Every hospital and health system wants to grow its patient base. That is the job of hospital marketing: to increase brand awareness and build positive relationships between the hospital and potential patients.
There are a lot of methods that hospitals currently use to market themselves. From buying billboards to airing TV commercials, creating a Facebook page, and even sending out direct mail, marketing strategies can work together to create a total-package approach that targets a patient from multiple angles. (more…)
Whether it is budget, time, or both, many healthcare marketers do not have the opportunity to attend SHSMD Connections (Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development annual conference). We are fortunate at TotalCom Marketing that we get to attend most years, so I thought I would share highlights from several of the presentations. (more…)
Hospital marketing professionals have a range of inordinate challenges before them when it comes to promoting a facility or system in an effective way.
These challenges stem from a variety of causes: healthcare, in today’s world, has become increasingly political and polarizing; consumers largely view healthcare as a commodity and facilities as interchangeable; consumers feel detached from the healthcare process beyond self-diagnosis and choosing a doctor; the labyrinth that is medical billing overwhelms, confuses, and discourages patients.
Transparent communication in hospital marketing can alleviate many of these problems, but that poses a challenge in and of itself. How can hospital marketing pros be more transparent in their communications to earn the trust of their target audience and communicate differentiating quality?
The Obstacles to Transparency
Being transparent and clear about a hospital’s benefits and offerings can be difficult for facilities for a few reasons:
Many hospitals don’t want to “pull back the curtain,” so to speak, on medical billings, including cost of services
Healthcare in general has become politicized
Hospitals offer a wide range of services to a wide range of people
Consumers aren’t always willing to talk about their health
Costs become difficult to comprehend, especially when insurance companies are in the discussion
All services and physicians are not created equal
There are also many different stakeholders in the process. It’s not just the patient; it’s the patient’s family, insurance company, physicians and employers. These agents can interfere with clear, open communication.
Creating Transparent Communication
The most effective hospital marketing strategies overcome transparency issues and offer differentiation when it comes to their competition – even if they operate as a de facto monopoly in a given area.
One suggestion for perhaps being more transparent is being open with statistics and conveying them in a direct, easy-to-understand manner. For example, be honest about infection rates, medication error rates, and any other statistic about healthcare that your target audience would be interested in. Do so in a clear way without using jargon. Saying, “A typical post-surgery infection rate is one in 1,000” is acceptable, but it’s not quite as good as saying, “One out of every 1,000 patients who undergo surgery will get an infection.”
One might think that being forward with such knowledge could be negative, but the opposite may be true; it is a positive way to establish trust and differentiate a facility from the rest.
Another suggestion for transparency is to be clear and open about what the hospital truly excels at – the hospital’s competitive advantage. This is not to imply that a hospital is “bad” at other areas, per se, but it does state, clearly, that consumers have one main choice when it comes to quality care in this particular area. By focusing on strengths, a hospital can begin to set itself apart in a meaningful way.
Additionally, a hospital can be open about the process it uses to bill and charge patients for their services. Many hospitals are loath to reveal specific costs and pricing information, which is understandable. Even if that’s the case, though, finding a compromise or middle-of-the-road path can reap benefits. Consumers are far more likely to choose a hospital that at least makes an attempt at clarifying the billing process and revealing the nature of costs and prices for services.
Having that particular conversation is, in a word, frightening for many in the healthcare profession, but it needn’t be. Transparency ultimately wins the hearts and minds of a consumer, and the more transparent hospital marketing professionals are, the better their results will be.
Consult with a hospital marketing agency like TotalCom to learn more about how you can expand transparency and deliver more effective messages.
Don’t blame Facebook. If you are not as successful as you wish, you are probably making one of these mistakes.
Many healthcare marketers have now created Facebook pages but are seeing varying degrees of success. And it’s perplexing. Ad Age published an article written by Paul Dunnay that listed 10 reasons why your Facebook strategy could be failing. He makes some excellent points, all of which are worth sharing. Perhaps the suggestions can help us have more successful Facebook pages. The article is republished here in its entirety.
