Tag Archives: healthcare marketers

Five big trends, five key roles, five bold moves for healthcare marketers

Posted on May 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

neshco logoNext week, long-time colleague Candace Quinn (Brand Equals Experience) and I will present a keynote address at the New England Society for Healthcare Communications Spring Conference in Newport, Rhode Island.

Our session – Preparing for a New Era of Healthcare Marketing – kicks off at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, May 20.  Here’s a sneak preview of the talk:

Five Forces Changing Healthcare Marketing

  1. The new economics of health care reform – the industry is transitioning from ‘pay for volume’ to ‘pay for value’ through accountable care systems and risk reimbursement models.
  2. Market restructuring and emerging delivery models – consolidation and alignment through mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships will change competitive dynamics in local markets.
  3. Evolution of brands in physical and virtual environments – healthcare is getting smart about brands as competitive assets that drive business performance, and the importance of brand experience.
  4. Technologies that disrupt and transform – digital technologies are revolutionizing business processes everywhere, and profoundly changing the way patients and providers interact.
  5. Growing, changing, graying, connected consumers – aging baby boomers will be a driving force for healthcare services in the coming decades – not just for ‘what’ is delivered, but ‘how’ it will be delivered.

Five Critical Roles for Healthcare Marketers

  1. Growth strategist – revenue generation is the priority; adopt a strong P&L mindset, drive clear alignment of brand, marketing and sales investments to the health system’s growth strategy.
  2. Brand advocate – invest in the brand; create a powerful, differentiated, competitive brand position, and lead organizational change to deliver brand value, not just promote it.
  3. Digital change agent – web, social networking, search marketing and mobile capabilities – integrated with clinical IT systems, are no longer optional for providers that want to remain relevant.
  4. Experience champion – advocate for customer-centered decision-making and design systems and services that transform customer experience.
  5. Innovation catalyst – bring creative thinking and fresh solutions to systems, programs, services and products that attract, serve and retain customers.

Five Bold Moves to Transform Healthcare Marketing

  1. Change the marketing culture – this requires an organizational shift in thinking about marketing as tactical communications to a discipline that is strategic, cross-functional and bottom line oriented.
  2. Reconfigure the marketing organization – establish a vision, role and scope for marketing as a revenue-generating capability, then restructure marketing operations to support growth goals.
  3. Acquire new competencies, capabilities and skills – acquire expertise in business analytics, R & D, brand building, customer acquisition/retention, CRM/PRM, digital, search and social marketing.
  4. Create a compelling case for change and bias for action – focus marketing investments on strategies that grow revenue and improve business performance.
  5. Communicate new roles, new rules, new expectations – create co-ownership and co-accountability for marketing outcomes across administrative, clinical and business operations.

We hope to see you there.  If you can’t make it and would like a copy of the slide deck, just let me know.

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Posted in Healthcare Marketing, Marketing Leadership

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New webinar on attracting, engaging and retaining patients with content

Posted on April 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

I’m looking forward to moderating this webinar hosted by the Forum for Healthcare Strategists on May 21. We have two terrific presenters — and a hot, hot topic.

How to Attract, Engage, and Retain Patients with Content
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
11:30AM – 1:00PM (CDT)

Jessica Carlson

Jessica Carlson

With so many communication channels available to consumers today, the rules for marketers have changed. The focus now is on content marketing: creating and sustaining great conversations with the people who visit your websites and social media channels.

Hear how Sentara Healthcare leveraged the power of healthcare content marketing during its 28 Days of Heart campaign. Using combined techniques to pull content, a healthcare tool, and reconfigured information architecture, they were able to show clear results metrics in changing its approach to content.

Ahava Leibtag

Ahava Leibtag

Join Jessica Carlson, Digital Media Advisor, Sentara Healthcare, Ahava Leibtag, President, Aha Media Group LLC, and me on May 21, and learn how to:

  • Create a content strategy around a campaign
  • Set up a social media editorial calendar
  • Engage and nurture your audience with content
  • Analyze your data to improve campaign performance

Click here for more information and to register online.  The price for Forum members is $89 ($119 for non-members).

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Posted in Content Marketing, Digital Strategy

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Five essential moves to transform healthcare marketing

Posted on April 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Across the U.S., healthcare marketers are feeling the pressure to deliver greater returns on marketing investments. Changing economics are front and center, and make a compelling case for the role that marketers must play in an increasingly competitive environment.

