The MarTech Rx for Better Patient Experiences and Outcomes
Healthcare organizations are in a race to deliver consumer-centric solutions through digital transformation. According to PwC’s Health Research Institute, nearly 50% of payer executives said their organization invests in digital product support and educational tools such as mobile apps to improve the member experience.
Changing dynamics in buyer behavior, the increase in competition with new entrants, and a younger generation willing to readily adopt alternative solutions have put pressure on healthcare providers and managed healthcare organizations to improve the customer journey. The pandemic has also accelerated digital transformation, as virtual care delivery has skyrocketed.
For healthcare organizations, a major focus has been enhancing the customer journey and experience. Healthcare providers are looking to improve the journey overall and make the virtual delivery of care as impactful as physical office visits. Meanwhile, managed care organizations are focusing on improving the member journey throughout every stage—from new member acquisition to ongoing member engagement.
Yet, according to a joint survey by Econsultancy and Adobe, 83% of healthcare organizations say they lack the foundation for effective digital transformation. As a result, many struggle to improve the customer experience (CX). Only 17% of organizations ranked themselves as ‘very advanced’ in CX maturity, and over one-third categorized themselves as `basic’ or `immature.’
Whether organizations are ready or not, change is imminent. Companies leveraging digital transformation to improve patient and member experience have started to outpace industry averages and their competition.
So why is the healthcare industry so behind on the digital transformation maturity scale?
For one, the proliferation of SaaS technologies has resulted in a complex, disconnected and chaotic marketing technology environment, making it challenging to achieve personalization at scale and across all touchpoints. According to a survey by Spok, over 60% of polled hospitals utilize six or more SaaS applications. Moreover, there is no easy way to integrate data fully between these multiple SaaS solutions and legacy systems.
To cure this problem, healthcare organizations need an integrated MarTech solution that enables them to serve up relevant and timely multichannel experiences to patients or members.
Here are three critical capabilities a MarTech stack needs to achieve these goals:
1. Audience Segmentation
Whether it’s on a website, mobile app, or touchpoints like email or kiosks, it’s important to make sure that the message is personalized to the individuals receiving it. By segmenting audiences based on similar characteristics, such as new and returning visitors, healthcare organizations can serve each audience content that aligns closely with interests or behaviors.
For example, healthcare marketers can customize future content to each audience’s specific needs by segmenting website visitors by who viewed prenatal care content versus infertility content. If someone visits the prenatal care page, they will get a pop-up message asking them to subscribe to your weekly prenatal care newsletter. Meanwhile, visitors to the infertility page will get a pop-up asking them to schedule an appointment to discuss their fertility options with a medical expert.
Marketers also need to ensure they deliver the most relevant and engaging experience. Adobe Target makes this simple by first segmenting audiences and then comparing one variation of a digital experience against other variations. This allows marketers to identify which experience causes the most visitors to take the desired action. For instance, if a health payor wants to encourage their members to schedule annual flu vaccinations, they can test whether the size or location of a “schedule now” button on the website or mobile app influences how many people respond to the call to action.
2. Personalized Content at Speed and Scale
Healthcare organizations also want to ensure that the message they’ve created for a specific audience is reaching them at the right moment. One of the biggest barriers to achieving this goal is that marketers need marketing-friendly solutions that don’t require IT support.
The other barrier is being able to personalize messages at scale. Even if marketers can segment their audiences into very narrow and personalized groups, it doesn’t do much good to push out generic content. A content management system like Adobe
Experience Manager (AEM), addresses both of these issues. AEM offers user-friendly, drag-and-drop options to build digital properties such as websites, mobile apps, emails or kiosks, eliminating the need for marketers to wait on developers to step in and help. This way, they can move fast when they need to push content out quickly.
Secondly, AEM gives marketers the ability to create and reuse content elements across all projects. Not only can they create multiple versions of the same asset quickly, but each asset is targeted at a unique audience, allowing them to create personalized content at scale. For instance, when creating an email about an upcoming vaccination clinic, they can swap out blocks of text to personalize it—such as encouraging parents to get their children’s school vaccinations versus encouraging older adults to get their shingles vaccination.
3. Multichannel Experiences
A best-in-breed MarTech platform is necessary to deliver all three components of personalization together: the right information at the right time on the right channels. And this is one of the most compelling reasons to integrate AEM and Adobe Target into an organization’s MarTech stack.
When AEM and Target are combined, marketers can group one or more layout components they’ve created for one device and then format those same components for another device in just a few clicks. This capability enables them to deliver content at speed and scale to the right audience on the right channel—whether that’s desktop, mobile, tablet, or another device.
For example, if a healthcare provider wants to run a wellness campaign around the importance of sleep, they can start by creating an email for desktop devices about the benefits of sleep. Then, they can quickly format those same components for mobile, tablets, and even kiosks or other digital screens in their waiting rooms.
When integrated, AEM and Target allow healthcare organizations to build a roadmap across people, processes and technologies. By creating an environment that can react rapidly to changes in consumer behavior, healthcare organizations can significantly improve their capabilities in delivering personalized experiences.
Finally, an integrated MarTech, like AEM and Target provide, allows organizations to cure inefficiencies on the backend. Organizations save time creating and delivering digital experiences while ensuring those experiences are tested and on target.
About LeapPoint
LeapPoint Consulting is changing the way companies connect work, technology, and talent to solve big business challenges and drive successful outcomes. Established by Big 4 alumni who sought more flexibility and agility in meeting clients’ most critical business needs, LeapPoint is committed to making life and experiences fundamentally better for employees, customers and those they serve. As the go-to Adobe and Adobe Workfront partner in financial services, healthcare and retail, LeapPoint’s break-through Connected WorkTM services are the essential framework for the Future of Work. To learn more about LeapPoint and its Connected Work services, visit www.leappoint.com.
