Is your healthcare marketing evolving?

Living in two worlds is never easy. One side of the healthcare marketing coin is generating demand to put "heads in the beds" for fee-for-service payments. The other is managing demand to keep people out of the hospitals in a value-based payment model. Care delivered in the most cost efficient and effective setting which may not be a hospital or hospital-based outpatient service.

Accountability, transparency, price and value are the new expectations. And your time for adapting is running out. By 2016 an inflection point will be reached where value-based healthcare payment passes fee-for-service healthcare. You will be managing demand instead of generating demand. And that is a very different skill set than what most healthcare organizations have today.

Here are some ideas about what healthcare organizations need to be doing too live in two worlds.

Managing the Patient Experience

Patient experience means just that- understanding what that patient experiences is at all touch points. And then changing or managing that experience to its fullest potential for the benefit of the patient and the organization. Patient experience is an integrating process across the entire organization internally and externally. One organization to the patient, one patient to the organization. It is not simply another quality program or flavor of the day.

Understanding and Executing Demand Management

The hospital is no longer the center of the healthcare universe. Marketing needs to understand what the demand for healthcare services will be, when they will be needed and manage that demand making sure that the hospital or health system has the right resources, in the right place, at the right time to meet demand. The days are coming to an end where marketing departments will be driving demand to fill hospital beds. They will drive demand to the appropriate place and location of service.

Marketing the Manager of Change

Who better in an organization than for marketing to manage the healthcare organizations transformation from an inward-focused it's all about me, to an outward-focused market and consumer driven organization? Open to much debate, this is probably the most controversial look at the expanding role of marketing. Individual who have looked internally at their organizations all of their careers, do not necessarily have the skills, training or abilities to change an organization 180 degrees. And that is the type of change we are talking about here.

Where is the brand equity?

You really have to figure out how to build brand equity for the consumer in the world. Brand equity is not built overnight, it takes years. For insurers they are ahead of the game and probably most doctors, even though their brand equity is more by chance than actual effort and planning. But hospitals, they are way behind the brand equity curve unless you are a Mayo Clinic, M D Anderson, Cleveland Clinic, John Hopkins and a few select others.

How can you build brand equity?

There is no simple answer, it is a combination of changing internal processes and systems ( customer experience management) to become more consumer-friendly and efficient. It's about adapting technology that will reduce errors and improve decision-making. It's about changing marketing and communication activities from what you do, to the value of what you do. You will need to engage in meaningful ways the healthcare consumer. You will need to become price and quality transparent. You will need to respond to each individual consumers healthcare needs.

Is your healthcare model evolving?

Michael Krivich is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 4,000 monthly pages views in over 52 countries worldwide. He is founder of the michael J group, a healthcare marketing consultancy dedicated to creating value through strategic marketing for hospitals and health system regardless of payment mechanism, either fee-for-service or value-based to increase market-share, revenue , brand and demonstrate actual return on marketing investment. Michael is a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.

>>> Is your healthcare marketing evolving? >>>

Should outcomes transparency drive outpatient healthcare marketing?

Is nearly everyone missing the most important piece of the marketing puzzle to generate demand, revenue and market share in outpatient healthcare? Especially with the market competition heating up between hospital owned physicians/ clinics and the private sole practitioners/multi-specialty or single specialty group practices and retail clinics.

One area that is greatly lacking in most outpatient healthcare marketing, is an intelligent dialogue on your outcomes with your audiences. Payors', pharma and medical device, have recognized this and are leading in the use of quality and outcomes data to drive decision-making. It is time for the rest of the healthcare industry to catch up. And in my experience, it works, driving demand, volume, revenue and market share.

Where is the outcomes and quality data?

I maintain that even in this economy, there are healthcare dollars out there. Healthcare consumers willing to spend those dollars, if only that had a compelling reason to do so. With all other marketing avenues exhausted, healthcare executives weary from being in "survival mode" and facing new revenue pressures, one would think healthcare marketing would be able to answer some of these challenges.

Maybe it's time to give the healthcare consumer be it physicians, payers, government, employer, individual or family, or any other stakeholder you can identify, quality and outcomes data to make decisions?

That's really the only avenue left for healthcare providers, to start talking about quality and outcomes. Engaging in a meaningful dialogue, that goes beyond accreditation logos and quality awards from third parties, to an actual honest-to-goodness quality and outcomes disclosure and discussion.

A few healthcare providers are willing. Most are afraid of this direction. But, it's a strategy and tactic that can break the current cycle of avoidance and loss. Recognizing that your customers are best served by the healthcare organization that places them first in a meaningful way.