So, you’re one of the seemingly millions of brands out there using Facebook to lure people over to your website. Chances are you’ve viewed recent reports about Facebook’s surprisingly low activity rates (“Only 1% of people who like a Facebook page ever go back to that page”) as vindication of what you’ve always suspected: marketing on Facebook just doesn’t work.
You’re not alone. The following are the 10 top reasons brands fail to tap into the real potential of Facebook. (Hint: zero of them are Facebook’s fault.)
1. You made a bad first impression.
Most fans won’t ever come back to a brand’s page unless they feel they have good reason to. This is not totally different from how they interact with their friends’ pages when you think about it. Unless the new friend has great content to go back to, there’s not much of a reason to go directly to their page very often, if at all.
2. Your copy and visuals are boring.
A successful Facebook page must have concise, engaging text that’s relevant to both the brand and the fans’ interests. Overly long, humdrum copy will fail to capture fans’ attention. Crisp, eye-catching, high-resolution visuals (photos, videos, illustrations) that clearly speak to those things visitors like about the brand in the first place will draw them in for more.
3. Your content is stale.
If fans stop by more than once only to find the same old Facebook page, they might assume the page is outdated — or worse, abandoned. It’s important for marketers to give fans new ways to connect and advance their relationship with the brand or product being promoted. Keep to a consistent schedule with fresh content and ever-improving offers, and be sure to test what works with your audience.
4. Inconsistent or lazy branding.
If there’s no stylistic connection between a company’s Facebook page and its main website, visitors may not trust that the page is legit. Brands often spend a disproportionate amount of time, money and effort on website branding efforts, in comparison to the relative pittance reserved for complementary Facebook efforts. Keep branding consistent across all channels, so that visitors know exactly where they’re going and whom they’re dealing with.
5. Confusing calls to action.
Once fans arrive at a brand’s Facebook page, they should have a clear idea of what to do and what’s available to them. Offers and calls-to-action should be prominently displayed, and any associated instructions should be easy to follow. Be aware, however, that Facebook has guidelines concerning calls-to-actions, offers and anything else resembling blatant advertising on company pages, so it’s important to make sure you’re current on usage guidelines.
6. Too many clicks.
People are impatient—and want immediate gratification—especially on Facebook. If you have to use forms to give visitors access to the content they want, they’re likely to click away. Make sure the desired destination can be reached in the fewest amount of clicks possible. Also, if you have to use a form to capture data, keep it short and simple.
7.You’re treating all your fans the same way.
All fans are not alike – so why treat them all the same? With the right tools, marketers can compile profiles using Facebook data authorized by the user (age, gender, location, name, relationship status, etc.) as well as previous site behaviors, to get a better sense of the type of people they’re reaching on Facebook. Those profiles can then be used to present offers, content and/or experiences that are the most effective in attracting fans, “Likes”, website traffic or any other relevant conversion metrics.
8. You’re playing it too safe.
As excited as marketers may get about shiny new objects—especially social media objects—they’re often reluctant to spend the time and money to truly develop new efforts for them. Why not step out of your comfort zone and try to develop specific content based on customer segments? An even crazier idea—consider developing Facebook-specific campaigns rather than repurposing ones created with a different platform in mind.
9. Ineffective plugin use.
If Facebook plugins aren’t integrated into the main company website, a great deal of potential traffic—and revenue—is being lost. Plugin tools turn consumers into brand advocates, making it easy to share site information with Facebook friends. Let visitors like or share website pages back to their Facebook profile with one click. Better yet, provide personalized suggestions to your website visitors, based on what other people are sharing as well as their own click behavior.
10. You’re getting the metrics wrong.
Getting just one side of the story isn’t enough. Marketing programs need to be set up so that Facebook stats and user profiles are fully integrated with all other online and offline e-commerce channels’ information to create rich, detailed and fully comprehensive user profiles. Profile reports should be updated on a regular basis, so the most recent user information is always available.
