Doctors’ Offices Follow Hospital Examples in Promoting Wait Times

Even in the nicest of “waiting rooms,” who really wants to wait for medical services…or anything else for that matter? And if reducing wait times for medical services is a key to improving patient satisfaction, doctors' offices can now follow hospitals in communicating wait times to patients. To illustrate, we can all relate to the following […]

It’s All “About-dot-Me.” The Benefits of a Free Personal Profile Page for Doctors, Hospitals and Healthcare Marketing Professionals

This is a brief post about a deceptively simple and highly useful idea to help people find you online. Here's how doctors, hospitals and marketing professionals can quickly create a custom splash page—complete with analytics dashboard—to bolster personal reputation and practice branding, and heighten search engine visibility. The first thing you should know about About.Me […]

Craft a Truly Newsworthy Hospital or Medical Practice News Release Every Time

It is a daily challenge for most hospitals, medical practices and healthcare public relations professionals to get to and through the "gatekeepers" in the media in order to tell their story to the public. The problem is that prospective topics or story ideas that are important to PR professionals (and their employers) must also be […]

The Benefits of Live Chat on Your Medical Website. (But Does Healthcare Marketing Need It?)

Live Chat—also called Live Help or Live Support—is getting some traction with healthcare marketing websites. More commonly found on retail sites, Live Support is that extra service feature which allows a business to open a real time text-chat conversation with online visitors for customer service and/or sales support. Some of the early adopters we’ve spotted […]

Practice Culture: What Internal Marketing is Really All About

Internal marketing simply doesn't work without a patient-centered culture that fosters relationships and genuine patient satisfaction. An effective culture evolves by design, from the top down and needs training, practice and teamwork. There's no need for internal marketing tactics without an emotional connection. When we consult with a hospital, an established healthcare practice or even […]

Why Hospital Marketing Has an Incentive to Compete with Amenities

Patients have more say in their choice of hospital. Through the eyes of the general public—patients and prospective patients—hospitals tend to look alike. A doctor is a doctor, and a hospital is a hospital. And when the typical “consumer,” is pressed to make a choice between “Hospital A” and “Hospital B,” they relate to what they […]

Facebook Follow-up: Should You Use a Facebook Page as Your Website?

Last week’s feature newsletter article, Facebook Fundamentals: A Guide to Social Media in Healthcare Marketing, generated a lot of thoughtful comments from our readers. And—since this is part of a continuing series about social media tools in healthcare marketing—here’s a brief follow-up about Facebook:

19 Twitter “Thanks” Messages with an Extra Marketing Punch. Feel Free to Use for Your #hcmktg

When you jump into the Twitter stream and “Follow” someone, a Direct Message (DM) “Thank You” is a nice touch of connectivity. Establishing and retaining the initial involvement can help providers, hospitals and other healthcare entities keep their Twitter conversation going. Somehow you feel a little more involved even if the “personal” note is a […]

Facebook Fundamentals: A Guide to Social Media in Healthcare Marketing

Why You Need Facebook and What It Can Do For Your Practice, Hospital or Medical Group Editor's Note: This is an installment in our continuing series of articles about the intersection of social media and healthcare marketing. A Facebook presence is a basic component of most social media plans, but the platform-and the way people […]

The 20 All Time Best Ways to Build a Connection for Outstanding Patient Satisfaction, Healthcare Marketing Success...and Life in General.

Starting a conversation is about as easy and automatic as breathing, right? Doctors talk with patients. Administrators talk with staff. Staff members interact with patients. Public Relations people talk with reporters. Physicians meet members of the community. Effortless? Routine? The answer is no, it’s not always easy. A meaningful conversation, a purposeful conversation, an engaging […]

Fun or Foolish: You Can't Afford Out-of-Home Healthcare Advertising Unless It's Also Effective

One of the things we like about the ad industry term “out of home media” is that it can mean so many things that are fun, foolish and effective. But the first challenge for healthcare, provider and hospital marketing planners is budget—or lack of it—to do all the things that are creative and fun. But […]

Physician Marketing Made Ethical AND Effective

A Brief History... Physician marketing is unique because most of practice owners have historically refused to market their services. In fact, prior to the landmark 1977 U.S. Supreme Court case of Bates v. State Bar of Arizona http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/31/, professionals in private practice (including but not limited to healthcare professionals) were legally prohibited from advertising or […]

Doctors, Please Watch Your Language. When Medical Jargon Kills the Marketing Message.

