Hospitals, health insurers and other medical providers are moving millions of advertising and marketing dollars into getting more personal with patients.
Though they are running behind other industries, they are now entering the new digital realm using the Internet-based marketing strategy best known from the successful Obama and Trump political campaigns: “microtargeting.”
At core, microtargeting is based on classic marketing principles. First, know who your customers are: age, geography, education, income. Two, know what they need: information on disease or condition, procedure or product.
Then invest in using social media and ad networks to identify that audience. Advertising networks such as Google and Facebook have famously amassed a repository of consumer data, demographics and browsing histories to present or send ads, videos, questionnaires, messages or other information or messages to influence customers’ thoughts, actions and most importantly, their purchases.
The health care industry is catching up to other industries in using these platforms. They also are hiring digital consulting companies to redesign their websites, adding custom content like news organizations, identifying and targeting patients to garner appointments and new business.
After only about three years of experimenting, companies based in Southeast Michigan such as Beaumont Health, St. Joseph Mercy Health System, McLaren Health Care and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan are finding the Internet fertile for new and repeat customers. They also believe they are offering customers greater value and transparency by more effectively answering patient questions along with, in some cases, providing quality and pricing information.
This is despite concern recently expressed in Congress, talk shows and around water coolers that the privacy of millions of Americans is being exploited without permission and used for business profit. And those questions get even more touchy when you’re talking about people’s health.
In March, news broke that 87 million Facebook users had data extracted from their accounts without their knowledge by England-based Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge has since filed for bankruptcy. Facebook has implemented new safeguards for members, and more people are double-checking their privacy and advertising settings.
Google, the other major ad network, may actually be the preferred vehicle for paid digital advertising by health care organizations in Michigan. Most companies have free Facebook pages — exposing companies to Facebook’s 2.2 billion worldwide members— with customer content that links back to their websites. On the other hand, Google — with 3.5 billion daily worldwide searches — could allow health care advertisers an even greater ability than Facebook to track people and direct ads, several experts told Crain’s.
Google’s search advertising system called “Adwords” picks and stores key phrases used by Internet searchers. Specific categories of Adwords can be purchased in a bidding process by a health care organization or advertiser. For example, say someone types in “chest pain” as a search item.
“Google can send a very targeted ad to that person” for a product or medical service based on a contract with a company, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. “Clicking on the ad can take the person to the (health care organization’s) website, directly to an ad, custom video or to an advertiser’s Facebook page. If it is chest pain, the ad can go straight to information on chest pain.”
For example, Gordon said the click on chest pain can direct a person to a questionnaire of three or so questions. Depending on the answers, a patient could be asked to call 911, be directed to a hospital or given a phone number to talk with a nurse, he said.
Article source: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20180603/news/662466/health-care-industry-uses-microtargeting-online-technology-to-reach