Holding on to a narrow view of healthcare marketing as simply promotions sub-optimizes marketing performance and wastes marketing investments.  Best practice performers understand marketing as a business discipline aimed at achieving revenue growth and better business performance.

Success requires a purposeful, comprehensive and integrated approach to better understand markets, develop and deliver quality healthcare services, build effective business models, and create loyal customers.

Five essential moves

Creating a marketing or growth-oriented culture may seem formidable in organizations that are operations versus market driven – and many health systems are just that. However, with increasing recognition by healthcare executives that significant change is required for success under new reform mandates, marketers play a key role in helping organizations understand competitive dynamics, discover new growth opportunities, create new lines of business, and enhance points of competitive differentiation .

Here are five essential moves to effect the change:

  1. Transform the marketing culture – David Packard (of the Hewlett-Packard’s) is credited with saying that “marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” His point is that marketing, like HR, finance and other core business functions, is a strategy-critical competency for organizations that want to grow, thrive and succeed. This requires an organizational shift in thinking about marketing as tactical communications to a discipline that is strategic (focused on stuff that matters), cross-functional (orchestrated across the value chain), and bottom line oriented (delivers on revenue targets).
  2. Reconfigure the marketing organization – today, many (far too many) health system marketing organizations are structured strictly along functional lines (advertising, PR, events, sales, etc.) and operate primarily as communications service bureaus rather than revenue-generating strategists. Health systems must establish a vision, role and scope for marketing as a revenue-generating capability, then restructure marketing operations to support growth imperatives. Building a unified, high performance marketing operation is job one – investing in the marketing management infrastructure, elevating skills, adopting data-driven planning methods, laser-focusing marketing resources, establishing performance metrics.
  3. Acquire new competencies, capabilities and skills – Historically, healthcare marketing departments have over-invested in communications activities and under-resourced other aspects of marketing practice that drive customer acquisition and revenue growth. Today’s healthcare marketers must demonstrate expertise in market intelligence, business analytics, new product/program R & D, brand building (not just brand promotion), market and customer creation, relationship sales, social commerce, community management, cross-channel content marketing, and more. Customer relationship management (CRM), provider relationship management (PRM) and customer contact or call centers are essential marketing systems.
  4. Create a compelling case for change and bias for action – Data builds the case for focusing marketing investments on strategies that grow revenue, improve business performance, increase brand loyalty and build sustainable competitive advantage. For healthcare marketers, the strategy-critical short list includes brand building, volume building, channel management, new models of care and customer engagement that optimize profitability under reform economics, and leveraging web, social, search and mobile technologies for patient acquisition and retention.
  5. Communicate new roles, new rules, new expectations – The first step for marketers is to forge a robust partnership with administrative, clinical and business operations, and create co-ownership and co-accountability for marketing outcomes. Establish new ground rules, such as: marketing resources will be prioritized to strategic planning, business development, growth and financial performance imperatives. Or that data and analysis will inform strategic marketing thinking and planning, and provide an evidence-based approach to marketing investment. And, my favorite: time – and dollars – will be focused on fewer, more impactful activities; and tasks that do not contribute to growth and improved competitive performance will be transitioned or eliminated.

Now is the time

For health systems, growth and profitability are imperative. New reimbursement methods and emerging business models necessitate a different approach to customer acquisition, a fresh focus on customer retention, and a greater emphasis on customer engagement. And the transformation of marketing practice driven by social networking, search and mobile technologies can no longer be ignored.

Now is the time for marketers to assess the role, functions and performance of marketing departments, and move aggressively to transform marketing from promotions-oriented tactics to growth-oriented strategic leadership.  To build powerful, differentiated brands that drive growth, innovation and better business performance.  To lead organizations in mainstreaming social, search and mobile technologies that engage customers, build commerce and improve business functions.

Change can be difficult. Yet, will deliver substantial and long-lasting benefits.

This post is number three in a 3-part series.  Click here to read parts 1 and 2:

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Posted in Healthcare Marketing, Marketing Leadership

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Engaging healthcare consumers through content marketing

Posted on March 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

content marketing rxContent marketing is a hot topic for healthcare marketers.  And no wonder.  More than ever, healthcare consumers are seeking information, sharing healthcare experiences, exploring treatments and selecting providers online. And the vast majority of online health-related discussions take place without input from healthcare professionals.

