The playful adage is painfully true: The best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google’s search results. Here’s why doctors need to be concerned about local search and their ability to attract new patients. The front door of your medical practice moved online some time ago. The “traditional” paths for […]
What Separates Powerful Doctor Marketing Materials From Everything Else? As present-day healthcare delivery has reinvented itself, nearly every doctor and medical practice has—in one form or another—a stash of marketing materials. There’s too much competition among providers and institutions to be without “something” that (hopefully) gets results. Clarity of Purpose… Physician groups, imaging centers, and […]
True story. This sort of road hazard doesn’t happen too often anymore, but it illustrates when outsourcing doctor marketing services would have been the much wiser course. A few years ago a physician friend arrived at his normally efficient office to find a first class mess. With a goal of attracting new patients, two part-timers […]
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 […]
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” […]
The American public has been conditioned to think that they get medical appointments “quickly,” but, more often than not, it’s not true. In many areas the average wait time for new patients is a matter of weeks and sometimes months. It’s an uncomfortable healthcare trend. For some people, a long wait for a doctor appointment […]
Only five years ago, what doctors recognized as the business of “being in practice,” is quite different from how things are today. For nearly everyone in the spectrum of care, healthcare delivery is, and will continue to change. Marketing decisions will be shaped in a new way. Patients are informed and empowered; wearable technology is […]
I’d like to tell you a story about two insightful, and mirror opposite, conversations that I had with doctors. These two informal chats revealed how basic attitudes can quickly define success or failure in healthcare marketing. In the first of my true stories, a mutual friend asked me to provide some "pro bono" advice to […]
Some observers predict that Verizon’s new platform for virtual doctor visits will be a game-changer. Like it or not, with the global communications giant jumping into interactive telehealth, the big splash will advance the evolution of healthcare delivery...and impact your future marketing plans. Recently, the company unveiled Verizon Virtual Visits, aimed at adoption by […]
Barbershops for health screenings? An unlikely venue for hypertension testing? Surprisingly, medical practices and hospitals around the country have discovered an effective marketing gateway for reaching African-American men, a demographic group that is particularly at risk for high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. It’s no secret that, in medical marketing, women are a prime demographic […]
For most medical doctors, the typical workweek is somewhere north of 50 hours. And that doesn’t include the time thinking about the marketing part of the business. Professionally trained, experienced and licensed in the healing arts, a practitioner spends a day mostly applying clinical skills. It hardly seems like there is any time to spare, […]
The other day, while waiting in the office of a physician, I realized that his program for internal marketing to his patients was nearly invisible…yet it was highly effective in reaching and retaining patients. Invisible isn't quite the right word. Effortless is a better description. This doctor—"my doctor," an Internist in a multi-disciplinary group—is someone […]
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. […]
As I was reviewing some advertising tracking data with a client recently, our client (a physician in a large medical group) observed how the “Internet shopper” category accounted for a high percentage of no-shows and cancellations. His first impression was that Internet shoppers are more fickle or impatient by nature. Could it be that the […]
I have the good fortune to travel the country (quite often) and to meet and work with some of the nation’s top doctors. As a group, these physicians and surgeons have much in common. Individually and collectively, they are highly intelligent men and women who excel as healthcare providers. Although the marketing areas they serve […]
OK…let’s be frank about this. If they had a magic wand to change their world, perhaps eight out of 10 doctors would rather not be concerned about marketing. Their inner being wants to devote all their professional time and attention to doing what they trained to do… being doctors, practicing medicine, and helping people. But, […]
Physicians are extremely well trained in their profession, with years of education and more years in practice. And at some point in their career, it becomes apparent that medicine is a profession, but healthcare is a business. Often, the doctor is the business…the product…the service provider. He or she is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer), […]
