Demystifying Web Analytics

There's no such thing as a “set-and-forget” Web site. We have yet to find a successful practice Web site that performs well on neglect. We've written several articles that challenge the “If-I-build-it-they-will-come” fantasy of early practice Web sites — and provided practical direction about what to do instead. But if your practice Web site is […]

Computer and Mobile Technology that Improves Revenue and Productivity

Keeping your patients connected and your schedule full automatically. Using computer and mobile technology to communicate with busy patients, give back time to the busy office staff, keep the appointment calendar filled, and boost productivity is a win-win-win proposition. Here's a new way to automate a time-intensive task-using a "patient's choice" that keeps them connected […]

A Rose by Any Other Name: What to do When Healthcare Marketing is a Thorny Label

Be honest...does your boss think that “marketing” is an evil word? Or maybe it’s just a “necessary evil” that has to be tolerated because they still need the business. From time to time we discover a negative undercurrent about marketing in all sorts of healthcare organizations. We work with physician groups, hospitals and individual practices […]

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WANTED: Beyond-the-Basics Healthcare Social Media Examples Like These

Although healthcare marketing is actively embracing social media, we’re looking for examples of genuine, beyond-the-basics innovation. If you’re using online and social media tools in ways that are truly new and different, we want to hear from you. We’ll help tell your story. Here’s a bit of background and some inspiring examples… Someday, with the […]

Non-Surgical Facial Procedures: Hot Market for Plastic Surgeons Also Heats-Up Professional Competition

To the surprise of hardly anyone, the number of non-surgical facial procedures spiked dramatically last year. The data, according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), says that 75 percent of the procedures performed by Academy surgeons in 2010 were non-surgical. Moreover, the number of nonsurgical procedures has grown by 16 […]

8 Public Speaking Tips for Maximum Marketing Mileage

How to succeed at public speaking, enhance your reputation and produce new revenue Successful public speaking can be easier than you think. Natural anxiety aside, speaking is a useful and effective marketing tool for a meaningful connection with professional peers and prospective patients in the community. Attracting new patients and professional referrals is more about […]

The Silver Tsunami and Five Other Disruptive Trends Impacting Medical Marketing

Take a quiet two minutes for a demographic reality check. Trust me, this isn’t an academic exercise. Private practices, physician groups, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and virtually all healthcare organizations should take note. Census data reveals some disruptive trends at work in the US population, researchers say. And, we would observe, if your healthcare marketing plan […]

doctor's hand holding stethoscope popping out of laptop screen

Online Video House Calls? Tune-in and Watch This Trend Line.

We see in the news that Dr. Gregory Smith is making “house calls” via Skype. What’s more, he has between 350-500 appointments each year. A lone report may not signal an explosive trend, but the lesson for healthcare and doctor/physician marketing is that the enabling technology is now mainstream, and medical provider innovators and early […]

Two-Cents Worth of Coffee Leaves a Bad Impression. How Customer Service is Won or Lost in Seconds, Pennies and Drops.

by Steve Smith, Healthcare Success Senior Consultant Scholarly articles about retail customer service tell you that continuing success in business is not about making an individual sale, it’s about creating a relationship that wins a customer. It’s a principle that applies in healthcare delivery, and with every patient (the customer) interaction. And these winning […]

Pacemaker-Like Device for Sleep Apnea on the Horizon

Existing treatment options and marketing approaches for obstructive sleep apnea and loud snoring may be changing with a new, pacemaker-like medical device. Sleep centers, hospitals, otolaryngologists and other providers will want to follow the introduction of an airway stimulation therapy approach. The new medical device has been approved for sale in Europe and for clinical […]

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 […]

When Referral Sources Die, Defect, Retire—What Are You Going to Do Now?

Professional referrals—typically from generalist to specialist or to hospital admitting—are the financial lifeblood of many specialty practices, hospitals and other medical and dental providers. However, once rock-solid referral sources have eroded or evaporated with the dynamics that are reshaping healthcare delivery systems. It’s an increasingly urgent problem for hospital and healthcare marketing in general, and […]

27 iPad Uses in Medical Marketing, Point of Care and Pharma/Device Sales

Editor’s Note: This is an informal round up of iPad healthcare deployment applications that we’ve seen since the product was introduced less than a year ago. Many of the uses listed can be adapted to various professions, specialties and healthcare delivery situations. Most importantly, please help us expand this list. Comment below or send us […]

