5 "Little" Details That Affect Patient Retention/Conversions

In the business of healthcare, the level of care you provide will always be the most important thing. However, that doesn’t mean that doctors, hospitals, and practice groups should ignore those “little” things that can make or break a patient’s experience. These 5 seemingly small details can mean stronger reviews, better word-of-mouth, and, ultimately, better […]

free healthcare marketing: doctor gives tv interview

Don’t Miss These 7 Free (Or Cheap) Healthcare Marketing Opportunities

Securing the growth of any healthcare business requires a thorough plan and budget for your marketing. But we get it—many doctors, administrators, and executives are also searching for free, simple ways to reach a local audience. Many of these free healthcare marketing opportunities will require time and commitment, but most are simply good business practice. […]

man hanging up phone exemplifying how companies are losing patients

4 Ways Your Online Presence Keeps Patients Away

You know you need a website to succeed in healthcare today. While some organizations rely heavily on word-of-mouth and doctor referrals, this won't last forever. Today's savvy patients are researching everything from dentists to radiologists to medical device manufacturers before they ever consider a product or service. Your website helps these patients find the right […]

10 Medical Marketing Strategies to Try in 2019

This year, we're likely to see some dramatic changes in the world of healthcare. With private equity acquisitions on the rise, retailization in high demand, and some fierce competition, it's time to start treating your healthcare organization like the business it is. Make 2019 the year you find what works for your medical marketing. These […]

doctor and patient in doctor's office discussing better care

[PODCAST] The Secret to Better Care in the Changing World of Healthcare

Running any healthcare organization comes with a number of challenges and obstacles. But CityMD, a large chain of urgent care centers in New York, has found a way to expand to 100+ locations without sacrificing care and compassion. In fact, as Richard Park, MD, CEO and Founder of CityMD tells me in today’s podcast, care […]

5 Things Doctors Get Wrong about Search Engine Rankings

You’ve got a decent website. Now, you just need people to find it. Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about changing the content, performance, and user experience of your website in order for it to appear higher in the search engines (such as Google and Bing). This is more important for hospitals and medical practices […]

Are Medical Marketing Agencies Worth It, or Should You Hire Within?

Good doctors alone, no matter how competent or innovative, do not make a hospital or practice successful. Some level of marketing is always required. It may start with word-of-mouth, but eventually, you'll need to expand your reach—and you might start to consider what medical marketing agencies have to offer. The most successful practices and hospitals […]

tower tiles with marketing strategy related words

Proactive Medical Marketing: Ramp Up Your Strategy Before You’re in Danger

Too many people wait until disaster strikes to make any serious moves in life. You may wait until your car breaks down before you ever think to replace or service it. Your patients wait until symptoms are severe before seeking medical attention. And you might not take the time to market your practice or hospital […]

“Doctors Don’t Advertise” and 10 Other Lame Marketing Myths

Nearly 100 percent of the hospitals and medical practices that we meet in the course of a year want their business to expand. These are the marketing savvy doctors and communications professionals who recognize that medicine is a profession, but healthcare is a business. They usually represent the premier providers in a region—already holding a […]

chat box with a sad face representing negative reviews

How to Handle Negative Physician Reviews and Feedback

[Community Manager Series Installment] The care and feeding of all social media issues fall squarely in the lap of the community manager. All the good, the bad and the “everything else” from online physician reviews and feedback demands constant attention. The trouble is, nobody enjoys handling a hot potato, negative physician review or feedback. Related: […]

Mayo Clinic Social Media Network: Shared Content and the Warm Arizona Sun [Podcast]

[Healthcare Success Leadership Podcast] In this installment of our continuing educational series, Healthcare Success CEO Stewart Gandolf, [@StewartGandolf ] talks with Lee Aase, [@LeeAase], Director of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network. #MCSMN The seventh Mayo Clinic Social Media Network Annual Conference will be held at the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale campus, December 11-12, 2017. In today’s podcast, […]

The Simple, Three-Part Secret to Asking for Referrals

Recently, I had a unique experience at a local IHOP restaurant. I’d like to share this real-world, simple-but-effective marketing idea that everyone can use. Here’s how asking for referrals can be an immediate boost for business. I was enjoying Father’s Day breakfast with the family. About halfway through our meal, an employee —wearing the name […]

