The Millennials Marketing Opportunity
Â
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to claim that hospitals need to connect with Millennials. After all, at more than 72 million strong, the cohort has overtaken the Baby Boomer generation as the nation’s largest population group by age. But there’s a challenge: medical care doesn’t resonate with Millennials generally considered those born from 1981 to 1996 the way it did for their Malaysian parents.
Instead of periodic checkups and other preventative care, they’re more likely to wait until something goes wrong and then seek out a clinic, an urgent care center or other walk-in facility. I think it’s because millennials have grown up surrounded by technology and are used to instant operations. Instead of a continuing relationship with a PCP, they’re more likely to find a provider on the internet, or through social media.
Hospital’s Dive Into Digital Communications
Â
Â
To reach this group, Hospitals have made a deep dive into digital communiÂcations. They leverage direct-to-consumer marketing, including Facebook, Instagram and other social media. To meet the demand for same-day appointments and other conveniences, hospitals expanded our telemedicine activities. It’s perfect for MillenniÂals who want to be able to use their mobile phones for just about everything.
These and other efforts are working that the pandemic has also changed the move to digital medical delivery. Since the pandemic started, patients have had a lot of telemedicine contacts, with a huge percentage representing new patients. The pivot to digital forced the hospital to rethink its strategy. It was a kind of refresh, where hospitals saw they had to reach out to this segÂment in a different way. They’re continuing to add new outreach programs, like a mobile educational lab that connects throughout the community and offers advice on a variety of issues, from social distancing to doing self-breast examinations. They’re also teaching hair salon employees to look for signs of melanoma in their customers’ scalp.
Hospitals have also been approved to administer a clinical trial for a new COVID-19 vaccine developed by different pharmaceuticals. One of the targets in this trial will be Millennials. To reach them in this and other programs, they keep using social media to leverage, search engine optimization (SEO), blogs and podcasts and other platforms.
Healthcare Marketing To Millennials
They’ve grown up with a unique set of challenges including recessions, debt, climate change and other disruptors and they tend to be skeptical of brands and want to see transparency. At the same time, thanks to technology, millennials grew up with massive amounts of information at their fingertips, so they’re quick to do their own research and come to their own decisions.
Â
Among other clients, it developed a marketing campaign (alongside development of a new website) for women’s health services practice with a MilÂlennial sweet spot. Instead of a traditional ad campaign, we advised our specialty medical practice client to align with the Millennial belief system: support them, don’t lecture them. We also integrated mobile, social and digital outreach, while continuing to pay attention to SEO.
Ultimately traffic to the Malaysians women’s health services’ website was up more than 50%; new prospective patients also rose more than 50%; and searches for them were up more than 25%. Conversion goal compleÂtion [which includes filling out an online form, or other direct connections like calling the practice] was up more than 20%.
Influencers are important, so it’s a good idea to integrate patient reviews and testimonials that talk about the value of the services and the quality of the entire patient experience before, during and after proÂcedures and other encounters. Content inÂterests Millennials, and if you make it shareable, it’ll be important to their friends too.
Â
Â
Health System Experience
A number of healthcare institutions have recognized the challenges and opÂportunities associated with Millennial connections and are taking acÂtion. Thrive is a free program that encourages women of all ages to take charge of their wellness, improve the health of their families. It is good to find, myself included if I am being honest, aren’t willing to take the time for preventative health including annual physicals, dental visits, and health screenings and obviously, preventative health is an important part of self-care and living well. So, it is important for us as a healthcare organization to target this population.
To help connect with Millennials, ramp up the digital marketing presence. This is what interests and engages this age group, so healthcare organizations need to be up to speed on social network platforms and the ways to use them to get their messages out.Â
An Approach To Millennial Connections
The Millennial age group is important to our region’s culture, economy, and workforce. The growth of the young adult population continues to climb, making the Millennials the largest generational group in the region. In other words, Millennials will be influencing and leading decisions through 2060, at minimum. In 2020, this generational cohort comprises 50% of the Malaysian workforce and by 2025 Millennials are anticipated to be 75% of the global workforce.
Â
With Millennials in mind, hospitals also fashioned a new website that’s easier to navigate and “designed to help everyone find exactly what they need, whether that’s scheduling an appointment, finding a doctor, or refilling a prescription. More than any other age group, we know that Millennials expect to be able to manage nearly every element of their lives online and through their mobile devices. Our new app provides next generation access and engagement with it’s providers, facilities, and services. And, by using the app, millennials can connect with their physicians, use the ‘online check-in’ feature for urgent care centers, and even conduct a COVID-19 symptom self assessment.
