The beginning of the year is one of my favorite times. I feel rejuvenated and there is sense of “freshness” in the air. One of the things that I like to do in new year is make goals for myself. It’s the perfect time to take stock, plan, and look forward to the year ahead. Although these past two years have been rather uncertain, I’ve continued to set both personal and professional goals and work really hard to accomplish them.
As we headed into 2022, we asked the HITMC community to share their predictions for year as it pertains to social media, PR, events, patient experience, websites, and more. After reading many of the predictions, it is clear there is still a bit of uncertainty, but I feel there is also a sense of optimism for the year ahead.
Here are the most interesting 2022 predictions we received from the community:
Lea Chatham, Senior Director, Integrated Strategy, Innsena Communications
I’ve been saying for some time that the best opportunities are the ones that are more comprehensive versus one-off tactics. I think 2022 is the year that we will see that become more of the norm. Smart marketing leaders will look for packages that offer several ways to reach their targets. For example, an event sponsorship that offers ads, a speaking or panel spot, email, booth, short product highlight, etc. Another example might be a package with a publication that combines web, email, an event like a podcast, native article, a digital ad, etc. This is as opposed to a single email or event booth. It’s all about the broader campaign that touches people through many avenues and is packaged to give the marketer a better deal for their money. I’d prefer to spend a bit more with one partner and get a broader reach than spend smaller amounts with a lot of partners and have limited reach with all of them. I think the organizations that look to develop those more affordable packages of marketing services will get more of the business.
Chris Slocumb, President, Clarity Quest Marketing
Digital marketing and public relations spend will continue to outpace 2019 numbers as events are still being postponed or held virtually. Marketers will look to interactive apps to replace webinars because audiences are getting burned out with webinars and virtual events.
Beth Cooper, Vice President, KNB Communications
In 2022, we’ll see healthcare consumerism continue to increase–meaning, patients will become much more involved in their healthcare decisions and be more aware of costs. The No Surprises Act is reflective of this shift in mindset, and the implications will be far-reaching.
Charles Webster, President, EHR Workflow, Inc.
Some health IT vendors will join the “Metaverse”…. The quotes are due to the Metaverse not existing yet, according to most sophisticated descriptions, and being as yet, a nebulous, inchoate, nascent concept, in and up itself. But has that ever, ever stopped a health IT vendor marketing department?
Paul Berthiaume, Vice President Matter Health Communications
I swear I’m not writing this to be self-serving [Editor’s note: Paul we know you are being truthful] BUT ….. there will be a massive trend of healthcare companies of all sizes, scopes, and shapes toward outsourcing their Marketing/PR/Comms/Social etc. functions toward agencies and freelancers. I’ve been in the agency world now for 2.5 years, and I’d say the appetite has grown at least five-fold from my first day until now. It will be ten-fold by the end of this year. Companies cannot find the right healthcare marketing experts, and the running costs of overhead/salary/insurance etc. just cannot compete with the fixed cost of a stellar agency team. I’m not saying agencies will get all the business, but collectively, the market activity will continue ramping up toward unprecedented levels.
Linda Stotsky, Marketing and Communications, Boston Software Systems
We’ve seen stories become ever-so-popular in 2021, and this will grow in 2022. AI may also be used to predict a customers’ next move, and target them with a product or service they need, when and where they need it. Also, VR. Things in the Metaverse are heating up, so expect to see a lot of VR imaging and creative shorts.
Dan Dunlop, Principal, Jennings Health
My prediction for 2022 is that we will see a movement in the healthcare industry where organizations assess their organizational culture and values and make dramatic shifts to be more employee-friendly. In reaction to the current employment crisis within our industry, having a culture that embraces kindness, compassion, and generosity (maybe even love) will become a competitive advantage when it comes to staff retention and recruiting. To be effective, the culture change has to be genuine and not simply a marketing ploy. I believe that adopting a more nurturing, kind, and loving persona will create a more inclusive environment and open the door to greater innovation.
Stephen Moegling , SVP of Growth, Hailey Sault
Marketers will enact and refine campaign strategies (AKA “Capacity Marketing”) around bottlenecks in healthcare service delivery such as supply chain shortages, labor shortages, and high ER volumes. Capacity marketing is the proactive planning strategy that accounts for bottlenecks in your healthcare delivery system and informs the messaging, services, and calls-to-action for patient consumers to avoid creating further bottlenecks; and, as a consequence, a less than ideal patient/consumer experience.
Jared Johnson, Founder, Shift.Health
I predict that healthcare will accelerate its march toward becoming less hospital-centric, led by the one-two punch of nontraditional entrants’ market power, and hospitals’ financial duress. As a critical mass of health systems will find themselves facing precarious staffing situations and unsustainable operating margins, the majority will be unwilling to disrupt themselves or make the investments necessary to find profitable paths for addressing new healthcare consumers. I see nothing to indicate that the entrenched thinking of incumbents will change this year. Of the consumer brands entering healthcare, maybe the new players making headlines today won’t be the ones to ultimately succeed. It might not be Amazon or Walmart, but someone will make a big enough dent in 2022 that hospitals will have no choice but to pay attention. My money is on someone flying under the radar like Best Buy, which continued planting its flag in home health, or a connected fitness player like Peleton or Nike.
If you have a prediction you’d like to share, add it in the comments below so we can all learn from each other.
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