The elementary formula for success in healthcare marketing and advertising is to engage a prospective patient with a meaningful answer to their problem at the right time. The recipe sounds simple enough, but putting it all together…well, it’s complicated. Here’s how to organize your tools and build your marketing, advertising and promotional plan around the […]
It may seem counterintuitive, but America’s population of older adults—frequent users of healthcare services—are increasingly frequent users of the Internet. The intersection of senior citizens and the Internet is a growing demographic sweet spot for hospital and healthcare marketing for baby boomers. Although younger age groups are more closely associated with technology, gadgets and Internet […]
Online marketing and healthcare content—most notably social media—is increasingly visual. Longer ago than most of us can remember, what we now call the Internet was strictly an alphanumeric beast. It was great, as long as you could communicate strictly in letters and numbers. That didn’t last long. Communicating with visual elements—pictures, charts, animated GIFs and […]
We know for a fact that—in healthcare marketing—it can seem difficult to explain the value, importance and impact of Twitter. Have you ever been called to a set-down meeting with the boss (or even professional colleagues) and asked to defend social media in general, and Twitter in particular, as an effective marketing expense? Twitter can seem […]
The Internet assures me that “we look at our smartphones 150 times each day.” It must be true…I saw it on my smartphone. Look it up…I’ll wait. But seriously…three things collided on our healthcare marketing radar recently. Collectively and individually they are sharp reminders that if your plans and strategy are not “thinking mobile,” your […]
"Stealing from one is plagiarism,” according to American playwright Wilson Mizner, but “stealing from many is research." That said—and apropos of nothing at all—here’s a quick “research” roundup of fresh ideas and examples of how hospitals are continuing to leverage the power of video in marketing. Seriously, savvy marketing and communications executives are always learning…and […]
It never fails. Whenever I’m talking with a physician or medical marketing professional the frustrating topic of healthcare “competition” inevitably raises its ugly head. It’s inevitable because competition among providers, group practices and hospitals is increasing in intensity and healthcare reform has brought it to everyone’s doorstep. What’s more, it’s frustrating for several reasons. One […]
The playful adage is painfully true: The best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google’s search results. Here’s why doctors need to be concerned about local search and their ability to attract new patients. The front door of your medical practice moved online some time ago. The “traditional” paths for […]
An interesting thing about marketing for healthcare is that useful lessons can be found in unlikely places and unrelated enterprises. With a little imagination and creative thinking, good stories—business success stories—reveal ideas that transfer to a practitioner, group practice or even a hospital. Here’s one such story from the managing editor of Healthcare Success publications. […]
I have the good fortune to travel the country (quite often) and to meet and work with some of the nation’s top doctors. As a group, these physicians and surgeons have much in common. Individually and collectively, they are highly intelligent men and women who excel as healthcare providers. Although the marketing areas they serve […]
Discussion: How would you handle an “unfriendly” social media snipe? Or is there a much larger picture to consider? Not long ago we spotted a comment on Facebook that got us to thinking again about medical marketing, online comments and physician reputation management. Unfortunately, we don’t know the back-story here, or what, if anything, […]
Most medical groups and doctor-owner practices respect the fact that the business environment—particularly the competitive landscape—has changed dramatically. It’s tough and getting tougher as the nation’s healthcare system reinvents itself almost daily. But being aware of the competition falls far short of understanding how truly vulnerable most practices are…whether they know it or not. As […]
[Series Installment] Our recent post in this series declared the “Gen-Y” population group to be the “biggest ever” slice of the population. It turns out that “biggest” depends on who’s doing the slicing. Take a look at the Jones crowd. Medical marketing professionals need to keep up with the Jones Generation cohort, a “sweet […]
The painful thing about lost business opportunity is that you often don’t know that it’s lost. It’s revenue that never happened. Here’s a sorry-scenario that we discover all too frequently: A word-of-mouth (WoM) referral passes from a patient to a prospective patient The prospective patient looks for your practice online only to find “unhappy” reviews […]
There’s an amusing but instructive doctor and physician marketing lesson to be found in listening to television interviews and discussions. The idea is to take note of a media pundit’s careful choice of words. The lesson is not so much in WHAT they say as in HOW they say it. In politics they call it […]
Although US doctors recognize that many (perhaps most) new patients are searching online for healthcare information and providers, it seems that few doctors believe their website motivates patients to call their office. The majority of medical practices in America have a website, but data from The Little Blue Book’s National Physicians Survey 2012: The Health […]
This is the month when everyone (anyone, it seems) cranks up their crystal ball and offers their predictions about the New Year. As our regular readers appreciate, healthcare in general—and healthcare marketing in particular—is better suited to posts that track current trends (which we do several times each year) than predictive thinking. Nevertheless, it is […]
Most healthcare marketing professionals use Twitter, either personally, professionally…or both. It’s merely six years old, but the popular micro blogging platform has become a standard communications tool for hospitals, medical practices and health systems. But even experienced Twitter-ites may have been busy with the holiday season and not be aware of improvements to the social […]
Patients are no longer just patients. The Internet, healthcare system reforms and other social influences are shaping a new consumerism in healthcare. Healthcare marketing professionals understand that patients are better informed and increasingly empowered. Today an individual has more influential muscle than ever before. In our experience, the vast majority of private practices and medical […]
About a month from today everyone will be hanging a fresh calendar on the wall for 2013. And even from this relatively close perspective, the issues and challenges of what’s ahead for hospitals, physicians and healthcare providers are beginning to focus. As we see things, one dynamic in the New Year will be that change […]
Some old-school ideas needlessly linger on. There’s a tired notion that sometimes whispers in the back of a physician’s brain and says: “Doctors shouldn’t advertise.” Or, more specifically, they fear: “My professional peers will think less of me. Physician advertising will hurt my relationships with referring doctors.” In fact, the reverse is often true today. […]
Our readers, clients and professional colleagues know that one or more of our Healthcare Success “Marketing All Stars” is always traveling. In addition to our consulting work and our continuing Advanced Healthcare Marketing Strategies Seminar series, we’re frequently invited to speak at professional meetings and events across the nation. No doubt your schedule is just […]
by Kathy Roy Gaughran, Senior Marketing Strategist My travel schedule takes me to the offices of healthcare providers throughout the nation. Each initial visit is a great “first impression” opportunity for me to take the role of a new patient who is seeing the practice with fresh eyes. The “experience” (seeing and feeling what impacts […]
Testimonials--still an effective technique--but, more than ever, watch what you say and how you say it. Bloggers and celebrities included. The last time the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated its guidelines regarding the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising was a mere 30 years ago.
