We have written a lot about the role that geomarketing plays in successful marketing campaigns. Let’s now take a closer look at a market where geomarketing can be highly beneficial: the healthcare sector.

Probably all industries are facing challenges due to the pandemic, but healthcare providers take on a special role these days. When hospitals were overcrowded with COVID-19 patients, people avoided regular check-ups on a massive scale. That meant that many non-emergency procedures were delayed or cancelled entirely. As people continued to isolate themselves and only show up if it is really necessary, hospitals and healthcare providers experienced significant financial losses.

With an increasing percentage of vaccinated people and more and more urgent care centers and retail clinics opening, it is time for healthcare providers to deploy successful marketing strategies. As it can be a good start to rethink old techniques, many marketers re-discovered direct mail. Compared to the high amount of digital marketing methods, direct mail has proven to be particularly effective during the pandemic.

While working from home and staying away from in-person events, physical mail remains something special and relieving from staring at screens all day long. Direct mail can be touched, brought inside and be stuck to the refrigerator as a reminder. It is far less likely to get lost in an overflowing email inbox or automatically marked as spam.

For healthcare providers trying to get patients back in their doors, both proximity and accessibility are essential. That is where geomarketing comes in: By integrating personalized maps into your direct mail, it is possible to communicate how close your services are, how to get there, as well as providing the distance and travel time. These maps also mean the recipient can instantly recognize their own neighborhood and visualize the way to the healthcare provider’s location. Personalized, informative maps like these are proven to reach patients on an emotional level and result in significantly higher response rates.

But you can get even more out of a simple address list: Segmenting target audiences by travel time or distance instead of zip codes result in a much higher ROI and therefore more cost-efficient campaigns.

Location data can be used to advantage in many creative ways in both print or digital strategies or, even better, multichannel communications.

For more inspiration find our eBook “How to use Geomarketing in Healthcare” including a detailed case study!