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Why you need a healthcare marketing CRM solution

When it comes to driving patient engagement, patient acquisition and patient retention, the question our experts get asked most frequently is, “How do I prove this success can actually be attributed to my marketing efforts? How can I show stakeholders the respondents I’m seeing didn’t ‘just come in anyway’ – they came in as a direct result of my campaigns?”

As it relates to healthcare and hospital marketing (using data and multi-channel communications to target and acquire high value patients), customer relationship management (CRM) is an essential tactic. It’s the only form of marketing that can target its audience – and measure its actions – so granularly which is critical to organizations focused on building long-lasting relationships. But, traditional CRMs are not enough.

Healthcare consumers have higher expectations thanks to the personalized experiences they get from other industries. Health Systems need a platform that includes a CRM, top-of-the-line integrated data and engagement technology to get smarter about acquiring high value patients and building relationships throughout the patient journey (the experience a consumer has from the first time they hear about you through their appointment and to ongoing future care). 

A good patient acquisition program that includes healthcare CRM gets you closer to answering the impossible question than any other medium because you can target audiences at the individual, one-to-one level. Undeniably, the return on investment from a billboard, radio spot or TV commercial simply cannot be tracked at the same level. Further, CRM’s targeted approach can complement other mediums like outdoor, radio and TV by exposing people to the message before they even may be open to thinking about it as they drive down the highway. 

Hospital marketing during and after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to make healthcare marketing hard for health systems of all sizes around the country. Things have changed. Patient visits have not recovered to pre-COVID volumes, there is more market competition, fewer resources and a greater pressure on cost and transparency. And yet, the expectation to drive revenue has remained constant or increased.

Patients and prospects have changed during the pandemic, too. People have become more selective of how they spend their time, they may have new hobbies and they are easily distracted thanks to the oversaturation of news and media. Some are in the greatest shape of their lives but many others are facing new physical and mental health challenges. And too many have skipped important preventative appointments and recommended screenings.

This COVID trend of “medical distancing” means that most healthcare marketers are dealing with outdated databases. This incomplete and siloed data along with access to fewer resources has put hospital marketers on their heels when it comes to generating billable encounters.

Bottom line: the strategies and tactics that worked before the pandemic are no longer enough. Successful patient acquisition and retention marketing efforts now require new strategies and new tools.

Not all CRMs are created equal

CRM works over all other mediums because it enhances relationships (and your brand) with consumers and physicians, helps improve the health of your community, improves your bottom line and is quantifiable. However, not all Health CRMs are created equal and a traditional CRM is not enough.

A good CRM for healthcare allows you to: 

  • Leverage data for precise targeting and insight on the population most in need of services 
  • Use marketing automation to increase service line growth
  • Reach patients with personalized creative and content tailored directly to them via the communication channels they prefer 
  • Invite them in for appointments with goals of converting them to patients
  • And most importantly track the downstream revenue from those encounters and link it back to the campaigns that reached them to prove your value.

While “a good CRM” is a good place to start, you need more to truly help your health system thrive and grow.

Go beyond traditional healthcare CRM

Only Virgin Pulse takes you beyond traditional CRM to help you understand what makes your consumers and patients unique. The base of our “secret sauce” is healthcare analytics that include Social Determinants of Health (SDOH).

We start by enriching the data you have, then apply advanced analytics, which incorporate receptivity models and SDOH, to reveal insights that power targeted and personalized, multi-channel engagement with the right individuals. This is essential during and after COVID as it allows you to see who has a risk and is receptive to coming in for care, so you can drive them in quickly and start closing revenue gaps.

Unlike other CRMs, Virgin Pulse is easy to use. There is no coding or understanding of SQL needed to analyze your targets. We make it easier to get your campaigns running so it takes less time to start generating measurable results. And, our multi-channel, multi-cycle campaigns help you stay in front of patients and prospects using a consistent message and a regular frequency to ensure they take action.

Add in our market-leading security and privacy plus our unparalleled support team and you’ve got a recipe for strategic growth success.

Don’t just take our word for it. See what one of our newest health system clients had to say on day one of their first multi-channel, multi-cycle campaign with Virgin Pulse.

Power service line growth with healthcare analytics

We can’t stress this enough, you are only as good as your healthcare analytics (the combination of health system data, consumer data and provider data). The healthcare industry has undergone rapid change due to COVID-19 and the organizations that emerge as winners will be the ones who successfully leverage healthcare analytics to identify and target consumers most in need of your high value service lines, like cardiology, oncology, women’s health, etc. 

If you’re trying to piece together siloed data from your organization, buying lists from your print vendor or using a CRM that doesn’t incorporate rich, consumer data – you are facing a losing battle. Ask your vendor how they have adjusted their data to accommodate for gaps in care and medical distancing during COVID.

You can also request a Free Service Line Growth Assessment from Virgin Pulse to see what you might be missing. Virgin Pulse’s data team will run your request against our deep consumer database and 120+ proprietary predictive models to provide you with a 10 page custom report that will help develop new revenue generating strategies. We’ll provide prospect counts for the number of high risk and receptive consumers we’ve identified in your service area for each service line or procedure – along with insights on risk factors and the outreach options that are most likely to drive them in for care.

This is marketing’s moment

Although many organizations are still adopting CRM systems, the concept is not new. It’s a tried-and-true method to power your healthcare marketing strategies that includes predictive models to attract the right people and measurement capabilities that prove it drives volume through statistically-valid data analytics. 

With hospitals losing $20 billion (yes, with a B!) in revenue each month as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has never been a better time for marketing teams to shine. Patient visits are starting to climb back from an all-time low, but engagement is at an all-time high with people eager to hear from their trusted providers. And, health systems are eager for the kind of results Virgin Pulse’s CRM solution can deliver like:

  • 53% conversion – prospects converted to patients in new mover campaign
  • $153M increased revenue – total charges from new patients
  • 15k new patients – acquired from a single campaign

Our team of expert advisors have walked in your shoes and understand your challenges. Book a short demo to see how Virgin Pulse can help you – and your bottom line – shine.