Is 2022 the Year When Patients Take Control of Their Privacy and Data Narrative?

Permission check image by Tumisu from Pixabay.

Provider marketing is challenging, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a medical practice, home health agency, Ambulatory Surgical Center, hospital, or health system.

With the HIPAA Privacy Rule and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance in Europe (read up if you’re not familiar), things are only going to be more challenging. Apple made user privacy and data control changes with the IOS 14 update, allowing individuals to stop Apps from tracking activity. Add in that browser cookies are a thing of the past; 2022 is shaping up as the year patients take control of their privacy and data.

Your ability to digitally market to patients has changed. But that does not mean you can’t be effective.

Job number one is now ensuring that patient privacy is protected. And from my point of view, there is a way around these patient control challenges.

It’s about doing what you are allowed to in the spirit of the regulations and becoming the permission-based hospital marketer.

Opportunity image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

Permission-based marketing is where the intended audience has the choice of opting in to receive promotional messages. The concept of permission marketing was popularized by Seth Godin, entrepreneur and author, in his book Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends, And Friends Into Customers.Permission marketing is anticipated, personal, and relevant. It is the opposite of interruptive direct marketing, where promotional material is traditionally sent to a broad customer population without their consent.

Permission-based marketing falls into two categories, express and implied.

Express-permission marketing is where the patient provides their email to receive marketing messages. For example, they might sign up for the hospital newsletter or specific disease-related information or updates. Express marketing is standard when creating a new patient relationship.

Implied-permission marketing is where there is an existing relationship with the patient. Think of a current or past patient for implied permission.

Whichever form of marketing is used, both hand the reins to the patient, giving them control over when the relationship starts and stops.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

Five rules for success.

There are some rules of thumb in permission-based marketing; it’s not just having a patient opt-in for emails and other marketing materials, and away you go. 

1.       Make sure the patient or responsible adult grants written permission. 

2.       State clearly that the patient’s information is private. 

3.       Provide an easy-to-locate unsubscribe option in the footer of emails. 

4.       Choose content that incentives the patient to continue coming back for more. 

5.       Add personality -- emails in permission-based marketing are a chance for the hospital to be a little informal and personable with their patient subscribers.

On September 8^th, in the post “Building the Hospital 2022 Marketing Plan – Eleven Considerations” https://bit.ly/3nfSjbs, I outlined 11 items for the provider 2022 marketing plan. Make permission-based marketing number 12.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Business & Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and ranked No. 3 on 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites to follow by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives.  For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. 

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The opinions expressed are my own.