With the proper attention to detail and willingness to dedicate the same energy to Facebook efforts as they do to other initiatives, online marketers will no doubt find that their 1% conversion rate is something they can control—and that it’s not Facebook’s fault their customers aren’t more engaged.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Dunay is vice president of marketing at Maxymiser.
QR codes can be useful in healthcare marketing but only if used correctly. Effective use is dependent on understanding the context and following some basic guidelines.
QR codes are the cool thing these days in marketing. Some have said it’s the next big thing because it brings physical interaction into the digital space. And you have begun to see them everywhere. Some places which are very creative and ingenious and some, which are questionable or downright stupid.
Just two years ago, only 1% of U.S. adults used QR codes. But according to research from Forrester Research just a year later that number grew to 5%. Then a Temkin Group study recently found that now 24% of adults are using them. So use is increasing. But just how effective are they?
Dan Wilkerson, a social media project manager at Luna Metrics (lunermetrics.com) outlined on masable.com some of the problems with QR codes for marketers. He listed 5 problem areas.
1. Worthless Content
QR codes are easy to create, inexpensive and trackable. They also open up a world of possibilities for consumer interaction. However from a consumer’s point of view, scanning a code is a little cumbersome and requires time and effort. Worse still, 90% of the time the link is to a website not optimized for mobile. This is frustrating.
2. Consumer Awareness
Many consumers don’t know what QR codes are. An ArchRival study (archrival.com) of college students found that over 75% didn’t know how to scan a QR code. These are statistics that are hard to believe. What looks cool for marketers may not be understood by the consumer.
3. Value as a Medium
QR codes are not considered a medium itself. More often than not, QR codes are used simply to link to a company website. Is it worth the effort to take your phone, unlock it, boot the app, get the code in focus and scan it, assuming you already have an app. Is it worth the effort just to go to a brand’s website?
4. Location, Location, Location
QR codes are showing up in the most unlikely places. Seemingly everywhere, on everything. And many in very questionable locations with little or no thought for context.
5. Aesthetics
Too many QR codes are ugly. And they are often confused with codes used for industrial purposes. Many think they are tracking barcodes instead of a marketing tool.
So there are limitations to QR codes. That’s not to say they are useless. They can be effective for healthcare marketer f used correctly.
Here are some basic guidelines to improve effectiveness.
1. Make it worthwhile to the consumer.
Provide information that is useful and valuable to the consumer.
2. Include instructions with a recommended app spelling out how to use the code.
3. Make sure using the code doesn’t take more than 6-10 seconds. Otherwise you will lose the consumer.
4. Walk through your QR code implementation in a real-world scenario to make sure it’s actually useable.
5. Make the code as attractive as possible and distinguish it from packaging barcodes.
You can use Photoshop to round off the corners and sometimes remove portions of the code for better aesthetics.
QR codes are not just marketing gimmicks. If they are used that way, they will not be effective. But they can be very useful if they are the results of a defined marketing strategy and provide value to the consumer.
PR and publicity are important tactics in creating positive “buzz” for a hospital’s brand.
PR has always been an important tool of every healthcare marketing department. But there has been a major shift in the healthcare industry that includes the resurrection of public relations. Many ad budgets have been cut. Less is being spent on traditional media. But in many cases more is being spent in PR and publicity.
Generally, PR has been the poor, ugly stepsister to the advertising function. PR was just a way to keep the hospital’s name in the newspaper and for hospitals to pat themselves on the back for their community involvement. PR was considered free and regularly not much more than an afterthought in the marketing plan. It was an add-on to an advertising campaign or something done to keep the management team and board happy.
But today, many hospitals are placing much more emphasis on PR. In addition to moving some of the budget from traditional media to new media, event marketing, social media and mobile marketing PR and publicity is playing an increasing important role in the marketing department’s strategy and efforts. With a shift toward customer-generated media, PR becomes more critical to the hospital’s marketing efforts.
“PR plays into the whole ‘buzz Marketing’ trend”, stated Tony Mikes of Second Wind. “PR is very much about brand awareness, so we can certainly accord some of the credit for PR’s emergence from the shadows to the rise of branding as a critical marketing tactic.” Creating “buzz” and keeping the hospital’s name in the news and on the lips of influencers and consumers are extremely important. As marketing becomes more consumer-driven and consumer- controlled, PR and publicity can play an even bigger role and sometimes more effective role than advertising in enhancing the brand in the minds of the consumers.
