February 10, 2011
Baby Boomers who provide care for aging parents are heavier users of social media than boomers in general.
Baby boomers are embracing social media. Faster than any other segment. According to Pew Internet the number of 50-plus who use social networking sites grew 88% during the past year. Now practically half of the adults over 50 regularly use social media. In the more narrow 50-65 age group its almost three fourths. Healthcare marketers are learning that social media can be a very effective way of reaching and connecting with baby boomers.
But those boomers who are caregivers to aging parents are even more likely to embrace and use social media. Age Lessons partnering with Comscore found that approximately 15.5 million of the 78 million boomers are caregivers. They are split 60/40 female to male and the level of care ranges from daily phone check-ins to live-in help.
As reported by Matt Carmichael in Ad Age these boomer caregivers use social media an average of 150 minutes a month and view 70% more pages than average internet users. They are dependent on social networking sites for information because they have so little time for other types of socializing. Their free time is limited and they are often restricted by the demands of caring for their parent(s). It is often the easiest and fastest way to stay connected with family and friends. They also use social media to validate and reinforce their feelings by finding others in similar situations and communities that provide support and encouragement.
The study also found this group is more likely to use the internet to find information, conduct research and make purchases. The top sites for boomer caregivers are Facebook with a 91% reach, Amazon with 76% and Wal-Mart at 41%. Twitter has 21% reach.
These caregivers are important influencers and decision-makers for not only their own immediate family’s health concerns but also for their parents. This makes this group especially important to healthcare marketers.
Marketing to niches can be very effective. They are more easily identifiable and the message can be very focused. The use of social media, especially Facebook – whether in the form of a page or ad, can be extremely useful tools reaching this key demographic.
1 Comment | 
Hospital Advertising, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Age, Ad Agency Huntsville, Ad Agency Southeast, Ad Agency Tuscaloosa, Advertising Agency Alabama, Advertising Agency South, Age Lessons, boomers use of social media, Comscore, elderly use of social media, healthcare advertising, healthcare marketing, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Matt Carmichael, Nancy Siniard, Pew Internet | 
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Posted by Jimmy Warren
January 12, 2010
Cost should not be the primary factor in making decisions about resources to employ for your brand. Quality, ability and experience are much more important.
We are in a recession. There are pressures on budgets. The edict from the C-Suites is to cut costs and save money. The pressure is to get more with less. That has forced many marketers to look for bargains. The criteria for making decisions has become cost. And the result could be a weaker brand and loss of brand equity.
Too often decisions are being made based on cost. Bid services out to get the best price. Decide to go with lesser talent because it’s cheaper. Take shortcuts. Go with lower quality. All of these are shortsighted. They consider only the short-term.
Great advertising requires great talent. Great creative minds create great brands. Creativity, talent and experience are the keys to successful work. And those qualities do not come cheaply. Sure you can buy talent for less. Sure you can save money, but is it going to take your brand where it needs to go? Will it maintain the brand perception and brand quality at necessary levels?
Creativity is not a commodity. It is not something to be bought based on price. All creativity is not equal and cannot be judged on cost alone.
As a marketer, your brand is your most precious possession. It deserves the best. It deserves outstanding creative, top-level talent and quality experience. If you purchase inferior talent as a way to save money but it weakens and tarnishes the brand, what is the real cost?
In these tough times many are putting their brand in peril by basing decisions on price without regard to how it will affect the brand. It can certainly save you money but it could also cause you to weaken or worse – lose your brand position.
Leave a Comment » | Branding, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing | Tagged: cutting advertising cost, Hospital Advertising, hospital branding, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, marketing in a recession, Nancy Siniard | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 21, 2009
Even though click-thru rates are down, internet display ads are still effective.
According to a study from Comscore and media agency Starcom, the number of people who click display ads has dropped 50% in the last two years. Only 16% of web users actually click through. And 8% of internet users account for 85% of all clicks.
So does that mean web display advertising is not effective? The answer is clearly “no”. Even though click-thrus are down, the study found that display ads generate lift in site visitation and search. Additionally, consumers exposed to a display ads were 65% more likely to visit the site than users who never saw the ad. Even after 4 weeks, consumers exposed to display ads are 45% more likely to visit the brand’s site.
