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Pop Digital Marketing
In Advertising, E-Marketing, , LinkedIn, Marketing, Small Business,

10 Healthcare Marketing Trends to Watch in 2026

10 Healthcare Marketing Trends to Watch in 2026

Healthcare marketing is shifting faster than ever. Between new regulations, emerging platforms, and changing patient behaviors, organizations that stay ahead will be the ones that continue to build trust, attract patients, and retain top talent.

At Pop Digital Marketing, we’re keeping a close eye on the trends shaping 2026. Here are ten niche but critical ones healthcare leaders need to know.

1. Hyper-Local SEO for Care Gaps

Search isn’t just about “near me” anymore. In 2026, Google’s algorithm will favor providers filling specific care gaps in underserved neighborhoods. Healthcare organizations that build micro-location landing pages highlighting community-specific needs—like Medicaid access in certain zip codes or bilingual clinicians—will see higher visibility.

2. AI-Generated “Patient Companion” Content

Beyond standard blogs, AI-driven tools are creating personalized resource hubs for patients post-diagnosis. Imagine a diabetes clinic offering an AI companion page that adapts to a patient’s stage of care, FAQs, and even family concerns. Organizations that safely leverage AI to provide personalized content at scale will differentiate themselves from generic health systems.

3. Trust Signals > Trendy Content

Patients are overwhelmed by health misinformation. In 2026, trust signals—like doctor-led video explainers, community board endorsements, and real-time insurance verification—will matter more than flashy campaigns. Marketing will shift toward showing credibility and transparency over clever branding alone.

4. TikTok Health Disclaimers Become Mandatory

New FTC guidelines are expected to require disclosure tags for healthcare content on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Clinics and providers will need legal-approved disclaimers embedded directly in short-form videos. Those who prepare their creative pipelines for compliance now will avoid headaches later.

5. Patient Advocacy Marketing

Referral sources used to be doctors. In 2026, many referrals will come from patient advocates—parents, caregivers, or condition-specific community leaders with strong digital voices. Smart healthcare organizations will build ambassador programs, offering resources and recognition to these advocates to amplify brand credibility.

6. Crisis-Ready Reputation Playbooks

With AI deepfakes and online reviews getting harder to regulate, healthcare systems will need pre-built crisis response frameworks. These include ready-to-go statements, staff social media policies, and “positive story banks” to counteract damaging narratives. Reputation management will no longer be reactive—it will be a budgeted, proactive strategy.

7. Voice Search for Accessibility

Patients with disabilities and seniors increasingly use voice search (“find a rehab center covered by Medicare near me”). Optimizing for conversational queries and ensuring accessibility-friendly website design will be non-negotiable. Healthcare brands that align their SEO with accessibility will expand both reach and equity.

8. Wellness Partnerships with Non-Health Brands

Expect to see more collaborations between healthcare providers and lifestyle brands. From gyms to meal delivery services, partnerships will be marketed as whole-patient care ecosystems. Organizations that align with wellness-adjacent industries will open new referral pipelines and cross-marketing opportunities.

9. First-Party Data Loyalty Programs

With cookies gone, healthcare orgs will rely heavily on first-party data. In 2026, this means loyalty-style programs: newsletters that adapt to patient behavior, personalized reminders, or “member dashboards” for families. Treating patients like members—not just appointments—will deepen retention and trust.

10. The Rise of “Employer-Facing” Marketing

Employers are now gatekeepers of healthcare choices through insurance partnerships and workplace wellness programs. Smart healthcare marketers will shift part of their ad spend and events strategy to employer HR departments—making the case for why their clinic, center, or program should be the preferred partner in company plans.

Healthcare marketing in 2026 won’t be about chasing every shiny platform. It’s about staying compliant, building trust, and reaching patients and caregivers where they are—with transparency, personalization, and accessibility leading the way.

Ready to put these trends into action? Our team at Pop Digital Marketing specializes in helping healthcare organizations build campaigns that anticipate change and deliver results. Get in touch with us today to learn how we can design a marketing strategy tailored to your patients, referral sources, and community.

Pop Digital Marketing
In Advertising, Blog, Marketing, Small Business

Local Love: Why Chicago Small Businesses Deserve Big Brand Strategy

Chicago Small Business Blog

There’s something special about building a business in Chicago. Maybe it’s the energy of the neighborhoods, the hustle of the busy downtown, or the grit it takes to show up every day—rain, shine, or lake-effect snow. We know it well – because we’re a Chicago small business, too. At Pop Digital Marketing, we’ve worked with clients from all different types of industries. From fine jewel companies to healthcare clinics, our passion has always been rooted in helping local businesses grow. Here’s why we believe small businesses in Chicago deserve the same strategy and support as the big guys—and how we’re helping make that happen. 

