stop talking. start...

STOP TALKING. START LISTENING.

Why healthcare companies need to stop talking and

start listening: how data can lead to personalization

and bring relevance to patients and physicians.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

05 Listen!

07 Bridging the Gap

09 Test and Then Test Again

12 The BLDG Process

13 Personalization

16 Creative That Matters

18 The Customer Journey

20 Win-Win-Win

22 A New Era

23 Giving Back

“Everyone hates advertising in general, but we love advertising in particular. It’s true, of course. We don’t like the advertising that’s not for us, not about us, not interesting to us. But talk to me, directly to me, about something relevant and personal, and I love you for it. The many silos of interest we live with now enable a totally different sort of communication, certainly, but they also demand a fundamentally different sort of organization, one that can deliver particular instead of general.”

— SETH GODIN

The end of mass medicine is upon us. Healthcare is going through a fundamental change that is requiring companies to rethink their marketing strategies. Advertising that talks to patients in a unidirectional manner will no longer suffice as the industry moves toward a more patient-centric model. Empowered patients and specialized, targeted medicine will define the future of healthcare and therefore fundamentally change how medicines are marketed. We can no longer speak in the general; we must deliver the particular.

Digital technology now allows for new approaches to relationship-driven marketing by using data to provide personalization centered around a patient’s specific needs. Through personalized and relevant messaging based on this data, healthcare companies now have the ability to build relationships with their patients that address the complex nature of disease in a meaningful way.

If you’ve ever suffered from a medical condition you know how frustrating it can be to find a solution. Often the solution could have been accessible if you had just been empowered with the proper knowledge and connected to the right experts. The BLDG process simplifies finding solutions for patients; it inspires them to take action, empowers them with knowledge, and supports them through their journey.

What does all this mean? It means reduced silos, which in turn produces better outcomes, higher cost savings, and most importantly, happy, healthy patients.

03 / 24 BLDG: Stop Talking. Start Listening.

PROLOGUE

Contact Information: [email protected] I 858.437.2127

A step too often overlooked by marketers is the listening phase. Before developing an ad campaign that dictates how patients or physicians should think about a health problem, it’s crucial to understand how they currently understand the problem. When we understand patients’ problems, their current treatments, and their behaviors, we can develop insights that allow us to connect in a meaningful way. By producing qualitative data, we can see the world through our customers’ eyes.

To produce meaningful data, we need to allow our customers time and space to truly express themselves. Not at a point in time, but over time. Not in a focus group setting, but where they live, work, and play. Ethnographic research is about getting to know the patients and physicians you serve in a way that’s comfortable to them and produces feedback that is candid and insightful.

BLDG utilizes digital ethnography to allow patients and physicians a space to express their deepest thoughts and needs. This data allows our clients a way to understand their customers at a very personal level and allows us the insights to produce messaging that connects and drives action. We combine this with listening tools that monitor online communities where real discussions are already happening.

LISTEN! Utilizing ethnographic research to better understand your customer.

BLDG: Stop Talking. Start Listening.04 / 24


WE CAN DEVELOP

INSIGHTS THAT ALLOW US TO

CONNECT IN A MEANINGFUL

WAY.

“

”

So all the buzz is about data right? Well then, how are you collecting that data? In the typical direct response model you’re selling products, but in the context of healthcare marketing you’re asking your customer not to buy a product, but instead to provide information. For physicians and patients we want to ask questions so that we better understand their specific needs, which in turn allows us a deeper understanding of the people we’re talking to. Armed with this data we can segment and message appropriately, but first we need to acquire the customer data.

Conversion is the key to successful acquisition. Generating interest is good, but producing measurable action is great. Direct response is rooted in conversion, which produces measurable action. Digital advertising provides the ability to transform interest into immediate action. Through targeted pay per click (PPC) and content targeting, we can drive our customers to a website that collects this information.

BLDG brings a wealth of expertise in direct response marketing. Unlike other healthcare agencies trying desperately to adapt to this model, BLDG was born with data and conversion experts, and they are at the heart of everything we do.

BRIDGING THE GAP How to use a direct response model to drive customer acquisition.



“

”

CONVERSION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL

ACQUISITION.

Did you know the color of a link can substantially affect click through rates? When Google used Gmail to test over 40 different link colors they found a significant difference in conversion based on color. Google engineers found the ideal shade of blue is #2200CC. With the average person using Google three times per day we’ve become even more conditioned to trust this particular blue. What does the color blue have to do with healthcare marketing? A lot. Small changes can have a huge impact. Testing shouldn’t just be done at the beginning of an ad campaign with small focus groups. It should be a discipline that’s ingrained in everything you do. Digital technology allows us the ability to test everything from messaging to imagery and produce statistically significant quantitative data. When we continually optimize, we can greatly reduce customer acquisition cost, and most importantly, improve our ability to connect with our customers.

