5 consumer personas to enhance your next healthcare marketing campaign

Have you ever wondered why some healthcare marketing campaigns seem to resonate deeply with patients while others fall flat? The difference often lies in how well the campaign—and the team behind it—understands its audience.

In an industry where personal connection and trust are crucial, generic marketing messages simply don't work. To truly connect with patients, healthcare providers must understand who their patients are, what they care about, and how they make decisions.

This is where consumer personas, or patient personas, come into play.

Consumer personas help marketers visualize their audience as real people rather than abstract demographics, offering a clear path to creating personalized, impactful marketing campaigns. So, if you’re looking to deepen your understanding of the market, outshine the competition, and reach the patients who would benefit the most from your care, then read on to learn about how to use consumer data and personas to personalize your healthcare marketing campaigns.

What is a consumer persona?

First, let’s dig into what a consumer persona is and the common informational components that comprise them.

A consumer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal patient or customer. Each consumer persona is grounded in real data about your existing patients (or potential patients if you’re opening a new service line), market research, demographics, psychographics, and behaviors.

When combined, these data points provide a detailed picture of a segment of your audience, with insights into their goals, pain points, lifestyle, values, communication preferences, and more. Having this information is critical for a successful healthcare marketing campaign, as patient decisions often involve deeply personal factors, such as health conditions, family concerns, or financial limitations.

Why are consumer personas important in healthcare marketing?

Consumer personas can provide tremendous value and insight to your organization. By developing detailed and accurate personas, healthcare providers can:

• Improve patient engagement by crafting messages that speak directly to patient needs
• Enhance patient experience and improve satisfaction at each step of the journey
• Target the segments that are most profitable or represent the highest growth potential
• Guide content strategy using insights on what information a patient may need or want, and what channels they use to engage with your organization

Creating your own consumer personas is an invaluable step in crafting targeted healthcare marketing campaigns, as it allows you to deeply understand and address the unique needs of your audience. However, gathering the necessary data to build these personas can be challenging and time-consuming, often requiring extensive research, data analysis, and patient feedback.

With our Population Intelligence product, we can accelerate this process dramatically. Population Intelligence leverages powerful patient and consumer datasets and analytics so you can quickly and precisely find your ideal consumers, segment audiences based on opportunity, and improve ROI.

5 consumer personas for your next healthcare marketing campaign

Every business will have unique consumer personas that align with their goals, geographic location, and many other factors. However, there are some common consumer personas you can use as a starting point when developing your next healthcare marketing strategy.

Using Population Intelligence, we’ve outlined five of the most common consumer personas:

Pastoral Upbringings

Individuals belonging to this persona are typically:

• Aged between 36-75
• Married homeowners
• Have at least one child; which may be living with them
• Located in towns or rural areas
• Have an average household income between $125,000 and $150,000
• Have careers in technical, clerical, and administrative fields

The Pastoral Upbringings persona represents individuals like Tom and Susan, a married couple in their mid-50s, living in a comfortable home in a rural town. Tom works as a manager at a local manufacturing company, while Susan is a school administrator, and both balance their time between their jobs and caring for their teenage child who still lives at home. With an average household income between $125k and $150k, they enjoy a stable lifestyle, allowing them to invest in home improvements, weekend getaways, and support their local community.

Based on Tom and Susan’s age, geographic location, careers, and income, we can make some informed assumptions about their healthcare preferences. As older adults living in a rural town, it is likely that Tom and Susan prefer local healthcare providers where they can build personal relationships rather than larger, impersonal hospitals in the city. They may be more inclined to visit a doctor’s office rather than use telehealth options because the technology does not serve their area, or they might not be aware of or know how to use it. Tom and Susan are likely to have strong small-town roots, so their decisions may be influenced by friends and family recommendations or by community norms.

When considering the Pastoral Upbringings persona for your marketing campaign, consider creating messages that highlight the personal touch and community involvement of your healthcare services. This can take the shape of positive testimonials or success stories that emphasize personal connections and building relationships with trusted, reliable healthcare professionals. The best channels to reach patients in this persona may be through traditional media, and education should be one of the goals of your marketing.

Comfortable Companions

Individuals belonging to this persona are typically:

• Aged 60 and over
• Married homeowners
• Have no children, or have adult children who don’t live at home
• Located in densely populated areas
• Have an average household income between $40,000 and $50,000
• Are retired, work part-time, or work white-collar jobs

The Comfortable Companions persona represents individuals like John and Linda, a married couple in their early 60s who live in a suburban area near a bustling city. Having recently retired or partially retired from their white-collar jobs, John and Linda enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle. With an average household income between $40,000 and $50,000, they are comfortable but mindful of their spending, prioritizing activities that enhance their quality of life, such as travel, hobbies, and staying socially active. John and Linda’s children are grown and have moved out.