A recent Pew Internet and American Life Project study revealed that 81% of U.S. adults use the internet and 59% say they have looked online for health information in the past year. Over a third of U.S. adults say they have gone online specifically to try to figure out what medical condition they or someone else might have.

Also consider:

  • 47% have looked for information about a doctor
  • 34% have read about someone else’s healthcare experience
  • 16% have consulted online rankings or reviews of providers

Professional Research Corporation’s (PRC) 2012 National Consumer Perception Study also found that one-fourth of healthcare consumers use the web to find a doctor, and 16% say that blogs and posted comments impact which physician or hospital they chose for care.

Content is about strategy, not just promotion

The challenge for healthcare marketers is having the right content in the right place at the very time that consumers are searching. To do this, they must develop a thorough understanding of how consumers discover, consume and share information on-line; and the role of search and social interaction across the consumer buying cycle.

The bottom line is that content marketing isn’t about self-promotion; it’s about engaging consumers through relevant information, resources and tools, discoverable at a time and place when they are most open to receiving messages.  It’s about building your brand and strengthening relationships at every point through the consumer decision-process. And encouraging your audience to act through strong calls to action with content that positions you as the preferred choice.

Learn more at PRC’s upcoming Webchat on content marketing

On Thursday, March 28, 2013, I’ll be joining Janna Binder, director of marketing and public relations for Professional Research Corporation (PRC), on a webchat to discuss the role and power of content marketing in healthcare. During the one-hour session, we’ll talk about how content marketing can engage healthcare consumers, build your brand, drive patient acquisition and cultivate customer loyalty. Key discussion points will include:

  • The role of search and social interaction in the healthcare consumer’s selection process
  • Where consumers discover, consume and share information
  • What constitutes relevant, valuable content, tools and relationships
  • How marketers can build content marketing plans

I hope you’ll join us. The 60 minute PRC Webchat starts at 1:00 pm central time. And, there is no charge for participation. Just click here for more information and online registration.

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Posted in Content Marketing, Digital Strategy, Healthcare Internet

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5 Roles for Healthcare Marketers to Adopt Now

Posted on January 17, 2013 | 1 Comment

things to doAcross the US, healthcare marketers are moving quickly to transform the role, capabilities and functions of their marketing departments. Powerful forces are converging to change the underlying basis for competition in the healthcare industry, and health systems are experiencing more intense competitive activity in anticipation of reform and other industry pressures. For the foreseeable future, providers will be operating with competing and somewhat conflicting objectives as they attempt to optimize volumes for core clinical programs, while simultaneously building accountable care delivery models.

Marketing executives can help health systems successfully navigate the new competitive landscape by adopting five key roles:

  1. Growth strategist – Revenue generation is the priority. In nearly every other industry, marketing is valued as a revenue-generating business competency critical to driving growth, brand loyalty and better financial performance. Health systems that hold on to a narrow view of healthcare marketing as simply promotions sub-optimize marketing performance and waste marketing investments. It is essential for chief marketing executives to adopt a strong P&L mindset, drive clear alignment of brand, marketing and sales investments to the health system’s growth strategy, and create co-accountability for outcomes across the entire executive team. Success demands a marketing culture, not just a marketing department.
  2. Brand advocate – Marketers must lead the change to create organizations that deliver brand value, not just promote it. Powerful brands drive growth, profitability, market leverage, staff commitment and customer loyalty. To date, however, brand investments have been largely focused on brand communications, including brand identity systems, advertising and promotions. Today’s approach to brand building must be focused on delivering brand-differentiated value, and address the complexities of newly developing accountable care models, mergers, acquisitions, employed medical practices, ambulatory, post acute and retail health services.
  3. Digital change agent – Digital technologies are revolutionizing business processes everywhere. More than ever, consumers are seeking healthcare information, sharing experiences, selecting treatments and interacting with providers online. Leading health systems are accelerating efforts to move from static websites to integrated, multi-platforms that reach and engage consumers, support patients and families with care management, facilitate workplace communications and promote clinical decision-making. Web, social networking, search marketing and mobile capabilities – integrated with clinical IT systems such as EMR and patient portals – are no longer optional for providers that want to remain relevant.
  4. Experience champion – Customer experience is more than HCAHPS scores. It’s about meeting customer expectations every day in every interaction by hard-wiring administrative systems, appointment scheduling, meeting and greeting, clinical processes, customer engagement, billing, follow-up and other critical touch points to deliver on your brand’s value proposition. Rich, meaningful, loyalty-building experiences don’t happen by accident, they happen through experience design, training and establishing direct accountability for customer experience. Marketers can champion customer-centered decision-making and innovations that transform customer experience.
  5. Innovation catalyst – Transformation of care delivery systems, business processes, and market-driving strategies are top priorities for health systems. Marketers can help by creating a focused customer-centered approach to innovation. Opportunities to take the hassle out of healthcare are vast. Consumers are frustrated and most of the industry is woefully behind in providing on-line conveniences such as scheduling and customer communications. Success stems from creative thinking, fresh solutions, and relevance to customers – and that puts marketing front and center as the curator of customer intelligence.