Traditional research asked people what they did, rather than watching them in action. We now know that there can be a big difference between what people say they do and how they really act. Take something as personal as a medical condition and layer in the stigma, embarrassment and fear a patient may be dealing with as they attempt to educate themselves. For physicians, how they interpret clinical data and messaging on a product or disease can vary greatly from what they might tell a company representative or focus group moderator.

The research industry was invented because we didn’t know what was going on. It was an interim industry, created to fill a gap. It has served its purpose well, enabling companies to connect a little better with customers. However, traditional market research has never been ideal. It’s expensive, slow, and not always accurate. Market research took a long time to design, commission, conduct, and analyze. This means the data took a long time to produce.

When finally delivered, the data was often difficult and costly to refine into a marketing campaign. Therefore, healthcare marketers often used massive amounts of money to buy media and deploy sales representatives to dictate how patients thought about medical conditions. Now, we can more quickly and efficiently listen and test, which means we can adapt and refine marketing campaigns to drive real action.

TEST AND THEN TEST AGAIN Utilizing digital technology to optimize results.



“

”

SMALL CHANGES CAN HAVE

A HUGE IMPACT.

In an increasingly digital world the Internet is often the first place patients and physicians turn to educate themselves on a medical condition or product. As a result, healthcare companies can no longer treat their digital efforts as a marketing tactic, but instead need to allow their digital strategies to drive how they market and interact with their customers. These vehicles shouldn’t simply be a way to deliver a message, but also a way to test and capture valuable data, which helps to drive marketing campaigns both off and online, producing faster and more effective messaging.

BLDG utilizes multiple tools that provide the ability to test and evaluate everything we do. From AB testing to heat mapping, we are constantly optimizing and improving. However, in addition to having great tools, BLDG possesses a staff of the most talented digital experts in the industry who know how to use the tools to develop stronger, more impactful campaigns.

TEST AND THEN TEST AGAIN (continued)



So you’re producing a ton of data? Now what? Because it’s not just about how much data you have, but what you do with that data that counts. This is where BLDG deploys our strategists to analyze customer data to the nth degree. Well-analyzed data empowers healthcare marketers with the necessary insights to treat millions of customers as individuals. It allows us the ability to truly understand our patients and physicians. Healthcare marketing is fundamentally changing from a model of transactional product sales, to a patient-centric model where the customer is the focus of the marketing strategies. People who see marketing as sales, who push stuff at customers, don’t understand that marketing is about meeting customer needs.

An insight is more than just repeating back to a customer what they say they want to hear. It’s getting to know the customer at such a personal level that you’re able to connect to them in a way they didn’t know possible. An insight is an acute observation and deduction that helps solve an often-difficult problem.

This is by no means a simple process. It’s not just about reading data, but instead about interpreting data. It’s about gleaning a deep understanding of your customers’ attitudes and beliefs and then connecting with them at an emotional level while provoking a clear response. It’s about communicating that the brand understands them even if they’ve never thought about the product quite like that before.

If we ask the right questions and if we employ the right people to evaluate the data, then we can connect to our customers in a way that can drive behavior change and differentiate us from competitors.

BLDG utilizes a variety of expertise at each step of the process to make sure we’re asking questions that will lead to answers, and that we have the tools to collect the data and efficiently interpret it. We have a bench of seasoned experts we call on depending on the specific need. This could be expertise in therapeutic areas, database design, or marketing strategy. We bring innovation and a personal touch to every project.

THE BLDG PROCESS Turning acquisition into meaningful insight.



We face the same question that other healthcare marketers face: how do we change behavior? How do we connect to customers in a way that helps them understand the seriousness of their condition, empowers them to take action, and connects them to a brand or specialist that will help treat the condition?

This is by no means a simple question to answer. It won’t be answered through a formulaic, one-size fits all approach. Instead, it requires a deep understanding of the condition, the patient suffering from the condition, and the physician treating the condition. If we understand this complexity, our marketing programs should be developed around the customer, not around the product or service. Marketing in itself is neither good nor bad – it’s how we use and create it that determines the value. If we start with the customer first, the value we bring to the healthcare system, to the physician, and most importantly to the patient, can be greatly increased.