Oral Surgery Marketing Mistake: A Cautionary Tale for All

An oral surgeon called us not long ago. He had been referred to us by a friend, another oral maxillofacial surgeon who knows us well. The caller (now a client) told us that he had just fired his in-house marketing person. He was calling for guidance about not making another wrong hire for his oral […]

Tricks You Can Use From the Urgent Care Marketing Handbook

Everyone in healthcare marketing has something to learn from the pages of the Urgent Care Marketing Handbook. Even if your point on the spectrum is as a physician provider, hospital, medical center or other healthcare entity, there’s much to be learned from walk-in clinics and ambulatory care facilities. Consider this: You don’t have to wander […]

Will the First Home-Use Laser Device Put a Wrinkle in Plastic Surgery or MediSpa Marketing?

Healthcare providers and marketing professionals who deal with wrinkle removal, and skin care in general, will want to watch the promotional roll-out of a new home skin treatment. It’s already a crowded marketplace, but there are a couple “firsts” here that make this device a bit of a breakthrough. This month, device manufacturer Palomar Medical […]

4 Things You Need Before You Hire a Full-Time Social Media Manager

The AMA’s American Medical News carried an excellent article recently titled: Hospitals' new specialist: Social media manager. It told the tale of how various hospitals—such as Swedish Medical Center (Seattle) and Mayo Clinic—are hiring staff members dedicated exclusively to social and interactive media. What's more, other hospitals, health systems, and medical practices either have someone […]

Troubling Reasons Why Healthcare Providers Must Be Motivational Communicators

Tips for provider and staff who talk with reluctant patients scared by economic tough times. Effective physician-patient communication skills are increasingly critical in the clinical setting. Here's why the "new normal" in healthcare now demands a team approach that applies these basic ingredients. It's a page from every successful sales executive's playbook. Some physician stories […]

The Big-Ad-But-No-Experience Frustration. Answer the Competition or Forfeit the Marketing Advantage in Silence.

Does this sound familiar? A prominent doctor with tons of experience picks up a magazine and sees an ad for a competitive practice. The other practice has significantly less experience, but they do have a half page, full color ad. And to the public they look like the biggest game in town.

Primary Care Physicians and Specialists Referral Gap Means Marketing Problems

The numbers are an eye-opener: Two-thirds of primary care physicians say they regularly send patient referral information to specialists, but only one-third of specialists report receiving it. Clearly there’s a communications disconnect, according to a national study published this month in Archives of Internal Medicine. The study did not directly address the marketing implications of […]

Success Skills: Recognizing Buying Signals Improves Case Acceptance

How to practice your "empathetic listening" for better patient communications Professionals need to be effective communicators, particularly when offering elective care options. Exceptional patient communications begin with careful listening skills that can be cultivated with daily practice.

The Plumber Says Thanks: Customer Service Lessons From Unlikely Sources

by Steve Smith, Healthcare Success Senior Consultant Those of us in healthcare often suffer from diminished peripheral vision. We tend to believe that we work in a vacuum, and that despite whatever else is happening in other professions or businesses, healthcare is governed by a separate, special set of rules. In many ways, of […]

What Groundhog Day and Doctor Referral Marketing Have in Common

[EDITOR'S NOTE: In honor of Groundhog Day, we are re-posting this item from last year just for fun. The advice applies to all referral-reliant provider practices. Enjoy...and hope for an early Spring this year.] It doesn’t seem like 18 19 years since the release of the movie Groundhog Day. There’s an important lesson here for any […]

Twitter Users May Not Match Your Target Audience

Twitter is one of the four best known social media tools—YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And if you look at Ed Bennett’s accounting of 890 US hospitals using social networking tools, almost 75 percent have Twitter accounts. (That’s a close second to hospitals with Facebook pages at nearly 80 percent.) But name recognition isn’t as […]

SHSMD Offers Marketing Guidance for Hospitals – And Everyone Else, Too

If you’re a member of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) you got the same email that we did about their new Principles and Practices for Marketing Communications in Hospitals and Health Systems. It’s another example of the SHSMD and American Hospital Association’s thought leadership, and we recommend downloading their advisory. It’s […]

Orthopedic Surgery Reveals Future Healthcare Marketing Trend

We’re hopeful about the promise of positive things to come, but we’re also realistic. Orthopedic Surgery gives us clues about healthcare marketing, and it’s a perspective that, we predict, will apply to many others as well. There’s no doubt that things are changing in marketing, advertising and public relations for hospitals, medical groups, pharmaceutical companies, […]

