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by Brandon Scott Content marketing connects your hospital to patients, their families and others who use your services. It extends your reach, making you more broadly visible to prospective customers. And all that helps grow your business and your market share, for a healthier bottom line. How can content marketing work for you?
Content delivers added value when it allays fears, inspires, or simply generates smiles. It’s memorable when your audience learned something new. Or had an “ah ha” moment. Your content can teach customers about trending medical issues, help them become proactive about maintaining their own wellness, manage a chronic illness more effectively, understand an upcoming procedure or simply find a doctor.
Truly useful content builds credibility and authority, but when it also demonstrates your willingness to freely share your special tips and insight, it makes you seem more approachable. That strengthens comfort level and confidence.
You’ve heard this before, but we can’t stress it enough: content that doesn’t play to your audience’s needs and desires will simply fall flat. Leverage your earned authority for the benefit of those who follow you. This signifies clear intent and provides a solid engagement to educate and convert your audience.
Healthcare consumers aren’t one size fits all, so your solutions never should be either. And that means your content marketing topics, formats and delivery platforms must to be varied, too. Give them what they want, the way they want it. This incrementally builds stronger relationships based on trust.
A picture’s worth…well, you know. Your content should include lots of photos, especially those that feature people. Infographics are also great, because they can encapsulate a significant amount of information in a visually appealing and readily digestible presentation. They’re very simple to share, and you can use them in printed form, too.
And let’s not forget video. Short but packed with meaty information, videos are an excellent way to demonstrate your newest equipment, educate patients about an upcoming experience or teach at home techniques. Be the resource people can “check out” via YouTube and share with friends via links.
The end-user experience is so critical to your content development. Ask yourself “what would I do with the content as a consumer?” If your response feels uninspired, then a change should be made.
Often, the trick is to find the hanging fruit consumers are already talking about, then add your voice to the discussion. Follow-up with a simple question or challenge your audience can instantly comment on. This gives your content exponential value.
Stories illustrate your compassion as well as your competence. Real-life examples of your hospital at work underscore your specific value and humanize your brand. You’re not just some enormous institution. Real-life examples of your hospital at play – perhaps participating in a community project – demonstrate your value as a good neighbor. This shows you care enough to get out there and get involved.
Tell personal stories about your docs or other providers – Dr. Suzy Smith loves paddleboarding, John Doe, RN is a talented painter. These are real people, just like their patients. Relatable. Trustworthy.
Content marketing is a glorious opportunity to talk up the “little extras” that give your patients a better experience. Maybe it’s pet therapy. Or art therapy. Healthy cooking classes. Your new lightning-fast admission process. Or your new live-chat-with-a-nurse program.
Innovative thinking sets you apart from the competition, and people love it. They expect outstanding medical care, but they expect personalized attention, too. Content that tells how you’re making things more pleasant or convenient proves you’re patient-oriented.
You think you’re selling your hospital. But what you’re really “selling” is personal relationships. Content marketing can establish you as the premier, personalized resource for health and wellness. That’s branding you can count on to keep your hospital and your community healthy. |
August 15, 2013
December 01, 2010
Measuring Social Media on the Web
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Digital communications over the internet have opened, to hospitals and healthcare organizations, a growing trove of marketing channels; particularly those built around search and social networking. With an opportunity of abundance comes a challenge of control. Using social media marketing to build awareness and affinity around your brand and web presence can be a boon, but trying to understand the complexities of how well your marketing vehicles perform online can seem like an anchor. A solid digital presence relies on your ability to recognize your reach and influence within the world of the web. Significant resources are often applied to this challenge, but there are free options available that give healthcare managers – marketing or otherwise – access to basic measures of engagement and effectiveness. These tools measure an array of elements; from visitor page counts and tracking, to the ‘hottest’ spots on your site (through analysis of click patterns). These examples cover many of the more popular marketing channels on the web:
Maximizing viewer engagement and optimizing your reach is at the core of success in any digital marketing campaign; and social media marketing on the web is becoming a more and more valuable ‘community communication’ channel for healthcare organizations. Measuring the impact of your campaign on the web should give a much better picture of overall effectiveness. Have you had experience or success with measuring your online impact? If so, how has it impacted your present marketing efforts? |
December 07, 2009
Share the Jingle
By now, you have probably received your official Ten Adams Holiday Card complete with donation tin. Which means ‘Share the Jingle’ has officially begun! Your first task? Let us know which charity you’re collecting donations for.
Just post it to the
comments section below. And remember, while this is a friendly competition, it’s still a competition. So get the claws out — and
those donations in.
Check back soon for your chance to post your first official earnings report.
And get ready to watch the competition turn greener than the Grinch.
Holiday sweaters get noticed. Period.
Holiday sweaters with cats? Even better.