You have some choices here. Stay the course and do what you have been doing. Get lost in an endless paralysis by analysis loop. Mimic your competitors. Talk about quality and outcomes in vague terms. Or, be the first in your market, to establish a clear strategic marketing plan focused on your healthcare consumers about your brand, quality and outcomes.

If you are not willing to change, then don't expect a different outcome from doing the same old healthcare marketing that you have been.

Sooner or later, you are going to have to do this. Oh, and don't forget about price.


Michael Krivich is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 4,000 monthly pages views in over 52 countries worldwide. He is founder of the michael J group, a healthcare marketing consultancy dedicated to creating value through strategic marketing for hospitals and health system regardless of payment mechanism, either fee-for-service or value-based to increase market-share, revenue , brand and demonstrate actual return on marketing investment. Michael is a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.

>>> Should outcomes transparency drive outpatient healthcare marketing? >>>

So, how do you market the employed physician?

With a dynamically changing healthcare industry, employment of physicians is making a big comeback to the hospital industry. Born of necessity, hospitals and physicians are being driven by reimbursement declines, effectiveness and efficiency pressures, retail clinic competition and new opportunities. The drive to create ACOs in a value-based payment environment demands a different type of physician relationship. 

With this new opportunity to reinvent, revitalize and recapture what previously before had been an adventure on the part of hospitals with mixed results, it's time to discuss how one goes about marketing the employed physician.

First break from the past......

It's easy to look at this and say we'll just do what we did in the past in promoting employed physicians and be done with it. That is a dangerous mistake. Healthcare consumers/patients are making physician choices based price, location and convenience due to increasing co-pays and rising deductibles. If you're just going to throw some ads out there with a picture of a nice smiling doc with copy written in the third person about how wonderful and compassionate he or she is, you can expect dismal marketing failure.

What is needed is a new look at what you are doing and changing to meet the needs of your healthcare consumer, not you.

With great change comes great opportunity. That is if one is willing to embrace that change and find new ways of moving forward and creating value.

Your Brand. Your Value. The Patient Experience.

You need to communicate very strongly your brand and brand promise you are associating with the employed physician. Bring your brand to the forefront and brand the doc to you.  They represent your brand at an individual level. Capitalize on that opportunity and leverage.

Communicate the value that this physician brings to your community and the healthcare consumer. Communicate the value that the doctor brings to your brand. Stop talking at people, talk to them. Talk to them with compelling value driven reasoning why they should select that doctor, or even why they should even considering switching physicians.

Pay attention to the patient experience. How long is the patient waiting? is your web site easy to use. Can they schedule appointments online? How are they greeted? View the patient experience from beginning to end at ever touch-point along the continuum. Remember, a consumer is only a patient one-third of the time they interact with your physicians. Before care and after care, they are consumers, evaluating their experience with you at very touch-point that they come in contact. And just because you have high patient satisfaction results, that doesn't equate to a grand overall experience.

Stop wasting your money putting ads in papers that expect people to take action simply because the doctor is on your medical staff or in one of your buildings. That treats the healthcare consumer like they are idiots. They're not. They are demanding value and acknowledgement that they have a say in what's going on. If you won't meet their needs they will go somewhere else.

If you're not communicating value and what's in it for them for selecting your physicians, then you can put it in the bank that the healthcare consumer will pass on by and go where they perceive the value to be greatest for them in line with the price they are paying.

In the end, it's all about knowing what consumer/ patient needs are and delivering that in a convenient location at a price point that is affordable. If you think this is crazy, then why are the retail clinics taking you to lunch?

Michael Krivich is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 4,000 monthly pages views in over 52 countries worldwide. He is founder of the michael J group, a healthcare marketing consultancy dedicated to creating value through strategic marketing for hospitals and health system regardless of payment mechanism, either fee-for-service or value-based to increase market-share, revenue , brand and demonstrate actual return on marketing investment. Michael is a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.

>>> So, how do you market the employed physician? >>>

What is your healthcare marketing ROI?

Healthcare marketing needs to keep up with the times and change as much as overall healthcare. It's time for healthcare marketing departments to step out of the show and tell marketing communications approach to tracking campaigns, making assumptions of its effects on revenue and produce real Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) measures.

Work with your finance department.  With a high degree of collaboration and understanding between finance and marketing, you can lead and make a difference. By answering questions, concerns and opinions with solid data, you can move the discussion form marketing does “stuff’ to marketing is a financial contributor to the organization.

Below is an example of an actual ROMI computation that I completed for a multi-hospital organization. After this all was presented, all marketing campaigns going forward were tracked though the Physician Referral Call Center.