We’re a Chicago business, too. 

Pop Digital was built in the heart of the city. We’ve walked the same sidewalks as our clients, enjoyed the same street festivals, and held strategy sessions in the same corner cafés. We know what it takes to build a brand here—not just online, but on the ground. We’ve seen firsthand how powerful it can be when a business doesn’t just blend into the market but wholly owns its place in the community. That’s why we do what we do. 

What makes local brands powerful? 

Small businesses often assume they need a huge budget or massive following to stand out. This is not always true. 

 In fact we believe, local brands have something national ones don’t: 

  •  Proximity 
  • Personality 
  • Real-time feedback 
  • Deep community connection 

 Your audience doesn’t just want to know what you do. They want to know who you are. What you stand for. How you show up in the neighborhood. That’s a story worth telling—and marketing should help you tell it well.  

How we bring ‘big agency’ strategy to small business budgets 

We know what it’s like to have a big vision and a limited budget. So we’ve built our services around flexibility, clarity, and ROI—not fluff. 

 Here’s how we help small businesses show up like big brands: 

  • Custom brand story development—so your message is clear, cohesive, and easy to share 
  • Smart design, from logos to flyers to full-scale rebrands 
  • Strategic social media content that actually speaks to your audience 
  • Website and SEO updates that make it easier for people to find (and trust) you 
  • Consulting sessions to map out your next steps, based on your goals 

Big impact doesn’t require big spend—it requires strategy, creativity, and consistency. That’s what we do best.  

Chicago clients, real results. 

Some of our favorite work has come from helping Chicago-based small businesses level up their brands and connect with their communities. Whether it’s spotlighting local voices or creating marketing systems that scale, we’ve seen what happens when small business owners have the tools (and confidence) to market with intention. That’s what we’re here for. 

Want to grow your brand with a team that gets your city? 

Let’s talk growth. We’re ready when you are. 

 

Explore our services 

Follow our socials:

Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn

Pop Digital Marketing
In Advertising, Blog, Marketing, SEO, , Tips

What to Do When Your Content Stops Performing  

content marketing tips

You’ve been there. 
Your posts used to get clicks. Your emails used to convert. Your blog used to rank. 
Now… not so much.  

If your content has started to flatline, don’t panic. Performance dips are normal—especially as platforms evolve, algorithms shift, and audiences tune out from sameness. The good news? A few strategic moves can breathe new life into what you’ve already built.  

Here are five ways to get your content back on track—plus how Pop Digital Marketing can help you make it stick.  

1️. Revisit the Data—But Look Beyond Likes 

It’s easy to chase vanity metrics, but the real story is in the patterns.  

Check:  

  • Time-on-page (are readers actually engaging?) 
  • Click-through rates (are your CTAs compelling?)  
  • Search terms driving traffic (is it still relevant?)  

Pro Tip: Declining numbers aren’t always a failure—they’re feedback. They tell you where to dig deeper.  

2️. Update, Don’t Abandon  

If a blog, email, or landing page used to work, don’t scrap it—refresh it.  

  • Add recent stats or industry shifts  
  • Improve headlines and meta descriptions 
  • Reposition the content to align with current search intent or audience needs  

Sometimes, all it takes is a little polish to make an old piece shine again.  

3️. Repurpose High-Value Pieces into New Formats  

If your audience isn’t reading, maybe they’re watching. Take a strong-performing blog or email and turn it into:  

  • A video script or Reel  
  • A LinkedIn carousel  
  • A webinar talking point  

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel—just spin it in a new direction.  

4️. Test Something New (Without Starting from Scratch)  

Try A/B testing your:  

  • Subject lines  
  • Instagram hooks or first-frame visuals  
  • CTA buttons or copy  

Low-lift tests can lead to big learnings—without overhauling your entire strategy.  

5️. Talk to Your Audience Again  

If your content is falling flat, it might be because you’ve stopped listening.  

Revisit:  

  • Client questions from emails or sales calls  
  • Comments and DMs  
  • Keyword trends in your space  

Your next best content idea might be sitting in your inbox right now.  

Let’s Fix It—Together  

At Pop Digital Marketing, we help brands realign and rebuild when things start to stall.  Whether it’s a one-time audit or ongoing strategy support, we’ll work with you to:  

  • Diagnose what’s not working  
  • Build fresh content that connects  
  • Create systems that keep your campaigns moving forward 
  • Want help reviving your content?  