So the idea that click-thrus is the real barometer of web advertising effectiveness is erroneous. Even if a consumer does not click through, just the exposure to the ad can lead to a website visit and engagement. Banner ads are more effective than what click-thrus indicate.
The study indicated that online users exposed to a particular brand’s display ads are more likely to conduct searches for that brand. So web display advertising works more like traditional advertising than previously believed. The exposure to a brand’s ad on the web may not lead to an immediate visit to a website but the impression is made and can effect the consumer’s behavior later.
Combined with paid search, display ads can lead to consumers being twice as likely to conduct an online activity on the advertiser’s site.
Also interesting is that half of all clicks come from lower-income young adults. Not necessarily the most desired audience for healthcare advertising.
Don’t judge the effectiveness of web banner advertising by the number of click-thrus. That display ad can be working in the consumer’s mind long after the initial exposure.
3 Comments | Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Internet, Social Media, Uncategorized | Tagged: click thru rates, click thrus, Comscore, display ads, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, hospital web advertising, Jimmy Warren, Natural Born Clickers, Starcom | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 21, 2009
Consumers are much more likely to respond to an ad using text messaging than visiting a website.
Hospital marketers have learned to add a web-based call to action to their ads. It has become fairly typical. But is there a better way to get results?
Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium advertised its new Fantase aquatic show with television ads on the 4 major networks. The ads featured a contest in which the viewers could register to win a hotel stay and VIP seats for the show’s premiere. The ads directed viewers to a website to register. The one exception was one ad, which gave viewers the option to enter the contest by sending a text message.
The amazing results according to Mobile Marketer.com were that the call to action using SMS generated 325% more entries than the web based call to action. 52% of entries were via text message even though that option was only given on 25% of the television ads.
The experiment indicated consumers are much more likely to respond by texting than by visiting a website. The reasons texting is more effective is because:
- Texting is easier
- Texting is more immediate-real time
- A text number is easier to remember than a web address.
- Texting takes less time
- Mobile phones are almost always with the consumer.
For ads that have a call to action, hospital marketers should consider if texting could be used. If so, the Shedd Aquarium experience would indicate the response could significantly improve. 90% of all mobile phones in the U.S. are SMS capable and texting started outpacing voice calls as early as 2007. The frequent use of texting demands that marketers explore how to use it to increase the number of responses and get more immediate response.
It’s an opportunity that cannot be ignored. Why expect a consumer to go to a website to respond to an ad when it can be as easy as punching 5 numbers on the cell phone which is sitting nearby?
7 Comments | Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Internet, Marketing Ideas, Social Media | Tagged: Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Jimmy Warren, Mobile Marketer, Mobile Marketing for Hospitals, Response to Advertising, Response to Hospital Advertising, Shedd Aquarium, SMS marketing, Text Marketing | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 16, 2009
Often people think the bigger city automatically means better healthcare when actually your local hospital provides excellent care. 
Featuring high profile community leaders in the hospital’s marketing can help address the outmigration of your market. We’re all sometimes guilty of thinking “bigger is better” but it’s not always the case. How to fight this battle? Consider using community leaders in your advertising. An Alabama hospital did this very successfully with both their cardiac and cancer programs-even though they were only 45 miles from the highly-touted UAB hospital.
Some considerations when implementing testimonials:
1. Show the patient in their work role, be it mayor, judge, civic leader, minister, athletic star or beloved high school teacher.
2. Let the ad copy tell their success story and how life is back to normal now.
3. Have the patients describe in their own words the attention and care they received at your hospital.
4. Rotate several patients in a campaign and let the impact build with each new patient story.
5. Use references to the doctors and nurses who provided their care.
Former patients who’ve had good outcomes and attentive care are often eager to share their story. And their story may just be the best story for your hospital to tell.
Leave a Comment » | Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Marketing Ideas, Outmigration | Tagged: community leader in ads, former patients, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Nancy Siniard, Outmigration | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 14, 2009
In small to medium size markets, doctors are often high-profile in the community and there’s a genuine interest in knowing their backgrounds and experiences. Your hospital’s ads can tell their stories.
