As 2020 approaches, there are important changes to make in order to help improve your personal and professional success in healthcare marketing. 1. Focus on growth and business building, not marketing Marketing in many healthcare organizations still lands on the promotional side of the equation. Successful marketers are those who understand the growth goals of their organization and develop strategies, beyond campaigns and clicks, to generate revenue and support new customer acquisition. Marketers need to shift their “frame of reference” from “doing marketing” to “leading organizational growth through marketing.” This will earn you a more favorable spot in the C-Suite and among your team. 2. Develop the right dashboards You’re too focused on the promotional side of things when your marketing “dashboard” consists of primarily digital terms that leave the C-Suite in the dust. When you include business metrics, your dashboard will light up and provide a snapshot of your organization’s marketing success in terms of share-of-wallet, customer acquisition, profit margin, and conversion rates. CEO’s consistently state they don’t really understand digital metrics (nor care to) but want to know how this investment translates to new revenue and growth opportunities. 3. Conduct market research to learn about your customers Most market research studies ask a lot of questions about the brand, not about the customer. Other than demographics at the end, very few ask consumers about their interests and passions, what’s important to them, and the issues they’re most interested in. Look at your customer research from their POV and you’ll gain great insights on how to make your marketing strategies much more relevant and engaging. 4. Develop a clearly defined brand position It’s head scratching and nail biting to develop a brand position that your organization can own; one that fits like a glove and is different in the marketplace. But, oh is it so worthwhile. Without this, your brand defaults to a “me too” position and means everything to everybody. Absolutely the opposite of what a brand position should be about. Take the time and resources required to really understand how what your organization stands for and how it should be thought of in the marketplace. 5. Create a message strategy around “heartbeat,” not chest beat It takes great insights about your customer and a continuous nature of learning, observation, and discovery about your marketplace to develop a “heartbeat” for your brand. The opposite of this is a chest beat brand, one that talks primarily about itself and reels off a list of attributes and features. I’m sure you can guess the approach that is more interesting and engaging to customers and encourages them to share or co-author a brand story. 6. Remember the 8-second rule With over 5,000 messages a day vying for the average person’s attention, studies show an approximate 8-second time span exists to make your point. This is why more communications are going visual; to capture attention, gain engagement, and motivate toward an action. There is always an important place for content, but keep it relevant, and short. 7. Be Social, but not too “social” Social media is powerful, but it doesn’t need to be “too” social. Brand strategies should drive your posts and, as with every other media, shouldn’t be “all things to all people.” Overly social posts don’t benefit from optimization of keywords and tend not to stay on brand, rather, they take your message in an entirely different direction. You can drive engagement and interaction without sacrificing the integrity of your posts and brand platform. 8. Make your internal audience a priority The role of internal communications has evolved over the years from a preview of an ad campaign to an engagement strategy with real ROI. Hospitals experiencing “leakage” often find that employees are unaware of the scope of services provided by their health system. Physician practices find that making in-system referrals can be tedious and time-consuming, and therefore default to old referral habits. As healthcare companies grow through merger and acquisition, it’s more imperative than ever to not only educate, but facilitate communications from within. At the time of this writing, we are six weeks away from 2020. There is still time and opportunity to strengthen your healthcare branding and marketing strategies. Time flies, so take a moment to reflect on these suggestions and avoid defaulting to old habits that weaken your position, both personally and professionally. For more information on your healthcare marketing success, contact...
Coming up with fresh content for your healthcare website can be challenging, but is vital since content is the most important ranking factor in Google’s search algorithm. Stale content can lead to bored readers and duplicate content can lead to penalties from Google. Don’t let content on your website become dull and repetitive by following these tips below to keeping your healthcare marketing content fresh. 1. Research Hot Topics and Keywords Use Google Keyword Planner and Answer the Public to see what people are searching for on the web that’s related to your business and services. These are the most searched keywords, phrases and questions – if you don’t have content on these topics, you are missing a huge opportunity to reach these people. As you can see from the chart below, about 50% of blog traffic is found through search results. It is crucial to write blogs on relevant topics that people are most interested in. Source: Neil Patel 2. Take Advantage of Holidays and Healthcare Awareness Months Every month, there is either a holiday or healthcare topic to spread awareness and show support. Take advantage of writing blogs that are relevant and timely to your services. Content can include education on the monthly healthcare awareness topics and tips on how to stay healthy during the holidays. 3. Investigate Your Competition Take a look at your competitors’ websites and blogs to generate new ideas and topics. It is not recommended to copy their content, but it is helpful to get ideas that you can publish at a later date. This will help you compete with like-businesses and stay relevant in the market. 4. Mix Different Types of Content Together While written content is a strong ranking factor for Google, pair it with short video snippets, infographics, podcasts, and more. Instead of just reading content, these mixed media types are helpful to keep visitors engaged and interested in your blog posts. Also, it’s always a bonus to post videos on YouTube since Google owns this video social media platform. 5. Rewrite and Update Existing Pages There is always room for improvement. When you can’t think of a new topic to write about, take a look at your old blogs to see how you can make them better. Your old content may include outdated statistics or research that is no longer relevant. Take the time to rewrite these pages – Google will see these changes as fresh content. If you’re ever stuck on what to write for your healthcare marketing content, consider these 5 tips to keep your content fresh and relevant. For more information, please contact Springboard Brand & Creative...
