Lori Moore

Healthcare Marketing: Eight Rules for Crisis Management

Healthcare Marketers Can Learn Valuable Lessons from the Penn State Scandal.

Every organization fears it. A crisis of public confidence and perception.   Hopefully as a healthcare marketer, you won’t be faced with a major one.  But most likely, sometime in your career you will.  Maybe more than once.  And during a crisis is no time to be learning on the fly.  It’s much better to first learn from others and then you will be prepared if and when your crisis comes.

Anne Hancock Toomey and Joe Tye wrote an article for Hospital and Health Networks titled “Cardinal Rules for Crisis Response” and examined how Penn State handled their recent crisis.  Though I’m hesitant to criticize how anyone handles a crisis, because it’s so much easier to do so from a rear view mirror than in the middle of the crisis.  Afterwards you can examine results and reactions, which are not available when the crisis is occurring.   But one can certainly look at what happened and why it happened so the same mistakes aren’t repeated.  Based on that hindsight Toomey and Tye offer eight extremely important rules to follow when a crisis occurs.  Here are those rules with abbreviated comments for each:

  • Develop a crisis communication plan. Any organization can fall victim to a public relations crisis, often without warning. Those who have prepared for the possibility and have developed a communication plan beforehand can emerge with an enhanced reputation for integrity.
  • Know when to apologize. The practice of apologizing for medical errors was pioneered by the Lexington VA Medical Center in Kentucky 20 years ago and since has been demonstrated to prevent PR problems and, actually, to reduce malpractice costs. Sincerely apologizing to and, when appropriate, compensating an aggrieved party can save a world of unwanted trouble, expense and exposure.
  • Stay true to your values. Every organization should have a set of values that guide behavior and decision-making. The commitment to integrity should be a guiding beacon at all times — never more so than in a time of crisis.
  • Tell it first. A wait-and-see approach will almost always keep you in a reactive mode. Reluctance to speak first can destroy trust you’ve worked hard to build with the stakeholders who matter to you.
  • Tell it all. Convincing yourself that you can keep a problem secret is dangerous and naive.
  • Tell it yourself. People trust other people, not a faceless institution. Your doctors, employees and patients want to hear from you. Not from a lawyer. Not from a PR person. Not from a nameless statement. In times of crisis, they want to hear from the leaders responsible for addressing the issue
  • Get others to tell it. Internal stakeholders — physicians, employees and even patients — can be strong advocates for an organization if they are informed, inspired and asked to help.
  • Communication doesn’t stop when the crisis has passed. A reputation can be destroyed in one day, but it takes years to rebuild, if it can be salvaged at all. Communication — internally and externally — should be ongoing following a crisis.

A crisis is never good.  But the future of an organization is often not determined by the crisis but by how it’s managed.  If handled properly, a crisis can even enhance a brand.  But for that to be possible, healthcare marketers must learn from the mistakes and successes of others and be prepared.  To do so would be very wise indeed.

Anne Hancock Toomey is a partner with Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock Inc., a health care public affairs firm with offices in Nashville and Chicago. Joe Tye, M.H.A., M.B.A., is the CEO of Values Coach Inc., a health care consulting and training firm in Solon, Iowa. He is also a member of Speakers Express.

Healthcare Marketing: Branding Matters!

Report Explores the Importance of Branding

The landscape has changed.  Just a few years ago, hospitals rarely saw the need to advertise, or market its brand.  The healthcare environment was much simpler and straightforward. But all that has changed over the past 20 years.  Now marketing is almost a necessity.  The marketplace is much more competitive and every healthcare organization is jockeying for an advantage.

How do you create that advantage?  There are many strategies, but a report in Protocol, a healthcare marketing report, titled “Why Branding Still Matters For Hospital Marketers” suggests branding is one of the most important strategies.  The report examines four reasons branding should be a priority for healthcare organizations.