Sometimes doctors return to their hometowns to set up their practices with a welcoming community but more often than not, they are recruited to towns and cities where patients have more than a little curiosity about their potential doctors.
Having grown up in a small town in Alabama, most people either know you or know about your family. Small towns have a sometimes intrusive, but often endearing, interest in their high-profile citizens and doctors definitely fit that category.
I’ve used this strategy of highlighting a doctor’s background many times in the past. It works. Doctors that only practice or primarily practice at your hospital are good candidates and patients will remember them when their services are needed.
Examples of copy points to consider:
- Where they went to medical school and did their residencies-particularly for well-respected and well-known programs
- Any fellowships they completed in addition to their residency.
- Any awards or honors they have received.
- Let your copy introduce them as local, if that’s the case
- Include previous experience, be it military service, mission work or providing care at the local free clinic.
- Milestones such as having completed over 1000 carotid artery stent procedures or 500 successful total hip replacements.
- Use doctors’ photos in interesting and creative ways.
Your hospital advertising provides a great opportunity to let the community know about their local doctors and in turn develops loyalty to the hospitals where they are on staff.
Leave a Comment » | Branding, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Marketing Ideas | Tagged: doctors in hospital advertising, feature doctor in ads, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 13, 2009
Celebrating a milestone such as a 100 year anniversary can be a prime opportunity to tell your hospital’s story and build patient loyalty.
If hospital walls could talk there would be incredible tales of hope, heartbreak and uplifting care. And when your hospital reaches a milestone, be it 25, 50 or 100 years in existence, it’s a strong testament of success.
Many hospitals have interesting pasts that invoke a sense of community pride. Gadsden Regional Medical Center in Gadsden, Alabama is one such example.
In 1906 Dr. Rawls started the city’s first hospital in a home. By the 1950’s, the hospital was owned by the county’s Baptist Association and through their leadership and with major help from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, a new hospital was built on land donated by Goodyear, a major employer in the area. The construction was funded in large part by payroll deductions of the Goodyear plant workers.
The rich and storied past provided a great opportunity to retell that history and highlight the hospital’s many accomplishments.
Things to consider for your hospitals special milestone:
- Community-wide events such as picnics, parties for people born at the hospital, galas for the physicians and major donors, dedications of new wings or the donation of a commemorative sculpture to honor the past.
- Erect a timetable display reveling major milestones of the hospital’s history in the lobby, cafeteria or other public areas.
- Develop a media campaign to tell the history in a compelling way.
- Design, print and mail a detailed history piece to the hospital’s market area or patient data base.
- Have clever, medical-related specialty items to give away at public events. Pill boxes, thermometers, first aid kits, water bottles, baby medicine dispensers are all good examples.
- Plan radio and tv show appearances to promote all the upcoming events.
- Use facebook and twitter to promote events in each phase of the celebration.
- Produce a short video on the history and celebration to post on youtube, use at speaking engagements and feature on the hospital’s website.
Seize the opportunity and make the most of these markers in time and continue to build patient loyalty. It’s a wonderful way to sell your hospital to newcomers to the area as well as reinforce the brand to your community.
Leave a Comment » | Branding, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Marketing Ideas, Social Media | Tagged: anniversary celebration, brand, brand loyalty, celebrations, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, milestones, Nancy Siniard, patient loyalty | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 13, 2009
Digital outdoor boards provides instant messaging.
Digital has revitalized outdoor advertising. It has greater impact than traditional static outdoor and it allows multiple messages to rotate on the same unit. In addition, it provides immediacy – perhaps the most powerful benefit.
E! Entertainment recently purchased from Clear Channel Outdoor, 125 digital billboards in 20 markets to plug its weeknight ”E! News”, displaying breaking news alerts as it happens. Instead of a static message, E! is digitally posting breaking news on outdoor referring the viewer to the network’s nightly news show for more details. The message can be changed almost instantly as news breaks. The Los Angeles Times was perhaps the first to try such an effort as early as 2008.
So instead of one or two or three static messages, hospitals can use digital boards to deliver instant messages. True, a hospital doesn’t have continuous news to post on a digital board, but the capability certainly deserves some creativity.
Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama uses digital outdoor to post the picture of each new baby born in the hospital.
