The Power of Objective Ratings in Healthcare Marketing

Posted by: Neil James // May 7th, 2012

One of the problems posed by positioning your hospital as providing higher quality care is that is establishing meaningful competitive differentiation is difficult. In general, most patients assume that virtually all accredited hospital clinics will meet their expectations for quality care, even if they’re unlikely to. Subsequently, it’s often difficult for prospective patients to truly grasp the concept of differences in level of service from one healthcare brand to the next.

But a new article by Getahn Ward for The Tennessean, Hospitals Sharpen Focus on Patient Satisfaction, discusses how objective ratings systems, which have a far greater ability to differentiate levels of clinical service, could ultimately have a much stronger impact on healthcare and hospital marketing. According to Ward, beginning October 1st, patient satisfaction surveys will affect how much money a hospital gets paid by Medicare by up to 30 percent. Ward reports that satisfaction scores varied significantly across several Nashville facilities. As such, Ward states, the higher-scoring hospitals may incorporate their premium rating scores into future marketing initiatives.

@NeilAndrewJames

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One-Third of Healthcare Marketers Conduct Research Every Two Years or Less

Posted by: Neil James // March 26th, 2012

“Knowledge is power.”

There’s a reason this axiom, first uttered by Sir Francis Bacon in 1597, has endured for over four centuries – it’s true. In fact, Sun Tzu stumbled on this eternal truth two millenniums earlier when he penned “Know your enemy and know yourself – find naught in fear for 100 battles.”

And while healthcare marketing may have little in common with medieval warfare, there is no denying the competitive pressures, which are very real.

It is interesting, therefore, that according to new research by True North Custom Research, 36 percent of healthcare marketers conduct research and review the results only every other year or less. In fact, according to True North, 15 percent do not conduct market research whatsoever!

In contrast, True North reports that nearly two-thirds of healthcare marketers are conducting research on at least an annual basis, with nearly one-third conducting research on at least a quarterly basis. Consumer preferences and perceptions was the area marketers most expect to gain insight into, with 78 percent reporting they would expect market research to make them more knowledgeable in this area.

@NeilAndrewJames

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More Americans Making Appointments with “Dr. 4G”

Posted by: Neil James // February 13th, 2012

You don’t need to be told that people are going online for health information. You probably don’t even need Pew Internet’s exhaustive research on the topic. All you have to do is ask your doctors “are your patients coming in having gone online to research the condition moreso than in the past?” If their answers weren’t unanimously yes, we’d be surprised.

What you might not have known, however, is that according to new research from comScore MobiLens, nearly 17 million people accessed health information via their mobile device during the three-month average period ending in November 2011. This figure was up 125 percent from the same period one year earlier! Further, according to comScore, almost 60 percent of the individuals searching accessing health info on via their phone were under the age of 35.

@NeilAndrewJames

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Healthcare Advertising Spending Up 20 Percent From Last Year

Posted by: Neil James // December 19th, 2011

This modern-day Dickensian tale is an annual ritual for healthcare marketers who must regularly battle cynical executives to keep their budgets intact.

If you’re looking to maximize the amount of dollars allocated towards marketing, there’s nothing like the appeal of old-fashioned peer pressure. According to a new article by Andrew Adam Newman for the New York Times, A Healing Touch From Hospitals, advertising expenditures by medical centers and hospitals reached $717 for the first six months of 2011. This figure was up 20 percent compared to the same period in 2010!

This figure, of course, will vary by market. An article by Ben Sutherly for Dayton Daily News reported that the major regional hospitals in Ohio, Premier Health Partners, Kettering Health Network and the Children’s Medical Center of Dayton has seen an increase of only three percent.

@NeilAndrewJames

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Marketing your Primary Care Provider: Who are you speaking to?

Posted by: Adrenaline // November 4th, 2011

Think about your primary care provider, now think back and remember how your relationship came to be.  Most likely it was through a referral, online or old-fashioned phone book research.   Whatever it may have been, according to Marketing Communication News, in a world where people change doctors as often as they change their socks, it is important for marketers to know who they are speaking to in order for their patients to build “brand” loyalty to their PCP.

The first step is to consider and understand patients’ wants and needs based on age, gender and life events.  Once each demographic is established, it is then imperative to research how this group of people gathers their information and then go where they are.  Whether you are talking to Millennials or Baby Boomers, you’ll need to figure out the best tactics to promote your PCPs.