Let’s book a quick strategy call.  

 

Pop Digital Marketing
In Advertising, E-Marketing, Marketing, SEO, , Tips

5 Marketing Moves to Make Before Summer Hits 

Taking small steps now will create serious momentum later. 

At Pop Digital, we know the spring-to-summer transition can be chaotic. Between shifting priorities, seasonal campaigns, and that creeping vacation mindset, it’s easy for marketing to fall into reactive mode. But here’s the good news: a few intentional moves now can set your summer strategy up for success—without the scramble. 

Whether you’re a solo founder or part of a growing team, these five actions will help you stay ahead of the game: 

1️. Audit Your Email List 

A cluttered list = a diluted message. Take 20 minutes to clean up your email list: 

  • Remove bounced addresses and inactive subscribers 
  • Segment your audience for smarter targeting 
  • Revisit your welcome series and automations 

This quick cleanup can boost your open rates, increase deliverability, and help your content reach the right people. 

2️. Repurpose Top-Performing Content into Reels 

Your best ideas don’t need to live once. Revisit your top posts from the past quarter and give them new life as Instagram Reels, TikToks, or short-form video ads. 

  • Turn a blog intro into a video script
  • Animate a carousel into a voiceover clip
  • Share a testimonial as a 15-second punch 

Video still leads the pack in engagement—make it work for you with content you’ve already proven. 

3️. Run a Test Campaign 

Not sure what’s clicking? Test it. Launch a low-lift test campaign with: 

  •  New messaging or offers 
  • A fresh audience segment 
  • Alternate visuals or ad formats 

You’ll gain insights fast, refine your creative, and avoid wasting time (and budget) on the wrong strategy come summer. 

4️. Update Your Website Keywords 

Search behavior shifts with the season. Make sure your site content reflects what your audience is actually searching for. Look for opportunities to: 

  • Refresh headlines and meta descriptions 
  • Add seasonal blog content 
  • Optimize your top service pages 
  • Resubmit your site for indexing on search consoles

A well-optimized site boosts visibility when your audience is most active—and ready to convert. 

5️. Batch + Schedule Your Content 

No one wants to be scrambling for social posts in mid-July. Block off a few hours now to: 

  • Pre-plan your content calendar 
  • Batch captions and visuals 
  • Schedule your posts across platforms 

Summer should be for creativity—not chaos. 

You don’t need a complete rebrand or massive campaign to make your marketing work smarter. A few focused tweaks can create space, clarity, and serious momentum. 

At Pop Digital Marketing, we help businesses do exactly that—with collaborative strategy sessions, real-time campaign support, and targeted consulting designed to move the needle. 

Whether you need help refreshing your website SEO, creating a smarter email flow, or mapping out your summer content calendar—we’re here to roll up our sleeves and build it with you. 

 Ready to make your next move? 

Let’s talk strategy – email: info@popdigitalmarketing.com 

Explore our services 

 

Pop Digital Marketing
In Advertising, Blog, E-Marketing, , How to, LinkedIn, Marketing, , Tips

Marketing During the Summer Season: Maximize Your Strategies 

With summer in full swing, you may have seen a slight dip in engagement and sales while consumers are in “vacation mode.” It can be difficult to capture your audience’s attention as more people are spending less time on the internet and more time outside. According to a study by Fanpage Karma, they saw 39% more reactions on rainy days in spring, autumn, and winter than on sunny days. Despite the low activity, you can get the most out of the summer season with these marketing tips to encourage more interactions.

Here are 4 recommended tactics to keep your marketing strong and your audience engaged over the summer:   

Retarget Ads 

With increased sunshine, people are more likely to spend less time online, making it more difficult to drive sales and gain your consumer’s attention. Luckily, there are ways you can optimize your strategy with this trend in mind. Retargeting your ads on Facebook and Google allows brands to engage with their visitors long after they have left your website. These targeted ads will keep your business at the forefront of visitors’ minds while building trust and encouraging recent visitors to return to your site. 

Summer Holidays 

Take advantage of the Summer Holidays and find ways to tie them into your marketing strategy. You can also incorporate National Holidays into your campaign that are interesting to your unique audiences. 

Building a sense of urgency by creating timer popups for holiday sales/promotions through targeted emails is another way to capture your audience’s attention. 

Time to Experiment 

Test out new, various methods with your audience during the summer months. This could be expressing appreciation to your customers through email campaigns, partnering with other businesses to promote products/services, sending out company merch like coffee cups or t-shirts, or pushing loyalty programs that incentivize sales during a typically slow period. 

