How healthcare CMOs can deliver relevance, trust, and growth—without crossing the line
Why It Matters
Healthcare leaders know the stakes. Patients are now consumers with heightened expectations, honed by digital-first brands. They want communications that feel relevant and timely, not generic. Yet the line between “helpful personalization” and “creepy overreach” is razor-thin.
Consider this: 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions—and 76% get frustrated when that doesn’t happen (McKinsey, 2024). But when personalization feels invasive, the opposite happens: 63% of consumers say they’ll stop buying from brands that use poor personalization tactics (Accenture, 2023).
In healthcare, the bar is even higher. HIPAA rules, patient privacy concerns, and the deeply personal nature of health decisions magnify the risks. For CMOs, the question isn’t should we personalize?—it’s how do we personalize with empathy, compliance, and trust?
The Stakes for CMOs
Health system and health plan CMOs face competing pressures:
- Boardroom accountability: Marketing spend must tie directly to enterprise growth.
- Consumer demand: Patients expect Netflix-level relevance.
- Regulatory scrutiny: State privacy laws and HIPAA demand airtight governance.
- Competitive disruption: Retail clinics, digital-first payers, and telehealth startups are already tailoring experiences with ease.
Bold personalization strategies, done right, create a triple win: more engaged patients, improved loyalty, and measurable enterprise value. Done wrong, they erode trust and expose organizations to compliance risk.
The Approach: Empathy + Evidence + Execution
At ab+a, we frame personalization around three principles:
- Empathy: See the patient/member as a person first, not a data point.
- Evidence: Anchor personalization in data that is accurate, compliant, and actionable.
- Execution: Operationalize personalization with governance, discipline, and scalable tools like our Campaign Personalization Grid.
Where CMOs Go Wrong
Too often, healthcare personalization fails in one of three ways:
- Overreach: Using sensitive health data in marketing outreach without clear consent. Example: sending targeted cancer screening emails that feel invasive.
- Irrelevance: Overgeneralizing based on demographics instead of behavior, resulting in tone-deaf campaigns.
- Inconsistency: A member gets a personalized message in one channel, then a generic blast elsewhere—undermining credibility.
As Harvard Business Review recently observed: “Personalization without trust is surveillance. Personalization with trust is service.”
Data Patients Will Share—If You Earn It
Here’s the nuance: patients are willing to share data when the value exchange is clear. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Health Consumer Survey, 55% of U.S. consumers are open to sharing personal health data if it improves care coordination, preventive care, or lowers costs.
That’s the opening CMOs need. The play isn’t to grab as much data as possible—it’s to align data collection with tangible patient benefit.
Illustrative Example:
- A health system offers a personalized diabetes prevention program. Patients opt-in to receive reminders, recipe tips, and screening invitations. The value exchange is explicit, and engagement rises.
- Contrast that with a patient suddenly receiving targeted ads about a condition they never disclosed—creepy, not caring.
Expert Perspective
Dr. Joseph Kvedar, Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and a leading voice in digital health, put it succinctly:
“Personalization is powerful when it respects context. Patients are comfortable when outreach aligns with their known care journey—but recoil when it feels like surveillance.”
This balance—between relevance and respect—is the crux of healthcare personalization.
The GiG Campaign Personalization Grid
Here’s where ab+a helps CMOs move from theory to practice. Our Growth Impact Good Campaign Personalization Grid aligns:
- Audience Segments (patients, members, caregivers, physicians)
- Channels (email, SMS, portal, call center, direct mail, paid digital)
- Message Variants (awareness, preventive, condition-specific, loyalty)
The Grid ensures personalization happens within defined guardrails: what’s appropriate to say, in which channel, and for whom. It prevents the all-too-common trap of personalization-by-accident, where data leaks into campaigns without governance.
Illustrative Example:
- Segment: Women ages 40–54 in a system’s primary care base.
- Channel: Patient portal + SMS reminder.
- Message: Preventive mammogram scheduling.
- Result: Outreach feels relevant, not invasive, and aligns with clinical guidelines.
Stats That Prove the Point
- Organizations that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from those activities compared to average players (McKinsey, 2024).
- 82% of U.S. consumers want more personalization in healthcare communications—but only 45% feel they’re getting it today (Accenture Digital Health Survey, 2023).
- Healthcare-specific campaigns that use compliant personalization see up to a 67% lift in appointment bookings when compared to generic outreach (NIH/PMC, 2024).
What to Do Next: A CMO’s Checklist
1. Define Guardrails Before You Launch
- What data can be used? What’s off-limits?
- Who approves personalization logic?
2. Align to the Care Journey
- Match personalization to care milestones (screenings, renewals, chronic care management).
3. Use First-Party Data First
- CRM, EHR, and portal data are rich and compliant. Rely less on third-party data sources with questionable provenance.
4. Pilot, Measure, Scale
- Start with one service line (e.g., cardiology follow-ups), prove ROI, then expand.
5. Govern Like Your Reputation Depends On It—Because It Does
- Compliance reviews, opt-out mechanisms, and cross-channel consistency aren’t optional.
The Payoff: Growth, Impact, Good
Personalization done right delivers more than engagement:
- Growth: Higher appointment conversions, lower churn, improved member acquisition efficiency.
- Impact: Better patient experience, timely preventive care, improved outcomes.
- Good: Builds trust, safeguards privacy, strengthens reputation.
In other words—personalization is not a tactical trick. It’s a strategic growth engine, governed with discipline and empathy.
Closing Provocation
Healthcare CMOs don’t need to choose between relevance and respect. They can—and must—do both. The organizations that master this balance will not only win loyalty but also prove to boards and CFOs that marketing is a growth engine built on trust.
Or as Dr. Kvedar reminds us: “Patients aren’t afraid of personalization. They’re afraid of losing control. Give them transparency and value, and they’ll give you loyalty.”
At ab+a, we call that a GiG moment—where growth, impact, and good converge.