@EMortek

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Baked In Marketing For the Healthcare Industry

Posted by: Neil James // August 22nd, 2011

In his book Baked In, ad legend Alex Bogusky argues that marketers of the future should be less focused on campaigns and big ideas and more focused on incorporating the needs of the customer into the design and functionality of the product. A creative pillbox, as discussed in a new article by Belinda Lanks for Fast Company’s Co.Design, spotlights an example of this practice in the healthcare industry. This pillbox, created by a recent graduate of a French design school, clearly offers the eye something more pleasing than the plastic MTWTFS box. More importantly, however, were the subtle attention to details, such as Monday’s pills being located on the lowest levels while Friday’s were on the highest. The goal of the pillbox, says its designer, Celine Forestier, was to “change attitudes towards medication at home and ultimately de-stigmatize the pillbox.”

@NeilAndrewJames


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New Company Uses Text Messaging to Show ER Wait Times At Area Hospitals

Posted by: Neil James // July 18th, 2011

New Company Uses Text Messaging to Show ER Wait Times At Area Hospitals

When you need to go to the ER and 911 isn’t involved, you’d rather go to the hospital with a twenty-minute wait time than the one with a four-hour wait time, right? But how do you which hospital has the shortest wait? Enter ER Texting, Inc., a Miami-based company discussed in a new article for Mobile Marketing Watch, SMS Can Make Life Saving Emergency Room Visits Time Saving Too. How does it work? Hospitals sign up with ER Texting and incorporate the 4ER411 message in their advertising campaigns. Patients who are in need of ER services send text message to a dedicated short code (4ER411) and receive a message in return that lists the wait times for emergency rooms at nearby participating hospitals.

@NeilAndrewJames

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The Gold Standard For Content Marketing in Healthcare

Posted by: Neil James // July 6th, 2011

The Gold Standard For Content Marketing in Healthcare

Content marketing evokes some negative imagery. Plagiarized articles. Readability sacrificed at the altar of SEO. Automated scraping. In reality, content marketing is like many tools in that at it’s heart, it’s morally neutral – how it’s used determines whether it’s good or evil.

An example of a healthcare entity that gets content marketing right is Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In a new article for Ragan’s Healthcare News, Boston Hospital Extends Reach Through Journalism-Style Content, Russell Working discusses how Beth Israel Deaconess isn’t content to pump out a blog and call it a week. According to Working, Beth Israel Deaconess produces up to 50 pieces of content a month. This content, which includes videos and radio spots for news station, is created by a 13-person staff of communicators and handful of freelance partners. The end goal, Working states, is for Beth Israel Deaconess to become an informational resource that is on par with the likes of WebMD and Mayo Clinic.

@NeilAndrewJames

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The Importance of Marketing to Physicians

Posted by: Meghan Blackford // June 27th, 2011

The Importance of Marketing to Physicians

Recently there has been a surge in the amount of healthcare applications that help doctors care for their patients, even when time prohibits a face-to-face visit. If doctors didn’t initially embrace smart phones and new technology, they have certainly come full-circle. According to blogger Nicola Ziady in Why Bother Marketing to Physicians, “online promotion (for health care professionals) is growing in its importance, specifically as it relates to helping doctors care for their patients, teaching trainees, and performing their jobs more efficiently.”

Consumers are interacting with healthcare organizations in a variety of online settings, and are capable of having a deeper dialogue. Ziady points out that healthcare marketers can help optimize interactions and “tap into new media, without being perceived as unwelcome guests.” Solid relationships are built on trust, and tech-savvy physicians make the perfect partner for healthcare marketers to captivate.

@MJBlackford

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Justifying Hospital Marketing Costs

Posted by: Andrew Meyer // May 5th, 2011

Justifying Hospital Marketing Costs

Even as the U.S. economy slowly regains strength, hospitals continue to struggle with the costs of marketing their organizations. That’s according to a report by Doug Desjardins who writes for HealthLeaders Media. More than ever, hospital marketing teams are forced to consider how their expenditures are perceived internally and externally alike, and to balance conservative spending with the need to implement impactful plans in a competitive health care market. Desjardins cautions against relying solely on lower-cost marketing tactics without comparing the relative value of all potential options on the table.

@ALouMeyer

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