In the past, it was easy to market healthcare to all age groups based on a hospital’s reputation and the quality of their services alone. However, in the current healthcare environment, doctors need to understand different market dynamics to be able to have a steady flow of millennial-patients walking through their hospital doors. Here are top innovative tactics you can use to attract and retain more millennials.
Create the Right Content
A large fraction of millennials visit a doctor less than once a year. This most likely means they are not benefiting from preventive healthcare screenings. Failure to seek proper medical attention can lead to costly hospital admissions and claims in the long run. But the number of millennials relying on self-diagnosis is quite high. They frequently turn to WebMD and brand journalism sites to find the latest health news and healthcare tips. This shows it’s important to understand their lifestyle and use that to find the best ways to meet the needs of millennials. Healthcare systems should create timely, relevant, newsworthy content and post them frequently just like WebMD and the other sites do. This way, they can establish themselves as trusted authorities.
Prioritize Video Marketing
Using healthcare video marketing is a vital strategy given the high number of millennials that spend many hours online watching different types of videos. It’s an effective means of fostering loyalty. Healthcare systems can use them to deliver welcome messages and informational visual content about specific health conditions, doctor profiles, patient testimonials, and much more. The secret is to offer information that addresses their needs as fast as possible. The videos should be informative and take less than 90 seconds.
Offer a Wellness Plan
Wellness plans play a great role when it comes to engaging millennials. This became evident recently when Unitedhealth Group implemented a plan that allowed employees to reduce their insurance premium by a substantial amount of money for achieving health goals. This initiative led to an improvement in the health of the workforce. It also led to savings of lots of money within a period of three years. There are many different types of wellness plans. A healthcare system can design one that meets the needs of millennials in their specific regions. The most important thing is encouraging millennials to seek medical care by fostering engagement. Whenever they take control of their own lives, the system can reward them with gift cards, access to cheaper health insurance quotes, or any other valuable items.
Use the Right Communication Channels
It’s no longer helpful to use some traditional communication medium to reach these individuals. Healthcare systems can target millennials only through channels that they use. These mediums include things such as push notifications via an app, social media, SMS, or email. They can determine the right channels by using data like opt-in preferences and demographics.
Host an Event
Hosting a youth-friendly event can offer patients, especially millennials, an opportunity to meet their doctors in the most favorable environment. This can ultimately make them more comfortable with receiving medical care from the doctors. In a study in the Journal of Participatory Medicine, 85 percent of participants said they like to have doctors listen to them. Seventy-one percent of the people said they want doctors who are both caring and compassionate. A healthcare system can make a great impact in the lives of many people if they hold an event at least once a month at their practice. It’s proper to host special events and casual meet and greets to be able to meet the needs of young people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Remember to ask everyone to come with a friend to increase your referrals. Has your practice taken deliberate steps to provide the kind of care and use marketing strategies the millennial generation is demanding? Remember their opinions matter. If you are keen on winning this generation, don’t ignore these innovative tips. The number of patiently flocking your practice will gradually start to grow.