Twisdom: Medical Marketing Nuggets from the Twitter Stream

You’re familiar with the social media marvel Twitter. With about 250 million active users (and another 250 registered users), Twitter is a well-known cultural phenomenon. Just about everyone has seen it. Tons of people are using it. And as a medical marketing tool, Twitter is second only to Facebook among the most popular social networking […]

5 Basic Rules of Healthcare Content Marketing

You might have the impression that "content marketing" buzzed its way into popular use a digital minute ago. In the "buzz-vocabulary" of healthcare marketing it's a timely (but not-so-new) topic. Content marketing is a natural fit for many hospitals and healthcare providers. It's a means to speak to people and provide them with useful and […]

New Google+ Local Shakes-up Search: What Healthcare Marketing Needs to Know

This is an installment in the Healthcare Success series about how the significant changes in Google Search impact healthcare marketing and advertising, and what medical practices and hospitals need to know as the online search giant changes the rules. Think of it as "Facebook Friends" for Google...only much bigger and more important. Google, the undisputed […]

How a Trigonometry Teacher Can Grow Your Medical Practice

In this guest post, Phil Sharp fondly remembers his math teacher and finds an insightful and practical lesson for medical practice marketing. It’s all about smashing boring routine with a highly memorable patient experience. I know you’re a busy doctor, but if you let me tell you a quick story about my former trigonometry teacher, […]

Marketing Myopia: A Classic Insight for Winning New Patients Today

The following quote is at least 50 years old, but dentists, doctors and healthcare providers can put this classic insight to the task of winning new patients immediately. Marketing guru and Harvard Business School Professor Theodore Levitt often told his students: "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!" The […]

Testimonials: The Rules of Effective Social Proof in Healthcare Marketing

Puppy dogs (and kittens) are cuddly cute. Babies (and kids) are scene-stealers. But in healthcare marketing, there's nothing more convincing-and downright effective-than an excellent testimonial. Sorry canine cuteness, but testimonials have been called "the single most powerful marketing tool." They are a close relative to word-of-mouth advertising, and they are effective in "closing the sale" […]

Using the Six Principles of Persuasion in Healthcare Marketing

Some health care advertising agencies would have you believe that trendy and award-winning creative materials, intricate and expensive media plans, and enormous medical advertising budgets are what it takes to win the hearts and minds of new patients. In fact there's more science and psychology at work in the business of influencing human behavior than […]

Medical Marketing's Year of the Video - Creative Examples You'll Want to Use

This year promises to be healthcare marketing's Year of the Video. Once an emerging trend, online video has already reached mainstream status. And as we look ahead, medical practices, dental offices, hospitals and other healthcare providers will be deploying new and creative uses of video. (We've included some exceptional examples below as new ideas you […]

The Paradox of Disappearing Patients

The surprising reason why patients leave and the impact to your bottom line. Most say nothing at all...they just don't return. Patient satisfaction is the cornerstone of patient retention. It's difficult to detect, but It is a perception of indifference that causes most people to quit coming back. And the financial loss to your business […]

Big Improvements Can Come in Small Packages: a Hospital Marketing Case Example

A guest post by Randall S. Barton, PhD, Managing Partner, Ideopolis LLC We recently read a great article on the Healthcare Success site titled "Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition”—a Surprising Lesson for Doctor Marketing. It prompted us to write about a prevalent misconception in the medical industry today…that meaningful improvements must be big. In reality, […]

Physician Marketing Tools Have Changed, But Relationship Building Remains the Goal

by Healthcare Success Co-Founder Lonnie Hirsch Just recently, we happened to spot a thoughtful article about how small business needs to embrace new marketing methods to better cope with the nation’s tough economic climate. It turns out that the article was nearly two years old (an “eon” in marketing time), but small business is still […]

mouse wearing pink bow tie standing next to pink flower

What a Dead Rat Can Teach You About Hospital Public Relations and Patient Experience

We’ll call this one the tale of the “dead rat ambassador.” It's currently at the top of the list of real-life “horror stories,” in the category of negative hospital public relations and really bad patient experience. (We have photos, so we know it’s true, but who could make up this kind of stuff?) On the […]