Do not be afraid to take risks and step out of the box with your marketing strategies. Creative campaigns are a great way to connect with your audience and stand out from your competition. It’s all about differentiating your company.

Take Advantage of Social Media 

You may see a decline in engagement during the summer months, but do not let that discourage you and slow down your posts. Try to incorporate that fun summer feeling into your feed and create creative content that encourages your audience to engage. This could be a call-to-action, summer-themed hashtags, seasonal videos, or hosting a contest to engage your audience. 

Make sure to be posting consistently at optimal times throughout each week. Decreasing your post times can negatively affect your posting algorithm and ultimately who sees your posts. You may need to adjust your current schedule as your audience may be active at various times of day during these warmer months.  

Marketing in the summer is full of potential, so make sure that your company is taking advantage of all the great opportunities available. Summer is the perfect time to be creative and discover new ways to engage your audience while creating maximum exposure during this traditionally slow time. 

 

Robyn Ackerman
In Advertising, , Instagram, , Tips

How Facebook’s Latest Change Will Significantly Impact Ad Targeting

Meta for Business and Facebook just announced that beginning Jan 19, 2022, they are removing “detailed targeting options” from the Ads Manager Tool that would be considered “sensitive topics” such as: 

  • Health causes (e.g., “Lung cancer awareness”, “World Diabetes Day”, “Chemotherapy”) 
  • Sexual orientation (e.g., “same-sex marriage” and “LGBTQ+ culture”) 
  • Religious practices and groups (e.g., “Catholic Church” and “Jewish holidays”) 
  • Political beliefs, social issues, causes, organizations, and figures 

For clients of PDM, many of which provide services in the healthcare, education or professional service  industries, this can have a negative impact on personalized ad reach. 

Thankfully, there are still ways to reach your audience: 

5 methods your company can implement to still drive conversions through Facebook Ads in 2022 

  1. Engagement Custom Audiences: Reach people who have liked your page or people who have engaged with your posts in their News Feed. These people have already expressed a direct interest in your services or products and ads will yield a higher success rate if shown to them. 
  2. Location Targeting: If you own a brick-and-mortar or are advertising a local event, you can reach people in a specific vicinity using location targeting.  For businesses that offer services in the home, or companies that ship products, you may set your radius around serviced zip codes and your ad will be shown to people in those targeted areas. 
  3. Lookalike Audiences: Similar to Engagement Custom Audiences, Lookalike audiences can be built to target Facebook/Instagram users that fall under the same user categories as a seed audience.  Use this option if you want to broaden your reach to people who share interests, locations and have purchased products or services similar to yours.
  4. Website Custom Audiences: You can build a list on Facebook Ads that retargets anyone who has previously visited your website. Using Website Custom Audiences is a powerful remarketing tactic that will increase your conversions by 56%. 
  5. Customer Lists. If you have already built customer email lists in your own CRM tool and have permission from subscribers to use their information, you can upload your lists into Facebook’s Custom Audiences. This tool will help you target, retarget, and stay top of mind with old and new customers.   

Initially, once these changes take effect in January, you may experience a drop in conversions. However, if you set up your ads using any of the above approaches, you can avoid a big decline and keep your engagement and conversion numbers growing. 

Looking for help getting your ads set up? Reach out to a Pop Digital Marketing specialist and Get Discovered. 

Robyn Ackerman
In Advertising, Marketing,

Diversity Marketing: Creating A Strategy That Works

 A recent study conducted by Adobe found that “61% of Americans find diversity in advertising important”. The modern consumer wants to feel seen by brands and diversity marketing is the key to achieving your audiences’ trust and approval. 

Diversity marketing allows your business to approach the market from a variety of angles and widen your reach. Brands often fail because their marketing is too narrow and doesn’t represent ‘real’ people in the present society. The present & future of marketing is now and it is diverse. Consumers are paying attention, are you? 

What Is Diversity Marketing? 

Diversity marketing is a marketing strategy that appeals to multiple groups of consumers. Successful diverse marketing stems from having a deep understanding of various cultures so that you can create effective and authentic content for your target audience. Brands often fail to reach these markets because their strategies are too narrow, only appealing to one or two specific groups.  

If you want to create an effective diverse marketing strategy, you need to go that extra mile to research and truly understand these diverse groups. You should learn about your target audience by asking questions and experimenting. The more effort you put forth helps to ensure that your brand’s diversity marketing strategy is a success.  

