How will hospitals outsmart their competition in 2017? It’s all about creating a personalized patient experience.

Healthcare ad agency Smith & Jones recently released its top 10 hospital marketing trends, and a common thread can be found: the need to target niche audiences and provide more customized resources to make healthier choices.

Among the findings:

• Hospitals should use customer relationship management systems to tailor messages and target those who can benefit most from their services.
• Hospitals should create content specific to niche groups to better compete for their attention in search.
• Hospitals should use location-based services to deliver tailored messages to customers.

Creating a personalized patient experience through content just makes sense. Customers search for information with highly specific search phrases — think “how to lose weight after a baby” rather than “weight loss”.

Plus, customer needs vary greatly from person to person depending on any number of factors, including age, location, ethnicity and gender. Imagine how different heart-healthy tips could be for a 70-year-old man living in a retirement community versus a 30-year-old new mom.

To start creating more personalized content:

• Identify four to five key niche audiences (i.e., young professional women, empty nester males) that you can target with content.
• Create a persona for each audience group that includes details around age, interests, challenges, media preferences and the like.
• Select a handful of key topics (i.e., healthy eating, exercise, heart health), and plan a different piece of content for each audience group, keeping in mind their unique challenges and needs.

How will you create more targeted content in 2017?