Health and wellness are important to John and Linda, and they are more likely to seek out specialists than other types of healthcare professionals. Considering their age, John and Linda likely care about maintaining healthy behaviors that enable them to live actively and independently. These behaviors' importance should be emphasized in your marketing messaging, particularly attention to preventive care and lifestyle management. You may want to target Comfortable Companions with content around healthy aging, such as exercise routines and nutrition tips. Targeting them with direct mail campaigns, brochures, email newsletters, newspaper ads, and Facebook ads may be the most effective channels to engage individuals in this persona.

Scenic & Settled

Individuals belonging to this persona are typically:

• Aged between 36-75
• Married homeowners
• Without children
• Located in rural areas
• Have an average household income between $100,000 and $125,000
• May be retired, or work in white-collar, clerical, and technical fields

The Scenic & Settled persona represents people like Bill, a 45-year-old married homeowner living in a quiet, rural community. As a project manager for a construction company, Bill splits his time between the office and fieldwork, balancing a job he enjoys with the tranquil lifestyle he values.

Bill is practical and prefers straightforward healthcare solutions that fit into his busy schedule. He values familiarity and trust, favoring local healthcare providers where he feels known and understood. Technology isn’t foreign to him, and he appreciates reminders for preventive screenings, but he may use options like telehealth for minor consultations only.

When using the Scenic & Settled persona as a starting point for your next healthcare marketing campaign, consider highlighting services you offer that are accessible and convenient for those living in rural areas. Specifically, you should address concerns about availability of care and travel time. In Population Intelligence, approximately 72% of individuals in Scenic & Settled are male, so you should focus on healthcare services that address men’s health issues, such as heart health, prostate screenings, and mental health. People in this persona are likely to use social media like Facebook and YouTube where they may first seek information about their health. Videos, email newsletters, and targeted digital ads may be effective channels for engagement.

Prosperous Pastimes

Individuals belonging to this persona are typically:

• Aged between 36-75
• Married homeowners
• Without children
• Located in suburbs and cities
• Have an average household income of $250,000+
• Have careers in professional, technical, and managerial fields

The Prosperous Pastimes persona represents individuals like Carla, a late-30s software engineer at a major company in the city she commutes to. With an average household income of more than $250,000, and no children at home, Carla and her partner are free to spend money on hobbies, traveling to exotic locations, luxury items, investments, and more.

Given their high socioeconomic status, established lifestyle, and focus on personal wellbeing, individuals in the Prosperous Pastimes persona likely have access to high-quality providers and facilities, have a high level of health literacy, and are open to using technology-driven solutions thanks to the convenience and accessibility they provide—which Carla and her partner appreciate given their busy professional lives.

If you were to market to individuals in this persona, you may want to emphasize tailored health plans and wellness services. A concierge medicine program may be especially suitable for people within this segment, as they may be interested in having access to dedicated healthcare providers and exclusive programs. You may also want to appeal to their interest in cutting-edge medical technology, innovative treatments, and state-of-the-art facilities. It may be effective to engage this audience using targeted social media posts and digital ads or in-person events or seminars in affluent locations.

Practical Priorities

Individuals belonging to this persona are typically:

• Aged between 36-75
• Single or married
• May own or rent their home
• Have no children
• Located in rural or densely populated metro areas
• Have an average household income between $50,000 and $60,000
• Have careers in white-collar or blue-collar fields

The Practical Priorities persona represents individuals like David, a single man in his late 40s. David works as a mechanic in a bustling city where he lives in an apartment. With an average household income between $50,000 and $60,000, David prioritizes practical matters, such as budgeting, saving for the future, and maintaining a comfortable lifestyle. The costs of healthcare may be a concern, and so David may seek out affordable options such as generic medications. He may be less likely to go to regular check-ups or screenings due to cost or time constraints. Health literacy may vary, and due to David’s location and financial situation, he may have limited access to specialists and advanced treatments.

Given the Practical Priorities persona’s focus on affordability and practicality, your marketing strategy should emphasize cost-effectiveness, convenient appointment times and accessible locations. You may want to avoid medical jargon in your messaging in favor of highlighting value, incentives, and testimonials. Physical media like targeted mailers, brochures, and flyers posted in high-traffic areas may be effective for engaging some members of this audience segment.

Learn more

By developing detailed and accurate consumer personas, healthcare providers can create highly targeted campaigns that resonate deeply with their audience, improve patient engagement, and ultimately lead to better health outcomes.

The key to successful healthcare marketing is understanding the patient, and consumer personas provide the roadmap to that understanding.

Population Intelligence is a precision marketing solution that allows you to target these and other common consumer personas directly with pre-built fields so you can maximize your ROMI. It can help you leverage combined consumer and clinical data to elevate your marketing efforts and acquire and retain more patients. To see how it can help you drive growth, book a demo with Population Intelligence today.