// By Lisa D. Ellis // A behavioral health practice in Manhattan that offers cutting-edge treatment options goes surprisingly low-tech when it comes to its marketing strategy. The results prove that sometimes simpler can be better. Find out how this practice: Uses old-fashioned techniques to connect with patients and physicians. Takes the stigma out of Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // When it comes to marketing your health care services, you may find yourself grappling with the challenge of personalizing your promotional materials without being able to share any specific information about your patients. This paradox can make it difficult to market your organization to the full extent. That’s also Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // “Duluth, a four-season city with 11,000 acres of green space alongside the great Lake Superior, has miles of trails and over 100 parks, providing a suitable back drop for a multitude of recreation activities.” Wait! Don’t go away! You’re still reading Strategic Health Care Marketing. The Read More
// By Brad Bostic // Is your health system marketing its laboratory services to people outside your network? If not, there may be untapped opportunities worth pursuing. Find out how your marketing efforts can play a valuable role in furthering your success in this area. Laboratory outreach, the practice of making hospital lab services available Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Health care organizations increasingly focus on improving the patient experience as reimbursement levels are now tied to this essential measurement. Further, when patients aren’t satisfied with their medical care or how office staff treats them, they are apt to shop around for a new provider. Yet all too often, Read More
// By Susan Gullion // The health care sector lacks the rich marketing history of industries like retail or automotive, but today’s patients are more empowered than ever and the behaviors they display when seeking health care services or products largely mirror their shopping journeys for apparel, electronics, or any other household product. That is Read More
How to Get Yours Started, Measure Success, and Improve Results // By Lisa D. Ellis // Should your health care organization start a speakers bureau? Most experts say, “Yes”—and a few of them offer important advice for making sure yours achieves all of your organization’s desired benefits. “Speakers bureaus are great reputation-building tools for organizations Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // The faces of two beautiful toddlers practically jump off the Star Telegram’s website, their vibrant expressions and sparkling eyes captured so clearly on the screen that it’s hard to believe that both of these youngsters are no longer living. Tragically, these children—who did not know each other but are Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Piedmont Healthcare’s prescription for staying current in the competitive marketplace includes partnering with Walgreens, one of the largest drugstore chains in the United States. To this end, Piedmont will take over operation of quick-care clinics in 27 Walgreens stores in the metro Atlanta region starting this August. This will Read More
// By Ken Robbins // Much has been written about marketing health care products and services to millennials, and for good reason. Since millennials are coming into disposable income and are extremely health-conscious, it makes good sense to understand how to reach them. But marketers cannot afford to overlook other generations. More focus should be Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // “Health care heresies?” No doubt about it. Since April of this year, a New York advertising agency called Brandfire has been committing the advertising equivalent of heresy on behalf of North Memorial Health, a respected Minneapolis-St. Paul area hospital system with two hospitals, some 650 beds, Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Have you ever truly wondered what it’s like to walk in your patients’ shoes? Many health care marketers today view patient experience in the context of how well a person interacts within the various touchpoints of his/her health care system, as well as by how satisfied the patients are Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Some of the latest headlines from top academic medical centers today seem more fitting for ESPN than for a health care brand. This is thanks to the fact that a growing number of organizations are signing increasingly complex and integrated agreements with NFL, MLB, and NBA teams. Just these Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // If somebody ever produces a list of the best places in America to get sick, Cleveland will have to be high on the list. The 1.2 million people of Cleveland and surrounding Cuyahoga County have a choice of three teaching hospitals. One of them, Cleveland Clinic, Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // What do the peach orchards of Northern California and most major health systems have in common? There are actually more commonalities than you might think, according to Ritch K. Eich, who worked on several ranches to earn his way through college before going on to build an impressive career Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // At a children’s hospital in Massachusetts, families of patients trying to park their cars in the very crowded multilevel garage will find a valet waiting at the top level to take the vehicle for them if the lot is full. This helps to relieve parents’ stress and makes a Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // The fate of the American health care system is currently unknown as a new health care plan is making its way through Congress, raising many questions for people working in health care organizations, as well as for the patients they serve. How can you be sure your organization is Read More
// By John Brand // Consumer engagement is one of those terms-of-the-moment in marketing to which marketers apply a variety of meanings. At St. Luke’s University Health Network, a seven-hospital health system spread across northeastern Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey, we define it as compelling consumers to take action on behalf of our brand, primarily Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // What trends should be on your radar screen as you navigate the ever-changing health care field? Find out what a group of experts say is coming down the road so you can help your organization be prepared for whatever comes next. SHSMD’s Futurescan 2017-2022: Health Care Trends and Implications Read More
// By Tom Mone // No hospital public relations or marketing department is sitting around looking for something to do. In truth, there are few departments within a hospital that juggle more responsibilities, impact the organization’s brand as dramatically, or have as visible a role in telling the hospital’s story. That said, there is one Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Circus performers who walk the tightrope receive extensive training to prevent falls. But medical personnel who represent their health care organizations are often much less savvy about how to avoid taking a misstep when they enter the complex world of social media. As a result, health systems can suffer Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // This post accompanies the article, Putting Micro-Moments to Work for Your Organization: Q and A with Google’s Ben Killmer. “The trend toward mobile is changing everything,” says Stewart Gandolf, MBA, CEO, and creative director of Healthcare Success. “It’s not just people talking on their mobile phones but today mobile Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Clinical service department profitability is a constant challenge for hospitals. But what’s changed is just about everything else. 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 Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // 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 Read More
// By Eric Brody // Your health system or hospital story doesn’t matter—until it does. What matters is simply how your story fits into the lives of your audience. This simple concept is tough to deliver on, but it’s also critical to your success as a health care marketer. It really comes down to the Read More