Optimizing Medicare Direct Mail: Best Practices and Examples

It is surprising to know that healthcare constitutes about a mere 17% of the US economy. It is a domain worth exploring because, at some point or the other, everyone makes decisions that affect their health and well-being. Healthcare direct mail marketing, when utilized strategically, can prove to be a perfect channel of marketing communication for companies in this space.

Consider the businesses and organizations that make up this vast industry. Sure, doctors and dentists are what most of you might think, but there are also establishments like hospitals, health care plans, nursing homes, medical diagnostic and testing centers, and many more.

Add on top of it the disastrous epidemic of 2020; the importance of the healthcare industry has been recognized all around the world. If you happen to run any of the businesses we mentioned above, utilizing the power of direct mail marketing services to establish a strong connection with your prospective and present customers is your best bet to stay ahead of the competition.

In this article, we will take a close look at some of the benefits of employing medical mailing services to bond with your customers in a way that they gravitate toward your business to solve their problems.

What is Direct Mail Marketing for Medicare?

Direct mail marketing for healthcare allows people to take a step away from social media and other digital channels and interact with your company in a more personal way. Furthermore, it serves as a real and physical reminder that people can always rely on medical services when they are required.

Direct mail marketing has shown to be an extremely effective method for healthcare companies to communicate with patients, raise brand awareness, and enhance patient acquisition and retention rates. Healthcare direct mail best practices, with their practical and customized approach, can help healthcare firms stand out from the noise of digital advertising and leave a lasting impression on potential patients.

Benefits of Medicare Direct Mail

Direct mail in healthcare marketing remains effective for many reasons, some of the notable ones are:

1. Limited Competition: You can draw attention to your company among healthcare professionals who possibly receive thousands of digital ads. A well-drafted healthcare direct mail will invoke their interest and motivation to recommend your brand of treatment to the consumers.
2. Tangibility: Seeing, touching, and easily passing around direct mail allows for a larger audience to be reached with physical marketing pieces.
3. Integration with Digital Channels: Through various channels, combining offline and online marketing strategies amplifies your chances of conversions.
4. Hyper-Personalization: Tailored messaging coupled with recipients’ names enhances the effectiveness of healthcare direct mail and fosters increased engagement.
5. Trackable Results: Enhancing tracking using PURLs, QR codes, or patient prompts boosts direct mail’s overall impact on the consumer. These elements can also act as an immediate CTA which in turn is convenient and accessible to the consumer.
6. Data-Driven Campaigns: Healthcare institutions can enhance brand loyalty by leveraging data-driven approaches in their direct mail campaigns, identifying their audience, and customizing solutions according to patients’ needs.

Medicare Direct Mail: Best Practices and Examples

To ensure that your direct mail marketing strategy brings in a large number of consumers onboard, here are some of the best practices with practical examples that will surely motivate you for your next campaign.

Flaunt Your Expertise

Credibility relies on offering services and content that enable patients to manage their health. Although there is an abundance of information available online, its accuracy cannot always be trusted. Starting points for good health can come in the form of direct mail pieces containing narratives and tips.

Accessible knowledge and empathetic communication are instrumental in achieving the primary objective of patient relationship building. Let us look at a direct mail piece that explains our point better-

4-page flyer on COVID-19 guidance given out to the local community from Orlando Health, a hospital network based in Florida.

Take an Appointment

Local doctors’ and dentists’ offices have been utilizing mail to notify patients of forthcoming appointments for centuries.

In this case, Highmark, a Pennsylvania-based insurance company, reminds a patient registered in their plan to make an appointment with their doctor. Because the COVID-19 pandemic has limited normal visits, the business is waiving PCP copays for the rest of 2020. Both people depicted on the postcard are wearing masks, which is presumably designed to reassure the consumer that a visit is safe.

Address Their Fears

Every time we get sick or feel like it is the end of the world because we cannot bear to be ill, a visit to the doctor seems daunting. The tendency to delay making an appointment can very well lead to loss of precious time. This century’s pandemic has provided people with an additional reason to indefinitely reschedule doctor’s appointments.

Houston Methodist’s latest postcard for its Breast Care Center addresses those issues. The headline on the front reads, “Getting your annual mammogram is still important.” It reassures the customer that she will be safe during the procedure due to the hospital’s safety procedures, which are stated in short with pictorial representation.

Provide Patients with Options

Patience and patients are two words that do not go well together. That is where telemedicine’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) comes into play.

This letter to an Aetna member informs them that this simple option is part of their insurance package. It summarizes why people should choose the service in a nutshell: convenient (24/7) access, privacy, and, of course, having their medical needs handled.

Take Note of Calendar Events

Just as there are conventional shopping seasons in the retail industry (e.g., back-to-school; Black Friday), there are specific seasons when marketing is cranked up to acquire new customers (patients) or keep current ones. Annual enrollment periods for Medicare or the Health Insurance Marketplace are held throughout the year, usually in the last few months.

This example, from Texas-based Sendero Health Plans, was sent and received a few days before the health insurance plan enrollment deadline. It underscores both the urgency and the company’s local roots.

Conclusion

Healthcare direct mail marketing can help healthcare firms reach out to potential patients and customers, advertise their products and services, and establish long-term partnerships. Healthcare firms can optimize the benefits of direct mail marketing in the healthcare industry by following best practices and implementing effective strategies.

Maintaining open channels of communication with your patients is critical not only now, but also for the long-term sustainability of your healthcare business.