The method can be adapted to any campaign and provides you with the data fields and logical analysis you need. This has been edited to hide the organization.

An analysis was undertaken to look at the ROMI of the Physician Referral Call Center. The analysis matched a database of call center name records for the period to financial records which had already been downloaded. The analysis produced the following results:

• 9,102 call records were matched with utilization and financial data.
• 9,102 calls resulted in a total of 9,121 encounters in the ER, Inpatient and Outpatient categories of service.
• 751 encounters were ER
• 177 returning encounters
• 573 first time encounters
• 1,105 encounters were Inpatient
• 530 returning encounters
• 699 first time encounters
• 7,267 were Outpatient
• 2,014 returning encounters
• 5,253 first time encounters
• Total charges for all encounters equaled $22,522,649
• Charges for new encounters all services totaled $16,085,198 or 71 percent of the total charges
• Average charge per ER encounter $1,304
• Average charge per Inpatient encounter $13,581
• Average charge per Outpatient encounter $903
• Gallup measures loyalty at 68 percent (would return for service) which means that for every 100 patients 32 would not return for care- therefore:
• ED- 57 returning encounters captured that would not have returned
• Inpatient – 170 returning encounters captured that would not have returned
• Outpatient- 645 returning encounters captured that would not have returned
• Incremental charges counted returning encounters not loyal
•  ER - $74,337
• Inpatient- $2,308,851
• Outpatient- $582,505
• Subtotal charges counted: $2,965,693
• Overall market share in primary and secondary service area is 14.53 percent. The number of first time encounters have utilized us above market presence is therefore:
• ER 573 first time encounters, 83 not counted, 490 counted
• Inpatient – 699 first time encounters, 101 not counted, 598 counted
• Outpatient – 5,253 first time encounters, 763 encounters not counted, 4,490 counted
• Based on an overall market share of 14.5 percent the incremental charges counted for new encounters not because of market presence:
• ER - $638,960
• Inpatient – $8,121,438
• Outpatient – $4,054,470
• Total Charges counted: $12,814,868
• Discount from gross charges for Medicare, Medicaid, Managed Care, Bad Debt and Charity Care @ 65% is $8,326,644
• Net Revenue: $4,488,224
• PRCC program costs: $233,410
• Net contribution: $4,254,814
• ROI 18.22:1

So, do you still think you can't prove Return on Marketing Investment?

Marketing is a revenue department and will be more than ever as healthcare change continues unabated. Time for a lot of healthcare marketing departments and organizations to grow up and start proving their value.

Michael Krivich is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 4,000 monthly pages views in over 52 countries worldwide. He is founder of the michael J group, a healthcare marketing consultancy dedicated to creating value through strategic marketing for hospitals and health system regardless of payment mechanism, either fee-for-service or value-based to increase market-share, revenue , brand and demonstrate actual return on marketing investment. Michael is a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.

>>> What is your healthcare marketing ROI? >>>

Can you see the 10 signs of an ineffective healthcare marketing operation?

The arguments are in. SCOTUS has already voted on healthcare reform. The majority and minority opinion writers are chosen. Regardless, healthcare will continue to change in very fundamental ways. And that means marketing has to change as well.

Marketing strategy and effective marketing operations is everything today in healthcare marketing. And if you have a bad strategy or no strategy, combined with marketing operational deficiencies, then no amount of tactical execution will overcome ineptitude. Some of the verticals in the healthcare industry are notorious for no strategy and just plain bad marketing operations, following the herd and just keeping the internal audience happy with what they want.

Here are the 10 signs spelling marketing doom in your hospital or other healthcare organization:

1. The marketing plan is not integrated with the organizations business and financial plan.

2. Your brand messages are not clear, and are not integrated across internal and external audiences.

3. The CEO sets the marketing priorities based on what others are doing , the loudest voice in the room or just because he or she likes it.

4. Departments are creating their own logos and communications. Only coming to marketing to "make it look pretty".

5. Marketing has little or no resources allocated for market research.

6. Marketing does not have an organizational voice or champion.

7. Your marketing department can't demonstrate an ROI.

8. The triangle of Public and media relations, social media and internet and traditional marketing is nonexistent or if it exists, lacks integration.

9. Little internal communication throughout the organization regarding marketing efforts.

10. Marketing is not at the senior management table.

Healthcare is transforming from a provider-dominated and directed model, where these types of behaviors and operational deficiencies really didn't make much of a difference. In the evolving consumer or patient-directed and dominated healthcare model, continuation of these marketing operational structures and behaviors need to be weeded out.

