Marketing To Nurses Amidst The Corona Virus

Looking for nurses to help fight the COVID-19 crisis? Read more to find out effective strategies for marketing to nurses amidst the coronavirus crisis.

Nurses and doctors working for unimaginable hours without proper equipment that is almost every hospital in the city of New York right now. Doctors are devoting 16 hours shifts, while nurses continue to work even more. However, more is not enough right now.

        With thousands dead and even more afflicted, the coronavirus has quickly become one of the world’s deadliest pandemics. What started as a localized virus infecting the Hubei province in China has quickly gone on to affect over 600,000 people in the US alone. In a country that has just over 2 million registered nurses, of which 1% are travel nurses, this surge is deeply troubling.

Hospitals around the US have relied on temporary or travel nurses for ages. Now, as they are required more than ever before, travel restrictions have been imposed, preventing them from accepting job positions. Those that are still willing to work demand better facilities and increased pay and have become increasingly selective of the hospitals and agencies they choose.

This selectivity at the nurses’ end has driven intense competition between different hospitals across the country. These healthcare centers are seeking to lure in the small amount of the still available temporary nurses with enhanced facilities, better pay, and flexibility.

While these may seem enough to prompt nurses to accept a job at your hospital, they are nothing on their own. Unless you successfully inform temporary nurses of what your hospital is offering, they will not come to you.

In times like these, every agency or hospital seeking nurses must see themselves as expert marketers using innovative techniques to lure in their target segment, which in this case, are nurses.

Marketing to Nurses – the Big Data Way

To avoid sending wrong marketing messages to wrong nurses based in incorrect locations, your brand has to utilize contact databases and excellent data-driven marketing strategies. Here are some ways contact databases and big data is advantageous while marketing to nurses amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Geo-Targeting Nurses with Contact Databases

     With enriched and excellent quality contact databases, you know exactly who to send your messages to. For example, if your hospital is located in New York or Connecticut, you cannot expect a nurse from Los Angeles to fly in to work for you, especially keeping the current travel restrictions in mind. However, you can appeal to someone from the four boroughs of the city, New Jersey, or other neighboring regions. 

Geo-targeted contact databases are an excellent way to determine which nurses are based closer to your hospital or agency. Such lists also help you build a virtual fence around your targeted area and send messages to only those nurses that belong to the qualifying demographics. This way, you can expect a higher conversion rate and prevent your messages from being wasted on nurses who would never be able to accept the offer.

Identifying the Right Targets

        Another advantage of a good-quality contact database is that it prevents you from sending marketing messages to someone who would never respond. As an agency or a hospital, you will have little success attracting nurses already working with other nearby hospitals. They are already doing their duty and a change of location of service would not matter to them. A hygienic nurse's contact database will be updated with the job roles of the nurses in it. If you determine that some of them are on duty already, you will not waste time sending marketing messages and offers to them.

Personalized Messages

        Nursing is emblematic of excellent ideals and values of service. The profession is an identity rather than a 9-5 job. This means that merely offers, deals, and discounts do not appeal to nurses. Marketing to nurses is all about creating gated, personalized, and exclusive campaigns that honor their services and recognize their identities while telling them how your hospital is the best fit for them. The only way to achieve such a level of personalization is to utilize Big Data and contact databases to enhance your understanding of your targeted customer base.

The customer intelligence that you derive from enriched databases can help you design gated campaigns. Brands that have used gated campaigns for high-value customers belonging to the military, first-responders, or firefighter segments have seen stellar results. For example, Target used digital verification and exclusive offers to appeal to educators across the country. Similarly, Globus launched an offer on tour packages for military personnel.

        For nurses, too, your brand can use customer knowledge gained from Big Data and contact databases to see what they require the most. It may be a vacation offer after the coronavirus subsides or an advertisement for the free services and perks your hospital or agency offers its staff, but once you know what will appeal to them the most, you can craft your marketing messages aptly.

Similarly, enriched contact databases can help you deduce buyer personas of your nurses. You can then base your subsequent marketing efforts on these personas, speaking to your target nurses in a more effective manner instead of designing confused, unattractive, or unappealing campaigns.

       Marketing to nurses in the current times is a dire requirement for hospitals that want to provide excellent care to coronavirus patients. With a data-driven approach to this type of marketing, healthcare agencies can see a better response from nurses and work effectively to save lives.