Healthcare and life sciences brands increasingly benefit from digital interactions between customers, providers, and the digital interface that enables service and care. Every interaction a customer has with your business, from first impression through purchase and follow-up, is a touchpoint. Digital touchpoints are those online and mobile interactions where consumers engage with a business. It includes interactions across different devices, from smartphones to tablets, and various channels including social media and websites.

Touchpoints influence the experience provided by your business to your chosen audience.

These touchpoints can encourage someone to click an ad, read a blog, visit a website, and, ultimately, convert. One wrong move like a missing webpage, inactive social media account, or a live chat that never gets a response, and you may lose that customer forever. In the healthcare and life sciences industries, personal connections are paramount. Surprisingly, these personal connections are often facilitated by an initial digital interaction.

These interactions are fruitful when you connect with the right audience. Knowing your audience is critical to designing the right touchpoints, and the right touchpoints connect you to your chosen audience. In health and life sciences, your audience can be quite varied, including patients, providers, vendors, administrative officials, donors, and others.

There are many possible steps in the customer journey, and customer journeys will vary. They must vary; imagine an identical message delivered across that audience list above. A health brand can’t possibly facilitate relationships with patients the same way they will with a durable medical goods vendor. That contrast seems obvious, but perhaps it gets more muddied when using patient lists for donor outreach. In any case, each stage of this digital journey can influence the perception of your brand, which is why it is essential for you to analyze each touchpoint and identify ways to create positive experiences for each segment of your audience.

Analyzing the Top Types of Digital Touchpoints

Webpages and Shops

Product shops and webpages are often one of the last stages in the customer journey. However, this touchpoint can also be somewhere at the beginning of the journey. Consider someone searching for joint support, like a brace or supportive clothing. They may have a few brands in mind, and when they search those brands, invariably a competitor’s well-placed ad will show up. The customer may select the competitor’s ad, which directs the customer to either a wholesaler or a retailer shop. This is an early touchpoint in the customer journey, and you can see why identifying audience type is important.

If the customer is an individual purchasing medical items through, say, a health savings plan, they may browse the purchase experience, read reviews, or even check social media to see the product in action, review their savings plan to see if the item qualifies, and perhaps click through various qualified competitors to weigh price and durability. These are additional touchpoints that must meet expectations before returning to the product page to make a purchase. 

Paid Touchpoints (Digital Advertisements)

Most commonly, this touchpoint relates to Google, Apple, and social media ad buys. The goal is to place your service or product in front of an audience that has a demonstrated interest. Often this touchpoint is useful at the beginning of the customer journey, when they are actively researching goods and services. Search engine marketing can place your brand front and center on a results page, offering brand awareness or an alternative to a competitor.

Other times, paid content appears further in the customer journey as part of a retargeting campaign, where a customer has previously visited the brand’s website, digital marketplace, or even made a previous purchase. 

Content Marketing 

From blogs to social media posts, content marketing is the digital version of brick and mortar sales representatives offering expertise and customer service to your prospective purchasers. When done well, your customers feel that your brand is attentive, relevant, and informed. The customer will trust your recommendations, and look forward to future interactions with your brand. Connecting with patients and individuals through this touchpoint is important as a mechanism to build trust, because they likely don’t have casual access to a provider (prior to receiving care) or medical goods sales representative to build that relationship.

Content marketing happens at all stages of the customer journey, from brand introduction and purchases to facility tours, product tutorials, community building, and retargeting. 

Reviews and User Generated Content (UGC)

Reviews are straightforward. After a service is provided or a purchase is made, the process and product are rated and details may be provided. Sometimes details are omitted, and future customers are left to wonder why a product received 4 vs 5 stars. UGC fills in that gap, and acts as brand advocacy. Often UGC catches a prospective customer’s attention. It showcases the product in action, demonstrating its use in the wild with an image. More than a star rating, you see the product’s utility and features. In today’s connected world, customers will scope out nearly every product prior to purchase, and both reviews and UGC are important touch points immediately prior to a sale.

Loyalty and Referral Programs 

For the right audience or appropriate sales strategy, customer loyalty can be built through a rewards or bonus program. These incentivize long-time customers by giving them special discounts and gifts will leave a positive impression on them and keep your brand top of mind for future purchases. Furthermore, incentivizing rewards through referrals increases your customer base, while rewarding existing and new customers alike. These can be initiated through email drip campaigns, showcased through a website, or encouraged through content marketing channels like social media.

Fulfillment as a Touchpoint 

The customer fulfillment experience merges digital touchpoints with physical ones. Fulfillment refers to the entire process of receiving, packaging and shipping a product to your customer. This fulfillment process impacts your customer’s shopping experience and can determine whether they become a repeat customer. It could influence digital reviews. Packaging is an opportunity to impress, even potentially used as its own touchpoint for incentivized user-generated content. For health and wellness brands, this touchpoint should minimally reinforce the safety element of your brand. No one wants to receive sterile bandages in sloppy packaging, because it could erode trust.

Furthermore, a shipment tracking system should notify your customers of their order’s shipment process (typically through email, another digital touchpoint). A timely shipment process update will improve their fulfillment experience and help you gain the customer’s trust. Upon receipt of the product or service, thank them once more for their business, and incentivize them to leave a review, create UGC, or make a repeat sale with a reward. Each of these is its own digital touchpoint, which can expand their own customer journey or enrich the journey for others. 

Looking to create a digital touchpoint strategy? Let us help you build a customer journey with our free marketing playbook.