Tips From Google for Driving Patient Traffic To Your Doors

It probably comes as no surprise that in 2017, people are relying on smartphones more than ever before. And most of them go beyond using these devices to make calls, send texts, and check their emails. They also go mobile to search for information, find services in their neighborhoods, and get directions. This trend has Read More

Continue reading

Case Study: Work Smarter, Not Harder, on Your Marketing Efforts

Henry Ford Health System Logo

Industrialist Henry Ford (1863-1947) manufactured the first affordable mass-produced car in the early 1900s, striving to improve the quality of life for many middle-class Americans. Now a full century later, the Henry Ford Health System is following his tradition by strengthening its marketing efforts to reach residents from all walks of life in the greater Read More

Continue reading

Geomarketing: Target Customers Where They Live—Literally

Terrence Tucker, media supervisor at Response Mine Interactive

“When parents have children with fevers or a bout of stomach flu, whether they need a general practitioner or a specialist, they’ll generally look for doctors who are close to them,” observes Terrence Tucker, media supervisor at Response Mine Interactive. “Even if the need isn’t immediate and patients are just looking for a physical exam, Read More

Continue reading

Children’s Hospital Finds Success with Humorous Campaign

Veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein boils down one hospital’s advertising campaign down to one word: wisecracks. The little girl getting wheeled into surgery is about 11 years old—and not at all like any other little girl you’ve seen in TV spots about surgery. She’s a quick-thinking, fast-talking, smart mouth. But then, so is Read More

Continue reading

Word of Mouth Remains a Health Care Marketing Imperative

“Here’s important context for health care marketing in 2017: Attention and trust continue to decline across the country,” says Ryan Hanser, APR, who leads Hanser & Associates, a full-service PR firm based in Des Moines, Iowa. “Sure, we still have knowledgeable specialists—doctors, for starters. The trouble is that people increasingly reject the authority of expertise. Read More

Continue reading

NYC Hospital Launches Fight Against Diabetes in Latino Community

A new educational campaign led by Lenox Hill Hospital has rallied together an impressive array of big and small public and private groups in New York City to fight against a common problem: the incidence of diabetes in the Latino community. “Hispanics are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanics to be diagnosed with diabetes and Read More

Continue reading

Augusta University Health Gets Strategic To Improve Payer Mix

Augusta University Health System is no stranger to change. Over the past five years, it has undergone several rebranding campaigns and two consolidations. Yet through all of these fluctuations, one thing has remained the same: the need to find new and more efficient ways to improve its reputation and continue to grow market share. The Read More

Continue reading

Urgent Care + Uber Transport = Win for Orthopedic Franchise

Lisa D. Ellis

If you or a family member broke an ankle or dislocated a shoulder, what if you could just use an app on your smartphone to schedule a visit at a nearby orthopedic urgent care center and, at the same time, also arrange for an Uber driver to transport you? That’s the premise of a new Read More

Continue reading

Micro-Targeted Marketing Pays Off for Tanner Health System

When its market share began dwindling recently, Tanner Health System turned to micro-targeted data to step up its marketing efforts. Until recently, the system’s main sources of information were limited to the basics such as electronic medical records, census bureau results, and general facts about the service area. “We also had data from the Georgia Read More

Continue reading

Your Call Center: An Untapped Source of Revenue?

Robin-Snow

“Call centers in health care used to be treated like the ugly stepchild of the health system, banished to the basement of some administrative building and populated with low-performing employees,” says Robin Snow, founder and principal of Aefinity Interactive, LLC. “Because it was seen as a necessary evil, most executives treated the call center as Read More

Continue reading

Cut the Clutter To Streamline and Improve Your Marketing Communications

Deb Bruce, Senior Content Writer for AVID Design

Are your marketing messages living up to their full potential? If not, you may need to think more about the concept of health literacy and how to reach your target audience on a deeper and more personal level, by talking about things they care about in a simple, direct language that they can understand. Health Read More

Continue reading

Hospital’s Magazine Moves the Needle; Does Yours?

Peter Hochstein

Who says print is dead? That’s far from the case in the health care field, where “publishing magazines is starting to seem as commonplace in many hospitals as taking patients’ temperatures. Well, almost,” says veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. “The data collected over the last ten years shows that approximately 60 to 70 Read More

Continue reading

Case Study: A New Blended Health Care Organization That Is Stronger Than the Sum of Its Parts

Hackensack Meridian Health Logo

They say breaking up is hard to do—but merging isn’t always so easy, either. When two health care organizations in New Jersey joined to create one larger, more comprehensive system called Hackensack Meridian Health last summer, there were numerous challenges in addition to opportunities. For instance, the CEOs of both legacy organizations decided to share Read More

Continue reading

Custom-Tailor Health Care Marketing Messages To Break Through Cultural Barriers

“Arminda “Mindy” Figueroa, the Founder and President of Latin2Latin Marketing + Communications

What if you were in a foreign country and needed emergency medical care but couldn’t communicate effectively with the health care providers there? This could put your life at risk, if you and your provider couldn’t understand each other fully. While this might sound like a nightmare, it’s a scenario that’s also all too common Read More

Continue reading

The Future of the ACA Nondiscrimination Rules Under Trump

Jill Mead, in-house Compliance Counsel for Vocalink, Inc.