I don’t know anyone who isn’t occasionally guilty of using “medical-ese.” It's the verbal shorthand, technical talk, healthcare jargon, slang or hospital lingo that spells trouble. Doctors, nurses, hospital marketing executives, and practice administrators are all experts, but our audience is not. And we kill our well-intended message quicker than you can say "hyperlipidemia." The […]

7 Mistakes Doctors and Healthcare Organizations Make When Getting Their Website Done

How to avoid the most serious pitfalls in planning and producing a revenue-generating website. These days, nearly all successful healthcare practitioners have a successful Internet marketing strategy keyed to their website. The Internet has become the tool of choice for many prospective patients in healthcare decisions and selecting a provider.

Creating an Effective Marketing-Based Logo That Works Better Than Swoosh

Here's what goes into a hard-working healthcare logo that does a powerful branding job without a multi-million dollar budget and global exposure. Why you don't need or want a logo like Pepsi. Picture this. Wouldn't it be terrific to have a logo for your medical group, hospital or physician practice that had the recognition impact […]

Heads-Up Healthcare: Google’s New “Plus One” Button is Something Like “Like,” But Bigger. Much Bigger.

Here’s an early heads-up about Google’s brand new “social recommendation” product. If you haven’t heard about this, you might want to start tracking. In time, it’s certain to have an impact on healthcare marketing, Internet advertising and healthcare search engine optimization (SEO). Google, the giant gorilla of all search engines, calls it “the +1 button,” […]

Pretty Poison: When Graphics Kill Your Healthcare Marketing Message

Six fatal design flaws that can muzzle your results-and what to do instead. The effectiveness of even good-looking marketing materials can be poisoned by any of these classic design flaws. Here's how to spot the most common art and visual mistakes in the making and what to do instead. It's practically impossible to describe excellent […]

A Word About Word-of-Mouth Advertising: How to Dispel Old School Misconceptions.

We have a collection of “classic comments” in healthcare marketing. Here’s a sampler of what we hear from time to time from medical providers, office managers or facility administrators about the age-old and ever-popular Word-of-Mouth advertising (WOM). “The only marketing I need or want is word-of-mouth advertising.” Or maybe, “I’m really good at my profession, […]

Seven Key Reasons to Harness Video Power Now...Ahead of the Competition

Editor's Note: The marketing concepts discussed in this article-authored by Healthcare Success for ImagingBiz-also apply to many professional, medical and healthcare marketing situations. ImagingBiz is a unique industry publication that delivers business intelligence for hospitals, imaging centers and radiology practices. This education and information portal offers a wealth of expertise on the rapidly changing world […]

Is the Cost of Healthcare Insurance a Throttle or an Accelerator?

There’s no doubt that Americans are going to the doctor less frequently than they did a few years ago. The downtrend in patient visits is well documented…there’s plenty of empirical as well as anecdotal evidence. We hear about it routinely from our clients in primary care practices, which is not surprising. But it’s a bit […]

The Free "Performance Dashboard" For Your Healthcare Marketing Website

Demystifying Web Analytics brings more patients through your digital doorway. Think of Website Analytics as your most important management tool to understand how your website is performing (or not performing). Free tools are available to track visitor activity and guide changes that improve performance and website results for your practice, hospital or healthcare organization. There's […]

Psst…Don’t Tell Your Competition: Mystery Marketing Hero Revealed.

First, do the hardball math. When the phone rings in your office, you are probably losing more new business than you’re winning. Close to 70 percent of new patient calls produce no revenue because the caller never comes into the office. That means your practice is seeing only three out of ten of these callers.

Doximity is Not the New LinkedIn. Two Important Digital Tools that Every Physician Can Use

Physicians are both public and private individuals. There’s the inner circle of peers and colleagues, and there’s the outer circle of public and (prospective) patients. And for each of these, there’s a free digital tool that every physician can use to boost productivity, professionally present your “who-you-are-and-what-you-do” message, enhance your reputation and help your career […]

Health Care Marketing: How Are Things Different For Health Care Organizations?

In many respects, marketing a health care organization or practice is not substantially different from marketing a small business in other industries. Basic business marketing principles that apply in other industries - including market and competitive research, strategic planning, budgeting, positioning, branding, marketing strategies, tactics, media options, public relations opportunities, implementation processes, tracking processes - […]

The “General Market” Illusion: The New Majority in Healthcare Marketing

On December 21, 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the results of Census 2010—the resident population of the United States is now 308,745,538. But Census 2010 data isn’t just about counting noses. You may be surprised to learn that there’s a “new majority” in town, and there’s an important paradigm shift underway for healthcare marketing […]

A Doctor's World is Changing: Is Your Marketing Message Keeping Up with You?

