Healthcare Digital Marketing

Hospital Marketing: Patients’ Search for Health Info Can Drive Traffic to Your Hospital’s Website

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Healthcare is a key area of internet study with 6 in 10 Americans going online for health information.  Many patients are well-educated on their problem BEFORE they visit the doctor. 

On a recent visit to my doctor’s office I shared with my primary care doc that I thought I had plantar fasciitis because I had studied my symptoms on the web. He quickly commented to the accompanying medical student that so many patients know their diagnoses before they come in-especially in a well-educated, high-tech market such that we live. 

Research from Pew Internet & American Life Project confirms that patients are going online and refers to them as e-patients.  The results from the study say that:

  • 59% of e-patients have consulted blog comments, hospital reviews, doctor reviews and podcasts about health and health care.
  • 20% of e-patients have posted comments, reviews, photos, audio, video or tags related to health care.
  • The internet comes in 3rd place behind (1) asking a health professional and (2) talking to friends and family members when asked where they turn for health care advise.
  • 60% say they or someone they know has been helped by following medical advise found on the internet.  That’s an increase from 31% in 2006.
  • 3% of e-patients say they or someone they know have been harmed by following medical advice found on the web-a number that has remained constant since 2006. 

While the medical professional is still the number one choice for patients to turn, patients do come to their doctor visits with more knowledge and are better prepared to discuss treatment options. 

What does this mean for those of us in hospital and healthcare marketing? Consumers are searching and using online health info. Provide it to them on your hospital website through third party sources such as A.D.A.M, links to the CDC, American Cancer Society, etc. Use social media and internet ads on other websites to drive traffic to your own site. Offer something of value with a compelling headline and entice the reader to click thru. (i.e. “What does your body type tell you about your future health?”) Then you have the opportunity to sell other aspects of your hospital while they are on your website. 

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Marketing Your Hospital: Posting Prices and Quality Data on Your Website

Stethoscope with Money

Posting prices and outcomes on hospital website is a gutsy move yet one that has been beneficial for one hospital system –  to both the patient and the hospital.

Geisinger Healthcare System in Pennsylvania posts their prices and outcomes on their website so patients can compare outcomes on different procedures as well as  costs to other hospitals in the state and nationwide.

The hospital website links to a U.S Government site that allows comparisons of hospitals on several fronts including:

1.    Hospital Process of Care

2.    Hospital Outcome of Care

3.    Survey of patient’s hospital experience

4.    Medicare payment to hospital

5.    Number of Medicare patients treated

While most hospitals post some of these numbers, few actually post the “Outcomes of Care” and likely with reason. The comparisons are a great tool for the consumer when deciding on a healthcare provider. In addition, it’s an excellent way to promote and improve the hospital’s performance. This transparency is admirable and Geisinger obviously values performance results.

 

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Healthcare Marketing: Think You Have SEO Figured Out?

If Microsoft search engine Bing becomes as popular as predicted…it will require new optimization tactics.

Search - Magnifying Glass on Words

If Microsoft search engine, Bing, becomes as popular as predicted…it will require new optimization tactics.

So you’ve worked hard to be ranked on the first page of Google Search.  Congratulations! But then along comes Bing. Bing is Microsoft’s new search engine and in less than a year when Microsoft takes over Yahoo’s search infrastructure, it could account for over 30% of the U.S. search market.

And Bing ranks pages differently than Google. There is less emphasis on inbox traffic and more on content and key words. The same strategy will not optimize both.

So the landscape and the challenges could drastically change. Microsoft is still tweaking Bing, but it will definitely be different then Google. That may mean a company may need two websites, one to optimize for Google search and one for Bing.  That of course will require more financial and personnel commitment.

So just when we were about to have it figured out and enjoy the fruits of successfully being organically found on the first page of Google search, there is a new player who has great potential to capture significant market share.

It’s still a bit early to develop strategies for Bing, but if they do manage to get 30% or more market share it cannot be ignored. Investment in Goggle search will lose 30% of its value and two parallel strategies for search engine optimization will be required. It’s not something marketers want to hear but it’s something to watch and be prepared for.

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Hospital Marketing: Facebook Wins The Engagement Battle.

facebook logo 2Facebook users spend more time on the site than other social media site.

Since the inception of internet advertising, the key measurement for advertising effectiveness has been the number of unique visitors to a site. The more unique visitors, obviously the more people reached.

But recently advertisers have been considering time spent on the site. Engagement is the concept that is gaining attraction. If a person is on a site for longer periods of time, there is more opportunity for the consumer to see the ads on that site.

Radio has been using this concept for years. They have emphasized, “time spent listening” as a way of selling the level of loyalty the station has among its listeners. The more the consumer is engaged with the site, the more influence the site has on the consumer.

And one of the chief winners of site engagement is Facebook. Facebook is already the fourth largest site in terms of unique visitors with almost 97 million unique monthly visitors trailing only Google, Yahoo, and MSN. But additionally,according to Nielsen Media Research, the average Facebook user spent 5 hours and 46 minutes on the site in August. Yahoo is just over three hours and AOL about two and a half hours. (See chart below).  As an indicative of Facebook’s growth in popularity, the 5 hours per month spent on the site, is up from an hour and 30 minutes a year ago. The more time a consumer spends on the site the longer they have to be exposed to the advertising that appears on the site.

This is a distinct advantage over sites like Google whose goal is to provide the information requested as quickly as possible.