Doctors and Hospitals Take Note: Dentists Take a Public Punch for Marketing in Recession

There are several important healthcare marketing lessons hidden in the recent Los Angeles Times article titled Dentists turn to marketing after getting brush-off from patients. Although it is primarily about dentists and dental marketing in the economic downturn, the important marketing takeaways also apply to medical practices and hospitals. We'll look past any immediate temptation […]

Why “Common Wisdom” is Commonly Wrong in Healthcare Marketing and What to Do Instead

The problem with “common wisdom” is that it is often a myth cleverly disguised as the truth. And it’s easy to buy into these notions, especially when you hear something frequently or from a well-meaning source. For example, consider the common wisdom (and debunkments, if that’s a word) from WebMD: Drink at least eight glasses […]

Flat Tire and Exceeding Expectations: How Empowerment Paves the Road of Patient Satisfaction

by Steve Smith, Healthcare Success Senior Consultant Recently, I told you about the negative impact of five cents worth of coffee. That story was really about how a missed opportunity can be costly. Today, I am pleased to tell you about the opposite, about how a few cents worth of product and labor can make […]

How to Improve Patient Satisfaction and Win Patient Referrals

What's important to patients and three easy ways to measure approval. Sometimes the flow of patients seems...well, over-flowing. But if you're continually running behind schedule, this could be a danger signal that your quality of care and patient satisfaction are not where you want them to be. Professional and personal fulfillment, for both doctor and […]

Fight, Flight or Listen: 3 Ways to Deal with Physician Reviews & Negative Patient Comments

Perhaps you’ve followed the Taco Bell ("Of Course We Use Real Beef") PR brouhaha, or you recall the PR catastrophe for BP regarding last year’s gulf oil spill. Admittedly these are big business issues at the tip of the PR disaster sword. The media has a field day, and it’s a spectator sport for the […]

6 Proven Ways to Market Any Healthcare Organization

The New Normal for Medical Marketing, Healthcare Marketing, and Hospital Marketing in Challenging Socioeconomic Times Healthcare Marketing and advertising can appear to be complex, confusing and daunting. But the first steps on the road to success are grounded in only six fundamental building blocks. We think of it as an "ah-ha moment." It's that highly […]

dollar bills folded into arrows in recycle symbol form

Quick Capture Offer: 1 Dollar-1 Day Only Promotional Idea for Healthcare Marketing & Advertising

When a compelling offer catches your attention – such as the astoundingly low cost of only a dollar – it’s hard to resist. And when it’s only available for a limited time – in this case for one day only – serious buyers have to act immediately or lose the opportunity. The 1 Dollar-1 Day […]

Producing an Effective Healthcare Organization E-Newsletter

Ten tips to putting it all together for success from the start Our previous article about "permission-based e-newsletter" puts you on safe ground in getting started - you know how to compile and safely use your opt-in email list for good marketing and good email etiquette.

FTC Guidelines Apply to Healthcare & Medical Testimonials

Testimonials--still an effective technique--but, more than ever, watch what you say and how you say it. Bloggers and celebrities included. The last time the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated its guidelines regarding the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising was a mere 30 years ago.

two sketch pads with drawn out marketing plan

What Is A Healthcare Marketing Plan?

Here's How We Develop Hospital Marketing Plans, Medical Marketing Plans and Dental Marketing Plans For Our Clients

State of Dental Marketing

Dentists want to grow their practices, but most are operating without a marketing roadmap. "This is an increasingly tough business." This comment from an experienced solo dentist (age 55 to 64) practicing in the Midwest was clear and direct. And many, perhaps most, dentists who participated in the first-ever State of Dental Marketing Survey seem […]

Phone Skills Can Make or Break Your Healthcare Business

"If you can get our phones to ring more often, we'll be happy campers!" It would be very hard to estimate how many times we've heard that request in our combined 30 years of healthcare marketing experience. Hundreds of times would be a conservative guess. "Get people to call us and we can take it […]

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