Last November, Facebook announced that that they were cracking down on businesses with overly promotional page posts, and that offenders would suffer a decrease in organic reach. Organic reach is the number of unique individuals who saw your content. Paid reach is the number of unique people who saw an ad or Sponsored Story that […]
One of the things we commonly hear from colleagues and clients in healthcare marketing is: “Tell me more about social media.” They may be using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other platforms, but the challenge to be effective is the same. Even professional marketing and communications folks want to know more, and some will admit that […]
On the surface, Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising—sometimes known as cost-per-click—seems friendly enough. Advertisers only pay for the advertising space when someone clicks on the ad. One analogy, however, says that PPC can be like high-stakes gambling. The casino will never turn you away, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s really easy to lose […]
Think of it as a “spring cleaning.” Or “time for a tune-up.” Or even a “wellness checkup.” You're probably overdue. If you haven’t given your healthcare website much thought lately, there’s an excellent chance that the digital front door to your practice or hospital is not operating at peak performance...and not ready for prime time. […]
Search Engine Optimization Manager Steven Jacobs talks with Healthcare Success CEO Stewart Gandolf about avoiding classic SEO mistakes. This video is another in our Marketing Minute series with insightful ideas and tips for marketing your medical practice or hospital. Everyone with a healthcare website knows that Search Engine Optimization is vitally important to being found […]
A dermatologist and I were talking the other day about online search and Google search results in particular. His pragmatic view is that Google has become the new phone book. It’s where consumers—prospective patients—turn first to search for and to find a “dermatologist in [community]." What’s more, he feels that if a medical practice isn’t […]
The Godzilla of search engines—Google—has published a warning that, beginning in April, websites that are not “mobile-friendly” will rank lower in search results. We can test that and evaluate your website for you, but here’s why being mobile-friendly is especially important to hospital and healthcare websites. Most people who look online for health information, […]
[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 […]
Regular publishing—producing content for a website, blog, social media and other digital platforms—creates an online presence. But your effectiveness quotient jumps into overdrive when readers share your material with others. Not everything hits the gold standard of “going viral,” but experienced hospital and healthcare marketers appreciate the value of shared digital content. High quality and […]
Online marketing is a primary tool for doctors, medical practices and hospitals to reach new patients. And the pervasive availability of the Internet has propelled healthcare consumers—patients, prospective patients, friends and family—to a new level of awareness and empowerment. The thing is…Internet marketing has become increasingly competitive and technically challenging. A simple website, with a […]
The Internet has become healthcare’s front door. And your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and medical content had better be first class because Google is shuffling the results deck. Google took notice of the big connection between online searches and health, and you’ll soon find medical content in Knowledge Graph enhanced search results. (If the label’s […]
Social media in general—and Facebook in particular—can be a double-edged sword. If you don’t have your finger on the pulse of any given platform or media, what’s really hot today can turn cold overnight—and vice versa. Here’s a quick update about recent Facebook changes that can sharpen your healthcare marketing plan and make wiser use […]
I recently bumped into a specialty practice that did not have a website. The Internet has become such a significant “front door” for healthcare providers and hospitals that having no online presence—nada, zip—was surprising. For this specialty practice, attracting new, self-referred patients was not a priority. “We’re already busy,” they told us. “Our appointments are […]
More often than not, attracting new patients to your medical practice means they found you first online. And the Internet has added vocabulary words to the daily parlance of communications and marketing professionals. Get acquainted with these three timely and useful terms that are no longer reserved for tech-speak of your IT person. A mastery […]
Kylie Ladd, Healthcare Success Social Media Coordinator Social media tools—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and many others—are constantly evolving and have become important components in healthcare marketing plans. It seems that social media is everywhere in today’s culture and shows zero signs of slowing down. Not surprisingly, 41 percent of people surveyed say that social media would […]
A while back, before traces of autumn appeared in the forecast, most marketing pros at hospitals and group medical practices were tying a bow around their marketing strategy for the still-distant New Year. Healthcare providers have Internet Marketing near the top of the list. The Internet has become your new front door, and it commands […]
