Skip to main content
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Digital Health
    • Transformation
    • ESG
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • Data Center
    • Data Center Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • Newsletters
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Providers
October 14, 2017 01:00 AM

Guest Commentary: Healthcare marketing should focus on the individual

Nick Ragone
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Nick Ragone is senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for Ascension.

    Notwithstanding the ongoing debate about how to finance healthcare in this country, we know that the healthcare sector is experiencing a dramatic transformation, with consumerism at the heart.

    Digitally driven consumers have inspired all healthcare organizations—including providers, payers and retailers—to alter the way they market, communicate and, most importantly, deliver care.

    Consumers now have instant access to information about their choices, which has heightened expectations about what a seamless, end-to-end healthcare experience looks and feels like. And it has intensified the need for true direct-to-consumer marketing to win these consumers at every point of engagement.

    Put in its simplest terms, healthcare marketing today is all about delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time—and then measuring it. Gone are the days when brand awareness alone—through broadcast, billboards, sponsorships—is enough to persuade consumers on the best options for their healthcare needs.

    Healthcare marketing is no longer about qualitative awareness, but rather it's about quantitative, targeted tactics and prescriptive modeling. For large, integrated systems such as Ascension, it means doing grass-roots research and consumer behavior and language testing so that we can fully understand the populations we serve and anticipate their needs before they even enter our doors. It also means having a strong, accessible brand that consumers trust and find convenient and connected.

    It requires looking beyond audience segmentation and understanding the individual–a segment of one. Doing this properly necessitates understanding search trends, consumer behavior, media consumption, clinical and nonclinical health risk factors, and other data to truly understand the best way to reach individuals.

    These changes also push us to think bigger than billboard and newspaper ads. We have to be visible and available to our patients both before and right when they need us.

    We must also be committed to more-accessible, more-convenient and more-seamless care delivery. We need to make it easier for consumers to navigate our sites of care, both physically and online, and with mobile devices. This is no longer a nice to-do; it's a must-do.

    Case in point: Nearly 80% of healthcare engagements now begin with some type of online search, and the vast majority of those searches begin on a small device. That being the case, healthcare marketing needs to be geared toward winning at the point of engagement. Translation: less qualitative awareness, more quantitative marketing, and making sure the experience is mobile-friendly.

    When I speak to different organizations or groups about healthcare marketing, or even internally when I discuss it with leadership at Ascension, I begin by flipping the old marketing model on its head. Healthcare marketing used to be described as an upside-down pyramid, with the base on top representing awareness and the tip at the bottom representing consumer engagement, and lots of other things happening in between.

    In today's consumer-centric landscape, we have moved our marketing closer to the point of conversion.

    The top of the pyramid now represents access points, mostly online, through mobile-friendly physician scheduling tools and urgent-care appointments. The middle part of the pyramid is now a world-class web design that's mobile-friendly and connected directly to sites of care. And the base is now sophisticated, analytics-driven consumer relationship management.

    For this new quantitative, data-driven approach to work, healthcare providers must understand the needs of consumers better. As an organization, we have begun to readjust our marketing and clinical focus to see our hospitals through the consumer lens. Consumers are no longer peripheral to the equation; they are the equation. Consumers have begun taking their encounters in other industries and applying them to healthcare. This is a new approach that we wouldn't have considered a few years ago, but we're evolving in response to the dynamic needs of consumers today.

    The future of healthcare marketing

    Join thought leaders, hospital CEOs and senior marketing executives from top healthcare organizations across the country at Modern Healthcare's annual Strategic Marketing Conference Nov. 7 in Chicago. Learn more and register at ModernHealthcare.com/StrategicMarketing

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    The Check Up: Bobby Sepucha, Interwell Health
    The Check Up: Bobby Sepucha, Interwell Health
    hospital mergers roundtable
    CEOs sound off on mergers, healthcare disruptors
    Most Popular
    1
    More healthcare organizations at risk of credit default, Moody's says
    2
    Centene fills out senior executive team with new president, COO
    3
    SCAN, CareOregon plan to merge into the HealthRight Group
    4
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unveils big push that lets physicians take on risk, reap rewards
    5
    Bright Health weighs reverse stock split as delisting looms
    Sponsored Content
    Modern Healthcare A.M. Newsletter: Sign up to receive a comprehensive weekday morning newsletter designed for busy healthcare executives who need the latest and most important healthcare news and analysis.
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Digital Health
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • ESG
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Data Center
      • Data Center Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • Newsletters
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing