“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
// By Lisa D. Ellis // 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 Read More
// By Derek Mabie // By 2020, Merck Manuals wants to reach 3 billion people, giving them current, accurate medical information. The nonprofit organization has served as a trusted peer-reviewed resource within the medical community since 1899, providing health information to medical professionals and individuals seeking information on everything from flu vaccines to complex cancer Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // 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 Read More
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
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
A new partnership between Signature Healthcare and The Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center brings highly respected Boston pediatric specialists to Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital (about 25 miles outside of Boston) and makes these experts available 24/7, 365 days a year. But how best to get the word out about this compelling new offering? Brockton Read More
In the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, Ochsner Health System bought up several of the independent hospitals in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge area. It rehabbed and upgraded them, and incorporated them into Ochsner’s system. But even by 2007, the newly acquired hospitals had not been branded as part of Ochsner. “When we got involved Read More
Initiative Builds on Commitment to the Health of Area Residents and Helps Attract Talented Staff // By Lisa D. Ellis // 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, Read More
Consumers are bombarded with an average of 5,000 marketing messages a day. New research shows the average attention span is a mere eight seconds. The brain processes 70,000 thoughts each day. These stats, sourced and shared by Jason Skinner in a new article, “reflect the harsh reality you face as a health care marketer: Engaging Read More
What if your flagship hospital were directly across the street from your biggest—and most worthy—competitor? Would that threaten your market share? It could for some community hospitals, but this doesn’t seem to be the case for Mon General Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Ever wished you could get a bird’s eye view of what your competition is doing so you could use the information to sharpen your own efforts and make them more effective? Some health systems are turning to secret shoppers to gather key information about what’s happening in their target area, tracking details like whether physicians Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // 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. Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // This article is part 2 of Yes, Your Newsletter Can Still Be Relevant: How One Community Hospital Rewrote Its Own Story—and How You Can, Too.
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Early this year, 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 Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Sometimes simple messages can be the most effective. That’s what Signature Healthcare learned recently when it set out to promote a new relationship with The Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center. This partnership brings highly respected Boston pediatric specialists to Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital (about 25 miles Read More
Neuroscientific research is helping marketers better understand how to reach the inner recess of our audience’s brain, which, because it has been evolving for millennia, still makes decisions better suited for survival on the savannas of Africa than in today’s world of modern health care, according to health care marketing consultant Dan Fredricks. Understanding the Read More
“The bench, which fuels [the] pipeline of an organization’s future leaders, is just as important in business as it is in sports,” says Ritch K. Eich, Ph.D. “Unfortunately, many health care organizations and hospitals underestimate the value of developing future leaders or developing a culture in which current leaders teach or mentor others to follow Read More
Does your hospital or health system really live up to the brand portrayed in the messages you send to your audience? Honestly, does it really? If you’re like many health care groups around the nation, you may have a serious disconnect between how your internal culture operates and the image you try to convey to Read More
Everyone who works in public relations or marketing knows how difficult it can be to get good media coverage for a product or event. Philips, a leading technology company that creates innovative products and solutions in health tech, decided to try to generate publicity around the idea of doctors using Google Glass during surgery to monitor Read More
“Millennials, who are defined as individuals between the ages of 18 and 34, will surpass Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation in 2015,” note Ruth Padilla, M.A. and David Zirkle, Ph.D. “Also known as Gen Y, this group is becoming an increasingly important target for health systems, given its size and purchasing power.” Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // This is a story about a hurricane, a hospital system, and two advertising campaigns. It’s gleaned primarily from an interview with Kerry Graham, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Bohan Advertising in Nashville, Tennessee. Bohan was the advertising agency for the hospital system, Ochsner Health System, from 2007 Read More
// By Jason Skinner // The decision process of a health consumer is changing, and as a health care marketer you must understand how to find and engage your audience using the power of content marketing. Consumers are bombarded with an average of 5,000 marketing messages a day. New research shows the average attention span Read More
Neuroscientific research is helping marketers better understand how to reach the inner recess of our audience’s brain, which, because it has been evolving for millennia, still makes decisions better suited for survival on the savannas of Africa than in today’s world of modern health care. Understanding the subtle nuances of neuroscience—and the evolutionary-biased brain—will provide Read More
How to Embrace a Similar Strategy … and Keep Patients Coming Back // By Lisa Ellis // Ever wished you could get a bird’s eye view of what your competition is doing so you could use the information to sharpen your own efforts and make them more effective? Some health systems are turning to secret Read More