“What Marketing Can Do For Hospitals”

Healthcare is now shifting from provider power to consumer power.  In the past, providers had all the information and patients had little idea on statistics of said provider or reviews of their services.

Many providers are being reimbursed on calculations partly based on patient satisfaction.  Providers can ensure patient satisfaction and full reimbursement by following the RATER model (Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness).

 

Reliability

Patients want their health care provider to be reliable. Provide continuous employee training on how to provide reliable care and attention to detail.

Assurance

Patients want to feel confident that they’re getting the right service. Provide the big picture issue and discuss specifics. Most important, ask questions and encourage a back-and-forth exchange with the patient.

Tangibles

Patients benefit from something tangible after their treatment, like instructions for home care or tips to stay healthy.

Empathy

Patients like to be heard, and that they have a say in their course of treatment.

Responsiveness

Do not overpromise timely services but keep patients informed of the timing of their care.

To learn more about each one of these topics please visit: http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2014/09/15/what-marketing-can-do-for-hospitals/

Medical Marketing Services: 3 Tips to Improve Your Marketing Plan

• Knowing Your Target Audience is Key to Medical Marketing Services

Knowing your target audience means that every word, sentence, and paragraph is directed to a particular kind of person. When creating your marketing plan, imagine your ideal target audience and what is going on in their mind. When your audience views your website, they should feel like you wrote the information just for them.

• Conveying Your Expertise

Showcase that your team has the knowledge and expertise to provide services. This can be done by sharing medical knowledge or even by posting pictures of the staff working. You can also talks on the local new about medical topics. You can also send press releases to the local media with your commentary if something significant has happened in your industry.

• Build a Professional Image

If you create a professional-looking website, you make a brand for yourself.  Patients are looking beyond just what you can offer and are looking for providers that can provide a memorable brand

To learn more please visit: http://www.farotech.com/medical-marketing-services/

Doctors: How to Build Your Personal Brand and Reputation in 30 seconds

More than ever before, doctors and providers need to differentiate themselves.  The 30-second “elevator speech” is a golden opportunity to distinguish yourself, your profession, your practice or organization.  Done well, it’s natural sounding, immediately engaging and it often generates business.

How to sell yourself in 30-seconds without sounding self-promoting…

• Say why someone should care.
• How or why you are different and better.
• Use language that is understandable, engaging, clear and memorable.
• Target your audience.
• Provoke interest and a sense of wanting to know more.
• Craft your speech carefully and thoughtfully.
• Keep it simple and brief; 30 seconds is ideal; 60 seconds is max.
• Focus. Stick to one primary (differentiating and beneficial) idea.
• Use an attention getting or provocative opening.
• Embrace specifics, not generics.
• Stories, emotions and metaphors are memorable.
• Inject genuine enthusiasm; it’s contagious.
• Practice. Test. Revise. Practice.
• Use it frequently and wear it comfortably.

To learn more about these ideas please visit: http://www.healthcaresuccess.com/blog/doctor-marketing/doctors-build-personal-brand-reputation-30-seconds.html

“Inbound marketing bring fresh air to healthcare”

In todays marketing culture, companies must find a way to draw customers in versus pushing messages to customers. This concept is known as inbound marketing and it is extremely important for healthcare organizations to master to be able to market competitively.

Inbound is about attracting and establishing relationships with target audiences with long-form story telling versus short, paid promotional tactics.

Four key elements of inbound marketing for success:

Website traffic generation

Utilize search engine optimization, website blogging and social media to engage your audience.

Lead generation

Generating traffic is only part of the goal; you want to turn that traffic into leads. To get visitors to click and engage with your organization offer things like webinars, e-books and call-to-action buttons. These require visitors to enter their email addresses to obtain the desired content. This information creates a lead.

Lead conversion

Those visitors that engage need to be followed up with. Follow-up responses can invite the customer back for more company content

Analysis and measurement

In todays marketing culture, companies must find a way to draw customers in versus pushing messages to customers. This concept is known as inbound marketing and it is extremely important for healthcare organizations to master to be able to market competitively.

Inbound is about attracting and establishing relationships with target audiences with long-form story telling versus short, paid promotional tactics.

Four key elements of inbound marketing for success:

Website traffic generation

Utilize search engine optimization, website blogging and social media to engage your audience.

Lead generation

Generating traffic is only part of the goal; you want to turn that traffic into leads. To get visitors to click and engage with your organization offer things like webinars, e-books and call-to-action buttons. These require visitors to enter their email addresses to obtain the desired content. This information creates a lead.

Lead conversion

Those visitors that engage need to be followed up with. Follow-up responses can invite the customer back for more company content

Analysis and measurement

Measure and track all website traffic, tactics, and campaigns to see which strategies are successful and which ones are eating too much of the budget.

To learn more please visit: http://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/3286/2014-10-07/inbound-marketing-brings-fresh-air-healthcare.html

“5 healthcare marketing lessons from the ALS ice bucket challenge”

By now everyone has heard of the “ALS ice bucket challenge”, where chosen participants had to dump ice water on their head and donate to the ALS association.  In less than a month, donations from the ice bucket challenge totaled $94.3 million.  This was very different than the previous year during the same time, the ALS foundation only raised $2.7 million in comparison. Not only did this viral sensation raise awareness about the cause, it also secured a great deal of money for research.

Medical marketers can learn from the ALS ice bucket challenge and use the same tactics.  Follow these guidelines below to increase awareness on your next marketing campaign.

Keep it simple. The ice bucket challenge asks people to dump ice water on their heads and donate $10 to the ALS Foundation or donate $100 to the charity. The objective was clear and easy to understand.

