Integrating Direct Mail with Digital Marketing for Comprehensive Healthcare Campaigns
Healthcare is an ever-evolving landscape, and marketing your practice might be the last thing you want to consider. However, you can improve your marketing efforts by leveraging all platforms to your advantage.
For example, healthcare direct mail advertising is an excellent way to spread the word about your practice and engage with patients.
Are you curious about integrating direct mail marketing with your digital marketing efforts?
This blog post will show you how to do that effectively and efficiently with successful results.
Let's explore direct mail and digital marketing strategies for a comprehensive approach to your next campaign.
The Importance of Omnichannel Strategies in Healthcare
Patient outreach is an entirely new ballgame these days. When patients can click two buttons and access their medical records, they expect more from their healthcare providers inside and outside the office.
Remember, patients are consumers. They expect an omnichannel patient experience.
As a provider, you might cringe at the word "consumer," but the truth is that value-based care is an essential development in healthcare.
Now, providers have to offer quality health care and a positive patient experience. Embracing multiple methods for patient outreach is one of the best ways to engage and retain clients.
Be Where Your Patients Are
It is more important than ever to be where your patients are. One place you know they'll always be is at home.
Using direct mail as a part of your omnichannel marketing strategy is a great way to improve patient care.
For example, sending reminders for wellness checks is an excellent way to get patients to schedule appointments and maintain their health.
Increasing touchpoints between providers enhances engagement since patients can select the platform they're most comfortable with.
Multi-Platform Consumer Behavior
According to Consumer Affairs, Americans spend an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes on their phone daily. Leveraging digital healthcare advertising strategies, including email marketing, is an excellent way to find patients where they are.
Yet, direct mail marketing continues to be a preferred communication route for many patients. Utilizing both channels is the best route of communication.
Leveraging Direct Mail in a Digital World
According to the Data & Marketing Association, the response rate for direct mail campaigns is 5.3%, significantly higher than email at 0.6% and paid search at 0.5%.
So, if you don't already use direct mail in your marketing efforts, you're missing a significant opportunity.
But what's the correct formula for successfully executing a direct mail plan?
Critical Steps to Direct Mail Personalization
Step 1. Segment Your Audience
Group recipients based on demographics, health interests, or past interactions.
Step 2. Collect and Analyze Data
Use patient data (within HIPPA laws) to tailor your messages.
Step 3. Craft Personalized Messages
Retention is the new acquisition. Personalized messages make your patients feel cared for and engaged with your clinic. More than half of people report feeling connected to a brand when they feel it understands them and their desires.
Step 4. Design for the Individual
Instead of collective mass direct mail marketing, take an individualized approach. From the offers you formulate to the message you share, ensure it's tailored to the individual receiving it.
Step 5. Test and Refine
Pilot your campaign on a small scale, gather feedback, and adjust as necessary.
Step 6. Launch and Monitor
Roll out your campaign will be broadly, continuously monitor responses, and tweak for improvement. A few tools to help you monitor your consumer mailing list campaign include:
-Add a Personal URL (PURL). Create a personalized website or landing page dedicated to your direct mailing list.
-QR Code. Put a QR code on your direct mail promotional items where you direct patients to your PURL.
-Business Reply Cards. Add a pre-paid, coded business card to your direct mail. This popular choice makes it easy for patients to respond to your direct mail campaign.
-1-800 number. Incentivize a unique number by offering discounts or special offers if patients call using this number.
-Include Social Media Links. An easy way to track your campaign response rate is by adding social media links to the direct mail flyers. Then, use the social media platforms analytics tracker to see who's signing up and where they're coming from.
Enhancing Digital Campaigns with Direct Mail Insights
Now that you've executed your patient outreach strategy through a direct mailing list, the next step is to track it through cross-channel analytics.
One of the easiest ways to do this is through Google Analytics.
We mentioned adding a QR or PURL code above, but you can track that code by connecting it to a website that uses Google Analytics. Your clinic should have a website connected to Google Analytics, allowing you to see digital and direct mail campaign results.
Using Direct Mail Insights for Digital Strategies
A/B testing insights from direct mail responses is a great way to develop new content creation ideas based on honest feedback.
