Peter Durand leads Netsertive's Healthcare business, providing clients with a clear return on invested digital media through patient acquisition and spend efficiency. Pete is a successful entrepreneur, having built several companies leveraging his early executive experience at major corporations like GE, Eaton and Kimberly-Clark. His background in healthcare provides insight from a provider, payer and consumer perspective, allowing his team to connect people on the patient journey. A triathlete, patent-holder and father of three, he holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration.
What events in your career have led you here to Netsertive and the Premier project?
I’ve known Scott Newnam, Brendan Morrissey, Debbie Edmondson and Bob Bradley for years. It was just a matter of time before I succumbed to the Netsertive pull.
Premier was likely the tipping point as the opportunity matched my background in healthcare - I had started a healthcare app in 2009, the same time Scott and Bill started Netsertive. Funny how paths continuously cross.
Why healthcare marketing?
Healthcare marketing is about addressing two significant trends: The first is healthcare consumerism. Potential patients have higher deductibles and like any other purchase, tend to do more research and move toward value. The second trend is competition.
Picky consumers drive competition - hospital systems must respond to a more fragmented marketplace where individual service lines have broken away from the system to compete locally. Surgery centers, urgent care, outpatient clinics, primary care, orthopedics, etc. are located in communities and often part of larger, national brands, meaning local hospital systems must now compete for patients.
What is your biggest piece of advice for bringing attention to healthcare practices and services?
Local, local, local. Patients want the best care, now, and around the corner. Healthcare systems must adapt to this trend by driving their advertising to the edge, all the way to a specific practice location. There are exceptions, such as cancer care, where patients will expand their search parameters to find the best doctors/system.
What does the future of healthcare marketing look like in the next year? 5 years? 10 years?
5 years from now, patients will be able to search, research, and schedule appointments for any service instantly. This means that relevant information about the provider is provided in the search results, as well as a way to schedule an appointment. Information could include the physician’s rating, accreditations, associations, complaint history, etc.
10 years from now our phones will capture vital biometric information (such as body temp, pulse, blood pressure) so telemedicine has a larger presence. Providers must adapt to stay relevant.
What would you title a book about healthcare marketing? Why?
- “Put a fork in it”, subtitle: “Why traditional advertising is dead”. Picture of a fork in the middle of a billboard
- Billboards, print, etc. are irrelevant. How do you measure conversion on a billboard? You don’t. Digital advertising, done right, allows systems to spend their advertising dollars in a much more distributed and relevant manner.
Ashley Freeman
Ashley is Netsertive's Corporate Marketing Associate specializing in social media and digital marketing. In her free time, she enjoys running her food Instagram account @Raleighfoodpics that has over 49,000 followers.
