Part 1: Why the Old Ways Are Breaking — And What’s Coming Next

The New Era of Acquisition, Engagement, and Retention Starts With One Thing: The Individual

Let’s Start With the Truth: It’s Not Working Anymore

If you work in a health plan or health system, you’ve probably felt it.

You spend money on ads. You send emails. You build campaigns. You try to reach more people, help more lives, fill more gaps.

But something is off.

People don’t click. They don’t show up. They don’t stay.

You keep working harder. Spending more. Trying new tactics. But the results don’t improve like they used to.

This isn’t your fault.

The world changed. But most of healthcare marketing didn’t.

That’s what this blog series is about. It’s a look at what went wrong — and how to get it right again.

The Funnel is Broken: And Everyone Feels It

Let’s talk about the old model:

1. Get attention with ads and mailers.
2. Engage with digital tools and outreach.
3. Retain with reminders and rewards.

Simple, right?

But here’s the problem: This only works when people are paying attention.

Today, your members and patients are distracted. Burned out. Tired of messages that feel off-target, irrelevant, or too late.

And they’re drowning in noise.

You’re fighting for attention. So is every other health plan, provider, app, and wellness product. And you’re all guessing.

Guessing who needs help. Guessing when to reach out. Guessing what to say.

Why This Hurts Health Plans and Health Systems Differently

Let’s break it down:

Health Plans

• Spend big on open enrollment but can’t tell who will convert
• See rising churn, especially in Medicare and Medicaid
• Struggle to engage members before claims
• Lose money on late diagnoses and avoidable spend

Health Systems

• Struggle to fill appointments and keep panels full
• Fight for attention in crowded, competitive markets
• See patients go to urgent care, retail clinics, or nowhere
• Waste marketing dollars on people who aren’t ready for care Both sides are chasing people who aren’t raising their hands.

So, What Changed?

Two things:

People Are Over-Messaged

Health messages now compete with Instagram, TikTok, Amazon, and a thousand daily distractions.

The average adult gets over 100 notifications a day. That reminder you sent? It was #89.

And without context, it was just noise.

People Don’t Want to Be Sold to. They Want to Be Seen.

People don’t want more ads. They want care that feels timely and personal. They don’t want to be talked at. They want to be understood.

They don’t want to guess if they’re sick. They want to know what their body is saying. Healthcare forgot this.

The Old Way: Shout and Hope

Here’s how most outreach works now:

• You launch a diabetes campaign
• You pull claims or HRA data to guess who might be at risk
• You send them a postcard or email
• You hope they see it and act But here’s the problem:
• The data is old
• The timing is off
• The message is generic
• The person doesn’t feel it applies

So they ignore it. Or worse, they get annoyed.

This leads to wasted dollars, lower trust, and lost opportunities.

The New Way: Listen and Respond

What if, instead of guessing who needs help…

…they told you?

What if they didn’t whisper, but shout?

What if their body could tell you, every day, where their health is trending — before it turns into a claim, or a hospital stay, or a lost life?

That’s not science fiction. That’s what’s coming.

In Part 2, we’ll talk about how real-time, individual-driven data is flipping the model:

From hoping to helping. From mass to meaningful. From chasing to knowing. But first, let’s finish unpacking the old way.

The Big Costs of a Broken Funnel

Acquisition: $150+ Per Member (and That’s If They Join)

You spend money on Google ads, Facebook targeting, broker incentives, events… All to get someone to pick your plan or book your provider.

But you’re often flying blind. You don’t know:

• If they’re at risk
• If they’re likely to stay
• If they’ll engage

It’s like selling gym memberships to people who don’t want to exercise.

Engagement: Emails That Go Unopened

Once someone joins, what next?

• Newsletters?
• App notifications?
• Portals?

Most don’t respond. And if they do, it’s too late. The window has passed. The health moment already happened — and no one was there.

Retention: Loyalty Lost to Someone Who Listened First

Patients and members leave when they feel unseen. They go where someone responds before they even ask.

That might be a retail clinic. A digital startup. A better offer.

What Everyone Wants (But Few Deliver)

At the end of the day, people want:

• To be noticed early

• To feel the system is responsive

• To get help before things get worse

Most of healthcare is set up to wait.

But real loyalty is built when you show up early.

The Big Shift: From System-First to Member-First

We’ve spent decades building systems to manage patients and members. But now, the power is shifting.

The next wave of innovation isn’t more portals, more apps, or more ads. It’s listening to the individual.

Letting their biology, their signals, their trends tell us what to do next. That’s the big shift. That’s what we’ll explore next.

But Here’s the Catch: Signals Require Trust

Real-time data only works when the person opts in. They have to scan. They have to allow the insight. That means trust is now your top currency.

If your system feels spammy, cold, or generic — they won’t raise their hand. But if it feels personal, useful, and respectful — they will.

Trust Starts With Relevance

People ignore what doesn’t feel made for them.

That’s why mass outreach fails — and biological outreach works. Because when you speak to someone’s exact signal?

They listen. And they act.

In the End, It’s About Timing

We all know the saying: “Timing is everything.” Healthcare just forgot to apply it.

We wait for symptoms. We wait for check-ups. We wait for claims. But biology doesn’t wait.

Signals show up early. And now, we can finally see them. That’s where everything changes.

Let’s Be Honest: Competing on Ads Isn’t a Strategy Anymore

Let’s say your health plan runs a $50,000 open enrollment ad campaign. Maybe you get 300 leads. Of those, maybe 40 enroll. Of those, maybe 20 stay past 12 months.

Your cost per true retained member? Over $2,500.

Not because your ad was bad. But because your message wasn’t tied to real need.

Now imagine this instead: You get a signal from someone’s body. Today. It shows they’re trending into a chronic condition. You reach out with relevance. They enroll with urgency. And they stay — because you saw them when no one else did.

That’s not marketing. That’s connection.

And it costs a fraction of what you’re spending now.

Let’s Bring This Home

The old way made sense in a world without signals.

But now, we have a better option. We can hear from people directly — not through forms or call centers, but through real-time biological trends.

We’re entering a world where:

• The patient tells you they need care — before they fall ill
• The member tells you they’re at risk — before it shows up in a claim
• The outreach happens instantly — because the data already did the work
  

This changes everything.

And the best part? It’s not about guessing. It’s about listening.

Coming Up in Part 2:

• What Real-Time, Individual-Driven Data Looks Like
• How a Scan Can Beat a Claim
• Why Members Are Now the Source of Truth
• How Health Plans and Health Systems Can Finally Work Together

And how this changes everything we know about acquisition, engagement, and retention.

Ready to flip the funnel? Follow along as we break down the future of patient and member outreach — one signal at a time.