Five opportunities for healthcare marketers to deliver a patient-first experience

The healthcare sector has experienced a huge amount of change over the last few years. The pandemic created a shift in how patients expect care to be delivered and the acceptance of virtual care and other digital tools is increasing steadily.

Today’s consumers, including more mature audiences, are more digitally savvy and are experiencing a personalised approach in many other areas of their lives. They are now looking for this experience with their healthcare provider. So, how can marketers support this and deliver a patient-first experience?

Let’s dive in…

Get personal

It’s not often as a healthcare marketer we can look to our consumer peers to see how it’s done. But that’s exactly what we need to do. By looking at DTC (direct to consumer) models, we can begin to see how we can enhance our interactions to meet our patients’ needs. How can you anticipate their needs, how can you offer flexibility and how can you create a seamless experience? Start by thinking about how you can use the data you’ve gathered to personalise your marketing efforts. What can you learn from the data you already have and how does that translate into a more personalised experience?

Create loyalty

Today’s consumers are more focused on forging long-standing relationships than ever before. By creating human to human connections, you can build trust and loyalty with your patients. Trust is paramount in the patient-first experience and so we’d recommend incorporating personalised ‘meet the team’ content within your marketing efforts. Whether that’s through spotlights in email marketing campaigns, or friendly faces and introductory videos on social channels, these can all enhance your patient’s experience.

Use your existing data!

When thinking about a digital marketing strategy, there really is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ so if you’re using the same ad copy, messaging, and imagery for your campaigns, it’s time to think again! Take a look at the data you already have and take into consideration their preferences. How can you build varying ad sets with different messaging to truly engage with your audiences. The same goes for email marketing – look at how you can segment your data to create a patient-first approach.

Create value through focused campaigns

As a healthcare organisation, you can easily broaden the content you share to drive value for your patients. Rather than solely focusing on physical health, look into how you can share content relating to general wellbeing too. You could partner with a local nutritionist to share monthly recipes, or with local leisure facilities to promote exercise classes. This content can also be tailored based on your audience data and will place your organisation firmly at the heart of the community.

Build resources

By building a whole host of online resources for your patients, you’ll increase trust, showcase your credibility, and position yourself as trusted professionals. These resources could focus around mental and physical first-aid, how to treat minor ailments, and how to prevent illnesses. Invest the time in creating this content whether it’s written or visual and then look at how you can build this into your marketing strategy to reach potential new patients.

We’ve been working with healthcare organisations for well over a decade now and can help advise you as your organisation looks to deliver a patient-first experience. You can read all about how we help KIMS Hospital here and if you’d like to get in touch, just fill in the form here.