A doctor’s world was, at one time, relatively stable. Certainly not easy, but generally steady and secure. As recently as a generation ago, being a physician was less complicated than facing the rapid-fire changes that are still occurring in our nation’s healthcare delivery system. “For decades, medicine has been dominated by fiercely independent doctors who […]

A Broken Guitar, Unhappy Musician, Indifferent Airline and Viral Video. The Imperfect Customer Service Storm.

Sometimes we think that Stewart Gandolf has way too much fun over at his blog, Gandolf’s Marketing Magic. I submit as evidence, and for your consideration, Stewart’s recent post that begins with the story about how a customer complaint became a YouTube music-and-video saga (in three parts) titled United Breaks Guitars. As a quick disclosure, […]

Golden Goose Demise: A Doctor Marketing Lesson for All Professions

gold·en goose • n. a continuing source of wealth or profit that may be exhausted if it is misused. Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English You’ve probably heard the “golden goose” story. It’s been around since about the 5th century and there are several versions of the fable. Unfortunately, there’s a healthcare marketing version that’s […]

How to Irritate an Editor, and THE Essential Key to a Successful Healthcare PR News Release

From time to time everyone in healthcare marketing and public relations will write a news release…and then hope that it navigates the tricky course from your desk to the eyes and mind of the intended reader. Individual practices may do this occasionally while big hospitals and other healthcare organizations may do it daily. The secrets […]

Does Botox Belong in the Dentist’s Office? It Depends on Who You Ask.

Back in the uncomplicated good old days of healthcare marketing, the many and various medical professions, specialties and subspecialties were neatly organized by basic anatomy. Podiatrists, for example, worked on stuff “below the knee.” A patient with a snoring problem might be referred to an “ear-nose-throat” specialist. And dentists cared for your teeth and gums. […]

How Bottom-Line Success is Really About Creating Top-Line Relationships in Healthcare

How the patient experience is increasingly vital to financial success in our changing healthcare delivery system. From large health systems to hospitals, to medical practices, relationships and satisfaction connect directly to the bottom line. Professional practices, hospitals and virtually all healthcare providers of any size are increasingly aware that, like the retail business down the […]

Digital Deal-A-Day Coupons Hold Cautions for Healthcare Marketing

The deal-of-the-day coupon phenomenon is new, but it very much looks like it’s here to stay…at least in the retail/merchant sector. For healthcare, however, some cautionary tales have emerged. Our previous post pointed to Groupon as the leading poster boy for a dozen or more “try-it-you’ll-like-it” deal sites. And more importantly, the fact that the […]

Live From the OR: Do Patients REALLY Want to Watch Open Heart Surgery?

For some time now, we have championed the benefits of video content as a powerful, and often underutilized, tool in healthcare marketing. No pun intended, but here are two cutting-edge video examples of surgery—direct and graphic from the OR. Viewer Discretion Advised. These video examples of actual surgery include graphic content. Online video broadcasts (and […]

Doctors Aren’t Passively Resisting Social Media. Some Are Candidly Bitter About Something

Do doctors see social media in their practice future? Have you (or patients) ever wondered why a particular doctor isn’t using social networks? Some doctor comments are harsh. Of course many healthcare providers actively use social media routinely and effectively. Patients look online for health and healthcare info, and at least a few thoroughly professional […]

Advertising Art isn’t Art, It’s Advertising. The “Pretty Poison” That’s Sure to Kill Your Healthcare Marketing Message

It’s like being a driving instructor. Part of our job is to keep clients steering their healthcare marketing and advertising bus on the right course and away from the potholes. But all too often we’ll see an accident…someone has veered headlong through the good-sense guide rail and their advertising dollars have gone up in flames. […]

3 Shortcuts to Sabotage: "Ignoring Customer Service in Healthcare"

We wish we had written that compelling headline because it drew us into an insightful post (that we also wish we had written). Author and business coach Micah Solomon is hitting us with a triple (facetious) dose of ways healthcare providers—particularly hospitals—can avoid service excellence. There must be thousands of ways to fail at customer […]

search engine optimization and marketing word collage

Google’s New Search Rules of the Road: An Opportunity for Healthcare Sites to Improve

Try “Googling” search terms for your practice or hospital. Your healthcare site page ranking may have moved (or may move soon). The world’s biggest search engine has changed the secret formula that it uses to index all that is cyber. And different rules are now producing different results.

Doctors: How to Choose between Internal Marketing or External Advertising?