[Healthcare Content Marketing Series] Anyone who grew up in a small town will tell you that it seemed like everyone knew everyone. Often, they conducted their everyday business with folks they knew…and merchants who knew them. Individuals engaged in conversation, got acquainted, and people did business with the people they knew and liked. We were […]
[Second of a two-part article for healthcare leaders about mastering presentation skills. See also, Part One 10 Trade Secrets: How Exceptional Public Speakers Make It Look Easy] Public speaking is something that everyone does, most people dread, and some speakers are world-class champs. The occasion can be as a keynote speaker for a major medical […]
[First of a two-part article for healthcare leaders about mastering presentation skills.] Presentations. Speeches. Talks. Everyone does them. Most people dread giving them. But only a few presenters know the magic behind delivering an exceptional, memorable and impactful public presentation. From a Kiwanis Club luncheon to a staff lecture…from a major medical society presentation to […]
In an ordinary game of five-card poker there are 2,598,960 possible hands with a 52-card deck. Winning is always a gamble; it's a mix of luck in what you’ve been dealt and how the cards are played. Healthcare marketing and advertising has many more moving parts than poker; it's a lot more complex, and usually […]
We often make the point that LinkedIn has a business and professional flare that is a “natural” for showcasing the expertise of doctors and hospital executives. LinkedIn’s newly expanded publishing feature presents even greater opportunity for content creation and reputation management. LinkedIn began as an online executive resume/job board just over a decade ago. An […]
“You nailed it,” one doctor wrote. “Healthcare is changing and CONVENIENCE is just one of the operative concepts for future consumers of healthcare.” In our recent post about what’s really behind the CVS tobacco announcement, we raised a flag about increasing competition as CVS/Caremark and other national retailers are clearly committed to reinventing themselves as […]
[Series Article] Studies reveal hard science data behind why the sometimes fanciful, sometimes fictional art of storytelling is highly effective as a communications tool. In healthcare marketing, storytelling is growing in popularity from doctor-patient conversations to branding messages. Of all the stories in the world, there’s one—The Story of Storytelling—where “Once upon a time…” doesn’t […]
Roughly 100 percent of all physician offices are busy places. But you only have to look at the monthly statement to know that activity isn’t the same as productivity…or profitability. Regardless of the size or type of the healthcare entity—from practitioner to medical group—a revealing characteristic of success is a reflection of leadership in the […]
Most healthcare advertising agencies will not admit it, but some clients are simply better than other clients. The people and personalities are part of the chemistry, but more than a retail transaction, two business entities share mutual success goals. It’s similar to a doctor-patient relationship. Privately, many doctors have patients who they favor over others. […]
We’ve had the great good fortune and pleasure to team-up with many successful doctors, medical group practices, hospitals and others. To a person, their medical/clinical capabilities are first class, but their business acumen—in particular their marketing savvy—is a model for others. The fact is, successful doctors do things differently. They recognize that medicine is a […]
What happens when a 15-year-old patient speaks up about her doctors? Morgan Gleason declared, “I am the patient, and I need to be heard,” and she voiced her complaints publicly. Even for a hospitalized teen, it wasn’t difficult to make a digital splash about how doctors should care for patients...and not just treat them. First, […]
Most medical groups and doctor-owner practices respect the fact that the business environment—particularly the competitive landscape—has changed dramatically. It’s tough and getting tougher as the nation’s healthcare system reinvents itself almost daily. But being aware of the competition falls far short of understanding how truly vulnerable most practices are…whether they know it or not. As […]
[Series Installment: How to Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins of Healthcare Marketing -- Deadly Sins #5: Inadequate Training, from the Healthcare Success Educational library.] Everyone in the office needs to understand how and why new patient inquiry calls are significantly different from the routine. Without preparation and training, seven out of 10 prospective new patient […]
More than ever, medical practices throughout the US are motivated to look (again) at ancillary services to bolster shrinking income and to further differentiate their marketing message. As we enter the “rollout year” for healthcare reform, few practices are operating the same way they did last year…and the coming months only promise further change. Many […]