This idea is funny because it’s so painfully true: “The best place to hide a dead body is page two of Google search results.” Actually, it’s not so funny. Marketing professionals recognize that most consumers who search for hospitals, doctors and health care information begin with the Internet. It has become a universal digital front […]
Computers rely on software. But healthcare marketing is about the user (human) experience, and an accurate assessment shouldn't rely on software alone. Here’s how to avoid a common pothole, and how to leverage your best available tools. Software helps manage the complexity of healthcare marketing. The multi-faceted mission for hospitals, group practices and other provider organizations would […]
"In a single generation there's been a fundamental shift in the way people interact with personal technology," according to Joseph Swedish, CEO of Wellpoint, Inc. “Smartphone technology, social media and data mining will drive change and shift the future of healthcare. Healthcare marketing professionals are increasingly refining their marketing plans, adjusting to how smartphones and mobile devices have dramatically […]
Most doctors recognize that healthcare’s “starting line” moved some time ago. The typical care continuum now begins online, long before the first medical office appointment or doctor-patient face-to-face encounter. Among the chief propellants of this digital shift are the: Mainstream proliferation of rapid Internet access; Wide adoption of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; […]
It may seem counterintuitive, but America’s population of older adults—frequent users of healthcare services—are increasingly frequent users of the Internet. The intersection of senior citizens and the Internet is a growing demographic sweet spot for hospital and healthcare marketing for baby boomers. Although younger age groups are more closely associated with technology, gadgets and Internet […]
Online marketing and healthcare content—most notably social media—is increasingly visual. Longer ago than most of us can remember, what we now call the Internet was strictly an alphanumeric beast. It was great, as long as you could communicate strictly in letters and numbers. That didn’t last long. Communicating with visual elements—pictures, charts, animated GIFs and […]
We know for a fact that—in healthcare marketing—it can seem difficult to explain the value, importance and impact of Twitter. Have you ever been called to a set-down meeting with the boss (or even professional colleagues) and asked to defend social media in general, and Twitter in particular, as an effective marketing expense? Twitter can seem […]
It’s a pop culture mash-up between a "double-dog dare" and a selfie with a cause. Throughout the US, healthcare marketing professionals (and their supervisors) are marveling at this summer’s continuing success of the ALS Association’s Ice Bucket Challenge (IBC). Hospital foundations, medical research associations and the like are amazed and envious of the social media […]
It seems like some people consult their smartphone almost constantly. For young adults, stats says that would be 60 times a day. Although research tells us that consumers spend more than 23 percent of their daily media consumption time with mobile, marketers allocate less than 1 percent of their overall budgets to mobile. This is one […]
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 […]
The primary doorway to health care in the United States is digital. A new patient’s first encounter with a provider almost always begins via the Internet. Perhaps it's not obvious, but your practice website—the cornerstone of an Internet presence—is the essential medical marketing gateway for prospective patients to locate and select doctors and hospitals. Given […]
[Conclusion of an article in two parts.] Our previous post, 10 Commandments of Online Reputation Management for Physicians, (Part one of two) emphasized the importance and value of creating and maintaining your online presence. Moreover, reputation is an ever-present ingredient in health care marketing. And who you are online is who you are to most […]
[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 […]
[Second of two parts.] If you missed the first of this two-part article, click through here to: Creating an Unstoppable YouTube Channel. The good news is that the cost for creating a branded YouTube Channel is next to free. For the most part, all that's required is an investment of time to build and maintain […]
If, as the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” what’s the marketing “worth” of four pictures? Twitter has introduced another new tool that can multiply the impact of your communications. The social media giant unveiled its "photo collage feature that delivers even more message-mileage. Now you can share up to four […]
[First of two parts.] Imagine that you just won a shiny new car. The ride of your dreams now sets in your driveway; all gassed-up and ready to roll. It’s free—tax, license and fees all paid—and all set to head off to anywhere and everywhere. The video sharing platform, YouTube, is like free transportation (at […]
[Continuing series installment.] A unproductive (or outright lazy) employee wouldn’t last long in a well-managed medical practice. And, considering the investment that most doctors have sunk in their website, it’s frustrating to discover a doctor’s website that is “present,” but clearly “under-performing.” Some weak sites are outdated or seriously ill, and those guys are prime […]
Your communications professional life was busy enough when, only a few digital moments ago, your internet marketing mainstay was a good website. And your hardware was a clunky desktop PC. The boss (and the budget) was happy with that, but the simplicity of that early state is long past. And one of the new challenges […]