One of the benefits of working closely with hospital C-suites on branding initiatives is developing a deep understanding of their goals, motivators and pain points. Here are some of the techniques (strategic and tactical) that we’ve employed on behalf of healthcare B2B clients to reach this audience: 1. Focus on their business goals Understand that the end goal for hospital C-suite leaders is improving revenue, quality and safety. And these all impact patient satisfaction and reimbursement. This audience is also focused on competitive advantages, growth through strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, sustainable cost control and reducing risk. Your messaging must speak to their goals, not your features and functions, to get their attention. 2. Develop hospital C-suite personas Understand who these decision makers are, and develop personas that outline their individual goals, motivators and pain points, relative to your product or service. Having this deep understanding will help craft the right messages. 3. Your value proposition must resonate Use the information gathered in the personas to create a unique promise or value proposition for each member of your target audience. Understand what will resonate with them, based on their motivators and pain points, and put that to work in your communication and messaging strategies. 4. Tell them something they don’t know How can your thought leadership enlighten and help the C-suite make smarter decisions and achieve their business goals? Do you have proprietary research, a relevant blog, white papers or webinar series they can follow? Develop a goal-based content strategy to get their attention and demonstrate value for your insights. 5. Meet them where they are going, literally While we’ve found traditional marketing tactics, like email and direct mail can still be effective, this audience values personal interactions. Develop opportunities to engage with them face-to-face. Event marketing can be a great opportunity to present, exhibit and even take small groups to dinner. Get creative to get in front of the hospital C-suite at conferences and other events they attend. 6. Make an influencer the hero Sometimes the hospital C-suite decision maker is simply unreachable. Engage the beneficiary of your product/service; this could be a service line director, head of population health or another administrator and get them excited about the opportunity. Arm them with the ammunition they need and enlist this influencer to gain approval for your solution. This kind of “pull-through” can be an effective “sell-in” strategy. Getting the attention and having meaningful conversations with C-suite leaders is difficult. and you may only have one shot – so know your audience, understand how your product or service will help them achieve a business goal, do your strategic homework, put on your consultant and C-suite hats, and get creative when it comes to personal engagement. For more information on how Springboard is helping B2B companies succeed, please visit https://www.springboardbrand.com/clients/b2b-healthcare-marketing/ or contact me at mike@springboardbrand.com to discuss your opportunity. ...
During an annual exam, your physician can get a good sense of your heart health with an EKG. As healthcare marketers, a Brand EKG can also give you a quick read of your brand’s health. Several years ago, this model was introduced to help hospitals, namely C-Suite representatives, understand consumer research findings and implications. As indicated above and based on the classic consumer marketing behavior model, a brand has to have established a strong sense of awareness and preference before leading to trial. This model has been expanded to include brand attributes such as likability, intent to recommend, and other layers of behavior. Based on an analysis of nearly 100 consumer studies, and validated by leading healthcare researchers, we concluded that a “healthy” brand EKG would have a variance of 12-15 percentage points between key indicators. A larger number would indicate an “unhealthy” brand that is not converting on the preceding attitude. For example, a brand with a preference score 20 percentage points higher than usage is not converting market share. This could be the result of many factors including accessibility, customer service, and operational considerations (schedule, capacity, etc.). Those brands not converting awareness to preference indicate a lack of differentiation or strong consumer brand relevance. Fast forward to 2019, and the same model can be used to assess the health of your digital marketing efforts. Springboard’s Digital EKG Healthcare marketers can add to their digital dashboards by providing a Digital Brand EKG indicating the level of conversion being established from a preceding behavior. For example, if impressions served (or similar metric) are significantly higher than CTR, you’ve done a good job targeting and delivering your digital message but you have not enticed anyone to take action. If you’re creating an action and people are clicking through but not engaging, then your landing page, website, or other content “hub” is not compelling enough. Adding an EKG to your current digital dashboard will help you and your team understand the layers of consumer behavior that are taking place with each online activity. Better yet, you’ll be able to develop content strategies and tactics to improve upon your ability to convert consumers through the behavior model. Better still, you’ll be able to strengthen the other metrics on your dashboard and impress the C-Suite with the health of your brand and EKG in terms (and formats) they’ll understand and appreciate. You might even be able to include B.D. initials after your name – Brand Doctor. Happy to help you assess your brand and digital health. Contact us...
