Achieve Smarter HCP Targeting & Engagement with Dynamic SmartLists

February 25, 2025
Emily Bicknell

Traditional, client-curated NPI lists will remain a staple of health advertising. However, PulsePoint’s exclusive SmartLists have emerged to enable automated list creation for healthcare professional (HCP) targeted healthcare campaigns to improve accuracy and performance.

SmartLists for healthcare marketing leverage technology that enhances target list curation and segmentation through dynamic triggers for digital and clinical activity relevant to a brand and/or its competitors. PulsePoint’s SmartList™ technology helps health brands reach known and unknown NPIs based on their attributes, real-time engagement behaviors, or clinical activity from a pool of 3.2 million validated and addressable HCPs to target. SmartLists automate NPI list curation and segmentation through real-time triggers for digital brand engagement and/ or relevant clinical activity, helping improve audience quality and achieve campaign goals. Marketers can segment SmartLists in the following ways:

  • Digital activity to include or exclude HCPs who have engaged on brand site(s) based on visited and/ or ignored pages and/or via keyword searches, or condition-specific content via trusted endemic sources.
  • Clinical activity to include or exclude HCPs who have diagnosed a particular condition type, conducted particular medical procedures, or prescribed a brand in a selected timeframe.
  • Audience attributes to include or exclude HCPs by specialties, professions, and those already on client-curated target lists.

Let’s dive in more to explore what’s behind SmartList technology, its benefits to health digital marketing campaigns, and why SmartLists should become part of a savvy marketer’s dynamic healthcare marketing tools.

Benefits of SmartList technology for NPI-based HCP targeting

Whether digital marketing teams are looking to retarget brand-familiar HCPs or initiate competitive conquesting, SmartList targeting can identify relevant HCPs faster and better than traditional, static NPI lists. SmartLists automate NPI-based targeting using real-time, brand-relevant triggers and can also enhance static lists by adding other relevant HCPs based on attributes such as specialties. SmartLists help health brands realize the benefits of real-time HCP targeting in healthcare marketing. There are four overarching benefits to SmartLists for healthcare marketing:

  1. Maximizing exposure with actively engaged HCPs: SmartLists can help drive impressions with HCPs as they visit brand site pages to find information and diagnose consumers with relevant conditions.
  2. Increasing NPI list audience quality: Healthcare industry digital marketing teams can discover and target high-value HCPs from target NPI lists who are more likely to convert based on real-time, brand-relevant actions, both digitally and clinically. 
  3. Achieving campaign goals: With real-time visibility into HCP behavior, digital marketing teams can conduct real-time HCP targeting optimized for campaign goal achievement.
  4. Improving sequential messaging: SmartList targeting during sequential campaign setup helps define the behaviors most relevant to target audiences throughout a customer journey. This allows brands to see which tactics and creatives performed better or worse at each stage, lending real-time HCP media insights into target audience engagement across omnichannel marketing campaigns throughout the health journey.

Health marketing teams can engage HCPs exactly when and where they’re ready to take clinical action by targeting them based on real-time, brand-relevant actions.

PulsePoint’s SmartList technology provides verified HCP targeting 

Why is PulsePoint the right partner of choice for HCP targeting? We operate the largest healthcare DSP and Ad Exchange with direct visibility into over 200 billion transactions and 20 billion health impressions daily, backed by more than five years of historical digital and clinical insights. Fully compliant with NAI and HIPAA guidelines, PulsePoint’s Health Graph integrates digital and clinical data in real-time to deliver the most comprehensive and precise view of over 3.2 million HCPs. This enables marketers to target brand-relevant, precisely verified audiences while gaining real-time insights into each HCP's interests and sentiments through the context of the content they engage with.

We see that with instant access to information, HCPs can quickly research and explore alternative treatment options with just a tap or click, making historical insights and brand loyalty increasingly unreliable for future campaign forecasting. Siloed systems further exacerbate the problem by disconnecting real-time HCP behavioral data from omnichannel activation platforms, resulting in fragmented information driving many healthcare advertising campaigns. Even when HCPs actively prescribe a brand, marketers must understand the entire path-to-treatment journey to craft messages that resonate during critical clinical decision-making moments. But how can this be achieved when HCP behaviors are constantly evolving?

A real-time, omnichannel view of an HCP’s digital and clinical activities is now a requirement to stay ahead of the latest trends and changes to treatment accessibility. To execute smarter HCP healthcare marketing campaigns, brands need access to real-time audience data, which can be used to target and optimize reach all in one platform. SmartLists for healthcare marketing can help target the most relevant audience in real time using behavioral signals and triggers.

