// By Daniel P. Stevens, DMD, PhD, MBA // Health care is changing—and so are health care brand campaigns. Building a strong health care brand in an environment that is undergoing drastic change is challenging: the switch from fee for service to value-based care; the emergence of accountable care organizations; the consolidation of hospitals—the list Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // How fast can you turn a ship around—a really big ship? Here’s what happened at Geisinger Health System, with 12 hospital campuses; 1,472 licensed beds combined; over 2.6 million outpatient visits annually; two research centers; 30,000 employees; 1,600 employed physicians; plus a 510,000-member health plan. All Read More
From Research to Personas in 3 Steps // By Matt Hummel // A recent Accenture report found a significant correlation between superior patient experiences and higher margins for hospitals of every type and size. In an increasingly choice-driven health care industry, it’s no wonder that “patient-centricity” is a buzzing topic for a variety of stakeholders—from Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // It used to be that if you built a good health system, people would come. But in today’s hectic world, many organizations find it necessary to extend their services to places their patients frequent instead. In fact, these days, organizations providing the highest-quality care are a given, but how that Read More
// By Dennis Knox // As any golfer knows, even the most powerful swing won’t get your ball where it needs to go if you don’t follow through on the backswing. This premise also holds true off the golf course. In fact, health care organizations today need to keep the idea of follow-through in mind Read More
Plus 6 Tips for Success with Your Organization’s Newsletter // By Lisa D. Ellis // What’s the best way to nurse an ailing employee newsletter back to health? For Miami Children’s Health System (MCHS), the solution to overhaul an existing internal publication in dire need of an update was to use an updated software solution Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // What’s the most important part of a print ad? The headline? The story it tells? The news it contains? The offer it makes, if it makes one? A unique selling proposition? A few years back, the Little Company of Mary Hospital, a 298-bed institution on the Read More
// By Jill McDonald Halsey, APR; Dan Dunlop; and Jeff Steblea // “City of the Damned.” That’s the magazine headline that greeted Jill McDonald Halsey when she arrived as the new Chief Marketing & Communication Officer for Lawrence General Hospital in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The city of Lawrence had been dealing with a variety of challenges, Read More
// By Jeannie Lewis // If you’re a medical supply company, compliance software manufacturer, or other provider of health care products or services targeted to hospitals, health care organizations, long-term facilities, or other types of care providers, it’s important to understand the current realities of the marketplace so you can position yourself in the best Read More
// By Ritch K. Eich // One way to put a personal stamp on your marketing efforts is by using direct mail in the most strategic way. Direct mail allows health care organizations to target and reach a defined audience in a service area or community. A hybrid of publicity and advertising, it is one Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // I usually try to interview hospital marketing departments and their advertising agencies for this column. And I often ask them identical questions. I justify this with an analogy concerning two people viewing an elephant from opposite ends. One party tells you the animal’s most notable feature Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Piedmont Health Services really means business, especially when it comes to protecting the health of the community. Back in 2009, it started a unique partnership with Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce to provide access to more affordable health services for employees of small businesses and their families. Since the Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // What happens to medical supplies and equipment once the items expire? How can you mix medications and supplements safely? What are some healthful and quick lunch recipes? These are just a few of the timely topics covered on Sharp Health News, a new website run by Sharp HealthCare, a Read More
6 Ways to Make a Good Thing Even Better // By Lisa D. Ellis // How do you handle the pressures of marketing your health care organization’s products and services in 2016? With the growing emphasis on digital storytelling, social media efforts, inbound marketing, and patient-centered care all competing for your limited attention, you and Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // This somewhat complicated story starts, at least for me, with a clever graphic trick on a highway billboard. The billboard displays the word “OOPS?” in an upward-slanted, rounded rectangle. And then the word “OUCH!” in a similar but downward-slanted rectangle. Adjacent to OOPS? and OUCH! is Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Health care marketers often look to their peers for examples to help guide their efforts to bring people in to access their programs or services. But when Access Health CT (Connecticut’s state-run health exchange) came into being in 2012 to serve as a statewide exchange making affordable health care Read More
You can help your patients become authors of their own life stories. These tips from Beth Sanders, BA, Founder and CEO of LifeBio and Dr. Daniel C. Potts, FAAN, Founder and President of the Cognitive Dynamics Foundation will help get you started and guide your efforts:
// By Lisa D. Ellis // How much do you really know about your patients? If you and your staff haven’t asked the people you treat to talk about their personal experiences, their families, their careers, and the things they care about, you could be missing a valuable opportunity to connect with them on a Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Dr. David Birdsall, Vice President of CEP America: When is the last time your C-suite reached out to your medical staff to find out what they want and need? If the answer is “never” (or at least not anytime recently that you can remember), you could be missing out Read More
An Exclusive Report from Strategic Health Care Marketing
// By Susan Dubuque //
These days, says health care marketing expert Susan Dubuque, health care organizations across the country are racing to stake their claims as champions of wellness:
They shout, “We are no longer dedicated to treating you when you’re sick or injured. Now we are committed to keeping you well—and out of the hospital.” The unspoken words: Like our financial lives depend on it.
What is the best approach for health care marketers to calm the frenzy, she asks, and help their organizations remain focused and smart?
In this exclusive report, Dubuque, a nationally recognized expert in health care marketing and a member of the Strategic Health Care Marketing Editorial Advisory Board, deftly examines this question in three thoughtful chapters. We know you will appreciate her take on what “wellness” means to health care consumers these days, how to align wellness with
your strategic goals, and more.
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // All right, time to fess up. The headline above this story skips a few critical details. The campaign you’re going to read about had the voluntary participation and support of the New York Giants football team, and especially of its star quarterback Eli Manning. The players Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // 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 Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Seattle Children’s recently scored a touchdown when it launched a new campaign called “Strong Against Cancer” to raise awareness and support for groundbreaking research that holds the potential to cure childhood cancer. Leading the play is Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who has a personal connection to Seattle Children’s Read More
// By Mark Shipley // Every great brand has a story to tell; one that evokes emotion, promises honesty and inspires loyalty. A compelling brand narrative is a powerful tool. It can bring color to a seemingly colorless organization, but it can also accomplish more than that. An emotional, honest brand story can change the Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // One size doesn’t fit all—especially when it comes to health care. That’s why one of the challenges facing health care organizations today is figuring out how to tailor their services to accommodate patients who represent a wide range of needs, beliefs, and risk factors. Perhaps no one knows this Read More