At the recent Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit in Salt Lake City, Kathy Divis, President, Greystone.Net, and Kelly Faley, Vice President, Web Strategies & Customer Contact Centers at Sharp Healthcare, spoke about the importance of MarTech to the next generation marketing operation.

In their presentation, they identified the top five technologies and trends that will drive revenue growth, brand management, customer engagement and other key responsibilities for healthcare marketing executives for 2020 and beyond. Those trends are:

• Balancing the art and science of marketing. The “Marketer Scientist” has arrived. This role will be a storyteller, data analyst, brand champion, experimentalist, experience designer, technologist, change agent and systems thinker.
• Connecting with mobile-only customers. By 2020, it is predicted that there will be 6.1B smartphone users worldwide. With most hospitals reporting higher web traffic from mobile devices than desktops, it becomes imperative for your strategy and design to be at least “mobile first” and preferably “mobile only.” Integrate technologies, processes and teams, so actions customers take on mobile devices are tied to your CRM and marketing automation systems. The use of device graphs—or identity management—can be invaluable in developing your mobile strategy.
• Machine learning, AI, IoT. While 80% of B2B marketers believe that AI will revolutionize marketing by 2020, only 10% of them are currently using AI. But consumers are using connected devices in real life—Siri, Alexa and Cortana, as well as devices such as home security systems, door locks, thermostats and so much more—and marketers must take advantage of these opportunities. Amazon Echo, Google Home and Lenovo are branching out into some healthcare applications of voice recognition technology.
• The rise of the empowered customer. In healthcare, we’re now talking about consumerism, which is a movement that advocates patient involvement in their own healthcare decisions. Patients now have unlimited access to health information, more choices and greater responsibility for care costs. Healthcare has expanded into retail, which expands competition. Health systems need to deliver greater consumer-defined value; and embrace convenience as the new currency because they're no longer competing with the health system across town anymore--they're competing with CVS, Amazon, Uber, payors and more.
• Mobile, local and voice search. Siri, Alexa, et al, are training people to use voice in ways that customers must adapt to. It’s projected that 50% of all Google searches will be voice searches by 2020. Mobile search has risen to over 50% of all Google searches being performed on mobile devices. The majority of consumer engagement with brands (85-90%) occurs on local listings, local web pages and local search results. Thus, marketers must:
  • Make it a priority to grow organic search.
  • Make sure your site is ultra-mobile friendly.
  • Optimize content and ensure that it’s mobile ready.
  • Make sure all locations are properly listed in registries and that all contact information is up to date.
  • Consider voice search in your SEO strategy.

Healthcare marketers must understand that dramatic change is revolutionizing healthcare marketing – and much of that change is interconnected. Marketing is forever changed.

If you would like a copy of the slide deck from this presentation, please contact us at info@greystone.net and request the slides for "Five Skills Today’s Marketing Executives Must Master for 2020 and Beyond."