The healthcare consumer will become a harsh mistress, and will not tolerate an unresponsive healthcare organizations. Old ways of marketing must be replaced with a new understanding of marketing in healthcare and its power in the marketplace.

Michael Krivich is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 4,000 monthly pages views in over 52 countries worldwide. He is founder of the michael J group, a healthcare marketing consultancy dedicated to creating value through strategic marketing for hospitals and health system regardless of payment mechanism either fee-for-service or value-based to increase market-share, revenue , brand and demonstrate actual return on marketing investment. Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.

>>> Can you see the 10 signs of an ineffective healthcare marketing operation? >>>

How do you market the employed physician?

With dynamic changes occurring in the healthcare industry as a result of the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), leading to ACOs, medical homes and such, employment of physicians is making a big comeback to the hospital industry. Born of necessity, hospitals and physicians are being driven by reimbursement changes from production of care payment, to value-based care payment and opportunity.

With this new opportunity to reinvent, revitalize and recapture what previously before had been an adventure on the part of hospitals with mixed results, its time to discuss how one goes about marketing the employed physician.

What is needed is a new look at what you are doing and changing to meet the needs of your healthcare consumer, not you.

With great change comes great opportunity. That is if one is willing to embrace that change and find new ways of moving forward and creating value.

Your Brand. Your Value. The Healthcare Consumers Choice.

You need to communicate very strongly your brand and brand promise you are associating with the employed physician. Doesn't matter if he or she is in a Medical Office Building (MOB) you own, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) or Medical Home (MH). Bring your brand to the forefront and brand the doc to you. He or she is no longer an independent practitioner. They represent your brand at an individual level. Capitalize on that opportunity and leverage it.

Communicate the value that this physician brings to your community and the healthcare consumer. Communicate the value that the doctor brings to your brand. Leverage that opportunity. Stop talking at people, talk to them. Talk to them with a compelling value driven reasons why they should select that doctor, or even why they should even considering switching physicians.

Stop wasting your money putting ads in papers that expect people to take action simply because the doctor is on your medical staff, or in one of your buildings. That treats the healthcare consumer like they are idiots. They're not. They are demanding value and acknowledgement that they have a say in what's going on. If you won't meet their needs they will go somewhere else.

Consumers are and will be paying more of the medical bill as time goes along. If you're not communicating value and what's in it for them for selecting your physicians, then you can put it in the bank that the healthcare consumer is will pass on by, and go where they perceive the value to be greatest for them in line with the price they are paying.

Michael Krivich is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 4,000 monthly pages views in over 52 countries worldwide. He is founder of the michael j group, a healthcare marketing consultancy dedicated to creating value through strategic marketing for hospitals and health system regardless of payment mechanism either fee-for-service or value-based to increase market-share, revenue , brand and demonstrate actual return on marketing investment. Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.

>>> How do you market the employed physician? >>>

Has the role of healthcare marketing changed?

Back in December of 2010, I wrote about the changing role of healthcare marketing in the context of PPACA. Earlier this week a reader asked if it had changed nearly two years later. Sadly, not much has changed in the current state and role of healthcare marketing.

Oh, we have added an expanded social media and online practice, but much of the changing role and strategic marketing leadership that I envisioned with the passage of PPACA hasn't taken place. It's pretty much standard operations as in the past. And that is disappointing.

Understand that I am not talking about pharma, medical device manufacturers, insurance companies, suppliers and retailers moving into the healthcare space. They get it. They understand the power and importance of marketing. This is for all the other healthcare providers that are still trying to operate like its 1990.

What I wrote about two years ago, still stands. Healthcare organizations are falling behind daily in their marketing, with little room for error or recovery. To recap that post:

Marketing Leadership

Marketing is strategy first, tactics second. The voice of marketing should reflect the voice of your customers and not be a second thought. Your future programs and services will be determined by the needs of the market, not your gut feeling. You cannot become a customer-driven or market-driven organization if the skills and experiences of marketing is not at the leadership table. Needs to be a Senior VP or VP of Marketing reporting to the CEO.

Managing the Patient Experience

If anyone is prepared to understand and mange the patient experience across the organization it's marketing. Hospitals in particular are making the mistake of putting operations in charge of patient experience. This is an oxymoron really. For the most part Ops can't get a discharge process together in less than 3 or 4 hours. How can you expect them to manage the patient experience? Patient experience means just that- understanding what that patient experiences is at all touch points. And then changing or managing that experience to its fullest potential for the benefit of the patient and the organization. Patient experience is an integrating process across the entire organization internally and externally. One organization to the patient, one patient to the organization. It is not simply another quality program or flavor of the day.