PR and publicity are also important for place-based media efforts. Pre-promotion of staged events creates attendance and media coverage while post-promotion extends the chatter.
PR should no longer be an afterthought, but an “automatic.” PR and publicity can boost the hospital’s brand organically and authentically. Complimenting and enhancing all the other marketing activities.
Humanizing your brand by giving it a personality, making it personable and telling a narrative connects with consumers.
Every healthcare marketer tries to connect their brand with consumers. It is an ongoing, endless task. Of course we know that humanizing a brand improves connectivity. And research supports it.
Emily Eldridge, writing for MarketingProfs cites research that demonstrates how human interaction affects attitudes and transactions.
Iris Bohnet and Bruno Frey conducted an economic research study in 1999 called “Social Distance and Other-Regarding Behavior in Dictator Games.” Two groups of students were recruited to participate in a series of social interactions in which members of the first group had to decide whether to share any portion of a sum of money—approximately $10—with a person in the second group.
When the first group knew nothing at all about those in the second group, participants offered, on average, only 26% of the money. When the moderators asked the second group to stand up—making them less anonymous to the first group—the offer increased to 39%. When the moderators shared personal information about those in the second group with those in the first, the average offer increased to 52%. And when members of the groups were introduced to one another, the average offer was 50%.
In other words, the greater the social distance, the less willing people were to hand over money.
This can teach a valuable lesson to hospital marketers. If our brand is humanized, it connects better with consumers. It’s important that our brand not be cold, inanimate, and without important human traits and characteristics. Our brand should have a personality. It must be personable. It must make a human connection.
Eldridge refers to two examples of retailers who have a strong personal connection with consumers and how it positively impacts their brand reputation and gives it increased brand equity. The first example is Apple. Their retail stores are not a row of cashiers. Rather when you enter their stores, in addition to a strong visual connection to the brand, they have easily identifiable employees with mobile cashier platforms ready to interact and help customers. They are knowledgeable and will explain the benefits of each product, help with your issues and even tell you personal stores about the products.
Apple is known for its sleek innovative products. But they also carry a premium price. But despite a higher price, they continue to increase market share. One reason is because they have humanized the Apple brand. They connect with the consumer.
Another example is an online brand. How can you humanize an online brand? Zappos.com places on its product pages videos of employees talking about why he or she likes the product. The videos are not about product specs but people telling their stories about the product. When Zappos launched the videos in 2009, their conversion rate increased from 6% to 30%. They humanized the brand with narratives.
The lesson for healthcare marketers is that we must humanize our brand. Make them personable. It doesn’t matter how nice our hospital is or what kind of technology we have, we must connect on a personal level. Maybe that comes by using patients, physicians, and staff members to tell their stories about the brand. Making it real, and genuine and personable. It provides an important and engaging brand narrative.
There are other ways to make that human connection. We should always strive to find them and use them. Our brand will become stronger as we close the gap of social distance. As we humanize our brand.
Your brand must be an integral part of your social media strategy.
More healthcare marketers are adopting social media as a component of their marketing efforts. But it must reflect our brand.Social media provides the opportunity to humanize the brand and empower it.
Heidi Cohen identified five tactics for using social media to cultivate a brand and expand its reach. Her comments appeared in SmartBlog on Social Media.
1. Give your brand a human voice (or other sounds) on social media.
A brand can be humanized by how it sounds. Corporate speak doesn’t resonate with consumers. Instead, consider your brand’s language, accent and other noises. Sound like a human.
2. Enhance the visual signals associated wit your brand.
Carefully consider colors, images, icons, type and photographs to make sure they enhance your brand and communicate the brand’s personality.
3.Tell your brand’s story.
Brands aren’t a collection of facts or products or services. They’re about stories. Stories of the company, employees and customers told in a human voice. Give your brand a personality. Create with stories.
