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Six
Easy (and Cheap!) Ways to Database-Power Your Healthcare Internet
Marketing
by
Kevin P. Richardson, President, MedRocket, Inc.
About the Author - Kevin Richardson is a healthcare marketing consultant, executive coach, and writer who provides fresh perspectives and expertise about online healthcare marketing. Sign up for his FREE "MedRocket Ezine" newsletter and discover how to profitably attract and serve healthcare consumers online. Subscribe at http://www.medrocket.com.
Have
you been thinking of incorporating some database techniques into your
healthcare marketing? The prospect of creating a full-blown relational
database for marketing activities can be intimidating. In this article
I'll show you six easy and inexpensive ways to add some database horsepower
to your online and offline health marketing activities.
Although database marketing requires some hard work, you needn't be put off from creating a marketing database because of high costs. And the costs for such high-end database marketing systems are nothing to sneeze at, running into the millions of dollars. This is quite beyond the reach of most healthcare organizations and health Web sites.
I'm not suggesting that these tactics can replace the tremendous power of a well-designed marketing database developed in Oracle, Sybase, or some other proven, customizable database environment. However, these entry-level efforts can help you to cut your database marketing teeth and when you're ready you can use the data in a larger system.
Here are a few ways to power-up your database marketing:
Scrounge
for Technology. Take an inventory of your existing technology.
Do you have an extra PC laying around that could become your dedicated
marketing database machine?
If you can't find the technology or software in your department, then beg, borrow, and as a last resort -- buy what you need. Older PCs and Macintosh computers can make excellent dedicated database computers. You don't need a Pentium computer -- a solid 486 PC should work fine depending upon the software requirements.
Check to see if your organization has an "Island of Misfit Toys" someplace -- a storage room full of old PCs or component parts that can be assembled to create a working database PC. As a last resort, your database could reside on someone's work PC, but this isn't optimal since database operations sometimes have to tie up the computer for a period of time.
Scout
for Software and Data. Do you have a database program or contact
management program that you can adapt for a marketing database?
If not, then buy and install affordable off-the-shelf contact management
programs, such as ACT or GoldMine, or a basic database package
like Filemaker Pro or Microsoft Access. Trial versions of many
of these packages are available for download from the company Web
sites. Download a few and see what you think.
If you're just getting started in database marketing and you don't have an abundance of tech savvy staff members or programmers, I suggest looking at the contact management software first. They are ready to go right out of the box and can import data from a variety of file formats. I also like their capability to do merged email mailings that allow you to customize, personalize, and email thousands of emails right from within the program.
As for data, you may already be gathering data and keeping it in one digital form or another. What consumer data are you already gathering? Who controls and updates the data? What format is it in? Data kept in Microsoft Excel, Word, or other similar tab- or comma-delimited formats can be imported into contact management software.
Free
Web-based Data Gathering Tools. Use free or shareware CGI (common
gateway interface) scripts on your Web server that create and use
simple Web-based flat-file databases to gather basic information
such as email addresses, first name, and preferences for health
interests and type of email (text or HTML). People can sign up
for newsletters, register for courses, and more.
Many CGI scripts -- often written in the Perl programming language -- are available for on the Internet. Most of these scripts are straightforward to install and setup. Talk to your Webmaster for assistance. The lists of names, email addresses, and preferences that you gather can be imported into your contact management application for sorting and customized email campaigns.
Collect
E-mail Addresses Off-line. Ask visitors and consumers for their
email addresses at every opportunity. Ask for their permission
to send health information and news. Gather email permissions at
health fairs, from clip-out coupons, business reply cards, and
from seminars and health education course registrations. Your goal
should be to gather email addresses and permission so that you
can begin an ongoing email dialogue with health consumers.
Tie-in
Your Call Center. If your health organization offers a telephone
call center that provides health information for your geographic
area, find out if they can add a script to the end of the call
that would ask callers if they would like to receive occasional
health information and news by email.
If so, have the call center gather the names and email addresses and periodically download them to disk so you can append it to your marketing database.
Exchange
Value for information. Post an offer on your Web site for a
health information product or piece of software. Health consumers
can download the free product in exchange for their email address
and some basic identifying information. This will help build your
email list for future 1-to-1 communication efforts.
Power up the Engines: Reach Out and Touch
Someone
Once you have your marketing database up and running, the opportunities to develop communication efforts that build relationships are endless. The key, of course, is targeting and reaching the appropriate consumers with information they find valuable. The more information you have about them in your marketing database the easier this targeting will become.
Some of the ways you can use your marketing database include:
Send
a personalized health email newsletter, or a newsletter that is customized
to the health interests of consumers.
Send
health consumer surveys
Provide
information on health seminars
Follow
up after medical procedures with a "how are you doing?" message
and additional care information.
Increase
marketing and cross-selling opportunities
Increase
site traffic by promoting new Web site features
Notify
them of a special offer for a health screening
Remember to create a privacy policy and to always let the email recipients
know how they can opt not to receive further email communication from you.
MedRocket offers a free health site privacy policy generator that you can use. The address is: http://www.medrocket.com/tools/privacy_gen.html
Database driven Internet marketing isn't solely for major corporations with huge marketing budgets and an army of database marketing consultants. With a little creativity, innovation, and using simple, relatively inexpensive technology, any healthcare organization can create a start-up database marketing program and begin to reap the relationship-building benefits of 1-to-1 marketing.