For example, perhaps you want to enhance your marketing strategy for a dental clinic but don't know your audience's most significant concerns.
Running a direct mail campaign for discounts on cleanings and one for a discount on an aesthetic treatment should give you clear insights into what your patient wants.
From there, you can create digital strategies built on their preferences.
Timing and Frequency
Another critical data point is gauging responses during specific times of the year.
For example, maybe you noticed an uptick in responses to teeth whitening promos during the summer and a slight decrease during the winter. Use that insight to build digital offers that make sense for your patient demographics.
Retargeting
Use direct mail data and digital retargeting strategies. When patients respond positively to a specific promotional offer via direct mail, retarget them with digital ads for similar products or services.
Content Marketing
Themes or messages that resonate via direct mail campaigns can be used to guide your digital marketing strategy. Creating blog posts, social media content, or email newsletters that expand on topics of interest to your audience is a powerful way to use direct mail data.
Key Components of a Successful Integration
Messaging
According to Forbes, consistent brand messaging is the key to successful campaign integration across all platforms.
Your brand's tone, voice, imagery, and messaging are consistent across direct mail and digital channels. This helps reinforce brand recognition. The result is a coherent brand identity.
Technology and Tools
Use marketing automation tools and CRM systems that support integrated marketing campaigns. Some tools to consider using, if you aren't already, include:
Do your research to ensure that the CRM you choose is HIPPA compliant.
Cross-Channel Coordination
Plan your direct mail and digital campaigns to complement and support each other. For instance, a direct mail piece can tease an upcoming digital campaign or include a QR code to direct recipients to a landing page—as we mentioned previously. The key is to coordinate your strategies across all platforms.
Measuring Success: Analytics and Adjustments
Once you have all the data and information you need from your campaign, the next step is to start measuring your results and adjusting accordingly. Here's how to know if your healthcare advertising strategies are working or failing based on data.
Patient Acquisition Costs (PAC)
The success of your campaign is based on how much it costs to acquire a single patient. That Key Performance Indicator (KPI) should include the costs of all marketing materials divided by the number of new patients acquired during a certain period:
(P) ÷ (Costs) = PAC
Patient Lifetime Value (PLV)
To calculate the average lifetime costs of a patient, you need to analyze how many times per year your patient will come in for a visit, the average revenue per visit, and the average duration of the patient-practice relationship.
Patient Satisfaction Score
Collecting and analyzing patient feedback through surveys can provide insights into areas for improvement and adjustments in marketing strategies to meet patient needs better.
Based on the responses to these KPIs, adjust your strategies. Perhaps patients report a desire for an easier-to-use patient portal, or maybe they'd like to see cleaning costs decrease slightly. Offer promotional discounts and improve your website to show patients you care about their experience based on their feedback.
Future Trends: The Role of Direct Mail in Digital Healthcare Marketing
Personalized Patient Experiences
As data analytics and segmentation continue to evolve, direct mail can be highly personalized to address individual patient needs preferences, and health conditions. This level of personalization enhances patient engagement, leading to better health outcomes.
Targeted Health Awareness Campaigns
Direct mail can be used effectively for targeted health education and awareness campaigns. This will allow you to reach segmented audiences with personalized messages. This will be particularly helpful for vaccination drives, preventative health screenings, and awareness about chronic diseases.
ROI and Impact Measurements
Tracking technologies and integrating various CRM systems will allow healthcare marketers to track patient actions across multiple mediums, including direct mail campaigns. This will enhance optimization across the board.
Conclusion: Crafting a Patient-Centered Approach
The data speaks for itself. A patient-centered approach to direct mailing campaigns is essential for building a forward-looking clinic.
Using the strategies outlined above, you can engage with your audience and build a practice that continues to evolve with your patients.
If you want access to a list of individuals ready to become your patient, BuyLists.com can help. We offer comprehensive, high-quality direct mailing lists that help you target the healthcare demographic. Whether you're a dentist or a general practitioner, our mailing lists easily attract new patients to your clinic.
So, if you're ready to implement these strategies and are missing access to the demographics you want to target, reach out to us.