When it comes to patient engagement, pharma marketers must modernize their approach, making it more personalized and proactive, because the expectations of patients are changing. With companies like Amazon influencing them, patients have come to expect a user experience that is flawlessly tailored to their individual needs.
As marketers, this means taking a deep dive into learning about the patient on a more personal level.
To understand the way technology can create personalized marketing initiatives to impact patient experience, Fingerpaint, a full-service health and wellness marketing firm, brought together Anne Marie White, head of brand strategy at Fingerpaint’s Saratoga Springs office, and Nick Bartolomeo, head of digital strategy, media, and analytics at Fingerpaint’s Conshohocken office.
How is artificial intelligence fueling relationship marketing?
Nick: We use data to personalize the experience as precisely as possible, but machine learning has the ability to take that to the next level. It has the potential to make it even more personalized to the point where algorithms are able to predict what information is best served next, thus increasing the chance of motivating behavior change.
How do you turn the personalized data that Nick is referring to into action?
Anne Marie: If we look at the insights through a patient-centric lens, we are able to determine exactly what they’re experiencing during their healthcare journey and tailor communication to deliver an intimately personalized experience. This approach brings a sense of humanity to the brand they are interacting with; it not only delivers a relevant message at the right time, but it also demonstrates to the patient that the brand they are dealing with is empathetic to their needs as a person, not just a patient.
What excites you about the future of relationship marketing as it relates to the patient?
Nick: It may sound cliché, but I am excited about the endless possibilities for brands to better know and predict the behavior of their customers—in this case, patients—to whom machine learning has opened the door. Everyone knows there is a direct connection between user experience and a successful brand. Machine learning insights can only elevate that.
Anne Marie: We embrace the industry shift to think of the patient as a consumer of healthcare. Health and wellness brands are striving to deliver the same personalized experiences to consumers that they’ve come to expect from the customer-obsessed commerce brands they love like Amazon, Starbucks, and Nordstrom. Machine learning will allow us to understand our patient consumers better than we ever have before, and that information will allow us to develop an unparalleled personalized experience which will result in better brand engagement and loyalty overall. l
Anne Marie White, head of brand strategy at Fingerpaint’s Saratoga Springs office, may be reached at [email protected], and Nick Bartolomeo, head of digital strategy, media, and analytics at Fingerpaint’s Conshohocken office, may be reached at [email protected].