Understanding and Executing Demand Management

The hospital is no longer the center of the healthcare universe. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is designed to keep people out of the hospital. You can actually see a hospital admission as a defect in the process of care. Marketing needs to understand what the demand for healthcare services will be, when they will be needed and manage that demand making sure that the hospital or health system has the right resources, in the right place, at the right time to meet demand. Gone are the days where marketing departments will be driving demand to fill hospital beds. They will drive demand to the appropriate place and location of service.

Becoming a Revenue Marketer and Having Revenue Accountability

Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) is necessary for anything marketing accomplishes, traditionally, socially or online. Marketers in healthcare organizations need to become revenue producers, not resource consumers that show little value beyond, it looks nice. In fact, marketing should have P&L as well as an SG&A accountability for many of the products and services being offered by a healthcare organization.

Marketing the Manager of Change

Who better in an organization than for marketing to manage the healthcare organizations transformation from an inward-focused it's all about me, to an outward-focused market and consumer driven organization? Open to much debate, this is probably the most controversial look at the expanding role of marketing. Individual who have looked internally at their organizations all of their careers, do not necessarily have the skills, training or abilities to change an organization 180 degrees. And that is the type of change we are talking about here.

Clocks ticking and you're being left behind.

>>> Has the role of healthcare marketing changed? >>>

Is your healthcare marketing department a sweatshop?

Though there are many great examples of healthcare marketing across the country, it seems that these are far and few between. This is a shame really because of all the talented marketers that are in the industry. More often than not, we let well meaning individuals who have no formal training or clear understanding of marketing hold sway over the direction.

I do understand the leverage that CEOs, docs, product managers and others hold over marketing. At the end of the day, he or she that signs the check or has the backing wins, right or wrong. And there is way too much of that in healthcare marketing.

With non-marketing trained people running the show causing chaos and confusing tactics with strategy, companies fall behind in markets and are either sold, became acquisition targets since they underperform, or die a slow and painful death.

So how do you exercise marketing leadership in that kind of environment? You need to understand the needs, politics and marketing understanding of the key decision makers.

Here are some questions for your consideration:

Have you let your marketing department become a sweatshop rued but others expecting you to do their bidding no matter how ridiculous the request?
Have you done everything possible to create an understanding of marketing?
Have you ensured that the marketing plan is in full alignment with the strategic and business plan of the organization?
When you suggest a strategy or tactic have I communicated what the return on investment is?
Do you in engage leadership in a discussion of the why of a strategy?
Have you been thinking strategically and not confusing tactics with strategy?
Have you reached out to key leaders and department heads when building the annual marketing plan for their input?
Have you been visible in the organization as the “go-to” marketing expert?
Have you allowed yourself to be an order taker producing lots of “stuff”?
Are you the organizational brand champion?
Are you willing to stop doing things the same old way with the same old result?
Does your organization respect what you do?
Are you willing to just say no, that's not marketing?

In a world of immediate gratification, lack of focus and favor of the day, a marketing executive’s tenure has dropped from 3 years to 12 to 18 months. With such a short time horizon, you might as well lead and know no matter what the outcome is, you gave it your best effort.

Time to stop working in a marketing sweatshop.

>>> Is your healthcare marketing department a sweatshop? >>>

Can you have patient/customer evangelists in healthcare?

With the dynamic and changing healthcare environment, satisfaction with services is but one indicator, abet an important one, in qualifying for additional incentive payments in a value-based payment model. But satisfaction is really only a measure of future potential purchase or repurchase. It is not as commonly assumed, to be a predictor of loyalty. Just because someone says they are likely to return or recommend you to another, is only an indicator of potential purchase not loyalty.

The hospital CEO, medical business leader, managing partner, vice president, director, manger and employees need to be focusing on creating customer evangelists to not just survive, but grow and thrive in a value-based healthcare payment system.

A customer evangelist is an individual, who has such an outstanding experience that they freely become your brand spokesperson in the community. They are not paid. They have no financial sake in your survival, but have come to believe so completely in what you do, they drive business to you.

Notice I did not say patient or customer satisfaction. Anyone can have good and even high patient satisfaction scores. But, that my friend is the fix you are in. High satisfaction scores do not for one minute translate into customer evangelists. Don’t stop measuring satisfaction; you have to for a variety of reasons. I say focus on creating customer evangelists through outstanding patient-centered, or customer-centered experiences and the scores will be fine.

Ask yourself these questions.

Do you want an unassailable position in the market?

Do you want to be the market leader in healthcare?

