Marketing is in a state of change and it’s now transitioning into a consumer focused form called context marketing.
Context marketing is defined as “the art and science of delivering the right content to the right customer at the right moment.” Since many healthcare organizations already
lag in marketing, it’s important for them to get ahead of this new marketing trend to keep a healthy advantage over the competition.
In the age of consumer-driven healthcare, patients have certain expectations in the way healthcare organizations present and market themselves. The easier
healthcare organizations make it for prospective patients to access relevant information, the more likely they are to become an actual patient.
An important aspect of context marketing that healthcare organizations should consider is how context marketing should be thought of in “
micro-moments.” According to Google, this means that there are four different types of micro-moments a customer experiences. They are “I-want-to-know” moments (when a patient is googling symptoms), “I-want-to-go” moment (geo-targeting urgent cares), “I-want-to-do” moments (patient researching healthy recipes), and “I-want-to-buy” moments (for healthcare this would be a patient wanting to schedule an appointment).
Context marketing is an important piece in the conversion of potential patients to regular patients. Since context marketing puts the customer in control, it’s important for organizations to respond appropriately.
For healthcare organizations this means producing
higher quality content versus mass producing it. The more focused and higher quality an article is, the bigger edge an organization has over its competitor. Patients are going to respond more positively to organizations that make their lives easier so it is important for organizations to focus on that.
This can be done by tailoring each piece of content to the
specific platform an organization is using. For example, patients are on Facebook to stay connected with their community, they’re on Pinterest for healthy recipes and checklists, they’re on Instagram to see visually stimulating photos, and on YouTube they’re searching for how-to videos. A healthcare organization should use crafted content to appeal to all of these social media desires. For Pinterest, they could share recipes their dieticians/nutritionists have created and for YouTube they could share videos of easy “how-to” treatments performed by physicians in their organization.
Healthcare organizations can also enhance their context marketing by making their websites more
mobile friendly as consumers now expect responsive sites that are easily navigable on mobile devices. If a patient is looking for a new doctor on their phone they do not want to click on a site that is complicated and loads slowly. Most consumers want a
straight forward and simple that site that address the necessities. This could include easy to find phone numbers, online appointment setting, email, and directions.
There are also a few more easy ways marketers for healthcare organizations can shift their focus from
content marketing to context marketing. These include focusing on interactions, not campaigns, with consumers, engaging target audiences with content, crafting customer moments, delivering helpful content, and making sure consumers understand why it is helpful while making sure that a shared exchange is occurring between the customer and the company.
It’s important to remember that context marketing requires a shift in perspective, one that forces the marketer to change their mindset while targeting customers. Since customers expect convenience it is important to make sure your marketing efforts focus on providing relevant quality content related to your brand.
In an ever evolving marketplace, content that captures the attention of patients and keeps them coming back for more needs to be developed. If you think your organization could benefit from context driven marketing, Sitecore can help. Sitecore is experienced in providing context-driven experiences for clients that can help your healthcare organization keep a competitive edge in the ever changing marketing world.