4. Develop and incorporate a culture into your brand.
A unique corporate culture is important to community building. Create a special language, actions and attributes to set your brand apart from the competition.
5. Brand your employees.
Brands need real people to represent their organization. It provides a human face. It builds trust and sincerity. Brand employees and let employees project the brand.
Social media can be very useful to hospital marketers. And it’s important to let your brand shine through in those social media efforts. Social media is a unique opportunity to humanize your brand, to create a brand personality and to connect your brand to your consumers.
Google buys a newspaper ad to show why newspaper ads don’t work
In a most interesting irony, Google bought an ad in the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper to advertise its search-advertising business, which is in direct competition with newspaper advertising. The point was to show that newspaper advertising doesn’t work. Well if that’s true, why make your point in a newspaper ad?
Lauren Indvik posted the ad on mashable.com after it was tweeted by reporter Steve Ladurantaye with the caption, “An ad for Google ads in today’s Globe demonstrates the value of print ads, yes?”
The ad asks, “You know who needs a haircut? People searching for a haircut.” And then adds, “Maybe that’s why ads on Google work.”
What an ingenious marketing approach! Reach newspaper readers to convince them newspaper advertising doesn’t work. But if Google really thinks newspaper advertising doesn’t work why waste money trying to make their point there? And even more amusing, they included a promotional offer in the ad.
So what does this have to do with hospital advertising? Not much really. It’s just ironic and funny. And proves that sometimes as hard as marketers try to make a point, their strategies end up making the opposite point altogether. Sometimes unintended consequences can doom even the most creative and unique ideas.
Google’s algorithm changes place more emphasis on social engagement rather than technology and tricks.
For years, healthcare marketers have tried to understand the basics of Google’s search engines and their algorithms. How does it work? How can we optimize search results for our brand? How can we get higher organic placement than our competitors? A lot of work and effort has gone into this endeavor. Many marketers have paid specialists large sums of money to try to manipulate the system in favor of their brand.
But recent Google updates, code-named Panda and Penguin, have placed the emphasis squarely on quality content, originality and overall user experience. Veronica Fielding, CEO of Digital Brand Expressions, writing for Fast Company outlined some of the changes and stated “the updates contained very clear messages for marketers: stop focusing on technology and tricks and start focusing on people. If your website appeals to people, it will appeal to Google’s algorithms too.”
As Fielding points out, the search engines place value in other things in addition to the website. There is now an emphasis on what’s happening in social media channels. There is an increased importance on social conversations. And social activity influences how the brand is viewed and how their website should rank.
Brands can no longer depend on optimizing their website to catch Google’s attention. Now a brand must be having conversations, going where people are and engaging them. This is what the Google search engines like.
As healthcare marketers we have been lead into the social media arena so we can have meaningful conversations and build relationships. As if that reason alone is not enough incentive, now such activity also affects how we are found and ranked by search engines. That means there are several new strategies for improving our organic search ranking. And they involve social media. Now there are even more reasons to utilize social media in our marketing efforts.
1. Facebook
Rather than just having a Facebook page, for search results it’s important to engage consumers. Information on our Facebook page should be relevant and interesting. There should be dynamite conversations between your brand and consumers. This requires quality content.
2. Twitter
Tweet about topics of interest. Not just trying to push our hospital or health organization but providing useful and helpful information. The kind that will be re-tweeted.
3. YouTube
Upload shareable videos onto your YouTube site. Again, videos that are useful. Vides that will be watched and shared. Note also that Google owns YouTube. Enough said.
4. LinkedIn
A brand profile with recommendations and referrals is a strong component of brand optimization on the web. Company pages are now public and feature status updates.
5. Other social media options.
Other popular social media options are helpful too. Pinterest, Google+ and other sites will contribute to brand optimization.
“All this social media activity works to create engagement around the brand by what has always mattered to search engines most: people,” added Fielding.
So when we ask how we can improve search results for our brand, with the changes by Google, we must provide quality content, but in a way and in venues that will lead to relevant conversations and consumer engagement.