Where to start? Establish a transformative agenda for change.

The CMO mandate is transformation of marketing practice. It’s a challenge that will require a purposeful, comprehensive and integrated approach to evolve healthcare marketing. But it will deliver substantial and long-lasting benefits – profitable growth, brand loyalty and better business performance.

This post is number two in a 3-part series. Click here to read the first – Five Forces that will Change Healthcare Marketing. In an upcoming post, I’ll address Five Bold Moves to Transform Healthcare Marketing.

 

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Posted in Healthcare Marketing, Marketing Leadership

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Healthcare Marketers – Are You Future Ready?

Posted on May 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

This past week, I attended both the Healthcare Executive Forum gathering and the 17th National Summit for Healthcare Marketing Strategies in Orlando, Florida.  Both meetings were rich with important, timely content presented by many of the best in the industry.

One theme carried through all the sessions – the times, they are a changin’ – and the clarion call for marketers was to move purposefully and rapidly to help organizations embrace change and drive transformation.

 The underlying basis for competition is shifting in the health industry and will continue to do so as market and government reform-driven movements take hold.  Changing economics are front and center, creating unprecedented opportunities for marketing leaders to step up and be integral catalysts for innovative practices that drive growth, customer loyalty, and better business performance.

I had the honor of speaking with three marketing professional who are doing just that.  In our session – Are You Future Ready? – Ellen Barron (AVP Marketing and Communications for University of Iowa Healthcare), Phyllis Marino (VP Marketing and Communications at MetroHealth), and Suzanne Sawyer (Chief Marketing Officer and AVP for Penn Medicine) each spoke about overhauling their respective marketing operations to create the competencies and systems required in today’s and tomorrow’s competitive environment.  In upcoming posts, I’ll share highlights from their case studies.

So here’s my takeaway.  Now is the time for chief marketing officers to:

  • Assess the role, functions and performance of marketing departments and move aggressively to transform marketing practice from promotions-oriented tactics to growth-oriented strategic leadership. 
  • Build powerful, differentiated brands that drive growth, innovation and better business performance.  
  • Lead organizations in mainstreaming web, social and mobile technologies that engage customers, build commerce and improve business functions. 
  • Be a champion for customer-centered decision-making and innovations that transform customer experience. 

Following is a snapshot of a slide from our presentation – these are urgent and essential actions for all healthcare marketing leaders. 

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Posted in Healthcare Marketing, Marketing Leadership, Marketing Management

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Greetings from the 17th National Summit – Healthcare Marketing Strategies

Posted on April 30, 2012 | 1 Comment

The 17th National Healthcare Marketing Strategies Summit kicked off yesterday at the Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes here in Orlando, Florida.  I need a clone to take advantage of the many great sessions, speakers and networking opportunities. 