1. Strong healthcare brands control their own destinies 


2. A clear brand position aligns physicians and staff 


3. Brand tools ensure consistent communications 


4. Branding supports multichannel and social media initiatives

While healthcare entities build larger and nicer facilities, negotiate strategic alliances, offer niche services, streamline operations and adopt technologies for greater efficiencies and a host of other strategies for the purpose of creating a marketing advantage, branding must also be an important consideration.  All of the above strategies can help shape a brand but it’s also true that these same strategies can result in failure if there is not a strong brand behind the efforts.

More than ever it’s vital to create a brand that is mission and values driven, that is lived and breathed throughout the organization and that is patient-focused.  Supported with marketing efforts that convey and communicate that brand.  Long-term survival and success will depend on it.  

 

Healthcare Marketing: 42 Ideas for Building a Better Hospital Brand

Becker’s Hospital Review  published an article providing 42 tips for building and promoting a hospital brand as offered by Dr. Rhoda Weiss, a healthcare consultant, editor of Marketing Health Services Magazine and a professor of healthcare marketing at UCLA.  Her suggestions are methods for creating relationships in order to build a brand.

Many of them your hospital may already be doing.  Some may not apply to your situation.  Some are operational and some are marketing.  But it is a list with basic, very good suggestions.

Peruse the list.  You may get some ideas that will help you build your hospital brand.

  1. Write welcome letters and call new staff
  2. Encourage staff with signage such as, “through these doors walk greatest staff”
  3. Recognize newcomers as “buddies,” and assign them mentors
  4. Develop a robust orientation program for staff and families
  5. Create pride cards based on what makes staff proud
  6. Implement an employee of the day award
  7. Start a rumor or complaint line for patients and staff
  8. Go on “endless management rounds”
  9. Create professional development opportunities for employees
  10. Give out best attendance awards
  11. Create strong family wellness and fitness programs for staff and their families
  12. Develop walking challenges and circulate wellness newsletters
  13. Offer financial incentives to staff members who improve health
  14. Assign staff “brand ambassadors”
  15. Provide GED classes and scholarships for hospital staff members
  16. Put on “glad you’re here” one-year events
  17. Open an employee hardship fund
  18. Offer first time homeowner forgivable loans
  19. Recruit, retain, market aggressively, promote and elevate physicians
  20. Offer endless options for physician retention
  21. Connect physicians and their families with mentors
  22. Research; ask questions; relish data; be totally frank
  23. Reinvigorate, engage leaders — be champions of change
  24. Align strategically: Employ, affiliate, partner and integrate physicians
  25. Host networking events and dinners for physicians
  26. Meld the “personal with professional”
  27. Identify ways to make employees’ lives easier
  28. Collaborate in best-practice medicine
  29. Create “future task forces” in each physician specialty
  30. Showcase the hospital using multiple media
  31. Use benchmark data to persuade, not punish physicians
  32. Rethink hospital’s communication strategy with physicians
  33. Develop a physician navigator program
  34. Establish physician e-communities and women MD networks
  35. Put on “check the pulse” sessions and open forums with physicians and employees
  36. Market to physician office staffers, physician who are significant referral sources
  37. Promote the hospital in physician practice reception areas and exam rooms
  38. Engage referral services; offer same day scheduling
  39. Promote languages, reduce accents and improve speech
  40. Offer free screenings and complimentary physician visits for patients
  41. For physician integration and alignment, consider options beyond employment
  42. Produce quality videos that market hospital’s brand, keeping physicians and patients at the center of the story

Healthcare Marketing: QR Codes Effective for Hospitals?

QR codes can be effective for healthcare marketing, but they have limitations.

They’re everywhere these days.  You see them often.  In magazines, newspaper ads, retail stores, on product packaging and in many unexpected places.  Quick Response Codes, better known as QR Codes, with the black and white patterned squares that can be scanned by a Smartphone to link to a web page, registration form, contact info, etc.  QR codes link print and the web and allows tracking of its use.  And they are becoming more and more prevalent.  Their use increased 1600% last year.

