Every contemporary textbook about hospital and healthcare marketing deserves a robust chapter about the art of storytelling. Nearly everything that professional communicators do involves telling a compelling story, usually with the goal of engaging an audience and inspiring an action.
From a one-to-one conversation between doctor and patient, to the focused interests of a social media community, to highly diverse viewers in a broadcast television audience, good storytelling:
And, when storytelling is effective, it supports the communications goals and objectives from brand building to patient compliance.
The primary secret ingredient—the element that makes stories great—is empathy or creating an emotional connection between the storyteller and the audience. When people feel something in the range of human emotions, the message becomes engaging, trust forms and a relationship begins. What’s more, emotional stories abound in the human-world of hospitals.
The art of storytelling is a powerful, but sometimes underutilized, means to inform and persuade. A good story is experiential, easily remembered and an effective tool for hospital marketing and patient satisfaction. What’s more, it’s free.
For related articles, see our previous posts titled: Storytelling: Give Your Medical Office a Narrative Voice, and Neurochemistry and the Art and Science of Storytelling.
Janet Bowden
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