Understanding AI: How to Transform Marketing and Advertising Operations in Healthcare Companies
In this article on "understanding AI", we would specifically focus on the roles of this innovative technology and how it could transform marketing and advertising in healthcare.
AI is one of the most powerful technologies used by the marketing and advertising teams in an organization. Every day, there is a new innovation in AI and machine learning that promise to deliver huge gains to the organizations that adopt these capabilities. In the recent years, healthcare industry has emerged as one of the biggest users of AI and ML applications. But, did you know that healthcare lags compared to other industries when it comes to using AI and ML for marketing and advertising. In this article on “understanding AI”, we would specifically focus on the roles of this innovative technology and how it could transform marketing and advertising in healthcare.
But, first why AI?
AI has shaped the marketing and sales operations across the globe. A large number of business leaders rely on AI-based decision-making to stay ahead in the competition. Novel innovations built on AI platforms provide dynamic results, affecting the productivity and effectiveness of the bottom-line. According to Gartner, an early adoption of AI capabilities in any industry can “drive significant competitive advantage and business value and ease problems associated with the fragility of AI models.”
Understanding AI for Healthcare-centric Marketing and Advertising
In the modern era where information is readily available to all, patient care in the health industry might seem like a complex set of processes. Yet, AI is making it simple for healthcare companies in so many ways.
Healthcare companies are relying on advanced AI-derived tools and solutions to simplify patient care and monitoring. Patients are looking for medical opinions online, and use smart devices to keep a track of their existing ailments. Most healthcare companies who use AI have found a balance between their Hippocratic Oath and customer experience, ensuring every patient benefits and every service provider retains reputation. As AI becomes ever more pervasive in our lives, its role in advertising and marketing in healthcare would continue to expand.
Let’s study how it currently works.
What is Healthcare Marketing?
Marketing in healthcare is not a new phenomenon.
The ad below is one of the oldest marketing communication you may ever come across. It is from the 1850s!!!
However, the definition of healthcare marketing has evolved significantly in the internet era. Today, 80% of the patients refer to Google search to learn more about their ailments and possible channels to reach a doctor. SEO tactics have been helpful in closing the patient-doctor gap. But, is it enough. No, even today, 90% of the patients fail to receive reliable care! That;s why AI in marketing is a key. With AI in the house, the paradigm shift is mind-blowing. In general terms, healthcare marketing can be defined as the series of activities and tactics in communication and customer relationship management that enable a healthcare provider reach users for consultation and follow-up checkups. It is the job of the marketing team to create a powerful user-centric marketing message that reaches every consumer who is in need of healthcare services.
Common areas where AI in healthcare marketing proves to be a useful tool are listed below:
- Creating a communication channel based on reputation, transparency and availability
- Lead generation using different marketing tactics
- Enhancing customer experience across the web, email, social media and mobile applications
- Providing correct information through new-age messaging platforms such as WeChat, Telegram and WhatsApp
- Social-proofing patient care and management through virtual care channels
- Providing 100% secrecy between patients and healthcare provider
- Meeting compliance in patient data management and historical information, and so on.
What is Healthcare Advertising?
Healthcare advertising is a sub-domain in marketing that uses paid channels to display services, promotions and enhancements through various communication channels. With enhanced focus on delivering enriched customer experience to patients, healthcare companies are choosing AI-powered healthcare advertising platforms. These platforms are capable of delivering CX at similar benchmarks as you would expect from a retail, DTC or e-commerce brand!
Healthcare marketing and advertising trends that reveal why AI could be a game-changer
Healthcare trends keep changing and with COVID-19 pandemic still wrecking havoc in some parts of the world, letting AI to do your marketing and advertising is a good way to keep thing virtual. Reason: It prevents rush in the hospitals and clinics.
Here are some of the important trends that showcase why digital healthcare is vital in the modern era and how AI could emerge as a game-changer:
Online healthcare seeking behavioramong adults in the US and UK have spiked in the last 5 years. Socio-demographic variations play a very important role in accurate understanding of how online health information seeking behaviors are influenced by marketing and advertising tactics. Young adults are more likely to refer to User-generated content platforms such as Quora or Reddit to seek medical information related to their health. Search engines such a Yahoo, Google and Bing still take the lion’s share of queries related to health and wellness. Only 15% of the population with access to online connection refer to a specific health website to ask questions. Clearly, the search engine population is the biggest customer-base for brands targeting needy population with paid advertisements and off-page SEO tactics. With AI for content generation and sales intelligence, healthcare brands are likely to improve their patient outreach.
Virtual healthcare assistants are gaining popularity in the current context of remote patient care facilities. Currently, the market for virtual assistants in healthcare stands at $680 million, projected to grow to $9295 million by 2030. This tremendous leap in market volume would be attributed to the growing dependence on mobile applications and the rise in fitness tracking tools such as app-connected wristbands. Powered by AI models such as NLP and voice AI, these digital assistants would also become a significant enabler for marketing and advertising campaigns targeting individuals who require personalized telehealth services. With AI at helm, healthcare service providers can localize their search results and run digital advertising campaigns with better ROI. AI could also help optimize content generation and marketing them to most useful channels where they are likely to be read often with better sales lead generation opportunities. Thirdly, AI assistants can be brought to the picture once you get an inquiry via chat, SMS, email or call. AI-based customer service agents could digitally reach via your existing contact centers and provide patients with contextual answers in an automated fashion. All these exemplify the need for AI-based tools across a healthcare provider’s existing sales, marketing and customer service operations.
In a nutshell:
Harnessing the power of AI for healthcare marketing and advertising can leave a lasting effect on the users as well as consumers. It not only saves tons of resources, time and effort for all parties, but also ensures a high-quality life that is measurable in every way. Organizations can showcase the benefits of their AI-based advertising and marketing campaigns and encourage patients to sign-up for virtual sessions. This can alleviate pain-points that modern physical hospitals and clinics face during a pandemic with regards to space management, physical screening and medicines. Overall, everyone wins in the ecosystem when AI takes the lead in your marketing and advertising campaigns.
Have a great story to share about your healthcare planning? Share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com
Comments are closed.