The digital age has empowered patients like never before. Today, nearly 60% of U.S. adults turn to the internet for health information, from researching symptoms to connecting with doctors. This new reality offers healthcare organizations unique opportunities for digital patient acquisition. This involves finding the right audience, understanding their online behaviors, and delivering relevant messages across the channels they frequent. Consumer data is the key to unlocking these insights and building winning strategies for engaging and acquiring consumers and patients in the digital space.
Know your target audience
Cracking the digital patient acquisition code starts with understanding your consumers. Who are you trying to reach? What are their healthcare needs and behaviors? Addressing these questions requires more than surface-level insights. Population-level intelligence into demographics, health conditions, and digital behavior can illuminate the path forward. Here's how:
1. Target the right patients and consumers with precision demographics
Demographic modeling can offer a nuanced view of consumers. By analyzing factors like age, education, household size, and more, you can identify specific consumer segments to create more meaningful and targeted engagements. For example, single individuals under 30 with a household income of $50,000 and no children represent a distinct target group with unique healthcare needs.
2. Predict consumer behavior with clinical propensity models
Understanding your target audience goes beyond demographics. Clinical propensity models offer deeper insights into consumer health behaviors. By combining de-identified claims data with consumer data, these models can predict the likelihood of individuals engaging in specific health-related actions. For example, you can identify populations likely to pursue weight loss programs, get vaccinated against the flu, or undergo annual mammograms. This predictive power enables you to proactively address their needs and offer tailored healthcare solutions to consumers likely to benefit from your product or service.
3. Meet your patients where they are with media and channel models
Understanding where your audience consumes information is also critical for digital patient activation. Media and channel models analyze digital behaviors to pinpoint the most effective platforms for engagement. Are your target consumers avid users of Facebook or TikTok? Do they frequently use health and fitness apps or subscribe to services like Amazon Prime? This analysis helps you select the best channels to deliver your messages and connect with your audience where they are most active.
4. Personalize messaging using social determinants of health (SDOH)
SDOH provide context on how various factors impact patient behavior and health outcomes. Factors like transportation access, educational background, and healthcare availability can significantly influence how and when patients seek care. By integrating SDOH models into your strategy, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the external factors affecting your target market, allowing you to address barriers and tailor your approach to meet their specific needs.
Activate your audience with managed campaign services
With a deep understanding of your target consumers and carefully defined segments, it’s time to activate your audience. That’s where digital advertising comes in. This involves quickly onboarding your audience onto a demand-side platform (DSP) to reach them with relevant ads across various channels. By leveraging data-driven insights, you can ensure that your advertising efforts are focused on the right people at the right time. This targeted approach can significantly improve marketing campaign performance and help maximize your return on marketing investment (ROMI).
Managing digital patient acquisition campaigns can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Consider partnering with a dedicated campaign management vendor to streamline your marketing efforts. This allows you to focus on core competencies while experts handle the complexities of ad copy development, tracking parameter implementation, and platform management.
Get the right data for digital patient acquisition
Successful digital patient acquisition hinges on having the right data. Definitive Healthcare’s Population Intelligence provides the critical insights you need to enhance your patient acquisition efforts. By offering predictive targeting and in-depth analysis of consumer demographics, behaviors, and media habits, our platform empowers you to better understand your market and reach the right consumers. Whether you're a healthcare provider, advertising agency, telehealth platform, or in medical supply or staffing, Population Intelligence can help you activate your ideal audience.
Ready to unlock the power of data-driven consumer and patient acquisition? Sign up for a demo today and start building your next successful marketing campaign.
