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Brett Siegal
Brett Siegal, DDP Medical Supply’s Marketing & Business Development Manager, speaks of diabetes marketing and education with an urgency backed by numbers.
“Thirty-eight million Americans have diabetes,” Siegal said in an interview with HME Business. “And 97 million more are pre-diabetic. That means one in three Americans either have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Education is and will continue to be a key part of CGMs [continuous glucose monitors] and the diabetes industry.”
Siegal also knows it’s an impactful time to support people who have diabetes. DDP Medical Supply is a national wholesale distributor specializing in diabetic products, including Abbott and Dexcom CGM (continuous glucose monitors), insulin pumps, and more. DDP does not have its own durable medical equipment (DME) business and therefore does not compete with its customers.
“Our goal on the marketing side,” Siegal said, “Is to support our customers with proven solutions to help them grow their business.”
Acquisition and Retention
CGM use has drastically improved the lives of millions of people living with diabetes, but so many more can be helped. “Providers see the business opportunity to bring better outcomes to a rapidly growing population,” Siegal said. And after speaking with a large number of providers, he added, “It’s clear there is a major focus on new patient acquisition, which makes sense. But we also see tremendous opportunity to improve customer retention. When we’re talking to our DME customers about how they can grow their CGM resupply program, everything falls into two buckets: new patient acquisition and patient retention.”
Patient acquisition, Siegal said, consists of “referral sources, digital marketing, advertising.”
On the patient retention side, “It’s actually a very predictable cycle because shipments for CGM come every 30 or 90 days,” Siegal said. “You should know when your patient needs new sensors. We work with providers to help them with retention strategies, tools and timely data to maximize retention.”
After all, if that next delivery of sensors doesn’t reach a patient on time, “they might go to their pharmacy,” Siegal added. “Or they might go to another DME provider.”
He added that retaining existing patients is essential: “It costs more money to acquire a new patient than to keep an existing one.”
Knowing your audience
As for marketing advice that he shares with providers, “It’s really important to ask your patients their preferred method of communication,” Siegal said. “I think we assume everyone wants an email or everyone wants a phone call, but we’re seeing that some patients prefer texts, some prefer a call, and some email. Asking your patients their communication preferences will help with patient satisfaction.”
Just as every person with diabetes is different, so are their individual preferences and personalities — so providing choices is key. “I think we need to get away from the one-size-fits-all model on the marketing side, and to make sure that we’re reaching people how they want to be reached.”
Marketing language makes a difference
In an ongoing effort to meet people where they are, Siegal has been working with Diabetes Nerd Marketing, an agency specifically focused on marketing to people with diabetes.
The team at Diabetes Nerd, Siegal added, includes people with diabetes who’ve navigated the disease state and experienced the challenges in learning about and procuring groundbreaking CGM technology.
“A key reason we partnered with them is because they know the language,” Siegal said.
One best practice is using person-first language: “person living with diabetes” instead of “diabetic” or “diabetes patient.”
“They have real firsthand experience,” Siegal said. “In addition, they have extensive marketing experience, particularly with paid advertisements and meta ads. They can help providers with SEO to optimize your website for patients who are looking for CGMs, insulin pumps or diabetic supplies. They are genuine diabetes and marketing experts, and I’ve learned a ton from them.”
In fact, DDP Medical Supply and Diabetes Nerd are hosting a free webinar on Nov. 13, starting at 2 pm Eastern. “It’s a great opportunity to ask questions about CGM marketing, specific strategies on SEO, website marketing, Google business profiles, social media, paid advertisements and more,” Siegal said. “All DME providers are invited to join, and it’s a free opportunity to ask CGM marketing experts questions.”
Even if marketing and education strategies haven’t been priorities before, it’s not too late for DME providers to step up their efforts.
“We’re seeing a lot of innovation on the marketing side in DME, and we’re witnessing providers who have successful businesses, who don’t even have a website,” Siegal said. “There are some marketing gaps, but we don’t view those gaps as a bad thing; we view them as opportunities for providers to expand their marketing reach to improve the patient experience and build a stronger business.”