Why Your Internal Audience Is Your Most Important Audience

At a routine medical appointment yesterday, a friend of mine was greeted with a chilling: “Please sign in, and take a seat.” No warm hello. No friendly smile. And no way to treat a regular member of the internal audience of this practice. Here's why: The math is simple and straightforward. It costs at least five […]

Reputation Management: 3 Steps to Winning the Patient Ratings Game

If nobody’s aware that your patients are satisfied, does it even matter? Related: 9 Essential Steps to Improve Doctor Ratings Online Yes, of course it matters — but it isn’t helping your marketing. Word-of-mouth and online review websites are the dominant resources patients use to select their doctors. Which means that in 2017, taking charge […]

Brand Loyalty: Why it Matters for Your Healthcare Practice

The inspiration for this article came from my favorite grocery store, Publix. I was raised in the southeast, and developed a strong attachment for the chain. If you haven’t visited a Publix before, it’s hard to image what makes this grocery store different from others. Every time I walk in, I feel a sense of […]

Healthcare Pay-Per-Click Advertising on laptop

Healthcare Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Here's What You Should Consider

The Internet is now the well-established new business front door for health information, healthcare practices and hospitals. Nearly 90 percent of the billions of healthcare searches are online. But what you may not appreciate is that pay-per-click (PPC) advertising delivers answers to consumers’ needs via one billion search ad clicks. PPC advertising successfully navigates the […]

Reputation Management and the Significance of Your Net Promoter Score

Does anyone remember the old catchphrase: “Who loves Ya?” From TV to pop music to healthcare delivery, the challenge of effective reputation management is to quantify the patient experience. We’re all familiar with fundamental survey questions. It is the most common technique to assign a number value to a human experience. Surveys vary, but there are five […]

4 Physician Referral-Building Mistakes That Spoil Your Reputation

The business of physician referrals—that stream of new cases and revenue—depends on maintaining a solid relationship with colleagues. Doctor-to-doctor patient referrals rely on a trust and confidence that goes beyond your CV, clinical skills and professional experience. Your reputation is on the line. I have the good fortune to travel throughout the country working with […]

Physician Reviews and the Essence of Consumer Healthcare Marketing

[Series Installment] Once upon a time—as all fanciful tales begin—us good common folk of the kingdom never thought to question the reputation or chivalry of noblemen or knights. Nobles had their regal robes, and knights had their armor. And, in this bygone era in healthcare’s crown estate, legions esteemed their doctors, physicians and surgeons—the much […]

Beyond the Basics: Creating a Stellar Online Presence for Physician Marketing

[A continuing series.] The previous installment of this article, Care and Feeding of Doctor Online Presence, Reputation and Brand, describes the connected relationship of presence, reputation and brand. Quite obviously, the indispensible foundation for reputation building excellence is a consistently high level of patient satisfaction. When patients are pleased or satisfied with the healthcare service […]

How to Grow a Brand Evangelism Marketing Movement

[Part of a Series] Many medical practices are unaware of their own potential in evangelism marketing. Virtually every day, doctors and hospitals deliver a form of happiness and satisfaction to their patients. These are people who appreciate the health care solution that has resolved their medical concern. Unfortunately, this sense of patient gratitude is largely […]

How to Turn Anxiety Into Fun, Excitement and Social Enthusiasm

There’s no mistaking this picture. Ryan is one happy kid. Ryan—the son of Niki Kaylor, our Director of Client Services—just received his first college acceptance letter. The envelope alone leaves no doubt about the University of South Carolina (USC) notification to Ryan, his family and friends. Niki—who happened to be at home with Ryan when […]

A Persuasive Doctor’s Success Formula for (Almost) Everything

Mastery of the many dynamics of personal interaction in healthcare is, in the kindest of terms, a continuous challenge. But successful individual doctors, hospitals and sprawling health systems have a semi-secret formula for success. The curious thing about this six-point recipe is that it has helpful applications to nearly every type of communications and person-to-person […]

How to Destroy Patient-Physician Relationships in a New York Minute

If there is one dominant factor that quickly erodes the patient-physician relationship, it is lack of respect—particularly a feeling of disrespect for the patient’s time. Patients have a limited ability to judge a physician’s clinical competence, but they do have a sense of personal self-worth that says: “My time is just as valuable as your […]

What If Patients Billed Doctors for Time Waiting to Be Seen?

