Consumer Engagement Insights—How do we get consumers back into care?

  • September 24, 2020
  • Blog Post
  • Kathleen Ellmore

Health consumers’ deferral of much needed care due to the pandemic is slated to be the next great health crisis. Missed preventive care screenings, vaccinations and annual exams all point to a future health catastrophe unlike any we have ever seen. Add the impending flu season to the mix, and the urgency to engage health consumers now is paramount. What have we seen in our recent work encouraging consumers to get needed flu vaccines, and in some cases, fill additional gaps in care?

  • Warm weather geographies can be moved to action: Framing flu vaccine messaging to note that the flu can happen anywhere, including citing the recipient’s specific location, prompted action.
  • SMS text outreach works: In a controlled A/B test, this channel performed better across multiple populations and cohorts, with the inclusion of specific engagement tactics and immediacy being most effective.
  • Social should not be ignored: Even when used for only short periods during controlled testing, social media showed strong results, moving some populations a half percentage point on its own.

Looking to use proven communications and engagement techniques to drive your members back into care? Interested in seeing some additional insights we've collected through our work? Contact us!

Kathleen Ellmore



Ms. Ellmore is one of the earliest pioneers in bringing the best of consumer marketing and data driven methodologies to healthcare. Instead of getting you to eat when you are not hungry and buy things you don’t need, we can finally use the same strategies to instead change the health equation in America. Kathleen previously led the Consumer Engagement consulting practice for Welltok (formerly Silverlink) for 12 years, leveraging its data repository of over a billion consumer health interactions, the best of behavioral economics, and the latest in clinical research, to create evidenced-based communications on what works to drive consumer healthcare behavior yielding better outcomes and lower costs. She is often quoted in the trade and national press and is a regular speaker on the national stage, having spent the first twenty years of her career in brand marketing at leading consumer marketing organizations, including General Mills and P&G. Additionally, she was a Vice President at Digitas, a leading direct marketing firm. Recently she was selected as Consultant Member of the first ever FDA’s Patient Engagement Advisory Committee.