The Continued Importance of Print in Health Care Marketing

How do you get your news today? If the answer is mainly online, you’re certainly not alone. In fact, with fewer people reading printed newspapers and magazines than in past decades, you may be considering following the trend by ditching your health care organization’s printed material to focus your efforts solely on the digital side of things.

While saying goodbye to print publications can bring some obvious time and money benefits (after all, investing in paper, running the presses, and covering postage can be expensive), retiring your print pieces can actually end up being a costly mistake in the long run, according to Becky Smith, Marketing Communications Manager at Coffey Communications.

One of her clients, Jimmy Phillips, MBA, Executive Director of Marketing/Communications for San Joaquin Community Hospital
 in Bakersfield, California, recently worked with Coffey to revamp his quarterly print magazine to support his communication efforts.

Originally, Phillips (a millennial) had wanted to scrap the 16-page magazine and also a printed annual report, which the hospital had been producing in about the same format for the past six years. Phillips was not convinced that the payoff was worth the price, nor worth the time involved in the extensive production process.

But Smith and her team convinced Phillips not to throw in the towel on the magazine, but rather to rethink what the publication should be and how it relates to the faith-based organization’s vision to be the hospital of choice for the community and to serve people with high-quality care and compassion through every interaction.

To learn more about the process at San Joaquin Community Hospital, as well as the essential components of a must-read hospital magazine that gets saved and shared, read the full article now: Turn the Page on Your Hospital’s Print Marketing Strategy.

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President