When we have robust data on our customers, we can start to develop insights that help us connect to the customer in a way that’s relevant to them. Understanding a physician’s current knowledge of a medical condition, their treatment protocols, and their satisfaction with current treatment choices allows us to determine how best to communicate with them, drive action, and prompt lasting behavior change. If a physician doesn’t see the medical condition they’re treating as serious, then speaking to them about a product that treats that problem is irrelevant to them. The conversation should instead be focused on the disease and why the condition deserves a more aggressive approach. If, on the other hand, the physician sees the medical condition as serious but is unaware or dissatisfied with the treatment options available, then a branded product-focused conversation would be relevant.

This methodology can also easily be applied to the patient. If a patient doesn’t understand how serious a medical condition is, then speaking to him or her about a product to treat it will fall on deaf ears. However, if the patient understands the seriousness of the condition but doesn’t know where or how to find treatment,

PERSONALIZATION How to turn insight into behavior change.



he or she can often become confused and overwhelmed. This frustration creates a behavior of passivity in treatment decisions. By understanding the patient journey and connecting to them based on where they are situated along that journey, we can drive the very specific action we’re looking to take. Healthcare marketers are notoriously guilty of talking to patients as opposed to listening and developing messaging that connects to specific needs. Medical conditions are far too complex and treatments have become too specialized to develop mass marketing campaigns that connect through a single message.

Knowing how to treat a customer’s needs requires more than brainstorming sessions. It requires good data and the expertise to interpret that data. When data can lead to segmentation and segmentation can lead to personalization, the “power of personal” can bring a brand or service alive in ways unimagined. Where irrelevant messaging and generic junk mail can lead to rejection of your message, relevance and personalization can drive action and lasting behavior change.

BLDG communicates with the customer not at the customer. We utilize data to develop relevant, impactful messaging that engages the customer. It’s not a complex strategy, but making it happen requires expertise and discipline. BLDG was born from data driven experts and healthcare marketers. We then combined that expertise with our bench of healthcare-focused behavioral psychologists to create a truly unique customer experience for our clients.


PERSONALIZATION (continued)


MARKETING IN ITSELF

IS NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD, IT’S HOW WE USE AND CREATE IT

THAT DETERMINES THE VALUE.

“

”

Good creative can often be the differentiator; it’s what compels the customer to read more, to connect, and to believe. It’s the polish that brings the data and insight to life. Our customers are overwhelmed with marketing messages and therefore, are forced to make split second decisions. Good creative is the essential factor that leads a split second decision to an enduring connection.

Jean Cocteau said it best, “Style is a simple way of saying complex things.”

Good creative has the power of taking a complex problem like a medical condition and making it understandable to our customer. It has the power to evoke emotion that can drive action.

When we combine data and insight, we can develop creative that not only moves us, but also inspires the customer. We shouldn’t allow creative decisions to be dictated by committees, small focus groups, or awards. Instead, we should allow creative decisions to be made by the people we’re developing the creative for.

Healthcare marketing doesn’t need to be mundane. Regulation has too often become an excuse for bad creative; healthcare marketers have too easily become submissive to mediocrity. Stock photos of people walking on the beach have somehow become sufficient. The creative culture in healthcare has embraced average and safe. This does not need to be the case. Regulation doesn’t need to stifle creativity. Taking creative risks does not mean you will be taking regulatory risks. Great creative has often been born from narrow parameters. Regulation should simply be seen as a way to focus creative rather than to water it down.

Failure is okay! Calculated creative risk taking should be encouraged. If we have access to data and if we’re engaged with our customers, we can continually measure our creative. Failure can lead to great insight, which in turn can lead to great creative and measurable outcomes. Launching creative in the digital space can allow us to fail quickly and inexpensively, to learn from our mistakes, and eventually to succeed with huge gain.

CREATIVE THAT MATTERS Making the complex simple.



BLDG has a fulltime staff of healthcare marketers. We’ve worked on the client side and sat through exhaustive medical, legal, and regulatory meetings. We know the rules by which we must play. This knowledge allows us the ability to take creative, not regulatory, risks. We’ve recruited the best creative talent in healthcare by providing an environment where creativity can flourish, excellence is rewarded, and the average is rejected. Our creative team works hand and hand with our data analysts to make sure we’re always testing, evaluating, and optimizing our creative to connect with our customers. Our creative doesn’t just win awards—it shows value.


CREATIVE THAT MATTERS (continued)


Not only can data help you to build an impactful campaign, it provides the real-time feedback that shows you exactly how the campaign is performing. It allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of media at a very granular level and optimize spending to increase efficiency.

