Going beyond billboards to attract patients

Consumer-centric titans, such as Amazon or Walmart, are accelerating their efforts to increase market share in the healthcare sector. Meanwhile, smaller startups compete to disrupt the industry by claiming to offer more efficient solutions for patients and providers without the red tape.

As a result, some health systems are at risk of having their messages overshadowed by more cutting-edge tactics. To stay competitive, healthcare organizations’ marketing teams are implementing tools aimed at better personalizing campaigns for consumers, while also using a range of advertising platforms to stand out in their communities as a go-to choice.

“When you think of advertising and marketing, it’s easy to default to the shiny billboard and the digital signs on the trains and in transit,” said Debbie Cohn, vice president of marketing and digital communications at NYU Langone Health. She emphasized the need to connect the experience of prospective patients with that of existing patients.

“I think often there’s just too much emphasis placed on that brand level above the line,” she continued, referring to broad, untargeted campaigns.

Marketing teams measure success in different ways, including by implementing attribution models to determine a campaign’s impact on metrics such as patient appointments. Equipped with that information, the team can then funnel resources to the channels working best, said Ed Gibson, managing director of marketing transformation and technology in life sciences and healthcare at Deloitte Digital.

The goal for healthcare marketing teams is to deliver a more consumer-centric message and make it easier for patients to interact with the organization, including by seeking care.

Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, adjusts public-facing messaging based on the demographics in the communities it serves, said Laurel Burgos, executive director of marketing and communications. The hospital seeks to feature diverse people in radio spots or visual images. For example, its video campaign to promote safe sleeping environments for infants uses Black and white healthcare professionals in an effort to better resonate with different neighborhoods.

A smaller operation like Woman’s Hospital has fewer marketing resources compared with larger health systems and must quickly pivot strategies to adequately reach the patients in its service area, Burgos said.

In 2021, it launched a safety-focused campaign via digital ads, the organization’s website, print ads and radio spots to encourage OB/GYN patients to return to facilities for care, despite the continued spread of COVID-19. After the virus’ first few surges subsided, the hospital began reminding patients via print ads, digital marketing and text messages to set up their regular mammogram and breast cancer screening appointments.

Woman’s Hospital uses a variety of touchpoints to connect with the community beyond explicitly encouraging patients to seek services. For expecting mothers, the hospital has a free app allowing them to track their pregnancy week by week, giving them access to ultrasound photos, a kick counter and their list of favorite names. The Unprivate Parts podcast is another way to stay present in the public’s awareness, with episodes covering topics ranging from cancer and birth defects to sexually transmitted infections.

During the pandemic, Woman’s Hospital temporarily converted its Baby Grand educational fair for soon-to-be parents to a talk show-style YouTube livestream, sharing health and safety information from experts and pediatricians with hundreds of people. The team has also posted on TikTok about breastfeeding holds, garnering widespread attention online, and plans to do more on the popular platform, Burgos said.

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Health systems’ marketing teams can utilize third-party technologies to encourage specific groups of patients to seek care at their facilities.

Charleston, South Carolina-based MUSC Health uses a customer relationship management system that pulls information such as patient survey responses, census records or claims documentation from its databases and other entities. The marketing team, which works primarily on digital campaigns, then targets consumers based on specific criteria and relevancy. If a woman is over age 40, for example, MUSC would send her messages encouraging mammogram screenings, said Kelly Perritt, executive director of marketing campaigns.

“I think you have to understand what is most important to your audiences … because sometimes people don’t look at it necessarily from the audience’s standpoint,” Perritt said. “We work to try to disrupt the things that we’re doing, to change, to … do things better, and we will partner with other organizations to help us with this.”

MUSC is trying to stand out as a go-to expert on health in its community, which could potentially lead to new patients in the long term. The team conducted patient surveys and gathered data from search engines to narrow down the information for which members of the public are looking.

“Instead of saying ‘MUSC, Medical University of South Carolina, cardiology,’ [people searching online] would say, ‘Who do I see for heart palpitations?’ ” Perritt said.

The health system launched the Advance with MUSC Health website in 2021 to respond to these types of queries. The marketing team collaborates with in-house subject-matter experts to create blog articles, podcast episodes and videos aimed at answering common medical questions and promoting wellness. It also distributes content to a list of email newsletter subscribers, typically people who have been patients at MUSC. As of May 2022, Advance had logged more than 76,000 new web users and 1,655 unique listeners tuning into its podcast. It also reported a 74% increase in e-newsletter subscribers since the launch.

