Impact of Digital Marketing on Patient Acquisition for Hospitals in a Tier-3 City (Tilda, District-Raipur)

This qualitative study evaluates the effectiveness of digital marketing in patient acquisition across five healthcare institutions in Tilda, a representative tier-3 city in Raipur District, Chhattisgarh. Despite hospitals allocating 8-12% of their marketing budgets to digital channels, only 10-15% of daily outpatient department (OPD) footfall originates from online sources. Through patient surveys (n=227), administrator interviews, and digital analytics reviews, three critical barriers were identified: 1) a trust deficit in digital health information (with 72% of patients preferring local referrals), 2) infrastructure and connectivity limitations, and 3) mismatched content strategies (vernacular adoption less than 15%). The paper proposes a hybrid engagement model that blends community partnerships with mobile-first content to bridge the analog-digital divide in semi-urban healthcare marketing.