The data obtained by engaging with your customer allows you to look at conversion down to the specific channel both online and offline. By looking at conversion you can run ROI analysis for each specific channel. If the action trying to be created is to drive product conversion, a specific banner ad may produce great acquisition but may perform poorly when measured against conversion. On the other hand a radio advertisement may produce low acquisition but high conversion. By having a centralized database integrated into your entire mix of marketing, you’re able to evaluate data at a very granular level. Robust data also produces the ability to provide predictive analytics. For example, if you’re evaluating a medical condition that has high recurrence, you could determine the average length of time between recurrences. If the average time was 9 months you could increase marketing in months 8-10 when the condition was more likely to recur. If seasonality affected product usage in a certain patient segmentation, you could develop messaging or programs to the specific patient segmentation before product drop off occurred.

BLDG connects the dots to provide our clients with a seamless process. We partner with the leading healthcare databases and analytic software providers. We provide recommendations and management through the development process, better utilizing our client’s time by managing vendors and maximizing budget dollars. Our analysts become experts in the specific systems being used and provide comprehensive reporting based on the client’s specific needs.

THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY Analyzing data to show measurable results.



FAILURE CAN

LEAD TO GREAT

INSIGHT.

“

”

When we build truly patient-centric programs, not only does it create financial value, it also improves patient outcomes. When we don’t talk at our customers, but instead, listen and engage with them, we empower and support them. We reduce silos in the healthcare system by getting patients the care they need, more quickly. When we provide relevant education, customers listen and when they listen, adherence increases, and when adherence increases, outcomes improve.

When you collect data you don’t just talk about what you’re doing to help patients, you show it through quantifiable data. You don’t just hope what you’re doing is working, you know. Your data isn’t defined by a certain study or trial. It grows day by day. When you have real world data you can speak to health policy makers in an intelligent and relevant manner.

BLDG understands the complexity of the healthcare market and the different interests of each participant. We understand what motivates patients and physicians, and we know how to connect with them. We don’t just create campaigns, buy media, or develop technology. We bring it all together to help improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. We’re partners to our clients. Their success is our success.

WIN-WIN-WIN Businesses are profitable, patient outcomes improve, healthcare costs are reduced.



WHEN WE BUILD TRULY

PATIENT-CENTRIC PROGRAMS, NOT ONLY DO THEY

CREATE FINANCIAL VALUE, THEY ALSO IMPROVE PATIENT

OUTCOMES.

“

”

The United States currently spends over 18% of its GDP on healthcare and estimates suggest that over $700 billion a year in healthcare costs do not improve outcomes. The simple reality is our current healthcare system is broken.

Profiteers beware! Companies who show outcomes and health economic data rejoice! With the emergence of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and healthcare reform, our healthcare system will fundamentally change, and healthcare marketers who understand the shift will be positioned to lead in the new era.

Data doesn’t lie. If you’re coupling your product with services that improve outcomes and can show real world data, you’ll be well-positioned to lead. If you’re simply talking at patients and physicians with antiquated data, the future looks bleak. Simply selling a product is no longer adequate. When you connect with your customers in ways that drive behavior, and in-turn improves outcomes, your value is well-established and positioned for growth.

At BLDG we’re marketing experts. We don’t pretend to have the solution to our nation’s healthcare problem, but we certainly hope to be part of solving it. We got into healthcare marketing because we want to help people and believe marketing is one of the most powerful ways to drive positive change.

A NEW ERA The dawn of a new and promising future of healthcare marketing.



Healthcare marketing is a specialized field. It requires a niche understanding of patient and physician behavior, regulatory oversight, and the ability to understand and produce data. It’s a diversified field with many different skillsets, but the glue that connects us all is a desire to help people. We don’t simply market a physical product. We market knowledge that helps people who are often faced with life-changing decisions. This holds a huge amount of responsibility.

The reality is the healthcare system will never be perfect. It will never help all patients, nor will it reward the people who unselfishly help the less fortunate. This doesn’t mean it’s necessarily broken, but it also doesn’t mean these people should be ignored.

BLDG is rooted in the ethos of conscious capitalism. We believe in helping companies not only become more profitable, but also making positive change. We believe every life has equal value; therefore, we have responsibility that goes beyond profitability. By helping healthcare companies become more successful, and in turn produce more revenue, we also hope to help those companies support organizations dedicated to helping the less fortunate.

GIVING BACK Supporting those struggling with health problems and the people dedicated to helping them.



“

”

AS HEALTH CARE MARKETERS WE HAVE A

RESPONSIBILTY TO BALANCE PROFITABILTY WITH SOCIAL

CONSCIOUSNESS.

BLDG is a boutique healthcare agency of

problem-solvers that utilize design-based thinking to build

experiences that impact patients and connect brands

with consumers in truly meaningful ways.

FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD.

BLDGHEALTH.COM

[email protected]

858.437.2127

731 S HIGHWAY 101, SUITE 1K1

SOLANA BEACH, CA 92075

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