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RWJBarnabas Health’s marketing team of more than 70 people knew it had to be strategic in how it engages with demographically diverse and densely populated urban markets. Headquartered in West Orange, New Jersey, RWJBarnabas is sandwiched between the highly competitive New York and Philadelphia markets. The team takes a hyperlocal approach with a health equity lens, said Michael Knecht, chief marketing and communications officer.

To achieve that, the marketing department works with leaders from its population health, community outreach and diversity, equity and inclusion teams on a campaign’s theme and tone. It also sometimes reaches out to members of the public. In 2017, RWJBarnabas opened the Babs Siperstein PROUD Center, a primary care clinic for LGBTQ patients in Somerville, New Jersey. In addition to providing medical treatments, the center was a potential way to build trust with different communities, extending RWJBarnabas’ market footprint.

The health system called upon LGBTQ leaders in the community, who worked on a volunteer basis to help craft the center’s programs and to inform residents—and potential patients—about the clinic’s services. The PROUD Center served 1,400 patients in 2021, compared with 200 in its first year.

NYU Langone’s Cohn said health systems need to consider the full spectrum of what marketing can be.

NYU Langone, based in New York City, has a marketing-tech, or “MarTech,” group focusing specifically on using digital tools to connect with communities. The health system’s app enables the organization to reach patients quickly, in addition to allowing patients to make appointments, pay bills and message physicians, Cohn said. Automation paid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the system could alert patients about their vaccine eligibility and steer them to the correct location.

To attract potential patients, NYU Langone’s team uses its data and analytics capabilities. It scouts out individuals and target messaging to them based on specific service lines or broader topics, such as quality or digital access. An NYU Langone spokesperson said its data sources change based on where the system is focusing its efforts—such as public awareness, consideration or conversion—and declined to provide further information about specifics.

Caitlin Cronk, senior director of digital product at NYU Langone, said the MarTech group views its outreach efforts, from targeting prospective to existing patients, as one holistic experience.

“We want the digital experience to be the same as it is if you’re here, if not better,” Cohn said.

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Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Novant Health is investing in multiple automated touchpoints for consumers, aimed at making the process of finding care more seamless. Nearly 80% of Novant’s consumers use its website, through which the system can share medical center locations, promote available services and direct consumers to the MyChart platform.

The health system last year launched a complementary digital care platform, Novant Health Now, billed as a resource for experts, support and information. Two key features are a virtual assistant, which can be used to schedule appointments or locate services, and a physician matcher, which helps consumers find the right provider based on preferences.

Novant Health Now, meant to draw in existing and would-be patients, is gaining traction with users. According to the health system, the platform’s physician matcher has a 10% conversion rate, compared with an approximately 5% rate for the search results page, the location pages and the physician-finding tools on the website homepage.

Overall, a brand should create an emotional connection with consumers, said Jesse Cureton, chief consumer officer at Novant. The health system has an advisory council of about 8,000 patients and community members who provide feedback on the organization’s services and features, he said. Novant offers gift card incentives for participating in some of the council’s activities.

Some marketing teams are changing their overall structure to be more effective.

In the last few years, Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger has shifted its marketing and communications strategy from a geography-based model to one that instead focuses on certain service lines or programs, such as cardiology or Medicare Advantage. In 2021, the team filmed patients telling stories in their own words about their care experiences at Geisinger to use in TV spots and long-form videos.

The 110-person marketing division includes a digital engagement team, which is responsible for ensuring common access points—a public website, CRM outreach and social media posts—present a unified message to more smoothly direct consumers to services. It collaborates with clinical operations and IT teams to achieve the same objective with specific authenticated portals, such as the consumer-facing MyGeisinger portal, said Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Don Stanziano.

“We’re really meeting, I think, our customers where they are,” Stanziano said. “No one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Gee, I wonder what my hospital is offering today.’”

Instead, he said, “People want solutions to their health problems, so either you have an issue that you want addressed, you want to understand why you’re having certain symptoms [or] you want to know where to go when you have a difficult diagnosis.”

Healthcare organizations’ marketers should look to answer those questions, he said.

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