The board shows the picture of the newborn and its first name. Of course, parental approval is required and last names are not provided. But the result is not only proud parents and grandparents but also the branding impact the hospital gives its OB services.
It’s refreshing, as you drive down the road, to see the photo of a beautiful newborn baby. Not only does that give you that “feel good” moment, it also subtly communicates that Jackson Hospital is in the baby birthing business while positively branding their service.
This is just one way to use the immediacy of digital outdoor. There must be many others. Even public service announcements, like updates on the swine flu epidemic, could be effectively communicated using digital outdoor. Pardon the pun, but the sky really is the limit for digital outdoor boards.
Digital outdoor is not your Father’s outdoor, but as Jackson Hospital can attest, it sure can make a father proud.
7 Comments | Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Marketing Ideas | Tagged: clear channel outdoor, digital billboards, digital outdoor, E! Entertainment, Hospital Advertising, hospital billboards, Hospital Marketing, hospital outdoor, jackson hospital, outdoor advertising, outdoor marketing | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 13, 2009
Most insured patients don’t worry about the cost of a procedure but when the uninsured choose a non-emergency test, they respond to advertised prices.
As the healthcare debate looms, we keep hearing there are 46 million uninsured people in the United States. And these people really want the diagnostics and preventative care for their families and themselves just like those who are insured. When there is family history or risk factors for heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis or diabetes for example or presenting symptoms, these patients want to take action but costs are a major roadblock.
Advertising special offers or pricing certain diagnostics can be a great way to increase your diagnostics numbers and your hospital’s bottom line.
Consider package pricing the following:
- Offer and advertise a set rate for mammograms or run a special rate during the month of October for a breast cancer awareness campaign.
- Do the same for colonoscopies.
- Advertise cardiac scoring tests that are affordably priced and can be done with one visit. Or do a businessman’s testing complete with the CT Scan for a higher price point.
- Establish a special rate with your OB-GYN’s to offer set pricing on bone density testing and pap smears.
- Advertise pricing for a full lipid profile on bloodwork to include cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as diabetes testing. These are common problems among the working poor.
- Other common problems are back pain for laborers, chest pain and cough in smokers and sinus problems. Price and advertise x-rays and make non-workday hours available.
Preventive care leads to healthier lifestyles. And when the uninsured want to improve their health, make them feel welcome in your diagnostics environment with pricing they understand and can afford. It’s much better for the patient and the hospital when decisions and diagnosis are made BEFORE an emergency.
Leave a Comment » | Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Marketing Ideas, Uncategorized | Tagged: advertising healthcare price, advertising preventive care, advertising to uninsured, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, increase diagnostic revenue, Nancy Siniard | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 12, 2009
Art can speed a patient’s healing process 
Hospitals spend millions on the latest technology to help heal patients. Great emphasis is placed on best practices to improve outcomes, and rightfully so. Hospitals should provide the best technology possible and strictly allow best practice guidelines to help patients get well as soon as possible.
But recent research shows that the right art on hospital walls can speed up the healing process. Upali Nanda, who has a doctorate in architecture with a specialization in healthcare systems states, “Scientific studies show that art can aid in the recovery of patients, shorten hospital staffs, and help manage pain.”
Nanda conducted a study at Houston’s St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital using two types of art. They compared images, which had been proven to calm patients, including green landscapes, water scenes, architecture, and emotionally expressive pictures of people. In the second group, abstract art was used. The results showed that art depicting familiar, calming scenes were effective helping patients, but abstract art was not nearly as effective.
Nanda says, “One theory is that abstract art allows patients to project their own anxieties onto the image, and thus pictures that clearly portray pleasant images are more soothing.”
Based on these findings, hospitals should take great care in using art on the hospital wall and in hospital rooms. And they should take care determining the type of art displayed. . Rather than modern or abstract art, realistic, familiar and appealing art scenes should be used because they help the healing process.
Healing is a science, but now we know it is also art.
1 Comment | Hospital Advertising, Marketing Ideas, Patient Experience, Uncategorized | Tagged: art and healing, healthcare marketing, Hospital Advertising, hospital art, Hospital Marketing, Nancy Siniard | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
