Maintaining the flow of doctor referrals is vital—if not life-and-death critical—in many professions. What’s more, healthcare reform and intense competition has made the whole business of professional referrals more challenging than ever to sustain. In our experience, working with hundreds of referral-dependent practitioners, we've identified a nearly a dozen “secrets;” proven techniques that give stability […]
Let’s hope you never back into a buzz saw of “unintended consequences.” That’s when seemingly ordinary events inexplicably spin over to the dark side. It doesn’t happen often, but here’s a roundup of three recent and unrelated news reports that went from sweet to sour. What’s your reaction to these items, and what would you do if […]
Physicians are extremely well trained in their profession, with years of education and more years in practice. And at some point in their career, it becomes apparent that medicine is a profession, but healthcare is a business. Often, the doctor is the business…the product…the service provider. He or she is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer), […]
These days, marketing performance expectations are sometimes found under the “squeeze every nickel” heading. Maybe giant corporations once had fat and slushy budgets, although we doubt the successful ones used that approach. Then as now, a common denominator among most medical practices, hospitals and healthcare providers is an ongoing concern for “scarce resources.” Like every […]
[Continuing series installment.] A unproductive (or outright lazy) employee wouldn’t last long in a well-managed medical practice. And, considering the investment that most doctors have sunk in their website, it’s frustrating to discover a doctor’s website that is “present,” but clearly “under-performing.” Some weak sites are outdated or seriously ill, and those guys are prime […]
[Healthcare Content Marketing Series] Anyone who grew up in a small town will tell you that it seemed like everyone knew everyone. Often, they conducted their everyday business with folks they knew…and merchants who knew them. Individuals engaged in conversation, got acquainted, and people did business with the people they knew and liked. We were […]
Your communications professional life was busy enough when, only a few digital moments ago, your internet marketing mainstay was a good website. And your hardware was a clunky desktop PC. The boss (and the budget) was happy with that, but the simplicity of that early state is long past. And one of the new challenges […]
[Series Installment] Among our list of 19 critical medical advertising mistakes that healthcare organizations make every day is: Trying to build your image rather than building a patient base. We’ve labeled it as Number Six, but by any name it is a misguided budget-burner. Here’s how to recognize that you may be headed for this […]
[Second of a two-part article for healthcare leaders about mastering presentation skills. See also, Part One 10 Trade Secrets: How Exceptional Public Speakers Make It Look Easy] Public speaking is something that everyone does, most people dread, and some speakers are world-class champs. The occasion can be as a keynote speaker for a major medical […]
Some fundamental business ideas deserve repeating: Successful marketing—and practice growth—begins with taking care of existing customers/patients first. Growth-minded healthcare organizations often assume that business development is exclusively a matter of bringing new people through the door. Previous or existing patients—customers who have already crossed your threshold—are taken for granted, mentally considered “a done deal,” or […]
[First of a two-part article for healthcare leaders about mastering presentation skills.] Presentations. Speeches. Talks. Everyone does them. Most people dread giving them. But only a few presenters know the magic behind delivering an exceptional, memorable and impactful public presentation. From a Kiwanis Club luncheon to a staff lecture…from a major medical society presentation to […]
[Continuing Series] More secrets, tips and idea-starters to help create engagement, inspire action and encourage social sharing with your hospital and healthcare audience. Online content in marketing produces its strongest impact when your intended audience sees it AND when it causes response. Publishing is the starting line, and information and awareness are desirable process steps. […]
Somewhere in the recesses of their brains there’s a point of professional pride among doctors that tells them: “Being a good physician and providing excellent clinical care will carry the day for success in business.” Caring for the health concerns of people will please and benefit patients. And that satisfaction will bond them to the practice. […]
The broad category of healthcare and hospital advertising is generally improving all the time. Savvy marketing and communications professionals are tuned-in to effectively reaching the increasingly aware and empowered healthcare consumer with high quality, creative messages. But…amid volumes of “good stuff” we find some classic clunkers. It’s painful to see precious resources wasted on full-color […]
A few of our readers may a recall a time before a computer and Internet access were standard equipment for marketing. Today, our daily work—indeed the communications fabric of society—is online and interconnected. Less than 20 years ago, almost half of US adults (42 percent) had never heard of the Internet, Pew Research says. […]
In an ordinary game of five-card poker there are 2,598,960 possible hands with a 52-card deck. Winning is always a gamble; it's a mix of luck in what you’ve been dealt and how the cards are played. Healthcare marketing and advertising has many more moving parts than poker; it's a lot more complex, and usually […]
We often make the point that LinkedIn has a business and professional flare that is a “natural” for showcasing the expertise of doctors and hospital executives. LinkedIn’s newly expanded publishing feature presents even greater opportunity for content creation and reputation management. LinkedIn began as an online executive resume/job board just over a decade ago. An […]
