4 Keys to Successful Healthcare and Life Sciences Marketing

See how top healthcare and life sciences (HLS) marketers are driving results.

Patients make HLS-related decisions based on their entire start-to-finish experience with a healthcare organization. Trust in the organization, value, personalization, and immediacy all factor into a customer’s choices.

1. Exceed patients’ ever-rising expectations.

HLS marketers are using real-time engagement to build relevant customer journeys. To do this, marketers are pulling data from all sources to create a 360-degree view of every patient.

Here’s what HLS marketers say are their top priorities:

1. Optimizing the marketing mix for best return

2. Modernizing tools and technologies

3. Engaging with customers in real time

4. Balancing personalization with privacy

5. Unifying customer data sources

61%of consumers say that their standards for how companies interact with them are higher than ever.*

of HLS marketers view the patient journey as the primary vehicle for improving the patient experience.

of consumers say being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to win their business.*

51%84%

HLS marketers are using more data sources than ever to develop personalized patient experiences. Marketers need to know who patients are, how they engage, and what they need.

The majority of HLS marketers say data unification yields higher ROI. However, less than half of HLS marketers say they’ve done it. Given data proliferation, it’s no surprise that unifying disparate customer data streams is a top priority for 89% of HLS marketers.

2. Build patient engagement on data-driven personalization.

Here’s what HLS marketers say are their top challenges:

1. Engaging with customers in real time

2. Unifying customer data sources

3. Budgetary constraints

4. Creating a shared, single view of the customer across

business units

5. Adopting and effectively using new marketing technologies

98.6

28%

The surge in marketing technology offers opportunities for enhanced personalization and real-time engagement. But HLS is a highly regulated industry. HLS marketers must adhere to HIPPA and HITECH regulations related to protecting health information. This is a challenge in this time of rapid innovation. Striking the right balance between privacy and personalization is critical.

4. Build great patient relationships on innovation and trust.

* State of the Connected Customer,” Salesforce Research, June 2018.

All other stats from “State of Marketing Report, Fifth Edition,” Salesforce Research, 2019

Salesforce for HLS: Learn how Salesforce Marketing Cloud and the Customer Success Platform can help HLS marketers better understand customers, empower caregivers, unify data, and address the transformation in customer expectations.

Patients see one organization — not separate departments or lines of service in the integrated delivery network (IDN). HLS marketers are challenged with aligning with other customer-facing departments within their organization to provide truly cohesive experiences across the IDN.

But less than half of HLS marketers share common goals and metrics with commerce, sales, and service colleagues. And only a similar portion report a free and open flow of customer data.

3. Fuel incredible patient experiences with cross-functional alignment.

of HLS marketers are completely satisfied with their ability to create a shared, single view of the patient across business units.

85% of HLS marketers say creating a shared, single view of the patient across business units is a priority.

More HLS marketers’ priorities and challenges by the numbers:

55% Consider trust a critical requirement for marketing technologies

44% Go beyond regulations/industry standards to protect and respect customer privacy/rights

34% Feel challenged to balance personalization with privacy

High priorityModerate priority45%

85%

40%

High/Moderate priority