Healthcare is not simple. For consumers, it’s difficult to navigate the waters of patient care, referrals, and insurance costs/reimbursements. For physicians, balancing patient care with enterprise-wide business and growth goals is challenging. And for employees of larger health systems, there is confusion as to other providers in the organization and how/when to make appropriate referrals. These issues, along with many others, make healthcare one complex industry. And healthcare brands have become just as complicated. That’s why healthcare marketing needs to be made simple. After all, the simple definition of marketing is “meeting customer needs”. Making a complex buying cycle and multi-layered organizational structure easier to understand are right in line with the basic tenants of marketing. Why simpler is better for consumers Healthcare marketers face a ‘double whammy’ when trying to reach and motivate consumers. First, studies show that the average consumer is exposed to 5,000 – 7,500 brand messages and marketing content a day (depending on which study you read). And with more and more channels being developed to reach consumers, that number is growing dramatically on a daily basis. The School of Human Sciences and Technology estimates that consumers switch between screens up to 21 times an hour and the average person’s attention span is now just eight seconds. Eight seconds! Not only do healthcare messages need to gain consumer attention, they also need to communicate a story, capture their interest, and cause an action, all in less time than a ten second commercial. This leads to the second whammy; healthcare marketing and messaging has traditionally not been that simple, or made that interesting. It’s often complicated, duplicative, and undifferentiated. The big, cliché advertising words alone take almost eight seconds to say: multi-disciplinary, continuum of care, state-of-the-art technology, and other mouthfuls. Not easy to communicate, understand, or capture the attention of consumers who only give it a fleeting moment to resonate. As healthcare systems continue to grow, audiences will only be able to handle so much information. That’s why stories need to be short, memorable, provide an overarching single-minded promise, and be relevant to the lives of those they’re seeking to influence. Why simpler is better for employees and referral sources Enterprise success and growth goals depend on strong internal communications. It gives an organization a strategic advantage. When employees know who is part of the system, how to make referrals, where to access information, and why their role is important (as well as the “why” of the organization), patient leakage goes down and their satisfaction goes up. In the many employee focus groups I’ve conducted, internal team members constantly express their concerns that they are not informed enough to make important patient referrals and recommendations. As a result, it’s not uncommon to see patients go “down the street” to other providers for services that are, in fact, part of the system from which they were referred. The tools that can help with these issues should also be made simple. Brand books, videos, even old-school laminated cards are effective methods for communicating messages to employees and referral sources. Remember, your stakeholders are “consumers,” too, and they give the same eight seconds to different messages throughout the day. Simpler is definitely better. Why simple is better for your C-Suite When presenting your annual healthcare marketing plan and budget recommendations to leaders in the C-Suite, it’s important to stay out of the “weeds”. Meaning, don’t mire them in discussions around length of videos, size of ads, or even dashboards boasting impressions and click through rates. Not only don’t they get it, they really don’t care. Studies strongly encourage marketers to talk in the language that the C-Suite speaks; growth, revenue, and business goals. Marketing is their investment, not your expense or budget. You have to know what the organization’s core goals are and speak (simply) about them in clear, thoughtful ways and how marketing will help achieve growth. Chief Marketing Officers have the shortest tenure among C-Suite members because they often lose, or have little sight of the big picture, and focus too much on the image of healthcare marketing. A SIMPLE brand strategy is the place to start for your healthcare marketing Make it easy on those to whom you are telling your story. Instead of cramming five services into a video message or, worse yet, running five different campaigns with different looks and feels, think SIMPLE: Singular Idea that Motivates People to Listen and Engage. Acronyms make it easy to remember things, so hopefully this one will help you keep things simple. Singular Consumers only have the mental capacity (and time) to remember you by one single name or service, regardless if your brand is a hospital or system, master or endorsed. Campaigns that throw out multiple entities, or play the name game, are not only hurting but also competing with themselves. This thinking supports the “branded house” strategy …if you have a “house of brands,” allow the same time and spacing to give them their freedom to grow in the future. Idea With social and other digital applications of your brand message, content seems to be all the rage. And that’s fine. As long as it still has an idea guiding it – one that is carefully crafted based on research, brand differentiators, and a unique and captivating story. This is the “why” of your organization; it has to be there for people to want to buy a product or service. It also needs to align with their own philosophy and purpose. In more traditional branding and advertising circles, the “big idea” still reigns; born from creative strategy, a competitive assessment, and customer insights. Motivates With barely any time to register, your message still has to create a response. Whether a click, call, or visit, be engaging, entertaining, and interesting enough to motivate desired behaviors. Of that eight seconds, you probably have a third of that time to hook an audience member with an irresistible email subject line, an eye-catching logo, or a tagline that...