While languishing in a medical practice reception area, more than a few patients have fantasized about financial revenge, thinking: “I should send a bill to this doctor for making me wait so long.” That’s not a fanciful idea. “In 2010, people in America spent 1.1 billion hours seeking health care for themselves or for loved […]

What Doctors Can Learn From Unhappy Patients

Picture this scenario. You have an unhappy patient in your office, and, frankly, nobody on the staff (much less the doctor) is eager to jump into that thunderstorm. Let’s hope that this doesn’t come up too often, but realistically it happens even in the best of practices. You and your staff should be prepared to […]

LinkedIn: Every Doctor’s Heavyweight Social Partner

[Article Series: An excerpt from a forthcoming book by Mark Tager, MD, and Stewart Gandolf, MBA, for private practice physicians and healthcare administrators about reaching, recruiting and retaining private pay and elective care patients.] Each of the primary social media tools has a distinct personality. If Facebook is the family SUV, and Twitter is a […]

Defining a Buyer Persona for Healthcare Marketing

The marketing and advertising idea defining a “Buyer Persona” is well known in the retail world, but it’s a relatively new—and increasingly important—concept for doctors, hospitals and healthcare providers. The nation’s healthcare delivery system is now consumer-centric and driven by informed and empowered “buyers.” Taking a page from the retail world, the consumer is thoughtfully gathering information […]

Using Social Proof to Win Friends and Influence People

Whether we know it or not—and whether we like it or not—nearly everyone is influenced by the human phenomenon of “social proof.” The term was coined long before the Internet arrived on your desktop and popularized social media. We can all thank psychology Professor Robert Cialdini for the label—he didn’t invent social proof, it seems […]

More Physician Marketing Tactics that Drive Greater Visibility

[Another installment in our continuing education series about Internet and marketing terms that sharpen your business success.] The inside-the-shop vocabulary of medical advertising agencies has expanded with the growth of the Internet as a primary healthcare marketing tool. Although elements of this business language are relatively new, they are nonetheless important to attracting and retaining […]

Online Reputation Management Tips for Hospitals

[Guest Post] Adrienne Erin is a freelance writer, designer, and subscriber to the Healthcare Success blog. Let’s face it. Some patients are more likely to post negative comments in online forums than positive ones. Additionally, negative comments can have more influence than positive comments do. These are some of the reasons that it’s imperative to […]

Maybe the Worst Patient-Experience Story You’ve Ever Heard

If Healthcare Success has an “Action Central” news desk, it’s my office. Client success stories pop-up regularly from around the country, and each narrative that comes our way makes a valuable contribution to our 20-plus year experience in marketing to patients. We like that. The “good-news stories” are wonderful insight. We keep on top of […]

Good Doc or Bad Doc: How Patients Judge Provider Quality

There’s a troublesome disconnect between how the nation’s medical system defines the quality of healthcare providers and how patients and prospective patients judge a “good doctor.” “Doctors who listen are important, but ‘some of the nicest doctors are the least competent,’ cautioned Dr. Elliott Fisher of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice” […]

9 Success Keys: How to Make Your Social Media Truly Engaging

The words “social media” and “engagement” seem to be joined at the hip. In healthcare marketing—including outreach from a medical practice, or a hospital—social media (SM) is broadly understood to simply mean your choice of tools. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google Plus are most popular and important. That part is easy. But curiously, the […]

Lessons You Could Learn from an Amish Marketing Director

An interesting thing about marketing for healthcare is that useful lessons can be found in unlikely places and unrelated enterprises. With a little imagination and creative thinking, good stories—business success stories—reveal ideas that transfer to a practitioner, group practice or even a hospital. Here’s one such story from the managing editor of Healthcare Success publications. […]

10 commandments of online reputation management for physicians part 1

10 Commandments of Online Reputation Management for Physicians [Part One]

[First of an article in two parts.] Across the board, medical reputation management is an ever-present ingredient in healthcare marketing. Informed and empowered consumer/patients do their homework, researching symptoms, medical conditions and hospitals. From branding to public relations (and everything in between), a physician’s reputation is a key component and influence factor. And as many […]

First Principle of Enduring Success: Existing Patients First

Some fundamental business ideas deserve repeating: Successful marketing—and practice growth—begins with taking care of existing customers/patients first. Growth-minded healthcare organizations often assume that business development is exclusively a matter of bringing new people through the door. Previous or existing patients—customers who have already crossed your threshold—are taken for granted, mentally considered “a done deal,” or […]

