Individualized care messaging is a high priority for healthcare marketing executives.
In a recent report, Smith & Jones shared several healthcare trends that will be essential for marketing executives at hospitals and health systems to focus on this year. Among the trends is a spotlight on the consumer. Due to competition from retail companies and drugstores, standalone urgent care centers, and on-demand virtual care companies, as well as a changed care delivery system due to the pandemic, hospitals and health systems must find ways to create strong branding relationships with patients and consumers. They must have a clear strategy including consumer-focused content and patient experience.
HealthLeaders connected with six healthcare marketing executives who talked about their organization's patient-centric focus.
Personalized care and messaging
Sherri Gilligan, MBA, chief marketing officer, Mayo Clinic
"Mayo Clinic's primary value is to put the needs of the patient first, and this mission is what motivates our team every day. Looking at 2022, our team will continue to focus on communicating to our audiences in a way that puts the needs of the patient first. An example of this is thinking about what messages are shared from Mayo Clinic and in what ways, and how those messages may impact a patient. I want a patient to receive messages that are relevant to them and their specific condition, and so we are thinking about how we can even further tailor our marketing messages and make them the most relevant for the specific person."
Mark Kandrysawtz, MBA, chief innovation officer, WellSpan Health
"Healthcare is personal; not one-size-fits-all. As marketers, we should be focusing on how we can continually make our products and services more individualized. At WellSpan Health, one of our focal points this year will be to implement platforms and capabilities that enable more personalization and increase engagement.
"We want our consumers who are working on wellness to connect with us in a meaningful way and develop a comfort level that carries over when they need something different in their healthcare. One of the ways we can accomplish that is by creating and curating high-quality content that resonates with consumers at different stages of their journey and across channels. We want to go beyond meeting consumers where they are at; we want to be a partner in their health and well-being and provide each person with the services specifically tailored to their individual healthcare needs."
Increasing digital engagement
Sandra Mackey, chief marketing officer, Bon Secours Mercy Health
"Building upon our successes from 2021, this year will continue to be about engagement—both internally with our associates and externally with our communities. We place a high priority on establishing a relationship with consumers before they need care as part of their wellness journey. Using data, we continue to develop engagement strategies to make healthcare easier for consumers. While we leverage a multitude of channels to deliver care solutions, we are primarily focused on digital channels, using tools like our mobile app to provide consumers with a myriad of self-service options."
Chrisie Scott, MBA, chief marketing officer, Virtua Health
"Consumers and their priorities are in a constant state of flux. Therefore, their journey with healthcare is never linear, even more so following the disruption of the pandemic. As marketers, we must find ways for our brand and marketing approach to be more holistic, accommodating the consumer's experience on every channel and meeting their needs in a compelling way with relevant, actionable information.
"In 2022, we plan to continue orienting to the consumer, using data and our digital tools like CRM to better segment, personalize, and connect people to the care and information that matters most to them. We are prioritizing engagement through a robust content-marketing strategy, reimaging our website to be a more intuitive and go-to resource, and focusing on the intentional design of the consumer experience."
Creating community impact
Nisha Morris, VP of marketing and communications, City of Hope Orange County
"This will be an exciting year for us because City of Hope will see the results of our efforts to enter the Orange County market when we open our cancer center this summer. My team and I have focused on understanding our patients' needs, building relationships within the community, intensifying our work with multicultural audiences, developing rich and meaningful content, and reaching out to our target audiences through extensive integrated messaging in a highly competitive market. To date, the response has been positive, and we know that we have made an impact by informing people about the lifesaving advances that we are bringing to the community."
Nick Ragone, JD, executive vice president, chief marketing and communications officer, Ascension
"We plan to continue our focus on health, safety, and wellness, highlighting the importance of connecting with clinicians who listen, and sharing the inspiring stories of our caregivers through our gratitude campaign. We're also going to continue to explore ways to leverage signature brand moments into mission-focused opportunities to support sustainable community impact and social change."
Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.