Us” page. Let’s discuss what digital marketing trends for drug rehab centers make sense for your facility.