QR codes can be very effective, disseminating useful information to the consumer.  The code can provide additional information, show a video, provide a place to respond, offer surveys and many other creative uses.  QR codes have many positive attributes for healthcare marketers but also some limitations.  A listing of both are offered here:

Positive attributes

1.    Easy to create
2.    Basically free
3.    Can be printed on almost anything
4.    Can disseminate a large amount of information
5.    Provide information in a private setting

Limitations

1.    Not everyone has Smartphone…only 35% of population
2.    The linked website must be compatible with mobile platform
3.    Smartphone must be close to the QR code
4.    Phone must have the appropriate app to read the code

QR codes can be very successful for healthcare marketers.  But their use should be strategic.  It should fulfill a consumer need.  And it should be easy to use

Healthcare Marketing: Bring Back the Glory of Advertising

Adverting can be better.  We can create better work.  With all the tools available today we should be more effective.

Think about advertising in the 50s, 60, 70s and 80s.   Before the internet and social media and mobile marketing.  Great brands were built.  Using traditional media, great brands were created. TV, print, radio and outdoor were used to create dominant brands and build brand equity.

Think about some of the successes:

Diamonds Are Forever…DeBeers

Volvo… owned safety

Avis Tried Harder. . because they were number 2

Pop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz… Alka-Seltzer

Just Do it…Nike

Be All You Can Be…Army

It Takes A Licking and Keeps On Ticking…Timex

Where’s the Beef?…Wendy’s

Only a Few Good Men…Marines

The Real Thing…Coke

And we could go on and on.  The point is easily made that advertising was effective and helped build great brands.  But fewer great brands are being created today.  Why?  Maybe it’s because we don’t have great ideas.  We aren’t saying anything worth saying.  We aren’t capturing the minds and hearts of consumers.  We are talking at consumers instead of to consumers.   Maybe it’s because our advertising has no soul.

We take shortcuts, go for the cheapest production, take the easy way out, and don’t spend the time to do what’s necessary to capture the consumer’s minds and hearts.

It’s true that healthcare advertising is quite restrictive.  We are dealing with a very serious subject. We have all kinds of regulations.  We have to be sensitive to our many constituencies.  So many have to approve the work and to gain all the approvals the work gets watered down.  It’s uniquely challenging to do great healthcare work.  But none of this should prohibit us from trying.  Trying to put some soul in our work, make sure it resonates with the consumer in both their mind and heart.  Give our work a voice and a brand distinction that builds brand equity.

To do so means art direction, production and copy writing all matters.  The work should have a voice and be attractive and appealing.  It takes skill and it’s not easy.  We should push each other to do better and to be committed to producing the best work possible and to not just give in.

And we must believe advertising can be both creative and effective.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  The history of advertising should teach us that.  Creativity and effectiveness has always gone hand in hand.  We should strive to create beautiful work that speaks to our audience.  Work that communicates and captivates.

Advertising has been effective for decades.  It has built great brands.  And today we have more tools than ever.  More opportunities than ever.  More options in the toolbox.  More mediums to integrate that should make our work even stronger and more effective.

But we must believe in our industry.  Our craft.  We must respect what we do and the skill and talents required to do the job well.  We can all do better.

We must!

 

Hospital Marketing: 7 Common Social Media Mistakes…And How To Fix Them

As healthcare marketers delve into social media, we have all kinds of fears and hesitancies.  To be more effective learn not to make these common mistakes.

Heidi Cohen, principal of Riverside Marketing Strategies posted the following blog on Smart Blog.  It’s a very good read:

Marketers are afraid of making social media mistakes. Even worse, they’re concerned their social media faux pas will balloon into a public relations nightmare. Get over it! In today’s always-on, connected world, issues can arise whether you’re participating in social media or not. So be a part of the conversation and engage, because when you have a problem, it’s too late to build your base. (And of course make sure that you have a PR crisis plan ready!)

Here are seven common social media mistakes marketers make and how to fix them.