How to use SmartLists for personalized HCP marketing

When HCP attributes are verified or engaged clinically or digitally in real-time, those meeting client-defined criteria are seamlessly added to a dynamic SmartList. Campaigns leveraging the SmartList automatically incorporate brand-relevant HCPs from PulsePoint’s expansive 3.2 million NPI addressable database. We offer six types of SmartLists today, segmented based on:

  • NPI validation: NPIs in a client-provided list or customized list developed by PulsePoint based on client defined criteria available within our NPI data foundation.
  • Digital engagement (via Smart Pixel): HCPs who have engaged with brand-owned (site) and/or paid (search) content and are tracked by a Smart Pixel that associates actions with their NPI number.
  • Clinical activity: NPIs affiliated with the diagnoses, prescribed drugs, or medical procedures.
  • Prescription behavior change: The top HCP prescribers or droppers of a specified drug/treatment.
  • Specialty/professions: HCP specialties or professions.
  • Endemic research: HCPs recently engaged with condition-specific content via trusted endemic sources, including Medscape.

Once a SmartList is active, relevant clinically and/or digitally engaged NPIs are programmatically retargeted with brand media mid-campaign, abiding frequency caps, ensuring timely and precise exposure as they take critical brand-related actions.

Marketing teams that use our SmartList technology report improved visibility into HCP engagement, more strategic media planning, smarter digital marketing, optimized ad spending, and enhanced campaign effectiveness.

Smarter digital marketing starts with SmartLists

SmartLists revolutionize HCP targeting and engagement by automating the creation and activation of dynamic target lists. With SmartLists, HCPs who meet activity criteria are automatically added, enabling real-time targeting based on their behavior and relevance. Programmatic or social ads and/or trigger-based emails are then seamlessly activated, reaching NPIs dynamically added to SmartLists. By replacing manual NPI list building with automated, trigger-based targeting, digital marketing teams can achieve more precise and impactful healthcare campaigns. Ready to optimize your HCP engagement? Contact us today to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is SmartLists, and how does it work?

PulsePoint’s SmartList™ technology helps health brands reach known and unknown NPIs based on their attributes, real-time engagement behaviors, or clinical activity from a pool of 3.2 million validated and addressable HCPs to target. SmartLists automate NPI list curation and segmentation through real-time triggers for digital brand engagement and/ or relevant clinical activity, helping improve audience quality and achieve campaign goals.

What makes SmartLists different from traditional marketing lists?

Whether digital marketing teams are looking to retarget brand-familiar HCPs or initiate competitive conquesting, SmartList targeting can identify relevant HCPs faster and better than traditional, static NPI lists. SmartLists automate NPI-based targeting using real-time, brand-relevant triggers and can also enhance static lists by adding other relevant HCPs based on attributes such as specialties.

How can SmartLists improve healthcare marketing campaigns?

SmartLists help health brands realize the benefits of real-time HCP targeting in healthcare marketing, such as maximizing exposure with actively engaged HCPs, increasing NPI list audience quality, achieving campaign goals, and improving sequential messaging.

What are the main benefits of using SmartLists in healthcare marketing?

  • Maximizing exposure with actively engaged HCPs: SmartLists can help drive impressions with HCPs as they visit brand site pages to find information and diagnose consumers with relevant conditions.
  • Increasing NPI list audience quality: Healthcare industry digital marketing teams can discover and target high-value HCPs from target NPI lists who are more likely to convert based on real-time, brand-relevant actions, both digitally and clinically.
  • Achieving campaign goals: With real-time visibility into HCP behavior, digital marketing teams can conduct real-time HCP targeting optimized for campaign goal achievement.
  • Improving sequential messaging: SmartList targeting during sequential campaign setup helps define the behaviors most relevant to target audiences throughout a customer journey. This allows brands to see which tactics and creatives performed better or worse at each stage, lending real-time HCP media insights into target audience engagement across omnichannel marketing campaigns throughout the health journey.

How does SmartLists help optimize ad spend?

Smartlists offer dynamic and real-time updates to NPI targeting by allowing users to select various attributes, such as specialty, clinical data, pixels, and more. Unlike traditional static NPI lists, Smartlists continuously update whenever there are changes or updates related to the selected attributes. This means that users can effectively reach their desired targets and begin targeting them immediately, ensuring more accurate and timely outreach. With a total of eight different attributes available, Smartlists provide a highly customizable and responsive approach to NPI targeting.

How does SmartLists personalize HCP targeting?

With SmartLists, HCPs who meet activity criteria are automatically added, enabling real-time targeting based on their behavior and relevance. Programmatic or social ads and/or trigger-based emails are then seamlessly activated, reaching NPIs dynamically added to SmartLists.

What insights can be gained from SmartLists' media engagement details?

SmartLists allow brands to see which tactics and creatives performed better or worse at each stage, lending real-time HCP media insights into target audience engagement across omnichannel marketing campaigns throughout the health journey. Marketers also gain real-time insights into each HCP's interests and sentiments through the context of the content they engage with.

How does SmartLists enhance campaign performance?

SmartLists automate NPI list curation and segmentation through real-time triggers for digital brand engagement and/ or relevant clinical activity, helping improve audience quality and achieve campaign goals. With real-time visibility into HCP behavior, digital marketing teams can conduct real-time HCP targeting optimized for campaign goal achievement.

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