Tracking Campaign Effectiveness: The “Don Draper Days” Are Over

By Nadine Baarstad

As binge-worthy as it was to watch, Mad Men also had its share of cringe-worthy moments for healthcare marketers.

Over at Sterling Cooper, ridiculously expensive campaigns were sold on the strength of clever creative work and a hot-shot pitch from dashing Don Draper. Never mind that the corporate muckety-mucks were ultimately pumping money into measureless — and often meaningless — advertising.

By Nadine Baarstad

As binge-worthy as it was to watch, Mad Men also had its share of cringe-worthy moments for healthcare marketers.

Over at Sterling Cooper, ridiculously expensive campaigns were sold on the strength of clever creative work and a hot-shot pitch from dashing Don Draper. Never mind that the corporate muckety-mucks were ultimately pumping money into measureless — and often meaningless — advertising.

Fortunately, the Don Draper days are over. Today, healthcare marketing is not only about developing breakthrough creative, it’s also about measurement. Specifically, campaign effectiveness — whether it’s bottom-line ROI, social media engagement, digital analytics, call center volume, or new patient appointments.

The most effective marketing activities drive the healthcare consumer down a very specific path:

1. They become Aware of your brand and service offerings through multiple media impressions.

2. They develop Interest, whether it’s contacting a call center, visiting a microsite or simply emailing with questions and/or asking for more information.

3. They signal their Choice of your facility by making appointments or accepting a referral from their physician.

4. And finally, they Advocate for your facility by telling others about their experiences.

Measuring Success

The most basic measurement of campaign success, of course, is patient activity. When everything is working right, admissions and service line utilization increase, and revenue rises. But to make sure they are truly on track and on-target, healthcare marketers need to take some specific steps to track campaign effectiveness:

1. Build in response mechanisms to all outreach initiatives. Think dedicated phone numbers/extensions, tracking microsite visits and developing offers that can be tracked through office visits.

2. Look at quantitative and qualitative data. Crunch open rates, surveys and media reports for a quantitative analysis of campaign results. Then, consider using focus groups and personal interviews to get the qualitative information you need to make any necessary adjustments to your messaging and/or offer.

3. Establish ROI. Correlate your marketing activities with activities that impact the bottom line. Once you have the information and data, look at how much you spent on each effort. How much budget? How many man hours?

4. Tweak as you go. The beauty of consistently measuring your efforts is that you can make changes and correct as you go.

Flashy creative is great. But you also need an agency with expertise in analytics to help you truly gauge the effectiveness of your healthcare marketing campaigns. Give Wax Custom Communications a call at 305-350-5700 or visit waxcom.com.

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