What You Can Learn from Occupational Medicine Marketing

Like so many of the healthcare provider channels in medicine today, occupational medicine is changing. And there are marketing lessons in occupational medicine marketing for many other professions, medical practices, hospitals, clinics and healthcare organizations. The key to success in occupational medicine is good sales acumen. The clinic, urgent care center or medical facility that […]

brady bunch characters standing on stairs

What My Grandmother’s Magazines Say to Your Patients About Their Brand Experience

by Kathy Roy Gaughran, Senior Marketing Strategist My travel schedule takes me to the offices of healthcare providers throughout the nation. Each initial visit is a great “first impression” opportunity for me to take the role of a new patient who is seeing the practice with fresh eyes. The “experience” (seeing and feeling what impacts […]

Paging Marcia Brady: Your Outdated Office Décor Gives the Wrong Doctor/Physician Marketing Message

When was the last time you walked into your office through the front door? Take a stroll. Does it look like Marcia Brady is about to walk through at any moment? Most doctors/physicians want to be perceived as progressive and leading edge. They express this in the way they practice medicine and in their doctor/physician […]

Would You Like to Try a Sermo Pulse Survey? A Unique Opportunity for Physician Relations Insight

You’re probably familiar with Sermo, the physicians-only online community with about 116,000 doctor members. We see Sermo—and their Pulse Survey—as an attractive physician relations listening post for hospitals, specialty groups or other healthcare organizations that rely on referrals from physicians.

Re-Thinking Healthcare Advertising Offers

The New Normal for Medical and Hospital Marketing in Tough Economic Times Don't dismiss offer-driven media options automatically. The nation's economic headwinds have produced new, value-sensitive consumer buying patterns and an opportunity to re-consider the way things work in society's "New Normal." The terms "advertising offer" and "healthcare marketing" sometimes seem like misfits. To many, […]

Hospital Community Event: Bike Rodeo and Free Helmets Help Teach Safe Riding Skills - and Keep Kids Out of Florida Hospital

Here’s a civic-minded idea that a hospital, urgent care center and many other healthcare organizations can organize and produce for the benefit of the community…and capture a bit of publicity and public relations in the process. It also illustrates the fact that your budget doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting if you recruit […]

Extreme Makeover Predicted for Healthcare (Really?) No Surprises for Healthcare Marketing among PwC Top Trends

We predict that you’ll be reading a lot of New Year predictions this week. One such crystal ball report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) uses pretty dramatic language. Within six top health industry issues, PwC expects an “extreme strategy makeover." And each of the six issues contain healthcare marketing, advertising and public relations implications for medical providers, […]

7 Resolutions To Get Your Healthcare Business Moving

7 Resolutions To Get Your Healthcare Business Moving Courage is a personal thing...and we salute the doctor who called us last year with his highly personal introspection. Then, as now, it was the season to reflect on the year past, and for individual and professional evaluation. This brief story—and we thank you for permission to […]

Reimbursement Rate Cuts Postponed for One Year

Five challenge questions to being proactive and making the most of this marketing window Physicians don't get much "good news" about reimbursement, so you may have already noticed this important report from our nation's capital. It didn't run on the eleven o'clock news. Before adjourning just before Christmas, the 109th Congress passed and sent to […]

Guerilla Tactics to Generate Traffic to Your Practice Web Site

Editor's Note: This is the third article in our three-part series about how to get your hospital or healthcare practice website found by potential patients. The Internet is a powerful tool for marketing. But simply having a web site does not mean that patients will find you. The first two articles in this series presented the […]

Publicity Hitchhiking: Offer Your Local Expert Voice for National Healthcare Headlines

Here’s a useful technique that publicity savvy professionals, hospitals and healthcare organizations are using to grab a bit of the national news halo. Here’s how it works… When you can link developments in your specialty or professional field to timely news headlines—especially national news—call the news media and offer a local angle or spin that’s […]

6 Billion Reasons Why Groupon Represents the ‘New Normal’ in Marketing & Advertising

Did you blink? New online healthcare marketing and advertising tools burst onto the scene faster than you can reboot your iPad. Take the business rocket Groupon for example. It’s well worth considering in elective healthcare sectors. Here’s why… Barely two years ago there was no Groupon. But less than a fortnight ago, the online deal-of-the-day […]