What’s up today?  Here are just a few of the sessions and speakers worth checking out:

  • Aligning brands across digital channels – Jessica Carlson (Sentara) and Carla Bryant (Corrigan Partners)
  • Integrating new media into physician marketing – Lyle Green (MD Anderson Cancer Center), Jill Lawlor (Cooper University Hospital) and Dan Dunlop (Jennings Health)
  • Improving patient experience: a marketing and clinical partnership – Suzanne Hendrey (Baystate)
  • Driving results with marketing analytics – Marc Beaumont (UAB Health System), Danny Fell (Neathawk Dubuque & Packett), and Linda MacCracken (Thomson Reuters)
  • Breaking the rules of website design – Chris Boyer (Inova) and Chris Bevolo (Interval)
  • Digital marketing – focus on conversations – Suzanne Sawyer (Penn Medicine) and Rob Grant (eVariant)
  • Physician trends: the impact on marketers – Peter Brumleve, C. Josef Ghosn (Florida Hospital) and Steve Sloate (Cirra)

Hope to run into you – if you’re here, stop by the Brains on Demand booth in the exhibition hall and say hello.

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Posted in Healthcare Marketing, Healthcare Trends, Marketing Leadership

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Brand Your Art and Copy, Too

Posted on April 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

Note to readers:  I read this post recently on the blog Hospital Branding and thought it offered excellent insights into the importance of key words, phrases and images that reinforce brand positions.  Thanks Rob!

by Rob Rosenberg, Hospital Branding

At a recent breakfast branding club, featuring those in the business and not famous cereals and toaster items, the discussion popped up about the strategy of owning key phrases and images. In addition to graphic standards, which organizations develop to illustrate proper spacing and color palettes, the conversation centered on the need for companies to create key words, phrases, and images that support their brand propositions.

Having once worked on Sealy Posturepedic mattresses, I recalled the “ownership” (and subsequent trademark) of the phrase, “designed in cooperation with leading orthopedic surgeons.” Key words that created a franchise and contributed to a 90% awareness of the Posturepedic brand. In addition to this copy, all sales materials and advertising were required to feature the now famous mattress “cut-away,” the scientific illustration that shows various layers of ticking, coils, and foam. This combination of art and copy became a hallmark of Sealy Posturepedic and helped to create an iconic brand.

Other examples of brands that “own” certain words, phrases, and images include Lexus, State Farm, and Southwest Airlines. Just the mention of these brands conjure up a unique “look and feel” that are associated with their traditional, social, and digital media communications.

Hospitals are getting better at differentiating their organizations. Strategic ideas are shining through in taglines and unique positioning buckets focused on a single-minded platform. But they are also falling short when it comes to standards reflecting branded words and images. No matter the market position – such as patient-centered care, breakthrough technology, or physician expertise – the executions always seem to fall flat and into the undifferentiated abyss of hospital advertising.

The words “excellence,” “comprehensive,” and “multi-disciplinary” are totally “me too.” Forget “advanced,” “quality,” and “leading.” In terms of images, try something other than a surgical scene, patient/physician consultation, or a slow-motion shot of a former patient engaged in their favorite activity, UNLESS they support your brand position.

Here in Chicago, there are some excellent strategies in play. However, when strategies turn to execution, the work often turns to mush. And is virtually impossible to distinguish one hospital or system from another for lack of branded words and images.

Here’s what you can do to help translate your strategy into execution: 

  • Create a list of “branded” words. Those that support your brand essence and tell your story. Use these copy points in all communications; from advertising to social posts to news releases.
  • Develop a library of “branded” photos and images. Again, those that support your position and visually reinforce your organization’s specific personality.
  • Include these copy points and art images in your graphics standards manual, or create a separate “Art & Copy” book.
  • Educate service line marketers, and associated entities within your organization, on the words and images that should be used for their promotions if the marketing function is decentralized.
  • Be consistent in all forms of communications; traditional, social, and digital media.
  • And – a separate note for social channels – develop “post” phrases and key words that should be used as the “voice” of your organization and not that of the poster.
Developing a powerful brand is a tough, but rewarding challenge. Once you’re there, don’t water it down in the execution. Be as creative, disciplined, and rigid with the art and copy as you are with the overarching strategy. Your brand will be differentiated and the recall of your messages will be greatly enhanced.
 
Rob Rosenberg is President of Springboard Brand & Creative Strategy, a brand development and communications firm with offices in the Chicago and D.C. areas.  He can be reached at rob@springboardbrand.com. Rob will also be speaking and exhibiting at the 17th National Summit for Healthcare Marketing Strategies, April 28 – May 1, 2012 in Orlando, Florida.

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Posted in Brand Strategy, Content Marketing, Marketing Management, Marketing Strategy

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