Reaching the 5 Audience Segments of the Healthcare Startup
Healthcare startup businesses have boomed over the last five years. With interest rates low and the cost of technology declining — venture funding deals increased around 200 percent between 2010 and 2014.
Investments in new healthcare ventures average $6.5 billion/yr
Healthcare startups may have to communicate with five very different audience segments in order to thrive. Benefits to one segment may have no appeal at all for another possessing an entirely different stake in your product. Understand the motivations of each segment and adjust your marketing and communications approach accordingly.
Investors
Healthcare startups may have to communicate with five very different audience segments in order to thrive. Benefits to one segment may have no appeal at all for another possessing an entirely different stake in your product. Understand the motivations of each segment and adjust your marketing and communications approach accordingly.
“Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.”
– Warren Buffet
Your website should answer four basic impact questions:
Providers
Healthcare startups may have to communicate with five very different audience segments in order to thrive. Benefits to one segment may have no appeal at all for another possessing an entirely different stake in your product. Understand the motivations of each segment and adjust your marketing and communications approach accordingly.
Providers are motivated by:
Once you sell a provider on your product, they will need to communicate and sell its value to their patients, and they will want your marketing support. Providers will want to see your patient-focused materials to feel confident that adoption of your product will be successful.
Patients
With more and more patients on insurance plans with high deductibles, high co-pays, and high co-insurance, patients are researching options online and becoming savvy consumers of healthcare. Patients are not passive puppets that may be obtained simply by getting providers on board with your product.
35% of US adults say they have used the internet to try to figure out what medical condition they or another may have. 53% of these people have talked with a clinician about what they found online. [1]
Patients are motivated by:
Groups — the B2B of Healthcare
The completely independent town doctor has virtually disappeared. Providers function in groups, pooling resources to expand their patient base and provide more comprehensive care. In addition to health systems, you will need to know your acronyms — IDNs, GPOs, CINs, ACOs and IPAs.
Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs)
IDNs are formally coordinated hospital systems that provide a full spectrum of healthcare, from health insurance plans to primary, long-term, specialty and acute medical care.
Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs)
GPOs are groups of individual businesses with similar supply needs that benefit from volume discounts through bulk purchasing from vendors. Many health systems purchase everything from consumables to HR benefit packages from GPOs.
Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs)
CINs are formally arranged networks of independent physicians and hospitals that collectively negotiate payment rates and other financial incentives with insurers or the government by improving care delivery and reducing costs.
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)
ACOs are voluntary groups of healthcare providers ranging from doctors to hospitals who share in savings they receive through coordinating and improving care for Medicare patients.
Independent Practice (or Physician) Associations (IPAs)
IPAs are business entities comprised of independent physician practices that collaborate for large-scale contracts, to negotiate fees, and invest in technologies or improvements.
Groups are motivated by:
Payers
Health insurance providers want to support accurate and effective care. They want to avoid payouts that exceed the premiums they collect.
Payers are motivated by:
Expect to produce alternate versions of print materials and content downloads that address payer concerns more assertively. Payers can be late adopters of new products and services. They prefer to follow a large-scale adoption of a product rather than buy-into beta results. Payers want evidence-based ROI. They are averse to payouts for new services, except when you can prove that adoption of your product reduces or eliminates the need for costlier alternatives or eventualities.