Drive engagement, loyalty, and better patient outcomes with personalized customer journeys
The importance of personalization
With the new year beginning, uncertainty in the marketplace continues to be a concern. However, there is one thing that will remain the gold standard in healthcare marketing: personalization. According to Salesforce,* 92% of marketers believe their customers and prospects expect personalized experiences. Patients are no different.
Consumers don’t want to be just another number, especially to their healthcare provider. And frankly, healthcare providers don’t want that either. Healthcare is personal. Every patient has unique needs, so it’s only natural that healthcare communications should reflect their individual situation.
By personalizing communications, providers and payers can:
Generate engagement by delivering content that’s uniquely relevant
Increase retention and loyalty by showing value on a consistent, individual level, driving patients forward in their customer journey
Enable better patient outcomes with triggered communications regarding care plans, vaccination reminders, and treatment updates
Epsilon research says 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with an organization if it offers a personalized experience.* And effectively personalizing each interaction and conversation with patients requires the right data. Understanding your prospects’ and patients’ wants, needs, and expectations helps you reach them at precisely the right time in their customer journey. You can engage with them more effectively when you understand their demographic information, geographic location, treatment plan status, medical background, and most urgent needs.
In our experience, there are three channels that allow you to maximize the power of your data and personalize each patient’s journey for optimal outcomes:
Top channel #1: Digital ads
With the help of a robust customer relationship management (CRM) tool, you can segment healthcare consumers and engage them with hyper-relevant digital ads. These ads can link to supporting content (e.g., blog posts, landing pages, treatment guides, healthcare surveys, eBooks, case studies, and more) that matters to them.
Interactions that strengthen the relevance of a brand or organization in the mind of a consumer drive engagement and ultimately foster long-term, loyal relationships. Through personalized digital ads, you can serve up the right content at the right time to garner a click – and spark the beginning of a prospect’s journey with you. And for current patients, you can reinforce your value by surrounding them with useful content infused into their browsing experience, meeting them where they are.
Top channel #2: Email
From highly-personalized outreach campaigns to treatment reminders to preventive care content, email is an ideal channel for reaching patients 1:1. When combined with proper segmentation and content targeting strategies, marketing automation and email personalization generate an ROI of as high as 400%.*
According to recent data from NotifyVisitors,* more than 90% of U.S. consumers respond positively to personalization techniques. They also affirm:
Personalized email marketing messages generate an ROI of +150%
Personalized email subject lines generate more than 50% higher open rates than non-personalized subject lines
When it comes to healthcare content, email as a channel provides enough real estate to tackle complex subjects, and gives patients a communication they can refer back to – whether it’s a helpful article or an appointment reminder.
Top channel #3: Direct mail
Perhaps the most impactful and intuitive personalization channel is direct mail. Sending a direct mail communication physically puts your message in the hands and homes of patients. And with today’s technology, marketers can even connect their CRM to a print platform and establish triggers to automatically send out personalized postcards and letters when a patient has taken an action or has reached a defined milestone. Creative can be customized by patient behavior, pharmaceutical brand, appointment locations, and more – far beyond the days of simply personalizing the recipient’s name.
Along with creating the opportunity for greater personalization, direct mail has also been proven to drive greater results. According to recent studies, direct mail open rates are 3-4X higher than email, with conversion rates of ranging from 2.7 – 4.4% (much higher than other channels).
Pragmatic is a digital and direct marketing agency providing strategic and creative services to healthcare organizations like yours.
We have extensive experience in building and executing personalized customer journeys, and we’d be happy to help optimize your marketing strategy. Please reach out with any challenges we can help you solve.
*Sources:
http://salesforce.com/blog/marketing-statistics-to-know/
https://www.slideshare.net/EpsilonMktg/the-power-of-me-the-impact-of-personalization-on-marketing-performance/1
https://nectarom.com/2018/10/05/4-ways-use-personalization-healthcare-marketing/
https://www.notifyvisitors.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics/
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