What Healthcare Providers Could Learn About Customer Service From My 18-Year Old Kid

by Steve Smith, Healthcare Success Senior Consultant My 18-year-old son is a freshman in college. For the past four years he has held a part-time job at a local hardware store. Some days he is a cashier, but most days he helps customers on the sales floor. And in the past he has been mystery […]

Five-Star Differentiation: Nonclinical Experience Twice as Important as Clinical Reputation in Patient Choice of Hospital

Hospital marketing is increasingly using hospitality to differentiate their brand. News reports say hospitals are looking more like luxury hotels. And we’ve posted articles about facilities throughout the nation that have linked their hospital marketing, advertising and public relations messages to exceptional “patient experience.” These nonclinical patient benefits include spa-like women’s centers, family-friendly patient rooms, […]

Healthcare Marketing: Your Lab Report is Gibberish. How Good Design Improves Health and Doctor-Patient Communications

A physician’s reading list is more likely to include JAMA than Wired magazine. Although the tech-centric journal seems an unlikely source, this month’s edition (Dec 2010) provides a vividly illustrated case example for marketing communications. Doctors, hospitals and clinical labs in particular will find a brief but dramatic lesson in how good graphic design can […]

heart monitor rate and stethoscope next to red 3D heart

Medical Device Marketing & Advertising Finds Receptive Audience with At-Home Patients

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that almost half of the American population lives with at least one chronic condition such as diabetes, asthma, COPD or heart disease. The numbers spike in older age categories, with more than ninety percent of Americans age 65 or older living with some form of chronic […]

1950's television with a newscaster reading a news bulletin

Dental Marketing & PR: Philadelphia Dentist Gives Back to Community and Catches TV News Spotlight

This item is about a dentist, but it's a local television PR example that could be used by any profession, hospital or healthcare entity. It’s known as the City of Brotherly Love, and the CBS television station in Philadelphia runs a regular segment in the news with the same name. It’s an ongoing feature that […]

Winning with Print: Nuts and Bolts of Magazine & Newspaper Advertising

Print advertising remains a cost-effective option when you test, track and adjust. External Communications plans for healthcare marketing can still include magazines and newspapers to produce successful results. But print ads are may not be right for everyone, and only if you do it right from the start. The formula for winning with print involves […]

Veterinary Marketing and Advertising: Winning Year-Round Clients with Holiday Season Publicity

The following article by Healthcare Success Co-Founder (and pet owner) Stewart Gandolf was featured as a guest post on the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) blog, brandBUZZ. AAHA is a companion animal veterinary organization serving approximately 6,000 practice teams in the US and Canada. If the holiday season is slow around your shop – […]

Old Media Telephone is First on New Media List for Marketing to Physicians

Marketing to physicians is always a communications challenge. There are gatekeepers, drawbridges, barriers and the never-ending constraints of a busy physician’s packed schedule. Everyone wants a slice of time for physician relations, medical device sales, hospital marketing and PR, and pharmaceutical detailing, to name just a few. There’s no magic answer. But a recent survey […]

Hospital Marketing & Advertising: A Unique Healthcare Experience for Women by Women

When Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale officially opened its new women’s center a couple weeks ago, it promised a one-stop healthcare experience in a relaxing, spa-like environment. Their concept is to provide a completely unique patient experience. Their website explains, “When you walk through our doors, you will feel as though you have walked […]

Allergist Marketing: Targeting Kissing and Other Life’s Pleasures - Causes of Serious Allergic Reactions

Kissing, wearing cosmetics and jewelry, tattoos and piercings, and even your cell phone could bring on serious allergic reactions. And allergists are learning how to look for and treat reactions to “Life’s Pleasures.” Allergists, allergist marketing professionals and the news media attending the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Meeting earlier this […]

How Are You Using the iPad in Healthcare, Hospital or Pharmaceutical Marketing? Game-Changer or Curious Gadget?

Healthcare seems to be one of the early early-adopter industries for Apple’s popular tablet, trailing the financial services and technology sectors of business. The iPad is still less than a year old and there is no doubt that it’s been a hit in the marketplace. Apple-watchers predict the company will ship 7 to 10 million […]

Little Things Make a Big Difference: The Art of Customer Service in Hospital and Medical Marketing

by Steve Smith, Healthcare Success Senior Consultant True story: The patient has a terminal illness. She arrived at the metropolitan hospital on time for an appointment with her radiation oncologist and was sitting in the waiting room when the doctor emerged with another patient, walking him to the door to say goodbye.

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