How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Model

Every time you use a digital tool such as televideo, telehealth and remote monitoring it says something about your medical practice.  Investigate several companies to be certain you have the most useful system for your purposes.

Digital marketing can be as simple as a web site. Or it can be complex.

Modern consumer industries use techniques that seem foreign to health care.  However consumers (patients) are already conditioned to techniques used by retail sales such as  Amazon, Best Buy, or other players.  While foreign to physicians, patients are comfortable with digital media marketing.

It is well worth investigating, and it could mean a difference in the 'bottom line'.  Medicine has become entrapped in commerce.  Just about every vendor your practice interfaces has a digital marketing media presence, from advertising of devices, drug to purchases, and support.

A brief chart outlines a method of deciding what you need in designing your digital marketing media program.

Look at virtually any consumer industry and you’ll see how changes in digital technology are fundamentally altering the way that consumers engage with brands before, during, and after a purchase. Consumers today expect to browse, research, solicit feedback, evaluate, and push the “buy” button at their own pace, and at the time and place—and via the platform—of their choosing. Consumers also continue to engage with brands online after a purchase and to share experiences with one another. Much of this consumer journey is beyond the direct control of companies, and marketing organizations are sprinting merely to keep pace.

The difficulty is that there’s no one set of capabilities that applies universally. Companies must identify what kind of marketing organization they need to make their strategy a success, choose a digital marketing model based on their strategic objectives, and then focus on developing a handful of marketing capabilities that will allow them to bring that model to life and consistently excel.

This requires the physician to use both IT, perhaps social media and marketing techniques already in use.  Eventually the majority of marketing may become digital.  Change is inevitable, the Yellow Pages are long gone as a source of marketing.  Be prepared for change. Even modern new digital methods could be replaced by another innovation.   Keep current with market preferences.  Consumers (patients) will follow market leaders.  They are not going to use outmoded methodology in healthcare.

Four Digital Marketing Models

Strategy& has identified four equally successful digital marketing models: Digital Branders, Customer Experience Designers, Demand Generators, and Product Innovators. A company’s focus for marketing investment might have elements of each, but odds are that one of these models represents the right marketing organization for your company.

• Digital Branders are most often consumer products companies or other marketers that focus on building and renewing brand equity and deeper consumer engagement. 

• Customer Experience Designers use customer data and insights to create a superior end-to-end brand experience for their customers. 

• Demand Generators (typically retailers) focus on driving online traffic and converting as many sales as possible across channels to maximize marketing efficiency and grow their share of wallet. 

• Product Innovators use digital marketing to identify, develop, and roll out new  products and services. 

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Published: January 27, 2014 / Summer 2014 / Issue 75 (originally published by Booz & Company)

How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Model