Healthcare Success

On any given day—everyday, actually—you and I and everyone in the country are the primary landing zone for over 5,000 advertising and marketing messages. (There are many days when it seems like the number should be much higher.) But that’s the average—so says the Content Marketing Institute—and in our estimation, the online, social media and […]

It’s outrageous to think that someone would purchase a new luxury automobile—a Mercedes or BMW, let’s say—that has no engine. All leather interior, headlamp washers, satellite stereo radio, LCD multimedia package…but without an engine, it doesn’t go anywhere. Yet we often hear from physicians who have—metaphorically speaking—done exactly that. A new doctor’s office with no […]

Isn’t hindsight great? You’re beginning a quarterly assessment of your Marketing Plan, and some marketing and advertising elements played out close to plan. But then there are troublesome parts of the plan where you’re faced with a painful dissection of incorrect assumptions, increased competition, erratic consumer needs and wants, and the relentless rollout of the […]

A baker's dozen of helpful tips in evaluating and using healthcare radio advertising Radio is a powerful media option for healthcare marketing. With rates negotiable to "half-off" or better, radio is worth a close look, even if you've avoided radio advertising in the past as too sophisticated or expensive for your hospital, organization or private […]

In an informal survey of healthcare and hospital Internet advertising recently, we were alarmed by what we DIDN'T find. A surprising percentage of online ads and search topics that caught our attention didn’t connect us to a subject-specific “landing page.” The result: reader interest is lost and with it, new business opportunity is down the […]

If you track things by the numbers, the upstart medical information site, HealthTap, shouldn’t be doing nearly as well as it is. Just two years old this week, HealthTap says it’s the first “Interactive Expert Health Companion,” and it has thousands of doctors answering health and medical questions online, for free. There’s no question about […]

[Podcast] Our continuing series of healthcare and hospital marketing interviews today spotlights CHOC Children’s Hospital in Orange County, CA. Jan Lansing, Vice President of Marketing and Communications talks with Healthcare Success Co-Founder and Hospital Division Director Lonnie Hirsch. CHOC, Children’s Hospital is located in Orange County (CA), the fifth most populous county in the US. […]

by Lori Waltz The role of a Physician Liaison has emerged as a vital marketing position for many specialty practices. Although providers and practice decision-makers understand the concept and value of working with a representative, they don’t always know which skill sets are most important to success when hiring. I work with clients throughout the […]

In our continuing series of healthcare marketing podcasts, Dr. Marc Salzberg, President of the Board of Directors of the Urgent Care Association of America, discusses increasing public demand and other critical issues facing the urgent care industry in advance of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Interviewed by Healthcare Success Co-Founder and Hospital Division Director Lonnie […]

In the kindest of terms, the US Census bureau website was, for many marketing planners, a bitter and frustrating joke. I’m relieved to report that American FactFinder now has a new look, new tools and (grand sigh) easier access. Ask any experienced healthcare marketing professional. Extracting useful statistics from the US Census Bureau has been […]

[The second of two articles. Our previous post identified The 4 Biggest Reasons to Rethink Everything About Healthcare Marketing.] “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”  In just 13 words, motivational speaker, pastor and author Robert Schuller presents a clean-slate approach to goals, priorities and actions.

Doctors tend to be risk-aware or risk-sensitive individuals. It’s part of the sobering responsibility they assume with the care and treatment of their patients. Years of education, professional training and clinical experience develop a mindset of assessing and managing risk vs. reward. Patients and colleagues expect no less in practicing medicine. Of course executing a […]

Not long ago the folks at Krames StayWell checked-in with us about how healthcare Customer Relationship Management—hospital CRM in particular—is recalibrating its mission for greater engagement and improved outcomes in an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) world. Many of the “old rules” are changing. They’re out now with an insightful report about CRM in an ACO […]

“SoLoMo.” Say it slowly a couple of times. It’s one of those recently minted, goofy-sounding marketing terms that someone invented. But SoLoMo belongs in your hospital marketing vocabulary. It’s a convenient contrivance to remind marketing planners to leverage the significant SOCIAL, LOCAL and MOBILE trends. Dissecting SoLoMo: What it means and why it’s important…

Sometime this year, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide, according to a Gartner forecast. And with the mobile tipping point on the near horizon (or maybe here), it’s only smart marketing for hospitals and provider practices to have a mobile plan in place right now. Websites that are […]

Surprising insights gleaned from our discussions with many of the nation's leading medical group administrators - and what you should do next as a result We gained a number of surprising insights from talking with hundreds of medical group practice administrators and CEOs at the MGMA* annual conference in Las Vegas this year. Based upon […]