[Continuing Series] More secrets, tips and idea-starters to help create engagement, inspire action and encourage social sharing with your hospital and healthcare audience. Online content in marketing produces its strongest impact when your intended audience sees it AND when it causes response. Publishing is the starting line, and information and awareness are desirable process steps. […]
A few of our readers may a recall a time before a computer and Internet access were standard equipment for marketing. Today, our daily work—indeed the communications fabric of society—is online and interconnected. Less than 20 years ago, almost half of US adults (42 percent) had never heard of the Internet, Pew Research says. […]
The popularity of social media in its various forms—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog, etc.—is a fairly recent phenomenon. And for a large segment of society, it is social media that stitches together the blanket of connectivity that we can’t seem to do without. At last count, about 73 percent of online adults used social media sites […]
The Internet has injected contemporary culture with a sense of immediacy. We’ve been spoiled—or at least trained to expect—instant online answers. Search for “dentist” and Google coughs up over 37-million results in less than half a second. The online search for healthcare—be it a hospital, dental office, medical group, or specialty care—must, for most individuals, […]
[Series Installment: The Worst Mistakes Medical Groups and Healthcare Organizations Make When Trying to Attract Patients from the Internet, Mistake Four: Believing Your Audience Will Find You on its Own; from the Healthcare Success Educational Library.] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a website is like the fuel for your car. A beautifully engineered and full-appointed […]
The majority of patients and about half of all doctors search the Internet for healthcare and medical information. But—marketing professionals take note—the reference tool of choice of digitally demanding patients is the relative newcomer, “Dr. Wikipedia.” “Wikipedia is the single leading source of medical information for patients and healthcare professionals,” according to a report about […]
[Series Installment: The Worst Mistakes Healthcare Organizations Make When Trying to Attract Patients from the Internet, Mistake Nine: Failure to Use Social Media Properly; from the Healthcare Success Educational Library.] Once upon a time a simplistic website constituted a Web presence. It was little more than a digital Yellow Page listing and, if your competition […]
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 […]
[Series Installment: The Worst Mistakes Healthcare Organizations Make When Trying to Attract Patients from the Internet, Mistake Three: Ignoring Your Website; from the Healthcare Success Educational Library.] All too often, it is “benign neglect” that causes websites to wither into near non-existence. Instead of attracting and retaining new patients, many well-intended sites—for doctors, hospitals, group […]
The research folks at Pew Internet provide an insightful report about the multi-layered patterns of social networking by online adults. Marketing and communications professionals can determine the most engaging social media opportunities. Referring to Facebook as “dominant” is almost an understatement. Among online adults using social media (SM) sites, the Pew Research Center reports that […]
[A Healthcare Success Educational Series] Social media facilitate patient engagement, service line awareness, new business development and other communications objectives. This educational series provides marketing professionals, hospital executives and medical practice providers with an overview for effective social media planning. LinkedIn is particularly distinctive among the biggest social media (SM) formats. You might say that […]
[A Healthcare Success Educational Series] Social media platforms have become marketing instruments for patient engagement, service line awareness, new business development and other communications objectives. Each channel has a distinct purpose and personality. This educational series provides marketing professionals, hospital executives and medical practice providers with an overview for social media planning. What (even how) […]
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 […]
Curiously, the vast majority of all US hospitals do not participate in social media. We can’t help but wonder (and worry) if this at all reflects how some healthcare marketing pros are planning for the New Year. Having anything less than a first class Internet and social media strategy would be a large and painful […]
Online audio content—such as podcasts, webinars, interviews and the like—have grown in popularity and availability in the past year or two…with (currently) over a million podcast downloads per month. It’s a useful and effective marketing tool for hospitals and medical practices. And, with a little bit of preparation and practice, audio content is relatively low-cost […]
For effective healthcare marketing, it’s not a question of having an Internet presence…just about every doctor, group medical practice, hospital and healthcare organization has at least one website. But visibility for online search doesn’t stop there. Consumers—prospective patients, patients, family members—are actively searching online for health information, doctors and other health professionals. And, standing out […]
