Free Weekly Ezine

Each week we email a tip or news that we are covering in Strategic Health Care Marketing. You can view the archives of this weekly ezine below.

Resort-Style Attention Puts Patients at Ease at Barnes-Jewish Hospital

Patti Crimmins Reda, Executive Director

At Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, several customer-oriented programs are deeply integrated into the facility’s framework to help people feel truly comfortable with the care they receive. Such customer-focused programs include (among many others) concierge services through the Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Heart & Vascular Center. Barnes-Jewish is Read More

5 Steps to Forge Deeper Connections with Patients and Improve Health Outcomes

Want to connect with your target audience on a more powerful level and motivate behavior change? Denise Aube, Executive Vice President and Healthcare Practice Leader at Crosby Marketing Communications, suggests turning to the principles of behavioral science to make your efforts more effective. “The challenge is how do we engage patients and motivate healthy behavior. It’s Read More

How Behavioral Science Can Boost Engagement and Patient Action

“The key to successful health care marketing is being able to anticipate how patients will react to and engage with the messages you are putting out,” says Kirstan Cecil, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, which is part of the Ascension Health System. Saint Agnes Hospital is a 276-bed, Read More

Can Your Hospital Give Empowered “Health Care DIY” Consumers What They Want?

Michael Del Gigante

We live in a DIY age, observes Michael Del Gigante, President of MDG Advertising. Which is why it’s no wonder that consumers have eagerly hopped aboard the “DIY health care” train. “People are increasingly comfortable with using everything from websites to activity sensors to monitor their own health, diagnose problems, and self-treat issues without having to Read More

Are You Using the Power of Sound In Your Health Care Marketing?

Hospitals present more audio opportunities than do most brands, says Colleen Fahey, the U.S. Managing Director of audio branding agency Sixième Son. But most of the time, this opportunity is wasted: “Walk into the admissions area of a university hospital and you’ll hear the clatter of carts, the chatter of announcements, the buzz of phones Read More

Thrive in the Brave New World of Health Care Consumerism [Webinar]

4 Keys to Creating Patient Connections—and How Carolinas HealthCare System Is Making it Happen

// An SHCM webinar on March 30, 2016 //

Patients are transforming health care as they demand that health care organizations provide them with a consumer experience. They expect the immediacy of a Google search, the personalization of Amazon, the convenience of Uber, the value of Target, and the ubiquity of Facebook.

And the changes are happening fast. Most health care organizations understand they must embrace change or be left behind.

But what does this mean in practical terms for your organization? How can we make health care access easier, more valuable, and more efficient? What tools can we use to improve delivery of care and empower patients to manage and improve their health?

What will it take for your organization to build a consumer-centric health care system based on wellness and prevention? How will the ability to collect, measure, and analyze customer data translate to competitive advantage?

Join us on March 30 for a webinar presented by Pamela DeSalvo Landis, Vice President, Information Services, Carolinas HealthCare System and Lindsay Resnick, MHA, Chief Marketing Officer, Wunderman Health. Learn more »

Interview: Leveraging Corporate Success Strategies for Health Care

Lisa Stockmon

The corporate and health care sectors often talk in different languages and have different ways of doing business. But there are lessons from the business world that can translate well to the health care setting, especially when it comes to building a brand. Perhaps no one knows this better than Lisa Stockmon, the Chief Marketing Read More

Launching a Successful Hospital Rebrand After Merger of Opposites

St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers in Poughkeepsie, New York, wasn’t the first hospital to find itself drowning in a sea of financial troubles and it probably won’t be the last, notes veteran copywriter Peter Hochstein. Having filed for bankruptcy, “It was accepting bids for full acquisition from other hospitals,” recalls Barbara Kram, Senior Director, Read More

Franciscan Alliance To Women: “We Love You Just The Way You Are”

As one of the largest Catholic health systems in the Midwest, Franciscan Alliance recently decided to reach into its religious roots in an attempt to make a deeper connection with females in the local market and build up the women’s services line. The result is a unique marketing campaign for the health system’s women’s services Read More

How To Effectively Use Brand Journalism at Your Health Care Organization

Lisa Arledge Powell, President of MediaSource

“As a former TV reporter, I have had a unique chance to see multiple organizations and topics competing for media coverage in a crowded market,” says Lisa Arledge Powell, President of MediaSource, a content-focused health care public relations firm. “But in the past few years,” she says, “the growth of new media has opened up Read More

How To Successfully Shift to Value-Based Population Health Management

David Wildebrandt

“There’s no denying it: Value-based population health management is here to stay,” says David Wildebrandt, a member of the Berkeley Research Group’s (BRG) Healthcare Performance Improvement practice. “But how can hospitals best manage the transition from a fee-for-service approach to treating sickness to adopting one that focuses on keeping patients well in the first place?” Most Read More

How To Carve Out a Unique and Compelling Niche for Your Health Care Facility

Lisa Stockmon, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at City of Hope

What do you get when you mix science, soul, and miracles? At City of Hope, an independent biomedical research institution and comprehensive cancer center near Los Angeles, these ingredients are the recipe for second chances. And the sum is certainly bigger than the parts. “City of Hope’s mission is to cure cancer, diabetes, and other Read More

ACO Marketing Strategies: What is Effective Now?