1.    Fail to show respect for others on social media.

Take a lesson from the Godfather. Social media runs on old-fashioned good manners. Just because you work for a large company doesn’t mean that social media participants will automatically listen to you. Remember they’re thinking WII-FM (What’s in it for me?). Further, just enticing them with a special offer may not cause them to stay longer than necessary to make the purchase.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Listen to what your customers and the public are saying on social media platforms and respond where appropriate. To this end, it’s helpful to use social media monitoring products and to have customer service representatives prepared to respond via these channels.

2.    Use sanitized corporate-speak on social media platforms.

Social media requires a human presence. The absence of anything sounding remotely human, such as in one-way, one-to-many message broadcasting, hurts your organization. It means you’re only talking about your company and products. This me, me, me syndrome is how marketers miss the boat on social media.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Before pushing out your business-focused messages, listen to the conversation and realize it’s multi-directional, including many-to-many at the same time. Inwardly focused messages about your organization tend not to be where the interest and power are on social media platforms. Instead actively participate. The bottom line is you need to be and sound human! Consider what you can do for others.

3.    Shout buy, buy, buy on social media platforms.

This is akin to being a fast-talking sleazy salesman. While causing prospects to run in the opposite direction, it shows you don’t understand how social media platforms work. Instead, it’s important to pay-it-forward on social media platforms.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Change your tenor on social media networks. You can have one deal-of-the-day special where you push out a one-day-only offer the way Woot and Target do. (Check out Target’s site  on Twitter.) But the rest of your social media participation should contain at least 10 messages about others including your customers to every one message about your organization. To this end, it’s useful to create an editorial calendar of content you plan to share on various social media platforms.

4.    Build a social media following for one campaign.

Without understanding the ongoing nature of social media, marketers may build a social media base for one campaign without thinking about how to keep these participants engaged. I call this the LeBron James approach to social media. Basketball player LeBron James built lots of interest around which team he was going to join in July 2010. Instead of providing fans and followers with reasons to support his decision, he seriously made them angry.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Start by understanding the relationship nature of social media. Getting engagement for a one-time promotion translates to customers taking your deal and leaving. Use your promotion to build long-term relationships with your prospects. Create a plan for ongoing engagement and marketing to maximize your investment in the acquisition campaign.

5.    Forget to incorporate your brand into your social media engagement.

Organizations work hard to create and grow their brand. Branding should be integrated into every aspect of your social media interactions including your pages, interactions and content. It’s deeper than the colors you use or slapping your logo onto your avatar.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Examine your brand’s DNA and determine how you’ll translate the salient elements to social media interactions. Remember social media runs on content. Think in terms of your organization’s stories.

6.    Employ a college student who knows Facebook.

While it’s enticing to hire an inexpensive intern to handle your social media communications, it overlooks the importance, experience and maturity required of understanding your brand, organization and the public. Understand social media participants take exchanges seriously. Therefore, shouldn’t your organization put its best foot forward?

Actionable social media marketing fix: To this end, show that your firm is serious about social media by having permanent employees who know your organization, brand(s) and product(s) run your social media efforts. Create a set of social media guidelines and provide social media training for your employees so they understand how to represent your organization and what to do as private citizens.

7.    Are you opaque in your social media dealings?

Social media requires a level of transparency. This doesn’t mean you need to divulge your competitive advantage or financial statement. Your target market and social media participants want to know where you stand and what you’re up to.

Actionable social media marketing fix: Don’t just lurk on social media platforms. Create a profile that represents your organization and discloses your point of view. Ensure that your representatives are trained in social media and understand your business so that they can be transparent in their dealings without telling corporate secrets.

Face it: You’re going to make mistakes on social media. It’s an evolving platform and, while there are pathways to help you develop an effective marketing plan, none of them is guaranteed to have no problems. What’s more important is that you’re prepared to respond in today’s 24/7 world and how you handle your engagement.

 

Healthcare Marketing: Facebook More Addictive Than Alcohol and Tobacco?