Add immediacy to your message. The campaign worked so well because the challenge requires people to act within 24 hours. By giving your audience a deadline, the initiative will become a greater priority.

Make it an obligation. The campaign worked because it trapped the person nominated. If you didn’t join in, you faced a penalty. Your friends were waiting for your video so you didn’t want to disappoint them.

Educate your audience. The viral campaign drove awareness about ALS but the videos didn’t necessarily educate and inform people about the horrific disease.

Use video in your marketing strategy. The challenge demonstrates the power of video, especially now that smartphones make it easy to create and share videos.

To learn more these tactics please visit: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/5-healthcare-marketing-lessons-als-ice-bucket-challenge/2014-08-28

The Seven Biggest Mistakes of Practice Marketing

Marketing strategies can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful business. The key to a successful dental practice is to avoid major marketing mistakes that many practices find themselves making. Here are some things that you want to avoid:
1. Location, location, location- choosing an unprofitable location can detrimental to your business. You want to find a location with a professional –to population ration that is healthy. You as want to find a location where you have plenty of space to advertise your practice.
2. Phone shoppers- not properly training or managing you telephone can be your practice’s downfall. Your phone specialist must be trained in a way they can turn prospects into patients. Great telephone personalities with the right answers can make a big difference.
3. Internal Marketing System- not having an effective internal marketing system can really hurt a dental practice. Most do have a referral, loyalty and retention program but do not manage them properly. You can help your internal marketing by asking everyone for referrals and by asking in a manner that calls to action.
For the other 4 mistakes please visit: http://www.dentaleconomics.com/articles/print/volume-97/issue-10/columns/sudden-impact-solutions/the-seven-biggest-mistakes-of-practice-marketing.html

Facebook ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ for your Medical Practice

Anyone in marketing will tell you that social media is an absolute must when it comes to marketing. However, it is only helpful if you use these sites correctly. Since Facebook has started to reduce the visibility of business pages some practices have decided to use their personal pages to market their organization and this is a big no-no and here is why:
1. You are not allowed to mix personal and business accounts- Facebook’s user- terms do not allow this. If you use your personal page for business your page may be cancelled for violating these terms.
2. Too many friends- personal Facebook pages let you have a max of 5,000 friends where as a business page there is no limit. You may have the option to transfer your friends but you risk losing the majority of those friends in the transfer.
3. The lack of analytics on your personal page- your business page offers more analytics than your personal page. And what’s the point of marketing if you cannot examine what is effective?
For the remaining ‘do’s and don’ts’ please visit: http://www.physicianspractice.com/blog/facebook-dos-and-donts-your-medical-practice?GUID=486EE5D3-4BF0-4FD4-AD7F-9DC7CAE60C0C&rememberme=1&ts=03062014

14 Tips to Crafting Effective Healthcare Marketing with an Agency

Marketing correcting is very important in any organization. It is no different in healthcare. With the help from the right agency you care certainly craft an effective marketing strategy.

1. Know your organization- Know what you are good at and focus on these points.

2. How are YOU different- Make sure to point out what separates you from everyone else. What make you better than your competitor?

3. Understand your consumers- find out what your consumers are looking for in an organization and try to cater to these needs. More specifically find out what other organizations aren’t giving them and try to achieve it in your facility.

The right agency can help you find a way to develop the best marketing plan for you. For the remaining 11 tips please visit: http://www.arkansasmedicalnews.com/14-tips-to-crafting-effective-healthcare-marketing-with-an-agency-cms-726

How to raise your brand’s social media profile

Social media is the new SAVING GRACE for most healthcare consumers. When a client needs health-related questions answered, a new doctor, or information provided, you want to ensure it is your website they stumble across. According to the Pricewater-HouseCoopers, a study conducted showed that 41% of people chose their healthcare providers via the Internet or their website directly. Having access to easy to read and comprehend social media sites are imperative for medical agencies. How do you make your company go viral?

Having enough digital space to explain everything your healthcare agency has to offer is the most important element to your website needs. You want to let the customer know you can assist them with whatever needs they are struggling with currently or may have to deal with in the future. Getting all of that information out on a website is not an easy feat. Having search engines and tags leading to your company is another goal to accomplish when establishing the makings of a new business website. “A Google study showed that 49% don’t look for a specific provider at first, but search for a disease or condition.”

To read more, click the link below: http://www.mmm-online.com/how-to-raise-your-brands-social-media-profile/article/334999/

Marketing Resolutions for the New Year

 

As 2013 comes to a close it is time to prepare a marketing strategy to move you organization into 2014 and beyond. An article posted to the Huffington Post entitled “Tips to Crank Up Marketing in ’14” is encouraging companies to begin taking stock into their future marketing approach.  Organizations must prepare to go beyond marketing and enter the world of publishing as more uses seek valuable, informative content, not just product sales. Content must be developed and distributed to various social media mediums, through press releases, and via video to channels such as You Tube.

 

Consideration to the accessibility of such information via mobile platforms and by location is paramount as more users access the information while on the go, typically looking to act on a product in response to an immediate need.  If information is not easily accessible or compatible with the medium the end users chooses they will move on in a rapid fashion.  The optimization of your web page to ensure a high search engine ranking and once selected designed to load at lightning speed is critical to obtaining potential clients and convert them to customers.   

 

Check out the full article by clicking Tips to Crank Up Marketing in ’14. Entering into a strategic marketing partnership with a professional ensures you are up to date with marketing trends and are able to dedicate your focus to daily operations while ensuring daily generation of the crucial content needed to interact with your potential and current customer base. Contact Koreen Hart of Hart Marketing by calling (321)-662-1660 or via email at koreen@hartincorporated.com. You can also check out the Hart website at http://www.hartincorporated.com/#.