Sales and Promotion

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Building a Brand in a Crowded Market: One Large System’s Success Story

Peter Hochstein

So let’s say you’re out to build a hospital system’s brand. And let’s also say you’re in one of the biggest markets (Dallas-Fort Worth) in one of the biggest states (Texas), competing against some of the biggest regional names in health care. While you’ve got a $2.7 million budget to work with, exclusive of direct Read More

Action! When (and How) To Use Video in Your Health Care Marketing Efforts

“Videos can be a powerful marketing tool for hospitals and health systems. When used to their full potential, they accomplish multiple goals, including sharing your organization’s story to attract more patients, helping your target audience understand your services, and encouraging them to take a more proactive role in caring for their health,” note Lori Moore Read More

Let’s Rethink Your Hospital Call Center

// By Andrea Simon, Ph.D. // A hospital “call center” often has been considered an irritating expense health care organizations have to endure, because people use phones and want to reach a doctor or patient in the hospital. But maybe it’s time to ask, “What if we’ve always been wrong?” Maybe a call center actually Read More

How to Build a Health Care Brand with Multiple Ad Agencies, Multiple Specialty Campaigns—and in the Face of Multiple Competitors. (Hint: It’s Complicated.)

Peter Hochstein

Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // So let’s say you’re out to build a hospital system’s brand. And let’s also say you’re in one of the biggest markets in one of the biggest states, competing against some of the biggest regional names in health care. Although, exclusive of direct marketing, you’ve got Read More

Think Like a Health Care CEO and Elevate the Role of Marketing

By Mike Milligan Eighty percent of CEOs don’t really trust marketers, according to a recent Fournaise Marketing Group survey of high-level decisions-makers. Eighty percent! This is painful for me to say because I’ve been on both sides of the health care marketing table. But I’ve also learned that before you can overcome a challenge, you Read More

Humanizing Robotic Surgery Sets Michigan Facility Apart from the Competition

Back in 2008, Saginaw, Michigan-based Covenant HealthCare saw an opportunity to “own the robotic surgery market in the region,” says Larry Daly, Director of Planning and Business Development at Covenant HealthCare. The specific focus was da Vinci Surgical System robots, high-tech devices increasingly used in minimally invasive surgery. “Our strategy was to purchase the latest Read More

How to Map Consumer and Patient Behavior to Deliver More Marketing Impact

“In health care, it isn’t just the care that’s changing,” notes Claire Hovis, Vice President and Account Director of Capstrat, an agency that helps health care clients and others tell their stories with power and persuasion. “Power is changing.” She says “expert-driven” communications—which in the past have given providers and large corporations a strong position Read More

Hospital Leapfrogs Competitor’s Robotic Surgery Technology, Advertising Campaigns Leverage the Differentiation and Drive Dramatic Growth

Advertising Worth Noting By Peter Hochstein This tale begins in 2008, when the people running things at Covenant HealthCare, today a 643-bed multiple facility institution with campuses in and around Saginaw, Michigan, began hearing rumors about robots. Well, not just any robots. These were da Vinci Surgical System robots, those high-tech devices increasingly used in Read More

How Marketing Communications Can Navigate Patients Right to Your Door: 4 Steps to Get Your Facility on Your Customer’s Map

By Claire Hovis In health care, it isn’t just the care that’s changing. Power is changing. “Expert-driven” communications that placed providers and large corporations atop the information market are giving way to a generation of empowered consumers who are more engaged and have higher expectations. Access is changing. The Affordable Care Act has brought health Read More

Why Better Physician Onboarding Leads To Higher Profits

Matt Humphrey

Serving the central and northeast regions of Pennsylvania, Geisinger Health System is one of the largest rural health systems in the nation, operating nine hospitals, along with a 1,200 member multi-specialty group practice, two research centers, and a 467,000-member health plan. While some hospitals communicate with providers themselves, Geisinger decided to try a different approach, Read More

Small Budget, Big Clout: OB/GYN Group Enters the Advertising Fray with Narrow Targeting and Mixed Media Branding To Grow Their Business

Advertising Worth Noting By Peter Hochstein You could argue that there’s nothing new about doctors running ads. In New York, one maverick dermatologist has been the star of his own earthy subway car posters for decades. They are busy horizontal spaces that simultaneously display his photograph and such things as rhyming headlines, before-and-after acne treatment Read More

Rural Health System Maximizes Profits Through Better Physician Onboarding; Can You Cut Your New Docs’ Time to Profit by 78%?

By Lisa D. Ellis Relationships are the focus of attention at Geisinger Health System—and not just with patients, but also with its practitioners and specialists. In fact, aligning with providers, as well as with all of the internal service lines, is a key part of the organization’s strategy, enabling everyone to work collaboratively within the Read More

Spectrum Health’s Internal Communications Strategy Manages Medical Group Growth

Spectrum Health Medical Group (SHMG) has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years, and so has its onboarding and communication efforts, which are essential to helping new providers acclimate to the large, multi-disciplinary system. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Spectrum Health is the second largest health care provider in the state, offering inpatient and Read More

Marketing Is a Two-Way Street at Advocate Health Care

by Lisa D. Ellis While many hospitals are grappling with how best to use their social media efforts, Advocate Health Care in Illinois seems to be leading by example. This faith-based health delivery system has developed a comprehensive social media strategy that supports its broader communications goals on multiple levels. Better yet, it includes an Read More

Marketing Health Care to Multicultural Audiences

// By Cheryl L. Serra // If you market health care, you know a cookie-cutter approach just doesn’t cut it. You need to determine a number of factors: Who makes health care decisions in the family? What does your audience believe about health care and health care providers? Increasingly, you also need to consider how Read More

Mobile Clinics: A Proactive Public Health Strategy

by Jared Kebbell Mobile health clinics are becoming an increasingly important part of the American health care system. They represent a move toward a more proactive public health strategy, seeking to bring care to those in need and the uninsured rather than waiting for them to seek it themselves in expensive emergency rooms. To many Read More

Supermarket Chain Offers Infusion Services

Nancy Vessell profile pic

by Nancy Vessell When a Midwest supermarket chain began offering chemotherapy and other infusion services, a few heads were turned. “When I first learned about it, it did catch me by surprise. To my knowledge, I haven’t heard about other grocery chains getting into this [medical area],” says Michael Abrams, managing partner of Numerof & Read More