Point of Care (POC) marketing has become a vital tool in healthcare communication, addressing the challenges of audience focus, contextual relevance, and ROI in modern marketing strategies. For professionals already using this channel, the message is clear: expand and optimize your POC strategies to stay competitive. For health and medical companies not yet fully engaged in POC marketing, it’s time to take notice.
This article explores why POC marketing matters from a leadership perspective, examining how it addresses current healthcare challenges and opens new opportunities. Whether fine-tuning existing approaches or just starting out, the Point of Care channel is a powerful delivery channel.
Why POC Marketing Stands Out
Precision in Patient Engagement
POC marketing shines in reaching patients at crucial moments in their healthcare journey, within trusted healthcare contexts. Informing health decisions at critical points that significantly affect treatment and outcomes, Point of Care campaigns can strategically complement broader awareness campaigns.
Precise, data-driven targeting enhances message relevance and supports a more patient-centered approach to healthcare communication:
- Location-Specific Targeting: Customize campaigns to address local health trends and community needs, investing resources where most needed.
- Condition-Focused Content: Provide information relevant to specific health conditions, improving patient education and decision-making.
- Personalized Approach: Deliver tailored content to patients and providers based on health profiles or specialties.
Recent advances in POC technology enable unprecedented accuracy in reaching specific patient groups and providers.
Building on Trust in an Information-Rich World
POC materials leverage the inherent trust patients have in healthcare settings, distinguishing them from general advertising or online health information. A 2022 Phreesia survey underscores this elite credibility:
- 20% of patients considered POC messaging more reliable than other channels.
- Trust in medical information at the point of care (20%) was notably higher than non-POC print (14%), social media (10%), internet (9%), and television (8%).
- 17% of respondents found POC messaging very helpful, outperforming other media channels.
This trust fosters open discussions about health concerns and treatments, building confidence in health and pharmaceutical brands. It also addresses critical challenges like medication adherence by providing credible information at the point of care.
By providing trusted information at the point of care, marketers can help patients better understand their treatments, address concerns about side effects, and stress the importance of following prescribed regimens. This approach benefits patient health outcomes and aligns with the goals of healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies.
For healthcare marketing professionals, the trust associated with POC settings offers a unique chance to create impactful campaigns that resonate with both patients and providers. By leveraging this trust responsibly, POC marketing can bridge the gap between providing information and inspiring health-related actions, ultimately contributing to better health outcomes and more effective healthcare delivery.
POC Marketing: Addressing Healthcare's Intractable Challenges
Point of Care Marketing uniquely tackles healthcare’s most persistent problems by engaging patients in specific, personal contexts. This approach changes challenges into opportunities for improved care and outcomes.
Cracking the Code of Medication Adherence
Imagine a world where every patient takes their medication as prescribed, leading to better-managed chronic conditions, fewer preventable hospitalizations, and reduced healthcare costs. This isn’t just a pipedream—it’s a goal that POC marketing can help achieve.
The stakes are high. Dr. Fred Kleinsinger’s 2018 article “The Unmet Challenge of Medication Nonadherence” (Perm J 2018) highlights the dire consequences:
- At least 100,000 preventable deaths occur annually due to medication non-adherence.
- 40% of patients with chronic conditions abandon their treatment within the first year, even with good insurance coverage.
These statistics represent real people and missed opportunities for better health outcomes. POC marketing can make a difference.
Picture a newly diagnosed patient at the pharmacy counter, overwhelmed and holding a prescription they don’t fully understand. A carefully crafted POC display with a QR code becomes their lifeline. It explains their condition in clear terms, outlines medication expectations, addresses common concerns, and introduces support programs and digital tools to help them stay on track.
This isn’t just marketing—it’s education, support, and empowerment delivered at the crucial moment. By leveraging the unique position of trust that POC marketing occupies, we can change a bewildered patient into an informed, engaged partner in their own healthcare journey.
POC: Facilitating New and Changing Market Opportunities
Today’s healthcare consumers are proactive, information-hungry, and navigating an increasingly complex healthcare terrain. The traditional patient journey is changing, with consumers now interacting with the healthcare system through diverse touchpoints:
- Specialist consultations
- Retail health clinics
- Pharmacies
- Virtual health platforms
- Health and wellness apps
This shift presents both challenges and opportunities for healthcare marketers. POC marketing’s flexibility allows it to reach consumers across these varied settings, providing relevant, timely information at critical decision-making moments.
