You’re in a unique race right now where everyone wants to personalize more, and yet no one knows exactly where the finish line is. And as you’re racing, there’s rumor of a terrifying PHI monster waiting to jump out and halt your progress.
But there’s enough data out there to inform healthcare marketers where the finish line is - generally at least (just a small amount of research will help guide you to it). And about that “monster”, it’s not as scary as you think it is.
We saw it in B2B during the 2010s. The personalization focused companies White Rhino worked with were top performers again and again.
McKinsey found a similar pattern and took it a step further. For organizations that have highly personal relationships with their customers, personalization matters more. We predict that trend will continue in healthcare, where personal relationships and very personal data are at the heart of the experience, and should yield even greater returns from personalization.
McKinsey found a similar pattern and took it a step further. For organizations that have highly personal relationships with their customers, personalization matters more. We predict that trend will continue in healthcare, where personal relationships and very personal data are at the heart of the experience, and should yield even greater returns from personalization.
That prediction is already coming true. At HCIC earlier this year, UCLA Health told us about what happened once they made personalized email nurturing a priority - higher engagement, increased patient visits, and increased revenue per visit.
Their marketing-driven efforts were linked to 41,000 unique patients in just six months. Their "new mom" campaign led to 5.9 follow-up visits on average per patient.
You may think email marketing is old news, but personalization capabilities have a way of breathing new life into underused tools.
But it’s not as simple as inserting <<First Name>> into your emails. Calling that personalization is like calling a microwaved dinner a home-cooked meal. Personalization needs to add value based on a deep understanding of your audience. Without that, you won’t know where to start.
A Good Place to Start
Chances are, you’re familiar with personas and journeys as a starting point, and maybe you’ve even created them before. But how are you using them today? Likely hidden in an old folder somewhere collecting dust.
That’s because they haven’t been adapted to fit healthcare. Initial patient journey maps and personas came from B2C and B2B with a heavy focus on transactional interactions and one-size-fits-all personas. They assume a single journey from awareness to decision. But that’s not how healthcare works.
It’s time to give healthcare personas a makeover.
Patients face multiple decisions and checkpoints along the way: getting symptoms checked, finding a doctor, picking a treatment, etc. Each phase of that journey requires different content and messaging - much of it influenced by the emotions that the individual patient is feeling and how they handle uncertainty.
Personalization in healthcare is effective when it focuses on the human and emotional elements critical to trust and care quality. It also has the potential to capture the emotional, logistical, and system barriers patients face - leading to better solutions that actually address their needs.
And really, that’s what it’s about - patient needs and expectations. You don’t need a complex personalization strategy to get started. You just need to understand what your patients are looking for and what kind of support they need. That starts with research. Conduct it on your own or join our upcoming healthcare personalization research study, but getting to know your patients better will lead to better outcomes for everyone.
