Part 3 of our ongoing series discussing the 2022 HCP Communication Survey
According to Healthlink Dimensions’ 2022 HCP Communication Survey, 89% of providers consume information related to their profession outside the office for as much as an hour per day. Typical content sources include articles, journals,
videos – pretty much anything that helps treat
patients more effectively or run a practice
more efficiently.
Logically, digital healthcare marketers should target providers by segment – cardiologists in cardiology journals, office managers via articles on business operations, etc. This narrowcasting, however, may be counterproductive. Just like physicians who become so specialized that they lose perspective on broader medical issues, healthcare marketers also become so focused on disease- or specialty-specific outlets that they lose significant numbers of potential provider impressions. As the old saying goes, everything looks like a nail when all you have is a hammer.
Consider that cardiologist mentioned above. Digital marketing relies on relevance to the content. If the provider needs to research a specific condition, then a programmatic ad for a treatment for that disease makes sense. Something more generic to cardiology or irrelevant to the case at hand isn’t as likely to generate a response.
On the other hand, overlooking more general medical publications risks losing provider engagement. Revisiting that cardiologist, they likely will research something like COVID-19 that impacts both broader populations as well as their specialty to recognize those connections and where their practice best delivers positive results – especially when that care must coordinate with other specialists. JAMA becomes just as much of a must-read as something dedicated to their sub-sub-sub-specialty.
This growing recognition of the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to healthcare means that healthcare marketers must respond by calibrating outreach campaigns accordingly. Too much reliance on endemic healthcare marketing leaves unrealized provider impressions. Too general an approach won’t capture a provider’s attention due to a lack of immediate relevancy. And it takes accurate provider data, email addresses, and digital identities to build campaigns with sufficient sophistication to know when to apply a broader segmentation filter and when to zero in on specialty or disease state publications.
Engagement relies on both quantity and quality of response – and the right data and services partner helps maximize both. Your team needs accurate data, granular and intuitive segmentation, and a broader digital healthcare marketing ecosystem that helps determine when and how to get your message in front of providers. Not to mention clear reporting to recognize what works best, under which context.
Contact us at 404.250.3900 to learn how to build carefully calibrated, more effective digital marketing campaigns – from provider data and digital identities to how best to match outreach to content. And find those impressions you’ve inadvertently been leaving behind.