Do you want to grow and not merely survive?

Do you want the area's best doctors on your medical staff?

If you answered yes to all the above, then you need to focus on creating patient/customer evangelists.

No better time then like the present to start.

>>> Can you have patient/customer evangelists in healthcare? >>>

Do you put context and content around your healthcare awards for consumers?

It sure seems like it's the season to display all those healthcare award logos in advertisements, direct mail pieces, billboards, lobby displays and a myriad of other places. This becomes even more entertaining when two or more hospitals in the same market display the same award. Don't take me wrong. Tremendous organizational effort has taken place to achieve a quality ranking by an third party.

Is just putting the award logo out there without the contextual content about what it means, serving the healthcare consumer in a meaningful way?

This is an important question for you to consider. It's not easy putting context and meaningful content together for consumers around a quality or certification award. But just putting the logo out there as some "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" isn't working either.

And the evidence starting to appear anecdotally, that healthcare consumers aren't buying what you are selling. An award logo means nothing to them and has no influence on their decisions.

They don't believe you.

In an industry where meaningful differentiation is hard to come by, one would think that healthcare organizations would make an attempt to educate, explain and place context around the award. With healthcare changing so rapidly on a what seems to be a daily basis, how is a healthcare consumer to make any kind of informed utilization decision based on an award logo?

What does it mean to a consumer to be named best-in-class?

You have a responsibility to place contextual content around what that award means, so that in the minds and eyes of the healthcare consumer, they gain understanding what that award means and what it means for them.

Consumers are expecting you to put contextual content around the quality award.

This is your chance in a meaningful way, to differentiate you from your competition in the marketplace. You can achieve that differentiation with those quality and operational awards from third parties, provided that you wrap them in context and content.

It will enhance your brand.

It will enhance your reputation.

It will enhance your value proposition.

It can drive revenue.

The healthcare award will not make a difference, untless you stop displayong the award logo out there, without meaningful context and content that resonates with the healthcare consumer.

Educate. Explain. Inform. Differentiate.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted much in the last couple of weeks. I have accepted a full-time position in healthcare information technology marketing. Now that things have settled down somewhat, I am back to writing about my love and passion, strategic healthcare marketing. The schedule of postings will be different, but weekly they shall remain.

Thanks for reading.

>>> Do you put context and content around your healthcare awards for consumers? >>>

Where is your market research in patient/customer experience management?

Or, the dangers of viewing the customer-patient experience management process, thinking you know it all, it's easy to do, or only use patient satisfaction survey results.


And from the questions I get from healthcare professionals around the country, it became very clear that a key element is missing from most efforts at improving the patient experience.

Healthcare providers, aka hospitals for the most part, are not doing the required quantitative and qualitative market research on patient experience, attitudes, behaviors and expectations in their market place. They are assuming that because they read an article, go to a seminar that they know it all. They are only using patient satisfaction survey data, lean six sigma results and their previous quality improvement efforts. Few are actually talking to patients.

Had you been conducting market research on your customers-patients in the experience management process outside of  internal patient interactions, you would  be much better off. But unfortunately, most customer-patient experience management programs are focused on the 1/3rd of the encounter as a patient.

Where do you go from here?

It's important to view Customer-Patient Experience Management(CEM or PEM) in its totality, not as one service or clinical line experience. It may be for you, but to the healthcare customer-patient who experiences your organization across numerous touch-points, it's not. They aggregate all of it into one overall experience. You, as a healthcare provider, need to understand the expectations and experiences through quantitative and qualitative analysis. Then integrate that information and learning's into your efforts.

Part of the process of experience management, is actively managing customers-patients experiences to meet expectations and change their experiences, to drive revenue and market share. It's not all about the patient satisfaction numbers. CEM or PEM have definable and measurable financial outcomes. But you cannot achieve those revenue outcomes if you are not looking at experience management in its totality. And that means doing the necessary market research.

By not fully understanding your customer-patient in their totality, you are not successfully managing their experience or expectations.

The wave is here to use an oft quoted metaphor. Its consumer-directed not provider-directed healthcare. And the sooner you get it, that its not about you, but about the patient, and start looking at the customer experience in its totality, the better the chances of your survival in the coming years.

You don't have all the answers.

>>> Where is your market research in patient/customer experience management? >>>

How are you marketing your healthcare services to retired Baby Boomer's?

Heard an interesting statistic the other day, on a commercial no less. So for the discussion lets assume it's true. (Remember those FTC Truth-in-Advertising regulations?) That there are 10,000 people retiring every day. Kind of makes you stop and wonder, how do you reach out to a group that has changed every aspect of life and products as they moved through time? And I think that means that they won't necessarily need healthcare services, until the later years of their retirement. Or at the very least, wanting the ones you offer and the way you offer them today.