Over the past year, Clay Cutchins of Franklin Street, a health care brand consultancy, worked with his team to help form the messaging and positioning of a new pediatric Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in Texas. This was not his first experience developing ACO marketing strategies. “Previously, we had helped sculpt the brand framework for a Read More

Could an In-House Blogging Doc Help Build Your Health Care Brand?

Seattle Children’s Hospital is using a simple—yet effective—approach to get personal with its target audience (many of them mothers who make most of the health care decisions for their family): an award-winning mommy-doc blog. Better yet, this blog is also helping to shape public health conversations and provide people with the information they need to make Read More

Games Can Effectively Encourage Desired Patient Behaviors

Aron Ezra, CEO of OfferCraft

Aron Ezra, CEO of OfferCraft, sets the stage: “A specialty outpatient clinic was struggling with a problem common to many health care providers: Patients weren’t showing up for their appointments. The problem was particularly severe for this clinic, where the no-show rate was close to 50 percent. Doctors weren’t able to bill unless the patient Read More

Health Care Marketing: 4 Areas of Focus in 2016

“Spurred by the convergence of the Affordable Care Act, an extraordinary medical technology revolution, and our new on-demand, sharing economy mindset, America’s health care ecosystem is now set up to revolve around the customer,” says Lindsay R. Resnick, Chief Marketing Officer of Wunderman Health. Resnick says several “known unknowns” will affect the health care landscape Read More

Health Care Marketing on a Shoestring: Small Budget, Big Results

Peter Hochstein

In the small city of Peoria, Illinois (population 116,513), OSF Saint Francis Medical Center (609 beds) used a very small media budget ($45,000) for one of its services and got some big results. The service was mammogram screening. And, yes, there were other costs for production and Internet usage and design, too. Richole Ogburn, account Read More

Marketing and Branding Lessons From 3 Biotech Companies

AxoGen Logo

There’s more pressure today than ever before on hospitals and other health care organizations to provide high-value, patient-centered care for a growing audience. As a result, marketing departments are being pushed to find creative ways to leverage their shrinking budgets and resources to help achieve these ambitious goals. If this describes your situation, and you’re Read More

Merck Manuals Gets an Effective Digital Facelift

By 2020, Merck Manuals wants to reach 3 billion people and give them current, accurate medical information, says Derek Mabie, President and Founder of Evolve Digital Labs. While Merck has been a trusted peer-reviewed resource within the medical community since 1899, he notes, the process by which medical professionals find the answers they are seeking Read More

Health System’s Community Outreach Improves Wellness and Generates Publicity

Southcoast farmers market

In southeast Massachusetts, residents can shop for fresh fruit and produce at community farmers markets sponsored by Southcoast Health. This is part of Southcoast Health’s commitment not only to take care of its patients but also to protect the health of a high-risk community. And in the process of “doing good” for others, the health Read More

A New Kind of Residential Health Care Campus in Florida

While most health care systems today are going to great lengths to promote healthy living for patients and staff, Florida Hospital in Orlando is extending its visions beyond the confines of its medical campus, creating a comprehensive residential living arrangement right within the broader community. The 1,217-bed acute-care medical facility in Orlando, a member of Adventist Read More

A Print Health Care Newsletter In This Day and Age? Yes, Absolutely.

Publishing your health care organization’s print newsletter can be a time-intensive—and costly—endeavor. You may wonder if it’s really worth the investment, since the results can be challenging to measure. With people increasingly getting their news and health information online, you could even be tempted to retire your print efforts. But if you’re getting ready to Read More

Are You Training Staff and Clinicians to Be Effective Communicators?

Dr. William Maples

“Your marketing department relies on strong communication skills and effective message development to promote your services and draw more patients to your facility,” notes Dr. William Maples. “But have you thought much about training the rest of your staff and clinicians to be effective communicators with one another and also with your target audience? If Read More

The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Health Care Price-Comparison Ad

Peter Hochstein

Early this year, says copywriter Peter Hochstein, “a group medical practice called the Toledo Clinic in Toledo, Ohio, got what must have seemed like a bright marketing idea. “With the help of a mom-and-pop advertising agency called Modern TECHnique in Avon, Ohio, the clinic ran a full-page ad in the daily Toledo Blade. The ads Read More

New Webinar on Content Marketing for Hospitals, Health Systems, and Other Health Care Marketers

Theresa Komitas, Marketing and Public Relations Director at KishHealth System, and Tim Hanners, Chief Healthcare Strategist at TrueNorth Custom

We are proud to announce that on Wednesday, Nov. 18, Theresa Komitas, Marketing and Public Relations Director at KishHealth System, and Tim Hanners, Chief Healthcare Strategist at TrueNorth Custom, will present a new webinar on content marketing for hospitals and health systems. This comprehensive session, “Health Care Content Marketing: How to Drive Awareness, Engage Customers, Read More