Social Media Patient Rants: Defense Lessons from Big Biz

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but two insightful marketing object lessons popped up this week. The subject matter in common was customer service via social media, but in these two stories the outcomes were different. Both illustrations—one good and one not—are pages from big business, and they hold excellent take-away lessons for hospital and […]

Street sign of the intersection of right and wrong

A Civilized Year-end Rant: Marketing Blunders That Makes Us Pull Our Hair Out

No, I’m not bald. Not yet. But there are moments throughout the year when I’m ready to grab a handful of those threadlike strands and yank with gusto. Instead, please allow me this brief and civilized rant…a year-end vent for the little frustrations that I encounter in healthcare marketing and advertising. In fact, let’s consider […]

Facebook Cheat Sheet: A Guide for Healthcare and Marketing Professionals

As America’s healthcare delivery systems have reinvented themselves, many social media platforms have become important marketing instruments for patient engagement, service line awareness, new business development and similar communications objectives. Each social media channel—such as Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter and many others—has its own distinct purpose and personality. This educational series provides marketing professionals, hospital […]

50 Best LinkedIn Groups for Healthcare Marketing

LinkedIn professional group participation is often underutilized, so as a boost for readers and colleagues, here’s our list of top LinkedIn groups for fellow professionals to join. In our book, LinkedIn is the top business-serious social media for physicians and hospital execs. And the LinkedIn Groups feature just might be the best online professional forum […]

6 Ways to Influence and Persuade with Social Proof

Social proof is a principle of influence and persuasion that can be highly effective in healthcare marketing. People want validation that they are making the right choice or proper decision and the actions of others like themselves is compelling guidance. Here's how it works and ways to use it. There was an interesting item about […]

Using the Incredible Power of Story-Selling

Success often arrives wrapped in a compelling story. And “storyselling” is a highly effective path to achieving your medical marketing or advertising goals...from winning case acceptance to bumping up the price of a service or product. Here’s a quick look at how this idea applies to the business side of healthcare. A Las Vegas pawnshop […]

A Bad Sign: Watching Revenue Walk Out the Door

While making a professional call on a doctor’s office the other day, a colleague of ours watched $5,000 walk out the door. The small-but-painful drama that unfolded in the reception area is worth retelling if our experience can save other medical practices from losing patients and revenue. It was a real-world lesson in physician and […]

Who Knew? The Surprising Science Behind Patient Satisfaction

It’s no surprise to any of us that we remember situations that have exceeded our expectations. It’s that unexpected bit of delight or reward that we experienced at a (now favorite) restaurant, in seeing an entertaining movie, or even while doing a bit of retail shopping.

Reputation Equals Revenue: What’s Your Review Site Strategy?

The painful thing about lost business opportunity is that you often don’t know that it’s lost. It’s revenue that never happened. Here’s a sorry-scenario that we discover all too frequently: A word-of-mouth (WoM) referral passes from a patient to a prospective patient The prospective patient looks for your practice online only to find “unhappy” reviews […]

Even 9-Year Olds Hate Waiting Rooms

This is a brief post with a really big lesson… My fourth-grade daughter Natalie was asked to draw pictures of her vocabulary words this week. We asked her about one of the drawings, she said her word was "boring." The picture was of waiting in a doctor's office. (Apparently we've forgotten to teach her the […]

Big Mistake Number 12: Choosing the Wrong Healthcare Advertising Channel

One of the most common medical advertising mistakes that doctors and hospitals make every day—one of many that we discover all too frequently—is using the wrong advertising channels. Physicians, hospital executives and other healthcare marketing decision-makers are distracted by a hundred other daily demands on their time, and they fail to fully evaluate their media […]

Sharecasting: How to Magnify Your Healthcare Marketing Influence and Reputation

In the past few years, healthcare providers and marketing executives have been actively sharing ideas and information as an effective means of reaching and engaging patients online. Doctors, hospitals and health systems are creating and maintaining meaningful relationships by presenting timely information today that prospective patients may need tomorrow. And content that they share is […]

The Power of Internal Marketing in Healthcare (and 10 Ways to Use)

A curious thing about Internal Marketing is that healthcare—be it a hospital or a medical practice—understands the term by a slightly different definition. Many textbooks apply “internal marketing” to leadership and organizational approaches targeting employees and departments. Although everyone in a medical provider practice plays a role in the service product delivery, Internal Marketing is […]

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