“On July 18, 2016, the long-awaited final rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities went into effect. The new rule provides a comprehensive framework of what it means to provide effective communication and meaningful access to health care for Limited English Proficient (“LEP”) and disabled patients, Read More

Continue reading

How Media Training Can Refine and Strengthen Your Message

Lisa D. Ellis

You go to great lengths to develop strong messages that will resonate with your target audience and reinforce your brand. But what your spokespeople don’t say may come across louder than their actual words. This is because body language is essential when it comes to establishing trust and connecting with viewers on television and video. Read More

Continue reading

Case Study: A Humorous Advertising Campaign Is the Best Medicine for Broward Health

Peter Hochstein

“Sickness, pain, and mortality, the matters that hospitals deal with, are pretty grim stuff. Yet every so often, hospitals find an opportunity to do humorous ads. And while this can raise eyebrows, it also can raise awareness and patient traffic,” notes SHCM writer and master copywriter Peter Hochstein. “[One] success story worth exploring is a TV Read More

Continue reading

10 Health Care Marketing Trends To Watch in 2017

“If what we’ve seen over the past year is any indication, 2017 won’t be for the faint of heart,” says Lindsay R. Resnick, Executive Vice President at ReviveHealth, a Weber Shandwick company. “Combine the dynamics of socioeconomic-political tensions with the massive transformation happening across health care’s ecosystem—regulatory, technology, competition, innovation, finance, clinical—and you get an Read More

Continue reading

Get a More Complete Picture of Patient Experience

William Maples, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Professional Research Consultants, Inc.

How satisfied are your patients with the care they receive in your facility? Your answer may be based on the latest HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) data, which provides an important way to track key measures from the patient perspective. This can provide valuable insight into your strengths and weaknesses. But Read More

Continue reading

Five Difficult Topics Health Care Marketers Need To Tackle

Ross Goldberg

“It has been said that all motion is relative,” notes Ross K. Goldberg. “If that is indeed true, then it’s entirely possible to go backward by simply standing still if the world around you is changing.” Goldberg, President of Kevin/Ross Public Relations in Southern California, says that “[o]ver the past half-dozen years, those entrusted with Read More

Continue reading

Health Care Brand Management: Overcoming Branding Challenges Unique to ACOs

Andrea Simon

“As physicians are evaluating whether to participate in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), they are facing a new reality, one that demands they change their practice processes, reduce health care utilization, and improve wellness for the patients they care for,” says Andrea J. Simon, Ph.D., President of Simon Associates Management Consultants. “They must now refer to Read More

Continue reading

Telemedicine Enables Remote Dermatology Services

Jennifer Sikora, VP of Marketing, Iagnosis

If you had a suspicious mole or rash on your leg, what if you could have it evaluated by a dermatologist tomorrow without having to miss any work or activities and could find out quickly whether the area is cause for concern? You’d probably find this approach invaluable. And so might many of your health Read More

Continue reading

Turning a Tight Budget + Low Brand Awareness Into Health Care Marketing Success

Peter Hochstein

“As the health sciences have advanced, pressure to see more patients in less time has also grown. Little wonder that doctor-patient relationships often seem less personal—and consequently less satisfying—than they once were,” notes veteran copywriter and regular SHCM columnist Peter Hochstein. “It was just this kind of society-wide malaise that provided a branding opportunity for Read More

Continue reading

The Metrics That Matter for Your Health Care Marketing Efforts

David Marlowe, author of Marketing Plans That Work

“The concept of measuring the metrics associated with health care marketing and communications efforts is far from new,” notes David Marlowe, Principal of Strategic Marketing Concepts in Ellicott City, Maryland (and member of the Strategic Health Care Marketing Editorial Advisory Board). “When I entered the field in 1980, one of the first questions asked by Read More

Continue reading

What the New HHS Restrictions on Media in Patient Areas Mean for You

Lisa D. Ellis

Flip through the channels of your television set any evening and chances are you’ll stumble across an episode of a reality TV series that was filmed in a hospital emergency department. Over the past few years, such “real” medical TV that presents traumas as they unfold has grown in popularity among viewers, and some organizations Read More

Continue reading