Building a campaign patient audiences are ready to hear (post COVID-19)

Let’s begin with your patient’s mindset coming out of COVID-19. According to the research we conducted for our Engage: 2021 Trends Report: 

90 percent of health care decision makers indicated that regular information from their health care provider was of value to them. 

They told us their number one trusted source of information was their individual provider. 

They said that they trusted their local health system’s website and social media channels more than news from major news networks. 

Connecting with relevance and impact

We know that coming out of COVID-19, patients have become more attuned to their health and their health risks than ever before. We also know that people in general have developed unhealthy habits during COVID-19 lockdowns and have put off routine care and screenings due to COVID-19 concerns.

This rare environment of provider trust and health consciousness has opened an extraordinary patient advocacy and relationship-building opportunity for health systems.

This was true for our client, CHI Memorial, when it tasked us with nurturing a connection between itself and those who may be at risk for specific health conditions.

Laying the groundwork for a healthy relationship

CHI Memorial was in the early stages of launching a new service line. Research conducted on its behalf indicated:

1. At least 36 percent of consumers in the CHI Memorial service area who had specific health conditions were self-aware of their condition and risk factors and open to an invitation to make healthy lifestyle choices.
2. Consumers were more likely to take the counsel of a primary care physician concerning which specialist they should see versus conducting their own research. 

This provided the perfect opportunity to connect with audiences who were ready to get off the couch and who were open to healthier lifestyle messaging—especially those at high risk. We recommended creating a lifestyle intervention campaign that would:

1. Engage audiences in making conscious, simple changes to increase health and wellness.
2. Encourage audiences to access CHI Memorial lifestyle resources.
3. Move audiences into making appointments with CHI Memorial primary care physicians.

The right approach

We used an approach that invited people to simply start—because we all know that starting is often the hardest part of any lifestyle change. The prompt to start acted as a baked-in call to action for the campaign, which addressed risk factors such as:

• Anxiety, depression and high stress levels
• Eating unhealthy foods
• Not getting regular physical activity
• Drinking alcohol 
• Overweight and obesity
• Smoking 

We kept it fun in order to:

• be non-preachy and non-threatening 
• address audiences’ top-of-mind concerns at an opportune time 
• present CHI Memorial as a resource for tips, inspiration and the place to begin (or continue) a relationship with a CHI primary care physician

Moving audiences to make appointments

The digital and social campaign relied heavily on a robust landing page that educated, informed and invited audiences to take important next steps, such as modifying their lifestyle and engaging in a CHI Memorial primary care relationship.

9,689 new primary care appointment requests

Within the first 60 days of the campaign, nearly 10,000 prospective patients clicked from the advertising to view and request appointments with CHI Memorial physicians. 

Which goes to show: meet your prospective patients where they are, offer compassionate support, and invite them to take the next step in their healing journey. And they will.