[The first of two articles.] Where were you and what were you doing five years ago? Four years ago? As recently as 36 months ago, many doctors and hospitals were working from a “traditional” marketing playbook. And for the time, by intent or oversight, it seemed that it was “good enough” for marketing, advertising and […]

[One of a series of posts about managing your online professional reputation, for doctor and hospital marketing success.] Most physicians regard their professional reputation as their most prized—and most highly protected—possession. As healthcare providers, there may also be a practice name, a group name, a hospital or medical facility name. Although the business entities also […]

Intellectually, a myth is understood to be a fable or false notion. But emotionally, a myth has great appeal. It is something that people collectively want to believe. Human nature tends to dismiss reality in favor of an alluring idea. What’s more, a myth gains traction and believability when it is often told or heard […]

“Call Now,” “Click Here,” “Act Now,” or “Find Out More.” In virtually all forms of advertising, if you don’t tell people what you want them to do, they won’t do it. It’s an elementary healthcare advertising rule, without a call-to-action, a message is at least incomplete. More likely, the advertising effort is probably an ineffective waste […]

[Study] The number of “Likes” on a hospital’s Facebook page can be used as a proxy for patient satisfaction and an indicator of hospital quality, according to findings published by the American Journal of Medical Quality. This study—titled Do Patients “Like” Good Care? Measuring Quality via Facebook—is an eye-opener for hospital administrators and marketing executives […]

The traditional textbook for hospital design and décor is a quick read. Historically, the hallmark of doctors’ offices and medical facilities—from reception areas to exam rooms—has been stark, sterile functionality…usually with a non-descript monochrome paint job. Fast forward to today. Who says clean facilities require a sterile look? Significant advances in printing technology have met […]

Two of the most important benefits that we bring to our clients—both hospitals and provider practices—are objectivity and experience. We were reminded of this again recently while working with a large specialty practice in the northeast. We’ve paraphrased the following quote, but it falls into our collection of “fatal last words,” which we know from […]

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 […]

We have two winners in the Healthcare Success medical office sign contest. Our thanks goes out to all the subscribers who submitted photo entries. Picking a single winner was tough. In fact, we had to name two practices with marketing-effective outdoor signage as our winners. Here they are, in random order. Our congratulations to:

Two days after the State of the Union address, the President was answering questions via social media in a “Fireside Hangout.” (The “fireside” name taps into the legacy of the Franklin Roosevelt presidential Fireside Chats on the radio between 1933 and 1944.) And just last week, the First Lady discussed her Let’s Move initiative about […]

Simply having a Facebook page is less than half the challenge. To be an effective hospital and healthcare marketing tool, the greater obstacle is to understand reader motivations, and to provide content that will attract and engage. There’s no doubt that Facebook is a social media biggie. “Two-thirds of online American adults [67 percent] are […]

It’s no April Fools’ Day joke. Your Medicare revenue cut begins on the first of next month. Healthcare providers, pinched between limited resources and rising overhead, will see Medicare payments reduced by two percent. This adds up to a projected $11 billion less for doctors, hospitals and other providers in 2013. Sequestration will automatically trim […]

There’s a compelling lesson in physician marketing in this story. A while back, on an ordinary morning in Washington, DC, a street musician played his violin for 45 minutes in the L’Enfant Plaza Metro subway station. Few people paid attention to the music or stopped to listen. For his efforts, the street musician collected $32.17 […]

Facebook is mainly friends, family and fun. Twitter is playful, fast and furious. They have their role in healthcare social media, but among the many social platforms, LinkedIn is the big guy wearing a Brooks Brothers suit and a power tie. Although anyone can use it, LinkedIn is—more than ever—a relevant social networking tool for […]

Instead of pulling out our hair, we thought it would be more productive and helpful to write about the important lesson in leadership and healthcare marketing hidden in our recent flash of frustration. Our story begins with an innocent but revealing comment… Working with professional practices around the country, time and again we’re told: “Oh, […]

Marketing Trainer Lori Waltz is something of a healthcare Road Warrior with a string of success stories and travel anecdotes. Here’s the scoreboard: She has helped over 1,000 practices and hospitals in her career, including 48 states, plus a few nearby countries and territories. Oops…only 48 states? It’s true. Lori has provided marketing training—about telephone/front desk […]

Suddenly, it seems, there’s an explosive interest in video blog posts. This spike in popularity suggests that healthcare marketing professionals may want to add v-posts to their social media and Internet marketing mix. It’s tempting to think that video blog posts didn’t exist two nanoseconds ago. Then—out of the digital darkness—boom! Two-minute or less visual […]