“You nailed it,” one doctor wrote. “Healthcare is changing and CONVENIENCE is just one of the operative concepts for future consumers of healthcare.” In our recent post about what’s really behind the CVS tobacco announcement, we raised a flag about increasing competition as CVS/Caremark and other national retailers are clearly committed to reinventing themselves as […]
Just the other day, the esteemed Doctor Leonard McCoy * was telling me that medical tricorders—the TR-560 or other models—have been common Starfleet equipment as early as the 22nd century. “The anachronistic and crudely elementary stethoscope,” Dr. McCoy grumbled, “will rarely be found outside of a few private collections.” We’re reluctant to contradict a respected […]
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the March/April issue of Spectrum, a newsletter of the Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development, and is presented here with permission. “Internet” proved to be the key word in Pomona Valley Health Centers’ marketing campaign to connect patients with its outpatient sites. By Chris Aldworth and Healthcare Success […]
[Series Installment: How to Win More Patients for Your Most Profitable Service Lines; Step Seven – Develop Your Feet on the Street. A free White Paper from the Healthcare Success Educational Library.] FOTS? That’s our shorthand for outside representatives, liaisons or simply your “Feet on the Street.” It’s one of the most important and proactive […]
[Series Article] Studies reveal hard science data behind why the sometimes fanciful, sometimes fictional art of storytelling is highly effective as a communications tool. In healthcare marketing, storytelling is growing in popularity from doctor-patient conversations to branding messages. Of all the stories in the world, there’s one—The Story of Storytelling—where “Once upon a time…” doesn’t […]
Roughly 100 percent of all physician offices are busy places. But you only have to look at the monthly statement to know that activity isn’t the same as productivity…or profitability. Regardless of the size or type of the healthcare entity—from practitioner to medical group—a revealing characteristic of success is a reflection of leadership in the […]
The popularity of social media in its various forms—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog, etc.—is a fairly recent phenomenon. And for a large segment of society, it is social media that stitches together the blanket of connectivity that we can’t seem to do without. At last count, about 73 percent of online adults used social media sites […]
If you missed the final score in St. Luke’s 2014 Baby Bowl…the boys won. And from a hospital promotional perspective, the other winner in this clever promotion was the New Beginnings Family Birth Centers at St. Luke's University Health Network. Here are two recent case examples (and ideas you can use) for leveraging media exposure […]
All too often marketing professionals unintentionally alienate one of the largest (and most financially significant) target audiences, the over-50 crowd. Maybe they didn’t mean to, but the 30-something marketing person just doesn’t have a clue about the true mindset of the 50-, 60- or 70-something person they want to reach. We see this frequently when […]
You heard the news...nearly couldn't miss it. Retail drug store giant CVS will phase out the sale of tobacco products before yearend. That's the headline, but it's the rest of the story that you may have missed, and it isn’t all good news for doctors, medical practices and healthcare marketers. It’s likely to hit you […]
[Series Installment: How to Win More Patients for Your Most Profitable Service Lines; Step Four – Creating an Effective Plan. A free White Paper from the Healthcare Success Educational Library.] A constant undercurrent in the turbulent transformation of the nation’s healthcare delivery system is competition. A better term is “hyper competition.” In many market areas, […]
Most healthcare advertising agencies will not admit it, but some clients are simply better than other clients. The people and personalities are part of the chemistry, but more than a retail transaction, two business entities share mutual success goals. It’s similar to a doctor-patient relationship. Privately, many doctors have patients who they favor over others. […]
The Internet has injected contemporary culture with a sense of immediacy. We’ve been spoiled—or at least trained to expect—instant online answers. Search for “dentist” and Google coughs up over 37-million results in less than half a second. The online search for healthcare—be it a hospital, dental office, medical group, or specialty care—must, for most individuals, […]
We’ve had the great good fortune and pleasure to team-up with many successful doctors, medical group practices, hospitals and others. To a person, their medical/clinical capabilities are first class, but their business acumen—in particular their marketing savvy—is a model for others. The fact is, successful doctors do things differently. They recognize that medicine is a […]
[Series Installment: The Worst Mistakes Medical Groups and Healthcare Organizations Make When Trying to Attract Patients from the Internet, Mistake Four: Believing Your Audience Will Find You on its Own; from the Healthcare Success Educational Library.] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a website is like the fuel for your car. A beautifully engineered and full-appointed […]
What happens when a 15-year-old patient speaks up about her doctors? Morgan Gleason declared, “I am the patient, and I need to be heard,” and she voiced her complaints publicly. Even for a hospitalized teen, it wasn’t difficult to make a digital splash about how doctors should care for patients...and not just treat them. First, […]