Research has shown it’s harder to resist the urge to check social media sites like Facebook and Twitter than the urge to drink or smoke.

Researchers from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business conducted research on 205 participants between the ages of 18 and 85 over 14 days to determine the desires they felt throughout the day and how strong those urges were. Emil Protalinski reported the results on zdnet.com.

Despite their addictive properties, alcohol, tobacco and coffee prompted much lower levels of desire than the desire to check social media sites.   Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science Wilhelm Hofman surmises that the desire for social media is so much harder to resist because of its high availability and because it feels like it doesn’t cost much to participate.  Cigarettes and alcohol costs more (monetarily) but the frequent use of social media, although it feels like it’s free, steals an abundance of time from a person.

The research also indicated that throughout the day willpower decreases.  Resisting a particular urge frequently or recently increases the chance of giving in the next time.  This is because our constant efforts to resist temptation sap our willpower, which make cravings even stronger.

It’s interesting to note the urge for social media took a back seat to the urge for sex and sleep, which were the two strongest desires.  But the urge to keep on top of social media networks was harder to resist than either sex or sleep.

That might explain these statistics:

  • Facebook accounts for 1 in every 5 pageviews
  • Facebook has over 845 million users
  • Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 online minutes
  • Facebook to pass 1 billion users in August 2012

For healthcare marketers, the research just reinforces the strength and power of social media.  It is so pervasive within our culture.  People are accessing social media networks and apparently can’t resist the urge to do so.  As marketers, we need to have a presence there and engage in the socialization. Creating and building relationships.

 

 

Healthcare Marketing: Five Important Truths About Social Media

Social media is often misunderstood. It’s important we understand the truth about social media.  Only when we do can it be effective for us.

There are a lot of misconceptions about social media.  Everyone knows how pervasive it is.  Everyone knows how socially and culturally engaging it is.  Everyone knows we need to be participating in it.  But it’s important we understand the truth about it.  Dimple Thakkar, CEO of Synhergy Marketing outlined some of the important truths about social media in an article in iMedia Connection.

Here are the truths we must accept and embrace:

1.    Social media and advertising are NOT synonymous.

Advertising is about selling.  It’s about buying exposure.  It’s about pushing brands and products and services.  But social media is not like that.  It’s not like traditional advertising.  It’s not about buying exposure or pushing your brand.  Social media is not about screaming, “look at me” and “buy me”.  It’s more about interacting and building relationships.

2.    Are you interrupting or interacting?

People hate being interrupted.  No one likes to be interrupted in the middle of a conversation.  But that’s what brands do everyday in social media.  Consumers use social media to build and maintain relationships.  In social media, credibility cannot be bought.  It has to be earned.  Use social media to create meaningful relationships.

3.    A “Like” is not the same as an “Engaged Like”.   

It’s not about how many followers you have.  You could have thousands but unless they are engaged with your brand they are not worth very much.   Brand loyalist and brand advocates are what count.  Don’t be fooled.

4.    The ROI in social media is relationships.

To evaluate social media in terms of dollars and cents is useless.  Because social media is not about the number of procedures but about relationships.  Relationships lead to business but it is not about the business, it’s about the relationship.  And about those brand advocates recommending your brand to their family and friends.  Sure you may not be able to quantify it in dollars but that’s difficult.  But it doesn’t mean it’s not important.

5.    Social media marketing is an investment, not an expense.

With traditional marketing, you lay out an expense and you expect to get a corresponding return.  At least that is what we strive for. But with social media it takes time to build relationships.  To be engaging.  To build credibility.  And to build loyalty.  There are no shortcuts.  With social media the consumer is in control.  They control the message.  Our purpose is to engage in the conversation in a meaningful way.

Traditional advertising is a challenge.  How do we break through the clutter and be heard?  How do we get the exposure we want in a splintered media marketplace?  How do we make our message resonate with the consumer?  Social media is also challenging.  In different ways.  Is’ not easy, it’s not cheap, it doesn’t happen quickly.  The consumer wants to be social and they control the pace and depth of the relationship.  And sometimes that’s hard for healthcare marketers to accept. But the truth will set us free!