November 24, 2009
Keeping Up: Webinars, Conferences and Event Recordings
Ten Adams Blog Manager
Are you tired of scouring the web for webinars and conferences that will keep you abreast of the healthcare marketing and communications industry? Look no further, we have assembled a list of upcoming events that are exclusively healthcare marketing focused. We keep an updated list of webinars, events, conferences and recordings on the right side of this blog at all times. Check back frequently to see what you should be attending to stay on top of your game!
February 28
- March 2, 2010
Camelback
Inn Resort & Spa -
The 2010
Physician Strategies Summit is an opportunity for senior healthcare executives
who are actively involved in the design and implementation of physician
strategies and relationship programs to share their success stories with their
colleagues. Be part of this cutting-edge, highly-rated, educational event. For
the 2010 conference, 200-225 senior level healthcare executives are expected to
attend. The target group for the conference includes CEOs/COOs, physician
leaders, physician relations directors, sales executives, business development
executives, marketing executives, and other senior strategists from hospitals,
health systems, and medical group practices.
March 3,
2010
Con
Price: $695
No theory.
No pie-in-the-sky advice. Just proven strategies straight from the PR front
lines. Join us in
How do you
communicate to hundreds of thousands of prospective patients, recruit top-notch
physicians, entice donors and promote your services through creative marketing
and social media? Find out from this special conference that was recorded in
December 09
- December 09, 2009
Join
Thomson Reuters, Tuesday, December 9 at 2 p.m. (Eastern) for an hour-long Web
seminar highlighting the results of a recent analysis of public sector
healthcare cost and utilization compared to the private sector. In this
presentation, we'll do a deeper dive into the differences between the two and discuss
what you can do to narrow the gap.
Disruptive Innovation: Challenging
the Status Quo - Webinar
Wednesday,
December 2, 2009 2:30PM – 4:00PM (CST)
Innovations
tend to follow two routes: either they are assimilated into the status quo, or
they fade away because they lack a sustainable business case. But disruptive
innovations veer off the beaten path, with a sticking power that has the
potential to change the way services are sought out and delivered. In this
Webinar, Paul H. Keckley, PhD , Executive Director of the Deloitte Center for
Health Solutions, will examine key disruptive trends in healthcare, including:
* retail clinics * medical tourism * patient-centered medical homes *
technology-enabled self-care. Be one of the first to hear the results of new
research on consumer receptivity to these innovations, current and projected
growth trends, sustainability, and the impact on the global healthcare system.
Leveraging
Technology. Physician Strategies Summit. The Forum for Healthcare
Strategists. Hospital & Physician Relations: An Executive Summit.
Webinars 2009 Schedule Customizing Your Physician Relations Efforts:
Niche Solutions Offer Result
- Webinar
Schedule
Customizing Your Physician Relations Efforts: Niche Solutions Offer Results
As more
hospitals employ physicians, a new responsibility has been added to the
marketer's list ... marketing employed physician practices. Great marketers
make it happen, but nothing contributes to success more than framing the right
approach upfront, and knowing the pitfalls before they arise. Teri Cardenas,
Sr. System Director, Strategic Marketing & Communications, CHRISTUS Health;
Carol Fellin Hemker, Director, Physician Services & Marketing, Christian
Hospital/BJC; and Kriss Barlow , Principal, Barlow/McCarthy, will offer
practical, time-tested solutions to streamline the practice marketing process,
maximize your marketing efforts, and get the practice the visibility needed for
growth. Attend this program and explore: * key communication tools (Web-based
and traditional) and advertising venues * the marketer's role in supporting
practice staff and messaging * obtaining organizational and physician buy-in *
how approaches differ for new vs. established practices Proven case studies
will be shared.
Photo Courtesy of: www.ccsr.ac.uk
October 27, 2009
What Women Want (in their Healthcare) Part 3
by Ashley Sollars
Ten Adams Blog Manager
BUYING TRENDS
Stages of Life
Throughout
a woman’s life, she has different healthcare needs and marketing professionals
should identify these needs and target the demographic that is most pertinent.
Some service lines are very specific to one age group such as geriatrics and
Emotional Trends
According
to Vicki Lucus, Ph.D., president of Strategic Healthcare Initiatives, 85% of
women base their decisions on emotional factors. Focus on the Family conducted
a study on why abused women stay with their abusers instead of simply leaving
them. Twelve reasons – all emotional – were listed why women do not leave. No
where in Focus on the Family’s study did they conclude that women stay to avoid
worse physical harm if they left. Ms. Lucus goes on to explain that women
perceive almost all interactions within an emotional context and have a higher
retention rate with an emotional link. In general, women will reformulate it
into an emotional context. Your advertising should appeal to the emotional side
of women and their needs and your staff should build positive experiences with
their female patients to ensure their return.
At Least One
Women’s-Centered Center of Excellence
It has been
documented that if your hospital has at least one Center of
Recap
- Define the key niches within the female demographic
- Benefit from case studies and examples of marketing
strategies to women that work
- Educate and involve your consumers to gain loyalty
- Differentiate your facility from the competition
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