So as you consider web advertising, one factor to consider is the time spent on the website. The more time spent on the site increases the opportunity for the consumer to actually see the ad, and it provides a favorable environment for the ad because the visitor is more committed to the site. Engagement adds value as an advertising option for advertisers.

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Hospital Marketing: Lessons Learned from Zappos

Hospital Sign buttonThe value of a company is not just in revenues and bottom line numbers, but in the status of the brand.

The online retail giant, Amazon, agreed to purchase Zappos for just under a billion dollars. Why would the giant pay so much for a shoe retailer? Pete Blackshaw, Executive VP of Neilson Online Digital Strategic Services, pointed out in an article in Advertising Age that the value of Zappos was driven by customer service and employee advocacy. Amazon, who knows quite a bit about customer service, was willing to pay quite a price for a company that excelled in the details of customer service and who empowered their employees to always put the customer first.

True, hospitals are not often positioning themselves to fetch a huge sales price in the open market. But the value of a hospital is determined by its brand equity. Everyday consumers are making a decision whether a hospital is worth his/her time and resources. And they are making that decision on what kind of service they receive. They are determining if your brand is worth it or not.           

Blackshaw says Zappos is obsessed over a different set of numbers. They are consumed with providing outstanding customer service. They seek feedback at every level. They want to know what the consumer experience is and fix anything that prevents the customer from having a perfect customer service experience.

How many hospitals are tenacious about customer service? How many hospitals explore, examine and experiment with the details of their interactions with the consumer? Too many hospitals, I’m afraid, really don’t want to know the truth in the details. Too many hospitals are satisfied to provide adequate, but not outstanding, service. Yes, it is painstaking – it’s hard work. But it certainly paid off handsomely for Zappos. And it will pay off for those hospitals that get dirty in the details and are committed to providing outstanding patient experiences.

“Zappos, Powered By Service.” What hospital could dare use a branding line like that? 


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Hospital Marketing: Website Must Do More Than Provide Info

Consumers are expecting more from websites.  They want sites that are transactional.Hospital Sign button

Hospital websites have been a staple of hospital marketing efforts for many years now.  It’s not only expected, it’s a necessity. There is probably no hospital in America without a website.

As you peruse various hospital websites, most are fairly good and some are very good. All the necessary information is provided: location, services, careers, information for patients, schedule of educational classes and the like. And of course, the mandatory stuff that most visitors don’t read like mission statement, values and history are there. And some sites provide extremely helpful and quite comprehensive health information.

Is this enough? In an age where consumers expect websites to have interaction and commerce, most hospital websites come up short. Basic informational sites, regardless of how robust the information, are no longer adequate. Consumers expect to interact and transact business on websites. And hospitals need to take the next step in that direction. The more advanced hospital sites allow visitors to:

  • Order flowers from the gift shop to be delivered to patient rooms.
  • Select get-well cards online that can be customized and personalized, printed within the hospital and delivered.
  • Sign up for classes and seminars.
  • View their bill and make payments online.
  • Complete and submit electronically pre-admission registration forms.

As consumers depend more and more on the web to conduct business and to get things accomplished, hospitals have to adjust. Just providing information is not enough anymore. More will be expected. And the faster these services are available, the sooner hospitals can use their website to more effectively create points of contact with the consumer, establish a stronger relationship, build loyalty and enhance the brand. 

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Hospital Marketing: Don’t Let a Patient Complaint Become a Big “Hit”

It’s been said to never get in a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Now it must  be said “never get in a fight with a consumer who knows about social media.”

Social media wordcloud glowing

United Airlines broke Dave Carroll’s guitar. He was a member of the Canadian band, Son’s of Maxwell, and was traveling from Canada to Nebraska for a week of touring. At a change-over in Chicago, baggage handlers damaged his $3,500 guitar. Carroll repeatedly reported the problem and sought $1,200 payment for repairs. United stonewalled and refused to accept any responsibility. Why not? Carroll was just a two-bit musician and United was a very large corporation. Why should United care? He couldn’t hurt them. So why pay the $1,200?

Getting no satisfaction, Carroll wrote a song, “United Breaks Guitars” and placed it on youtube.com. Now the video has been played over 3.5 million times on the website.

It used to be argued that you never get in a fight with a newspaper because they buy ink by the barrel and therefore there’s no way you can win. Now in this consumer-based economy, never get in a fight with anyone who knows how to use social media.

What does this have to do with hospitals? It’s clear. No patient complaint can just be shrugged off and ignored. The consumer has power and if they feel they are being ignored, can and will, use “free” media to seek revenge. Customer satisfaction now must be given a much higher proximity (Shouldn’t it have always been a top priority?). Each dissatisfied customer has the ability to wreak havoc and cause great PR harm.

No longer can big corporations think the consumer is a little guy without the necessary resources to fight a big corporation. With access to social media, the little guy is now only limited by his creativity.

Yeah, some customers (patients) are impossible to please but they can never be taken lightly. Every complaint, every concern should be addressed. The disgruntled patient has many options to speak to the world about his/her dissatisfactions.

The London Times  reported that United Airlines stock has dropped since Carroll’s song began airing costing stockholders $180 million. Maybe your hospital doesn’t have public stock traded in the market, but ignoring and denying customer complaints can cost a hospital a handsome sum.

Don’t get caught singing that tune. 

 

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