3 Steps in Creating a Successful Diversity Marketing Strategy: 

             

1. Learn and Understand your Company’s Diverse Market 

The first thing to do in diverse marketing is to dive deep into your consumer’s minds and learn about these different groups that exist. According to a recent report from Facebook, “most (71%) expect brands to promote diversity and inclusion in their online advertising”. Take the time to understand these groups and learn how they would want to see themselves in media, be spoken to, and discussed. 

2. Add Inclusive Imagery into Your Content 

People want to be able to see themselves in a brand’s advertisements and content. If a brand is only using images portraying one type of person, they are narrowing their audience. According to a report from Heat Test, “69% of brands with representative ads saw an average stock gain of 44% in a seven-quarter period ending last year”. Having a wider, more inclusive representation in your brand’s imagery is a key factor in a successful diverse marketing strategy. 

3. Strategize Ways to Prevent Tokenism 

Tokenism is the practice of only doing a symbolic effort to do a particular thing. This is basically when brands singularly try to appear more inclusive and diverse when they are actually doing this to just make their consumers happy. People are quick to know when a company is not authentic, and doing this can really damage your brand. Make sure you come from a place of sincerity and authenticity; this will ensure your diverse efforts will be a success.  

Successful Diversity Marketing: 

Creating a successful diversity marketing strategy doesn’t just benefit your brand and consumers, it influences the positive change of a more accepting cultural, inclusive, and diverse world. The team at Pop Digital Marketing aims to ensure our marketing strategies are as effective as possible for our clients. The more you understand your diverse audience, the more likely you will achieve success.  

Robyn Ackerman
In Advertising, Marketing, , Tips

How to use ‘Competitive Advantage First Language’ in your Marketing

The guidelines around how to develop effective messaging in your company’s ads have evolved considerably over the past 100 plus years. Fans of the TV show ‘Mad Men’ would be aware of the ad creation process in the 60s, which revolved heavily around storytelling via visual marketing collateral. And while that method is still well used, we now additionally rely on digital space advertising.

In the past, our ads drew on teasers, click-bait, and short descriptions in order to prompt prospects to click through to our product or service. As of the latest research, you have less than two seconds to grab the attention of a potential customer online – two seconds and they’re gone, they’ve already continued scrolling.

This means that the very first words a person sees on your posts, your ads and/or your website need to grab their attention immediately. One effective way to do this is by utilizing a competitive advantage first focused approach.

What is ‘competitive advantage first’ language’ marketing?

The competitive advantage first approach focuses on prioritizing your unique offerings, your differentiators in the very first copy of your ads – preferably at the beginning of the sentence.

If you’re unsure of what makes your company different, you’ll need to take a step back and do some hard research. Poll your current customers about what keeps them coming back, looks at what people are saying about your business in reviews, mentions on social, etc. What is it that comes up as the key defining feature that you want to be known for, and that others consistently refer to?

Why it works?

Very few businesses are entirely unique. There are likely hundreds or thousands of companies that do what you do, so you need to stand out to succeed. Catching the customer’s eye with your competitive advantage can be key to giving them a reason to click through.

Your secret sauce needs to be exactly what the customer needs, thinks he/she needs and/or doesn’t yet know they need yet. You are the answer to the question they’re asking.

Once you can adequately identify your competitive advantage, you can start working on the copy to place on your digital marketing campaigns. Your campaign language should visibly state how your service/product brings value.  If you only have those two initial seconds, it’s vital that the first words people see outline a value.

Remember to try and steer with positive adjectives, and to tailor each campaign to the audience you’re targeting.

Examples of Competitive Advantage First Language Ads:

Monday.com

This ad is a prime example of presenting its value to a select audience. Their Competitive Advantage? They’ve done research on their audience and know the demographics they are targeting respond to adjectives like “new generation”.  They lead with that claim.

Additionally, Monday.com claims to be the project management tool for Mac users.  Visually, they fill in their logo with the Mac brand colors to connect the two even further.

Allbirds.com

Allbirds successfully uses competitive advantage first language in this ad.  Look how they structure the ad copy under the video. Machine Washable is the biggest value and they placed that at the beginning of the sentence.  Normally it would be phrased, “When life gets dirty, you need machine washable shoes”.  But Allbirds took the value and restructured the sentence to grab the readers attention.

You can see how, by defining your key traits, you can boost your ad responsiveness. If there’s a key element you serve, it makes sense to highlight that in your copy – and with so little time to stop the scroll, you need to do so quickly.

 Need help with identifying your company’s Competitive Advantage? Let Pop Digital Marketing help you Get Discovered.