A Case Study: The IVF Journey and Point of Care Support
Consider a patient undergoing an IVF journey. She sees her fertility specialist regularly but hasn’t informed her regular OBGYN and has no general practitioner. POC marketing supports her and her care providers throughout this complex process:
- Emotional Support: In the waiting room, she notices a wall board addressing grief and support—topics she’s felt uncomfortable sharing with family. Realizing she feels overwhelmed, she scans a QR code linking her to in-person and virtual support options, providing a discreet way to access emotional resources.
- Comprehensive Information: Her health portal offers informational videos and FAQs covering treatment options, medication management, communication strategies with family and providers, and resources for her partner. This centralized information hub empowers her to navigate the complex IVF process more confidently.
- Medication Management: An online pharmacy delivers her medications and follows up with an online consultation to review the included FAQ. They also provide information, coupons, and easy links to OTC guidance on prenatal vitamins, exercise, nutrition, and solutions for common side effects. This integrated approach supports medication adherence and overall health during treatment.
- Continuity of Care: During her next annual OBGYN visit, POC materials facilitate a discussion about preparing for a mature pregnancy. This ensures that her regular care provider is informed and can offer appropriate support, bridging potential gaps in her care network.
- Ongoing Education: Online resources debunk infertility myths and provide facts about female reproductive cycles. This information helps normalize her experience and supports her through multiple treatment rounds, preparing her for success or exploring alternatives like egg donation if needed.
This scenario illustrates how POC marketing creates messaging consistency across disjointed healthcare experiences. It transforms every touchpoint—from waiting rooms and online portals to pharmacy interactions and regular check-ups—into opportunities for education, support, and empowerment.
By providing timely, relevant information and support at each stage of the IVF journey, POC marketing not only improves the patient’s experience but also enhances treatment adherence and outcomes. This comprehensive approach demonstrates the strategic value of POC marketing in addressing complex healthcare challenges and supporting patients through intricate, long-term treatment processes.
Adapting Healthcare Engagement to New Realities
POC marketing adapts to new realities effecting patient journeys and their unique needs at varying touchpoints in a multitude of ways:
- Bridging information gaps: As patients move between different care settings, POC materials can provide consistent, accurate information, ensuring continuity of care and brand messaging.
- Supporting shared decision-making: In specialist settings, where complex treatment decisions are often made, POC materials can facilitate informed discussions between patients and healthcare providers.
- Enhancing retail health experiences: POC marketing in pharmacies and retail clinics can educate consumers about over-the-counter products, vaccinations, and when to seek further care.
- Complementing virtual health: While telehealth platforms offer convenience, they may lack the personal touch. POC marketing can provide tangible, take-home materials that reinforce key messages from virtual consultations.
- Integrating with digital health tools: POC marketing can introduce and explain the benefits of health apps and wearables, encouraging their adoption and proper use.
The Strategic Imperative of Integrating POC Marketing
More brands are entering the Point of Care space, recognizing its potential for targeted patient and provider engagement. Importantly, POC is not an add-on; it is a strategic imperative that deserves a seat at the table from day one.
How you prioritize and invest in the Point of Care channel is as important as being there. By embracing POC as an integral part of a holistic marketing strategy, healthcare marketers do more than optimize their spending. They create campaigns that resonate, educate, and drive meaningful action. Most importantly:
You’re positioning your brand at the very heart of the healthcare journey, right where decisions are made, treatments are chosen, and lives are changed.
There’s no more powerful place to be, and being sensitive to that influence is critical to succeeding in the channel.
The Power of Point of Care Integration
Integrating POC marketing from day one fundamentally changes how we approach healthcare marketing. It combines POC’s unique strengths with the power of early integration:
- Maintain brand presence: Ensure relevance throughout the patient journey across diverse care settings.
- Support care teams: Enhance understanding and treatment of empowered patients and caregivers.
- Optimize resources: Reduce redundant work and streamline the creative process.
- Enhance customization: Leverage the unique strengths of the POC channel for targeted messaging.
- Improve ROI: Amplify the impact of every marketing dollar through strategic placement.
- Increase agility: Respond swiftly to emerging trends in the fast-paced healthcare world.
- Deliver relevance: Provide crucial information where people are getting care and making treatment decisions.
- Ensure consistency: Reinforce campaign impact across all channels.
- Bridge technology: Combine traditional tactics with newer technologies for comprehensive reach.
Rethinking Your POC Integration Strategy
Historically, POC marketing has faced challenges: limited investment, repurposed content, and misconceptions about its effectiveness. But when properly leveraged, POC marketing is a dynamic, context-dependent channel with unique creative standards and strategies. Patients and healthcare providers respond to consistently new, refreshed, and highly relevant Point of Care content that is modernized by POC technologies and tactics.
