Healthcare Provider Marketing: Build Stronger Bonds

Strong connections with providers are vital in the changing healthcare landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted traditional engagement methods, leading healthcare marketers to find new ways to grow revenue in key service lines. Marketing professionals play a pivotal role in developing innovative strategies to enhance communications with healthcare providers on a larger scale. At True North Custom, we help marketers adapt to the evolving dynamics of provider engagement and prepare for the future of healthcare marketing in a post-COVID-19 world.

Provider marketing strategies: A three-pronged approach

A successful provider marketing strategy involves understanding and working toward three main goals:

• Enhancing referral rates by engaging new providers and optimizing internal processes, improving patient acquisition and service utilization
• Building a positive reputation among peers and in the industry by improving survey results and fostering a positive perception among healthcare providers
• Creating a strong brand for attracting top talent and contributing to retention and recruitment by bolstering the organization's culture

Focusing on these goals enables healthcare organizations to be more competitive and engage physicians, which, in turn, can improve the patient experience. Platforms like Doximity can help establish links, but organizations should own these connections directly to guide providers in engaging with medical outreach or accessing educational materials.

True North’s approach centers around provider-focused content and leveraging strategies that have shown success in our consumer campaigns. We employ digital marketing, email deployments and print assets to deliver compelling messages that engage and resonate with physicians. This strategy aims to address the specific needs of our audience and connect with physicians on their unique journeys.

Campaign strategy design and connecting in meaningful ways

Crafting an impactful campaign requires understanding the provider's journey from initial awareness to decisive action. We tailor engagement efforts to meet physicians where they are through brand awareness, education and lead-generation tools. Our goal is to position your organization as an industry authority while addressing physicians' needs. 

Providing a frictionless experience for physicians is crucial for satisfaction. To that end, it’s essential to equip your team, especially physician liaisons, with the knowledge and resources necessary to provide timely follow-ups.

Appealing to providers through content marketing

Content marketing for a provider audience plays as important a role as it does for a consumer audience. Your content can achieve a range of objectives, including driving referrals, reputation enhancement and recruitment efforts. Striking a balance between professionalism and approachability in your messaging—and steering clear of overly technical language—will better engage and connect with your target audience emotionally, enhancing your content marketing strategy's success.

Employing a variety of content formats, such as blog posts, social media, emails and direct mail, can be effective. Use your content to highlight:

• Awards, accolades, distinctions and certifications
• Breakthrough treatments, therapies and protocols
• Clinical research milestones, advancements and innovations
• Continuing medical education opportunities and resources
• Patient and provider profiles
• Recognitions and research achievements
• Referral efficiency and accessibility benefits
• Thought leadership related to your organization’s culture, missions and leading-edge offerings
• Value propositions about ease of access and convenience for referring providers

Creating a healthcare provider-focused content hub on your website centralizes relevant information, which you can link to via platforms such as Doximity and LinkedIn, to maximize outreach.

Digital tactics to leverage provider audience targeting capabilities

With your content created, your next step is ensuring physicians read it. 

Digital tactics to leverage provider audience targeting capabilities are crucial for maximizing engagement and relevance. By focusing on advanced targeting options and specific ad creative, we can effectively connect with healthcare providers. By developing ad copy and creative that is highly specific and signals relevance to the provider, such as personalized landing pages, we can enhance the impact of our digital campaigns. Additionally, we can track provider engagement with the ads and content, leveraging native and programmatic display ads for better results.

Furthermore, sophisticated techniques that use National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers for personalized targeting allow you to reach your desired audience by specialty or location, facilitating precise segmentation. This enables us to amplify our messaging among healthcare communities and encourage meaningful interactions with our target providers.

Once you identify providers you want to nurture relationships with and your social media strategy is in place, email marketing is a great next step. Effectively targeting healthcare providers by specialty or location improves your ability to reach the providers most likely to use your services. True North specializes in curating exact audiences, including providers by specialty, using high-quality data for optimal campaign cadence.

For maximum engagement on email content, set a delivery cadence around specific events, such as U.S. News and World Report survey deadlines. Include direct CTAs designed for optimal conversion. Analyze interactions to differentiate and prioritize leads, streamlining follow-ups and boosting your campaign’s effectiveness in connecting with health professionals.

Publishing and direct mail: A word about print

In our digitally focused world, adding a print component to your marketing mix can diversify and strengthen your campaigns. Incorporating brochures or direct mail creates a memorable brand experience, differentiating you from competitors.

Despite misconceptions of its relevance, direct mail's effectiveness remains robust; it boasts a 75% recall rate among consumers, significantly higher than digital's 44%, indicating stronger engagement with physical materials. This format also fosters a deeper emotional connection with the audience.

Case study No. 1: Arkansas Children’s

True North has partnered with Arkansas Children's to engage physicians and promote 10 service lines using long-form content, display advertising, email marketing and direct mail. The campaign has achieved remarkable successes, including:

• A 30% open rate from email campaigns over 60 deployments, vastly outperforming the national average of less than 10%
• A 1.5% click-through rate in display advertising campaigns
• Significant improvement in U.S. News & World Report rankings

Case study No. 2: Baptist Cancer Center

True North worked with Baptist Cancer Center to increase patient referrals across its vast service area of West Tennessee, North Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas. Our approach encompassed:

• Regular direct mails to healthcare providers that highlighted advanced technologies, innovative research initiatives and other organizational highlights
• A robust physician publication delivered to primary care providers and specialists in the area
• A lead-gen landing page tied to the physician publication

The campaign achieved a noticeable 8% increase in referrals shortly after launch.

True North’s capabilities and unique approach

At True North, we specialize in performance marketing exclusively for the healthcare sector, forging valuable connections between health systems and providers. Our HIPAA-compliant approach addresses industry-specific challenges.

As a Google Premier Partner, we partner with healthcare brands to create robust strategies around content creation, digital marketing and creative solutions. Our clients appreciate our comprehensive expertise, collaborative approach and proficiency in using multiple digital and print channels to drive successful provider marketing campaigns.