Healthcare
How marketing analytics drives decision-making in healthcare
Almost every sector around us is undergoing a digital revolution. Humans work with apps, devices, gadgets, and technologies daily to accomplish various tasks, leading to an exponential increase in data generation. Most organisations are trying to leverage data to better their products and services as it helps them achieve higher revenues through enhanced customer experiences. This is true for the healthcare sector, as data is a prized asset.
Today, the healthcare industry generates approximately 30% of the global data volume. An RBC Capital Markets article predicts that the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of healthcare data will touch 36% by 2025. Making sense of this data poses a mammoth challenge to healthcare enterprises. In a highly competitive and sensitive industry, success depends on how these organisations use marketing analytics on this data to drive decisions. To understand the impact of marketing analytics, let us look at some healthcare-related statistics.
The tale within statistical insights
It seems most people start their healthcare journey on Google. Statistics say 5% (one in 20) of all Google searches are related to health. People often find healthcare providers for their problems through these search results. Here is another statistic healthcare marketers should take note of. 94% of patients use online reviews to evaluate healthcare providers! It is time to get the patients to give those reviews because it matters. However, before you rush to get those reviews, look at the next insight. 81% of healthcare customers are unsatisfied with their experiences. So, there is reason enough to change strategies to ensure the satisfied ones leave good reviews and listen to the unsatisfied ones to better things and turn around their views.
Let us look at a few more numbers that suggest why marketing analytics should have a say in healthcare decisions. Once people research healthcare providers online, they prefer calling to schedule appointments because 88% of healthcare appointments happen that way. It indicates a massive potential in optimising your marketing towards driving more calls because calls convert to 10-15 times more revenue than web leads. These are a few valuable insights gained from the generic exponential healthcare data. Now, visualise the difference it can make to enterprises if they focus on analysing their data alone with such perspectives.
Why it matters
Healthcare customers are becoming more demanding by the day. Patients are willing to pay, but they expect the best. This expectation has compelled the healthcare industry to adopt new practices with an enhanced focus on customer experiences. Marketing analytics is one such practice that helps them understand customer expectations, improve marketability, and roll out services that appeal to all demographics.
However, healthcare marketing analytics is complex because of the volume, speed, variety, and lack of authenticity, as the data comes from diverse sources. This industry also has stringent data privacy regulations. Thus, it requires quality diagnostic tools that can intelligently categorise the data. However, unless healthcare providers overcome these challenges, they stand to lose. Perhaps, this is why we see a prediction of a 10% increase in healthcare digital ad spending in the US for 2023. The message has hit home, and most healthcare marketers are tailoring their customer conversations based on analytical insights. What can marketers do to ensure more impressions for their increased spend on ads?
An insight-based SWOT analysis
Healthcare enterprises should apply the SWOT analysis to the multi-faceted analytics insights to understand their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. With a little focussed effort, they can leverage their strengths through innovative marketing campaigns. The same strategy goes for weaknesses. For example, if they find they are not attracting a particular demographic, say elderly or children, they can analyse the cause, remedy it and run targeted campaigns to attract them. It can also help them analyse why some of their hiring ads garner better/poor responses from healthcare professionals.
Tracking micro trends such as brand performance, competition performances, and channel analytics can reveal potential vulnerabilities. It can help them capitalise on their opportunities to gain a competitive edge and prepare for and eliminate threats. Predictive analytics can help them make informed decisions about diversifying into different regions or services with a better understanding of market dynamics. For example, with current data old-age homes can prepare better for the influx of retirees looking to move in. Healthcare marketing analytics can provide insights to help all stakeholders, such as patients, healthcare professionals, and decision-makers. When decision-makers have access to multi-faceted insights, it brings objectivity and transparency into the decisions.
Drive a single call to action (CTA)
Disconnected marketing campaigns can lead to revenue loss. Healthcare data insights indicate that calls are the best way to get conversions. However, running different demographic campaigns with varied Call To Action (CTAs) won't yield desired results. Orienting all marketing campaigns towards one contact number to schedule appointments makes better sense. A single contact number makes for easier recall for people researching online to follow it up with a call. It also makes it easier for enterprises to monitor and track the progress of the campaigns to understand the ROI from such initiatives. Exploring customer support automation can help maximise the benefits from this initiative. Reaching out to different sections through a mix of traditional and digital marketing services with a single CTA across all channels, is a good strategy. It will lead to more calls and higher admissions. If healthcare enterprises back this up with continuous improvements in patient care, it can lead to more positive reviews. And that is the beginning of the cycle of the healthcare journey.
Reduce wasteful spending
Applying category spend analysis in marketing can help healthcare enterprises identify things going right and wrong. Using the right tools that integrate all data sources efficiently can help reduce wasteful spending, especially expensive ads not yielding results. It can help decision-makers to redirect wasteful spending into needful areas for better output. However, if they use multiple unintegrated tools, fragmented inputs may drive inaccurate decisions. When all significant decisions are data-driven with insights from marketing analytics, healthcare enterprises can focus on things that need attention, mainly improved patient care. This is the prime goal of healthcare enterprises.
Marketing analytics is transforming healthcare to ensure better care, higher value, and improved quality of life for the community. It benefits healthcare professionals, marketers, researchers, and all those who are invested in this industry to find insightful answers to questions around care management, customer engagement, and improved operational efficiency leading to better ROI.
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