So instead of future happy days the docs are busy, the ER is bustling and the beds are filled, it may be more of asking where is everyone?

This group is healthier. Expects product and services to conform to their will and in the way they want them delivered. Expects an exceptional level of service and experience. Expects to be involved in the decision-making process. Values freedom, choices and uses mobile technologies. Does its homework and asks questions.

Which means, your healthcare marketing strategy and tactics probably needs to change.

That means the way you approach markets, the marketing channels you use, the way you communicate, your brand message, your value proposition, the patient experience, reporting on quality that is transparent and useful, as well as being able to listen to what healthcare consumers are telling you and responding accordingly. May even mean changing what healthcare services you offer.

With all the new payment models, combined with diagnostic and treatment alternatives to traditional hospital-based services, in more convenient and experience friendly settings, talking at people isn't doing your healthcare brand any favors. Especially when an aging population is used to choice and having it their way.

So as you think about your healthcare marketing challenges in 2012 and the years ahead, just remember that your audience is changing, expecting more and may even be using you less than at any other time in history.

Which also may mean, that healthcare marketing could be a significant piece of the puzzle that is missing from your business strategy.

After all, both my 89 year old Aunt's are on facebook and LinkedIn.

>>> How are you marketing your healthcare services to retired Baby Boomer's? >>>

Is it time to tell consumers how they can afford your healthcare services?

Two reports came out this week. One about the slow growth of healthcare costs. The other, that people are delaying treatment, not filling prescriptions, nor taking meds etc., for a variety of reasons. Some reasons for this include the economy, loss of employment and health insurance, more high deductible plans, employers moving to defined contribution and so on.

Volume is down. Revenue is down. Marketing scaled back in some cases, or increased, attempting to drive selection and utilization from people who just may not be that interested because simply, they can't afford it.

Don't take me wrong. You have to run marketing campaigns. The economy is slowly turning around and there is a lot of pent up healthcare demand. You have to maintain brand image and awareness. You have to maintain your position in the marketplace.

But, is messaging all the shiny new equipment and facilities, "best docs", awards etc., the way to entice selection, leading to volume and revenue increases?

I don't think so.

If your audience has no interest in you because they can't afford it, then maybe you need to adjust your messaging. Become creative in communicating how people can afford your healthcare services.

That doesn't mean advertising and campaigning that you have all these charity care programs, (it may help you with your State's Attorney General and legislatures hot buttons regarding hospital charity care expenditures) but by being creative and developing alternatives so that individuals can become your healthcare consumer.

Take a look at Walgreens, CVSCaremark and Rite Aid on how they are tackling this issue. Let's get past shall we, the "well, they are drug stores pushing pills so it's different" argument. The point is, is that they have seen the challenges in the marketplace that healthcare consumers are having. They have responded with affordable healthcare solutions. And it's not only pills, it's physical exams, some tests and vaccinations. Specialty pharmacies have answered the bell. So have pharmaceutical manufacturers and others.

As healthcare providers, you need to start messaging solutions to the healthcare consumers health issues. You need to change your focus and attention from the here we are doing great things, to here we are and this is how you can afford these great things. That means new programs, new services, all focused around convenience, assistance with the cost and affordability issues, coupled with real demonstrated quality.

If you want to stop "surviving" and grow revenue and volume, you have to provide affordable healthcare solutions. It's like the old marketing lesson and question about railroads. Are you in the railroad business or the transportation business? Same for hospitals and others. Are you in the hospital business, or the healthcare business? You can't say you're in the healthcare business and only message about the hospital etc.

Today's healthcare market demands that you understand the needs of your consumers and develop those services and programs that allow them to afford you.

Do it now and you will have a customer for life.

>>> Is it time to tell consumers how they can afford your healthcare services? >>>

Have You Made Your Healthcare Marketing Resolutions for 2012?

New Year's Resolutions, for the most part, play an important role in most everyone's life. To lose weight. Live life more fully. Be a better husband, wife, or significant other etc. Value more what we have in our family and friends. And many more that I have missed. But have you ever considered New Year' Resolutions as a part of your business and managerial life?

So my last Healthcare Marketing Matters blog for 2012, is about New Year Marketing Resolutions. My own Top 10 list to get things started. What are yours?

10. Educate my organization about the value of my department and work. I will lead and prove my departments ROI.

9. Continue to scan other industries for their marketing successes. I will learn about them, adapt them to my industry, and implement successfully.