If you thought that online patient review sites were important, you’d be right. But new survey data reveals their muscle has tons of potential to grow. Unlike a few years ago, the research power of the Internet has transformed many patients into informed and empowered consumers. Looking for online information is often the first step […]
Any quiet “thinking time” in late December is likely to find a physician reflecting on the year-end...and the year ahead. For many providers, the only constant—past or future—has been, and will likely be, change…and New Year resolutions can often be distilled to a wish for “a better year.” Reward yourself this holiday season with a […]
[Series Installment: How to Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins of Healthcare Marketing -- Deadly Sins #3 and #4: From the Healthcare Success Educational library] There’s a dream-killer, of sorts, on the loose in some corners of healthcare marketing. Success and opportunity more often meet their demise from indecision and inaction than from doing the wrong […]
Google Helpouts: Live Video Competition or Marketing Opportunity? If “Helpouts” was just another Silicone Valley infant—with high hopes and little funding—it might not survive long enough to write about. But multi-national biz giant Google (of search engine fame and fortune) launched this new online, live video-help platform recently. And when your first name is Google, […]
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 […]
The overwhelming deluge of information spewing from the Internet—on any and every imaginable topic—implies that “more is better.” For proof, look no further than the most innocuous Google search. Type “doctor” and the world’s biggest search engine coughs up 248-million results in less than half a second. There’s value hidden somewhere in that digital torrent. […]
by Jessica Socheski Though many patients remain unaware of its existence, the field of concierge medicine continues to quietly expand throughout the US among primary care physicians. It’s not a business model for everyone (or every market area), but roughly 4,400 American doctors have switched to a form of cash-only medicine called direct primary care, […]
All too often, we’re just too busy…and we confuse activity with productivity. I’m guilty of this. I know doctors and hospital executives who admit to the problem. Likely, you can also relate. Non-stop multi-tasking blurs our perception of what’s important and what’s actually getting done. And that’s the moment when we need Indiana Jones. I […]
Without giving it much thought, many--if not most--doctors will simply assume that they need a brochure to promote their medical practice. Often, this is true. But surprisingly often, it's a premature assumption where the "treatment gets ahead of the diagnosis." A healthcare brochure is not always the first or most important component in a comprehensive […]
Individually and collectively, communications professionals—in healthcare and every other enterprise for that matter—produce tons of materials everyday. Here’s how to stretch your budget and get extra marketing impact from nearly all of it. We (ourselves included) routinely create bales of “communications stuff” in all the classic formats…brochures, web pages, speeches, patient education info, PowerPoint lectures, […]
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 […]
Healthcare marketing is more involved than simply hiring someone to write an ad or create a brochure for you. (After all, your practice is not a simple box of detergent or a used car lot.) To be successful, you will need a well-considered marketing plan and budget, complete with ethical, appropriate and proven strategies. While […]
Our Senior Consultant and Training Specialist Lori Ann Waltz just sent over another marketing success story, and you may be able to relate. This time Lori was off to Kentucky (birthplace of Abraham Lincoln). She went there at the request of a specialty practice that may have been one of “the best kept secrets” in the […]
We had a call the other day from the lead doctor in a group practice. She wasn’t exactly in a panic, but it was obvious that a festering marketing problem was close to bursting. It was a familiar story, and many readers can probably relate to the red-flag warnings she described. The problem for this […]
In our work with clients across the United States, we often help medical providers understand what their primary constituencies need and want. A starting point for a provider group for instance, would be an exercise in discovering what patients, referring physicians and payors want to know. And when you recognize the questions of these groups—what […]
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 […]
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.
The second in a two-part series about intelligent individuals that allow their personality or attitudes to block their potential for success. Read part one: Staff Secretly Takes Assertiveness Training. We continue with the second of our true tales from the field about doctors who step on their own marketing toes.
We’re not going to mention any names, but you’ll probably recognize the personality types. And please excuse our candor…consider it constructive criticism.