Healthcare Marketing: Facebook is Social – Not Commerce

Despite Facebook’s hopes, the site has not proven to be effective as a commerce site.  It’s about people being social.

There have been bold predictions by experts and great hope by Facebook executives that Facebook would become a viable and even dominant site for doing business.  Because of its over 850 million members, some even predicted it could become as big as Amazon. But that is not proving to be the case.

It is proving to be true that consumers prefer commerce sites for doing business and social sites for being social and they don’t want to mix the two.  While some analysts predicted Facebook would combine shopping with social interaction, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Just in the last few months, J.C. Penney, GameStop, Gap and Nordstrom have abandoned their Facebook storefronts.   They never gained traction.  There was no advantage to shopping the major retailers on Facebook over the company’s website.  Their regular websites were already convenient and consumers preferred shopping there.

Facebook and other social media sites are just that – social sites.  Social media sites are more for hanging out, like one does with their friends at a bar.  It’s not for commerce.  Companies can use social sites to communicate sales, product offerings, etc in an unobtrusive manner but that’s about as far as it goes.  Users apparently don’t want to shop there.  They just want to catch up and interact with their social contacts and friends on the web.

So what does this have to do with healthcare marketers?  It’s important to understand, that social networking sites are about socializing and not about pushing our products and service lines.  It’s about providing useful information, bringing people with similar interests and concerns together, it’s about engagement and it’s about building relationships. 

To try to use Facebook, or any other social media site, as a tool to push our services and sell our product lines will be futile.  Just like the person who is always trying to “sell you” in social settings soon becomes the person to avoid, brands that use social networking sites to push services will also soon be avoided.  We don’t need to be antisocial and never show up in social situations.  We need to be there.  But we need to be engaging and build relationships so when a business situation occurs, the brand has credibility and consumers know us and like us.

Healthcare Marketing: Do Investors Know Something about Facebook that Marketers Don’t?

The lackluster IPO of Facebook stock may mean that business investors may not be so confident in Facebook’s ability to create a successful business model.

There was all the excitement.  All the hype.  Facebook was going public and it was to be the biggest offering ever on Wall Street.  The darling of social media was going corporate.  And indeed it was the largest IPO ever.  BUT, in the days that followed, the price of the stock has dipped indicating that investors are not too excited about jumping on the bandwagon.

Marketers have been enamored with Facebook and have been frantically trying to entice Facebook users to engage their brand.  Some have been somewhat successful, others not so much.  The cry from marketers is that your brand should be active on Facebook.  It should be using the highly successful social medium to build brand relationships.  But investors are somewhat hesitant to buy into the long-term effectiveness of Facebook’s ability to sustain long-term business and marketing successes.

GM didn’t help the IPO by announcing just a few days before the offering that they were pulling out of Facebook and discontinuing it’s advertising there.  They were unable to measure the effectiveness of their efforts and felt like their marketing dollars would be better used elsewhere.

The IPO made the owners of Facebook extremely wealthy but it has not captured the wild attention of investors and analysts like many thought it would.  And that lack of excitement after the first day should raise questions with marketers.  Sure there is potential for marketers to create relationships in social media.  Sure there will be brands that will be successful doing so.  But a basic question, that has yet to be answered, is whether consumers want to have ongoing conversations with brands.  And if they do, will it lead them to embrace the brand and buy their products and services.  The answer to that question is yet unknown.  And investors have voted with their pocketbooks that they are somewhat skeptical.

This is not to say that hospital marketers should forget about Facebook and not attempt to engage consumers with its brand through social networks.  It is simply to say, the jury is still out about the long-term success of businesses using Facebook, or any social media, to build a stronger brand.  Maybe the lackluster reaction to Facebook’s IPO was due to other issues, like issuing too many shares, not pricing it correctly and technical glitches.   But it does give reason for marketers to ponder.