UnityPoint Health

A system-wide mandate to provide more personalized health care at scale meant that UnityPoint Health had to expand its consumer insights capabilities to augment long-standing patient experience work and focus on brand building and acquisition. This initiative was especially complex because UnityPoint Health operates in nine distinct regions in three states, including hospitals, clinics, and home health. This diversity creates unique challenges for the marketing team. UnityPoint needed a way to understand the different perspectives from across the market to make the best decisions possible for the brand and acquisition strategy.

At UnityPoint Health, consumer insights is powered by its Insiders insight community in conjunction with additional primary and secondary research. The team uses the Insiders community to understand the complexity of customer preferences by region in a way that gives them confidence needed to de-risk decisions and enhance the overall patient journey and experience. With 1,400 members, a promising 45%+ response rate, and roughly two activities every month, the insight team can keep a close pulse on needs and perceptions at the local market level and across the system as a whole.

Solution

At UnityPoint Health, consumer insights are powered by its Insiders insight community, along with additional primary and secondary research. The team uses Insiders to understand the complexity of customer preferences by region in a way that gives them the confidence needed to de-risk decisions and enhance the overall patient journey and experience. With 1,400 members, a promising 45%+ response rate, and roughly two activities every month, the insight team can keep a close pulse on needs and perceptions at the local market level and across the system as a whole.

The sweet spot for the Insiders is agile insight at the local level UnityPoint Health’s online insight community launched in 2014. In 2016, the insight community morphed and grew in the hopes of gathering opinions from people throughout the rest of the health system. Before the expansion, the teams relied on assorted, mostly disconnected sources of market research to guide decision-making. Major markets could afford syndicated data, but smaller and mid-size markets used little or no direct patient or prospective patient feedback.

Personal and authentic feedback from richly profiled Insiders enables nuanced analysis. There is reciprocity and a clear exchange of value that builds trust over time. As that trust and confidence increases, the feedback gets more detailed, specific, and actionable. Insiders tend to share very personal stories about how UnityPoint Health affects their lives. This enables the words and thoughts of real people to be at the decision-making table. Insiders care about local healthcare and will participate in a variety of study topics from patient experience, to feedback on advertising sneak peeks and new product and service offerings.

The Insiders provide feedback that can augment analytics and also put national trends into perspective. The marketing team integrates Insider’s insight with syndicated data, Advisory Board resources, internal analytics, and best practices. Healthcare is personal and Insiders illuminate the whole experience, including the crucial beginning (scheduling) and end (billing) points. The marketing team has been able to uncover rich context about the complexity of finding a doctor and online scheduling, the need to provide easier-to-understand billing and perceptions about alternative places of care.

As UnityPoint Health grows, the marketing team continues to support long-term growth and remain agile enough to respond to regional demands. With the Insiders, the marketing team can examine regional splits, identify unique challenges in urban and rural areas, and get rich quantitative and qualitative data on their target markets. This then helps fine-tune marketing messages and materials for iterative brand campaign work, sharpen messaging for new retail clinic models, and strengthen digital acquisition.

Results

 As UnityPoint Health continued its journey towards creating a truly easy, convenient and personalized health experience for people, it was clear they needed to revamp their marketing focus. To that end, a new marketing campaign with a seven-figure budget, covering targets in three states – Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin was launched in early 2018. Primary targets included healthcare decision-makers in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.

Insight derived from Insiders informed the crucial areas of targeting including creative development and messaging. UnityPoint Health aimed to make the results a shared win, giving Insiders a first look at advertising and helping UnityPoint Health hone 2018 and 2019 campaign work. Consumer insight work for the health system’s brand campaigns was robust, with multiple stages of quantitative and qualitative work along with primary and secondary research. Through the lens of the marketing team, UnityPoint Health started its journey with discovery, then refined and evaluated using Insiders and other primary research to translate the UnityPoint Health brand promise into long-range planning and creative development.

Nuanced differences based on life stage targets, between families with younger and older children, uncovered opportunities for improvements. As a result of integrated consumer insight work, the system modified its print and billboard creative approach, re-worked TV spots, and modified messaging and visual components. Almost three-quarters of people suggested the advertising evoked positive reactions – a key goal of the campaign. Even better, one key target, young mothers, was significantly more likely to report a positive response.