Consider two approaches:
- The Afterthought: A pharmaceutical company adds POC materials months after developing a broad marketing campaign, essentially miniaturizing print ads for doctor’s offices. This approach, while seemingly cost-efficient, often fails to meet patient needs and can damage brand reputation.
- The Integration: The same company brings POC partners to the table from the outset, crafting a strategy that seamlessly weaves POC touchpoints into every aspect of the campaign. The result is empathetic, relevant content that resonates with audiences at crucial moments in their healthcare journey.
The difference is stark. Early integration of POC marketing creates truly patient-centric campaigns that maintain brand presence throughout the patient journey, support care teams, and navigate the complexities of modern healthcare consumption.
Leveraging POC Partner Expertise
POC partners are strategic allies with deep, nuanced understanding of the healthcare environment. Their expertise can be transformative:
- Creative Opportunity Identification: They spot unique opportunities within healthcare settings, understanding the rhythms of waiting rooms and the dynamics of exam rooms.
- Audience Segmentation Refinement: They offer insights into the real-world flow of patients through healthcare facilities, enabling more effective audience targeting.
- Regulatory Navigation: They bring expertise in navigating the complex regulatory landscape, ensuring campaigns are both impactful and compliant.
- Technology Integration: Many have developed proprietary technologies that enhance campaign delivery and measurement.
- Performance Metrics Mastery: They offer unique insights into measuring campaign effectiveness within the healthcare environment, establishing relevant KPIs and providing data on patient engagement.
By leveraging these partners’ expertise from the outset, healthcare marketers can develop sophisticated, effective campaigns that truly resonate at the point of care.
Investing in robust POC strategies is no longer optional—it’s a strategic imperative for navigating the complexities of modern healthcare marketing and delivering meaningful impact where it matters most.
Empathy and Creativity: The Heart of Effective POC Marketing
Point of Care Marketing transcends strategic placement and catchy slogans. At its core, this is a channel about understanding the patient’s journey and providing value to them and care teams at critical moments. Demonstrating the required sensitivity and human compassion extends to brands who recognize the responsibility and calling, building trust. This approach requires marketers to be both strategists and compassionate guides through the complex healthcare experiences.
Leading with Empathy
Imagine a patient in a waiting room, anxiety mounting as they await a diagnosis. POC marketing can offer reassurance and thekey is empathy. By acknowledging patients’ emotional states and offering easily understood, highly supportive, and actionable information, marketers can recreate POC materials from mere advertisements into valuable resources.
This empathy-driven approach doesn’t abandon promotional goals. Instead, it aligns them with patient needs. A brochure that helps patients understand their condition and treatment options is likely to have far greater impact than one that simply promotes a drug.
Embracing Diversity and Technology
Healthcare journeys aren’t one-size-fits-all, and neither should be the marketing that accompanies them. Effective POC campaigns consider demographic diversity, variations in health literacy, cultural backgrounds, and personal preferences. The challenge lies in creating flexible, inclusive campaigns that speak to a wide range of experiences and needs.
While technology offers exciting possibilities for personalizing POC marketing, it’s not a panacea. Interactive displays and QR codes can provide depth and interactivity, but they must be balanced with traditional approaches to ensure accessibility. The goal is to use technology as a tool for connection and education, not as a barrier.
Bridging Patient-Provider Communication
Some of the most powerful POC materials serve as conversation starters or educational aids during consultations. By facilitating crucial conversations, POC marketing can play a role in improving health outcomes, not just brand awareness.
The Future of POC Marketing: A Strategic Imperative
As we look to the future, the definition of “Point of Care” continues to expand beyond traditional healthcare settings. This evolution presents both challenges and opportunities for innovative brands and marketers willing to reimagine how and where health-related messages are delivered.
Ultimately, the art of POC marketing lies in its ability to blend seamlessly into the healthcare experience, providing value to patients, providers, and marketers alike. It’s a delicate balance of creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking.
For decision-makers in healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, the message is clear: POC marketing is not just another channel—it’s a strategic imperative. When executed thoughtfully, it has the power to improve patient outcomes, support healthcare providers, and drive business success.
The path forward involves:
- Integrating POC strategies early in campaign development
- Leveraging data and analytics for more targeted, personalized approaches
- Aligning POC efforts with broader value-based care initiatives
- Continually adapting to new technologies and expanding definitions of care
- Being patient-centered and empathetic, adjusting materials for patient experiences and states
As healthcare modernizes, so must our marketing approach. By leading with empathy, prioritizing patient needs, and embracing creativity, POC marketing becomes more than a promotional tool—it becomes a vital part of the healthcare journey, supporting better understanding, engagement, and ultimately, better health outcomes.
POC marketing offers a unique opportunity to make a tangible difference—one patient interaction at a time.