Some of the best salespeople we know are also dedicated and successful healthcare professionals. On the surface, it seems like an unlikely combination of skills. After all, physicians and surgeons think of themselves as helping others and providing a service…certainly not “selling” something. It’s largely a matter of mindset: An essential principle of sales, according […]

Take a few seconds (actually, six seconds or less) to get acquainted with Twitter’s new video sharing app, VINE. This latest-and-greatest social media (SM) phenom is catching on among Twitter-ites. Vine--along with a new wave of image sharing apps--is new, but it may or may not belong in your healthcare social media toolbox. Clever new […]

We’ve noticed a disturbing sameness among some hospital and medical advertising. Fortunately, it’s not everyone or even most healthcare advertising, but there are all too many instances when the message of one organization is monotonously similar among competitive facilities. Regrettably, being “the same” is not a leadership message. Nor is it compelling, or even interesting. […]

This is a brief post with a really big lesson… My fourth-grade daughter Natalie was asked to draw pictures of her vocabulary words this week. We asked her about one of the drawings, she said her word was "boring." The picture was of waiting in a doctor's office. (Apparently we've forgotten to teach her the […]

One of the most common medical advertising mistakes that doctors and hospitals make every day—one of many that we discover all too frequently—is using the wrong advertising channels. Physicians, hospital executives and other healthcare marketing decision-makers are distracted by a hundred other daily demands on their time, and they fail to fully evaluate their media […]

How to find the greater value and medical marketing opportunity in negative comments The marketing vernacular is "voice of the customer." Either praise or complaint, it's the most direct feedback for medical professionals, group practices or hospitals about service delivery and satisfaction. Here's how to deal with negative comments, increase patient satisfaction, enhance your reputation […]

The thing about social media is that its greatest value is in being social. A balanced, “sociable” mix of healthcare marketing posts—via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, G+, LinkedIn, and others—attracts, engages and connects with your audience. It’s the mix (or variety) in social media where you can show your online “personality” and inspire continuing interest and […]

Healthcare marketing professionals cringed at the news in our earlier post, Little Blue Book Blues: Doctors Think Their Website is a Failure. It’s a gut-wrenching awareness that only 8 percent of physicians feel their website is the source of new patients. Hopefully, your website has a significantly better track record. But another survey tells us […]

The many and various “doctor review” sites seem to be as popular as the flu bug floating around the office. Doctors don’t like them and patients don’t use them, according to two recent surveys. Related: 9 Essential Steps to Improve Doctor Ratings Online But here’s why healthcare marketing professionals and medical providers shouldn't dismiss consumer […]

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 […]

Our podcast today is another in our series for the Physician Strategies Summit. In today’s interview, Healthcare Success Founding Partner Lonnie Hirsch talks with Martin Hickey, MD, CEO, New Mexico Health Connections, Albuquerque, NM. As the Accountable Care Act (ACA) continues to unfold, it introduces new nonprofit health plans aimed at uninsured individuals and small […]

This podcast is another in our series for the Physician Strategies Summit. In today’s interview, Healthcare Success Co-Founder Lonnie Hirsch talks with Suzanne Sawyer, Chief Marketing Officer for Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. Physician Relationship Management (PRM) has been known by various names over the years, but it is playing an increasingly important role in the […]

Our podcast today is another in our series for the Physician Strategies Summit. In today’s interview, Healthcare Success Founding Partner Lonnie Hirsch talks with Jennifer Close, Vice President of Operations at Dean Clinic in Madison, WI. Consistently delivering value in our healthcare delivery system is a multi-faceted effort. In our interview with Jennifer Close, she […]

Editor’s Note: Most physicians are completely comfortable with digital technology. Several studies confirm that they often look online for medical or professional information, and they frequently use email to communicate with colleagues. But when it comes to patient communications, as few as 20 percent are emailing patients. Not only do patients want email, text and […]

As long as everyone's preoccupied with the big game this weekend: Remember, you don’t win football games by getting the football as far as the Red Zone. It’s crossing the goal line that makes you a winner. There’s a much-neglected technique in online advertising that you can use to push across the goal line, bring […]

If you track the evolutionary and revolutionary changes of the Internet you’re probably wondering—or a bit confused—about Facebook’s new “Graph Search”…and what it will mean for healthcare marketing. Facebook, the king of social media, is challenging business rival Google, the king of online search. Although Graph Search is in what Facebook officially terms “a very […]

You’re going to want to block out a few hours for quiet reading and concentration. Healthcare marketing and communications professionals will want to (carefully) read all 563 pages of the Final HIPAA Omnibus Rule. It becomes effective next month, with a compliance date of September 23rd of this year--with increased fines for non-compliance. How will […]