The Role of Data Analytics in Crafting Targeted Marketing Strategies for Hospitals

Ranging from market trends to customer preferences as well as previously unseen patterns, data analytics is the new and highly sought after currency in the healthcare industry. With regards to hospitals, data analytics assists in improving care, efficiency, effectiveness and personalisation of treatments. In this way boosting healthcare marketing with the use of data analytics dramatically boosts consumer, patient and physician confidence and the overall strength of the service your hospital delivers.

Understanding Patient Demographics and Behaviours

In the new digital age, hospitals and healthcare providers are often faced with the challenge of being able to reach and engage their target market effectively. By harnessing data analytics hospitals can gain valuable insights into patient demographics, preferences and needs which ultimately enables them to develop more accurate marketing strategies that penetrate the patient pool deeper. Market segmentation further assists in customising patient plans to secure patient-specific requirements, giving hospitals a competitive advantage amongst other providers. Segmenting populations by age, race, income, geographical location and more enables trends to be seen that lets hospitals pinpoint customers for marketing purposes both now and in the future.  At DDI we license CACI’s ACORN lifestyle set which tells us 800 variables on every postcode in the UK so we really do know everything about your current, and potential, customers.

Analysing Market Trends and Competitor Strategies

Data analytics can also assist with a thorough SWOT –  which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Such analyses enable hospitals and other healthcare providers to identify gaps in the market and other areas where they are lacking.

The next step would be to analyse your competitors and other healthcare providers offering similar services to yours. In addition to data analytics there are numerous other sources such as industry reports, social media and customer reviews. By understanding your competitors you can position your hospital with specific differentiations that will give you the key selling point you’ve been looking for. 

Personalisation of Marketing

Every time we are online searching, shopping or browsing, we are leaving digital footprints which are recorded resulting in a vast amount of valuable information regarding our choices and preferences.

Utilising a data analytics company or training staff in this field permits personalised marketing strategies that deliver insights and capabilities that can adapt to your patient’s changing reality in real time – which is what is expected today. 

Personalisation means companies can send contextualised communications to specific customers through the correct channels and at the right time. Such communications can include television adverts, email marketing, text messaging, social media campaigns and website content. One study found that a massive 72% of consumers responded positively to marketing messages customised exclusively to their preferences. 

Personalised healthcare marketing also lets you identify patients who are at risk of certain conditions or are in need of preventative care. By actively reaching out to this group, physicians can concentrate on early intervention and preventative measures. This in turn also permits your hospital to allocate resources better, easing the burden on nurses and doctors while simultaneously delivering more effective care. 

Measuring and Optimising Marketing ROI

Understanding profits, losses as well as improvements or reductions in quality of healthcare provided is where data analytics kicks in again. Without such information hospitals will find themselves with very little understanding regarding their return on investment. Like nearly all purchases, companies must always eventually demonstrate the value of their original investment. 

For hospitals there are numerous key performance indicators that are vital for evaluating past, current and future market success. These include bed occupancy rate, employee wages, average length of stay, labor cost, treatment cost, claims denial rate, readmission rate, operating cash flow, insurance claim costs etc.

Challenges in Leveraging Data Analytics

The advancement of data analytics has ushered in a new age of possibilities and opportunities in the healthcare industry, however, there still remains considerably important questions regarding ethical considerations and potential challenges with such detailed information.

The most obvious concern is issues with privacy as protecting potentially sensitive data with strong cybersecurity measures is imperative. Ethical dilemmas also can occur due to patients not being adequately informed of how their data is collected, stored and used. 

Artificial intelligence and data analytics can also inadvertently perpetuate and even worsen racial or gender biases currently present in historical data. In this way by ensuring informed consent, employing transparency, addressing biases, encrypting data, as well as anonymizing it, data analytics can uphold the required ethical standards set today.

Case Studies

In summer 2020 Alcidion’s flagship product Miya Precision was launched, a next gen healthcare analytics platform that works out clinical problems with AI, clinical decision support and real time alerts to reduce clinical risk and prevent poor outcomes. The company’s managing director Lynette Ousby said at the time: “The UK has become one of the largest areas of growth for Alcidion, and that’s because we identified a  gap in the market and it pursued it with focus.” Miya Precision’s success at not only East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust but also South Tees Hospital was due to  a bold marketing campaign that functioned as an ‘extension to the business’. This in turn created entirely new market opportunities by clearly delineating what the new type of technology could deliver and how it can be assimilated with current healthcare analytic systems.

Another example is General Electric which makes use of big data to analyse consumer behaviour. This is for improving sales and advertising campaigns. The company’s success is undeniable as they have now launched their own “GE Predictions” analytics platform which assists in predicting future trends in the economy and healthcare industry.  

The Future of Hospital Marketing with Data Analytics

As much as it is an investment in streamlining and improving the services hospitals provide, big data analytics in the healthcare industry is also an opportunity for big money. Valued at $29.3bn in 2020, it is projected to reach $59.1bn by 2028. As algorithms and metrics become more precise it is inevitable that data analytics will play an even greater role in hospital marketing than ever before. It is also essential for both NHS and private hospitals to keep up with the latest advancements and new players in the field so as to retain and further develop their competitive edge over other healthcare providers.