The majority of patients and about half of all doctors search the Internet for healthcare and medical information. But—marketing professionals take note—the reference tool of choice of digitally demanding patients is the relative newcomer, “Dr. Wikipedia.” “Wikipedia is the single leading source of medical information for patients and healthcare professionals,” according to a report about […]
Let's put an end to “grip-and-grin.” We’ll publish your outstanding publicity photo as an illustration of what makes a great PR image. We want to spotlight good examples that capture attention and tell a story, without resorting to…well, you know, the other kind. There should be a PR Professional Regulation that bans “execution-at-dawn” publicity photos. […]
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: The Worst Mistakes Healthcare Organizations Make When Trying to Attract Patients from the Internet, Mistake Nine: Failure to Use Social Media Properly; from the Healthcare Success Educational Library.] Once upon a time a simplistic website constituted a Web presence. It was little more than a digital Yellow Page listing and, if your competition […]
Emergency Room appointments—for non-threatening care—are a flipping great idea. Ask a few patients in the Emergency Department (ED). Nobody likes to wait. And hospital wait times are—for both patients and administrators—a literal and figurative pain in the butt. And if you’ve “been-there-and-done-that,” the national average time patients spend in the emergency room before being seen […]
Guest Post by Renée Keats This month, an estimated 47 million-plus previously uninsured, non-elderly Americans may elect health insurance coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). How will health systems, providers and marketers stay ahead of the curve and address the US health care evolution? At its core, here are five ways that […]
Maybe it was just a coincidence, but two insightful marketing object lessons popped up this week. The subject matter in common was customer service via social media, but in these two stories the outcomes were different. Both illustrations—one good and one not—are pages from big business, and they hold excellent take-away lessons for hospital and […]
Some 89 million people in the US are going to watch 1.2 billion online videos today. (Yes, just today.) Healthcare and hospital marketing professionals understand the popularity and importance of online video content. The first challenge is to create interesting and engaging video material that conveys a message, inspires action and is truly share-worthy. The […]
[Series Installment: The Worst Mistakes Healthcare Organizations Make When Trying to Attract Patients from the Internet, Mistake Three: Ignoring Your Website; from the Healthcare Success Educational Library.] All too often, it is “benign neglect” that causes websites to wither into near non-existence. Instead of attracting and retaining new patients, many well-intended sites—for doctors, hospitals, group […]
The “Rule of Three” is a fun and easy-to-use “universal truth.” It can give your writing more impact, make your marketing more effective, and your advertising more persuasive. And for healthcare marketers and advertisers there’s a study out that validates the notion that three is the optimal number of claims in consumer messages.
Strictly speaking, ePatient 2015 - 15 Surprising Trends Changing Health Care is not a typical how-to marketing book. It is, however, an insightful look at “how health technologies are shaping the future of how consumers, caregivers and others will think about and receive care.” Co-authors Rohit Bhargava and Fard Johnmar clearly intended their new publication […]
[Series Installment: How to Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins of Healthcare Marketing -- Deadly Sins #5: Inadequate Training, from the Healthcare Success Educational library.] Everyone in the office needs to understand how and why new patient inquiry calls are significantly different from the routine. Without preparation and training, seven out of 10 prospective new patient […]
The research folks at Pew Internet provide an insightful report about the multi-layered patterns of social networking by online adults. Marketing and communications professionals can determine the most engaging social media opportunities. Referring to Facebook as “dominant” is almost an understatement. Among online adults using social media (SM) sites, the Pew Research Center reports that […]
A message presented through animation captures attention, explains with clarity and often entertains. For certain situations, healthcare and hospital marketing can employ this unique creative approach to effective engagement and communications online. Guest Post by Dr. Manroop Takhar Let’s face it, communicating in the science-based world of medical marketing can sometimes be dry, clinical and […]
[A Healthcare Success Educational Series] Social media facilitate patient engagement, service line awareness, new business development and other communications objectives. This educational series provides marketing professionals, hospital executives and medical practice providers with an overview for effective social media planning. LinkedIn is particularly distinctive among the biggest social media (SM) formats. You might say that […]
Email marketing—a popular form of marketing directly to the customer/subscriber—has the appeal (and appearance) of being free. Well, it’s not free…but the cost is low, and when done correctly, the Return-on-Investment (ROI) can be remarkable. In addition to a good email software or service bureau, your investment includes the time required to maintain the process, […]
More than ever, medical practices throughout the US are motivated to look (again) at ancillary services to bolster shrinking income and to further differentiate their marketing message. As we enter the “rollout year” for healthcare reform, few practices are operating the same way they did last year…and the coming months only promise further change. Many […]