What's on First? What's most important and where to begin? Here's a terrific marketing question that popped up again recently: "What's on First? Which is more important, INTERNAL Marketing or EXTERNAL Marketing...and which comes first?" It's a great question that we hear from time to time, especially as practitioners become more comfortable about marketing and want […]

The Right Media Buying Service Stretches Your Marketing Budget by up to 50 Percent

There's no extra cost to have professionals handle your media placement work. As your external advertising budget grows, eventually you'll want—make that, need—professional help in setting and managing the entire media placement and buying process. Let's say your your healthcare organization has an advertising plan that covers several broadcast media, with scheduled flights starting and […]

The "Robot Dance" and Six Other Video Clips that Leverage Your Healthcare Content

Video content in healthcare marketing is increasingly affordable and useful for many reasons, but to our budget-stretching mindset, but using “leverage” is the best part of the equation. We talk about leverage in our popular instructional series about the many uses of video. (All six video segments are on this page.) But the compelling value idea […]

Brand v. Bland: The Top Seven Reasons Healthcare Branding Means Business

We launched our new series of marketing articles at ImagingBiz this week with a short lesson in branding. We’re pleased to contribute to the ImagingBiz educational and informational portal on a regular basis. It's for decision-makers in medical imaging in both the outpatient and hospital environments. And although our initial article is directed primarily to […]

When We Say “Your Brand,” You Should Be Thinking “Professional Reputation”

Just recently Stewart was the guest speaker for a large group of healthcare professionals. (It was a dental society meeting, but the issue he encountered that evening applies to other professions, practices, medical groups and even hospitals. Please read on.) Nearly all of the attendees in the audience were doing some degree of marketing, and […]

Even More Excellent Examples of Engaging Healthcare Social Media at Work

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a few others are the recognizable names in the social media phenomenon. Frankly we’ve lost count of the online social media tools that have emerged, and disappeared, recently. There are dozens of wanna-be, also-ran social sites, all chasing the few popularity pacesetters. But the big names get bigger. The “public awareness” […]

The Chicken or the Egg: Balancing Growth Considerations in Your Healthcare Organization

One of the most common dilemmas facing healthcare practice owners is negotiating the delicate balance of priorities and timing required to successfully create and manage the growth of the business. Marketing consultants often refer to this as the "Chicken or the Egg" question because, as a business owner, you have to determine whether you focus […]

The Elusive Patient Experience: Are You Wasting Money Trying to Hit the Wrong Target?

We think Jennifer Robison, Senior Editor for the Gallup Management Journal, hit a timely hot button with both marketing professionals and business administrators when she wrote about healthcare organizations missing the “patient experience” target. Her focus was primarily hospitals, but her words are just as vital to other healthcare organizations, marketing, advertising and PR executives […]

Why “Common Wisdom” is Commonly Wrong in Healthcare Marketing and What to Do Instead

The problem with “common wisdom” is that it is often a myth cleverly disguised as the truth. And it’s easy to buy into these notions, especially when you hear something frequently or from a well-meaning source. For example, consider the common wisdom (and debunkments, if that’s a word) from WebMD: Drink at least eight glasses […]

Dueling ERs: Cross-town Rivals Use Videos and T-shirts to Compete for Patients at Hospitals’ New Front Door

Two Central Illinois hospitals are pulling out the stops in a hospital marketing and advertising tug-of-war. Springfield’s St. John’s Hospital and cross-town rival Memorial Medical Center see the emergency department as the new front door of their hospitals. Perhaps that's not entirely new, but emergency care is a primary access point for patients needing immediate […]

Why Doctors Aren’t Buying Into Social Media (Yet) and What Needs to Change

There’s little doubt that information is now the new third party in the exam room. We’ve been tracking the surveys that track online and social media use, and individually or collectively, they say patients are increasingly looking online for healthcare information. No surprise there. But what’s new is that their principal resource is social media. […]

Medical Spa Marketing: 5 Essential Promotional Strategies

Don't start without at least one of these or your "Medi-Spa" may go down the drain. The cross-over blending of a medical practice and a day spa continues to grow in popularity. The public finds value and authority in medically directed services to improve personal appearance, and many physicians recognize how a "medi-spa" can add […]

Delivering an Exceptional Patient Experience: Sometimes Leadership Rolls Uphill

by Steve Smith, Healthcare Success Senior Consultant A recent consultation with a client in the Midwest revealed that the physician partners only gave lip service to customer service. Oh, they want each patient to have a good experience, of course, but that's as far as their involvement goes. Unfortunately, that put my office manager contact, […]

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