Three Little Marketing Ideas -- Almost Sneaky, But Clever and Effective
Here’s a brief roundup of clever marketing ideas. They’re the kind of secret sauce techniques that are highly effective…and seasoned pros seldom reveal. Each little idea is unrelated to the others, except that they add a bit of color, flair and professional splash to your marketing, PR, branding or social voice.
Just go ahead—call them your own. Put these in your toolbox, and feel free to adapt each or all of them to your hospital or healthcare plan as you see fit.
Clever little marketing ideas…
#1. New service line success—real, over-the-top success—begins with a determined, winner mindset.
In our work with facilities and medical practices around the nation, we often encounter doctors who tell us they want to provide a high-end or high priority service line. In addition to their current practice, this might be products or services, for example, related to snoring, veins, hair restoration or other specialized and high revenue business. Often these “add-on” ideas struggle or fail because they are consumer direct and totally different as a healthcare business unit.
IDEA: Don’t jump into a consumer-direct line without a firm commitment and a fresh perspective and winner mindset. This is essentially a new business. Often, it’s a business within a business, and it takes more than running a small ad. What’s necessary is a whole-hearted commitment to building a new business entity. And incidental sideline offering never gets traction. Consider a new service line launch behind a serious investment of time and budget. Further, a new endeavor is neither fast nor easy. But at the end of the day, with a winner mindset, success is highly rewarding.
# 2. Tweet with the VIPs at conferences.
Medical and trade shows, continuing education events and similar gatherings know the promotional benefits of social media—and many have a hashtag (or pound sign) for the event, breakout sessions or topics of interest. [For example: “Stay informed about: #shsmd,” #HCMKTG, or #HCsuccess] It’s also common to find the username [“@username” or @StewartGandolf] of keynote speakers, designated leaders and special attendees at the conference.
IDEA: Don’t be shy about using social media to contact VIPs directly. It’s a mutual opportunity for a meeting, or ask/answer questions, have coffee, and/or to exchange information or ideas while you are both at the CME event. Many VIPs are open to the idea. They attend conferences to network and exchange ideas, so the welcome the contact, and it often works. Try it.)
# 3. Don’t let multiple creative ideas kill your business success.
There can be such a thing as “too much of a good thing.” Call it "creative overcrowding." The fact is that many intelligent and success-oriented people—doctors, marketing professionals, advertising executives—are often working with many ideas to grow the business…all at the same time. In our experience, these are all good ideas (excellent ideas, really). But too many good ideas can pull down on limited time, resources and people.
IDEA: Don’t let too many good ideas at the same time defeat progress. Collect and preserve all of your good ideas, but it's vital to set priorities. Determine which ideas best support objectives and foster growth. Focus on getting one idea done or in place before moving to the next. Some people tend to trip over too many good ideas, attempt too much "multi-tasking," and realize only poor results.
Remember, these ideas are not related to each other. And feel free to re-shape or revise them to support your goals and objectives. And, by the way, what can you add to this list?
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