From Click to Care: Precision Marketing That Improves the Patient Experience

Healthcare marketing today sits at the intersection of growth and experience. Patients move through one continuous journey from first search to follow-up and beyond. When the functional teams within health systems are aligned, the patient journey feels more coherent and supportive, giving healthcare marketers a rare opportunity to deepen trust, strengthen connection, and deliver truly personalized experiences.

At this year’s Healthcare Interactive Conference (HCIC), UCLA Health shared how, in partnership with Fathom, an IQVIA business, and IQVIA Health System Solutions, they are building a more coordinated, precision-driven patient experience that connects brand, digital engagement, physician referral, and operations.

Focus on the Full Patient Experience Beyond the Click

The session reinforced a clear mindset shift: precision marketing isn’t only about reaching the right audience, it’s about supporting patients through the full care journey. With 70,000 health-related searches happening every minute (Source: Becker’s Hospital Review), digital is often the start point for care decisions. UCLA Health emphasized that what happens after a patient engages matters just as much, especially as 83% of consumers say coordinated, seamless care across providers is important to their health (Source: CVS Health).

Precision marketing connects the moments that shape experience from awareness to scheduling to follow-up, so patients feel supported by a journey that is consistent, personal, and clear. Clinical excellence is essential, but loyalty grows when the experience around care reflects the same level of intention.

Build a Unified Team to Enable a Personalized Patient Experience

Delivering that end-to-end experience requires teams working from a shared strategy. UCLA Health shared how aligning marketing, IT, clinical operations, and strategy helps them operate as one connected system. This supports consistent segmentation, smoother transitions, and coordinated touchpoints before and after conversion. In practice, marketing efforts like community engagement, brand and referral programs, and patient acquisition are designed alongside operational moments such as education, scheduling, reminders, follow-ups, and billing. When those touchpoints work together, patients experience care that feels connected and genuinely personalized.

Align your patient campaigns and physician referral strategies

A coordinated patient journey also requires coordinated influence. UCLA Health described a digital-first, omnichannel consumer approach focused on conversion-ready audiences. The strategy builds service line and location awareness, then turns intent into action through channels like social and paid search, supported by de-identified healthcare segments that go beyond basic demographics.

At the same time, physician referrals remain a powerful driver of where patients seek care, especially because clinicians continue to be among the most trusted voices guiding health decisions. Orchestrated patient campaigns and referral strategies reinforce each other, helping patients reach the right care setting and strengthening both acquisition and continuity.

Explore new applications for privacy-safe data to advance your marketing strategy

The session closed with a look ahead. Privacy-safe healthcare data is what makes coordinated experiences possible at scale. IQVIA and Fathom showed how coordination of both provide and patient marketing efforts moves precision beyond broad demographics to more meaningful targeting. With that foundation in place, UCLA Health is positioned to better harmonize patient and provider journeys, activate hyper-targeted segmentation, and pilot new high-touch engagement tactics. The takeaway was clear: when marketing and operations unite around the patient experience, brand promise can consistently meet operational reality and open the door to what is next.

Closing the Gap Between Click and Care

UCLA Health’s approach shows what becomes possible when data, digital strategy, and internal alignment come together around one patient journey. It is a practical model for creating more connected experiences that support growth and long-term loyalty. Want to see more client partnerships in action? Explore our case studies to learn how we help health systems connect patients to care.