8. Expand my marketing education through webinars, seminars and conferences. There is always something new on the horizon to learn.

7. Integrate traditional, online and social marketing strategies. All are complementary to one another and drive multiple successes.

6. Innovate, discover the needs of my customers and drive consistent brand messaging.

5. Foster a spirit of and demand marketing excellence in my department. Good enough is not good enough. I owe nothing less to my organization and my customers.

4. Create brand zealots, and show what the brand promise, brand reputation and brand equity mean to my organization in revenue terms.

3. Stop using the words "unique", "state-of-the-art", and anything that is considered "buzz word" terminology in my marketing communications. Unique can be duplicated easily. State-of-the-art refers to yesterday's systems as things change so fast. Buzz words quickly fall out of favor.

2. Bridge the divide between sales and marketing and in doing so, together we will drive value, customer satisfaction and create customer evangelists all the while reaching new revenue heights.

1. Serve and be humble, for working in healthcare is a privilege, not a right.

Finally. I would like to thank everyone that read these posts over the past year. Your comments, suggestion and readership is very much appreciated. Healthcare Marketing Matters is now read monthly in 52 countries around the world. Maybe we aren't as different as we may all like to think when it comes to healthcare.

Happy New Year Everyone. Have a healthy, safe and prosperous year.

>>> Have You Made Your Healthcare Marketing Resolutions for 2012? >>>

How Do You Handle a PR Crisis Communications Event?

Sometimes, another organizations PR missteps, are an opportunity to learn how not to handle a PR crisis. Just ask the Chicago Bears, who historically have mishandled every PR crisis of the last 10 years, including the one the week of December 12. Yes that right, this one went on for a whole week, because they messed up right from the beginning.

Is your response to dive for under the desk? Do you send out poorly prepared underlings, to face reporters and the public? Does leadership, make proud pronouncements at the outset, that could come back to haunt you because at this point, you just don't know? Do you react as an arrogant organization with the, "How dare you question us response"? Do you think that it can never happen to you? Do you have a crisis communications plan in place?

Every healthcare organizations will face a PR crisis.

How you handle the communications, will determine the amount of brand damage, and length of time people remember. In this age of social media and the Internet, there is no, "We just need to wait 3 days to weather the storm", anymore.

Many times organizations respond with:
Lack of organizational understanding of the need to handle a situation as crisis communications;
Different, conflicting senior management messages;
Testy responses to questions;
Lack of preparation by speakers in understanding the seriousness of the communication;
Poor speaker body language;
No overriding organizational message;
Organizational arrogance;
Lost messaging opportunity ;
Appearance of blaming others;
The organization appearing not accountable;
The organization furthering to anger the media;
No response at all with the "it's just a three day story and will go away";
Sending out unprepared underlings to face the media;

Is it not true that any press is good press! Every day, someone somewhere faces a crisis communications issue which is handled poorly. Just look at the Chicago Bears for the past week. You need to learn from others and be prepared.

It's not hard, and should be part of your marketing strategy for 2012, as a separate communications plan. By following these planning guides, you can weather any storm, limit reputation, revenue and ultimately brand image damage.

Understand the nature of the situation;
Be transparent;
Be proactive in how you intend to address the situation;
Limit the amount of time senior leaders i.e. the CEO or president speak;
Make sure everyone has the same message and is on board;
Develop strong organizational messaging of care and concern;
Don’t scapegoat, blame others or give the appearance of blaming others;
Don’t tell people things will change when things are not changing;
Practice, practice, practice;
Bring in an outside PR firm for another viewpoint;
Understand that your reputation is built up over a long time and can be destroyed in a few short minutes;
Remember that it is not just a three day story;
Watch your body language;
Know your facts about past performance, reporters will be prepared;
Learn from others;
Each year engage in a day of media training for executives. Dealing with the media is a learned skill that the majority of executives do not have. It is not as easy as it looks.

Most importantly, engage the media all the time all year round. Why? Because, media relations is a year round activity. Not just when you have a problem. By establishing positive media relations with the good you do, you won't necessarily be cut any slack in a bad situation, but you will get the opportunity to tell your side. You won't if you don't have good media relations already in place.

Plan now for that crisis communications event, and you will better off as a prepared healthcare organization in 2012.

>>> How Do You Handle a PR Crisis Communications Event? >>>

What Are Your Customers, Patients, Doctors and Employees Saying?

Customer Generated Media (CGM). It can be a great unknown. It can be helpful. It can be harmful. It can be your best friend, or your worse nightmare. It has the power to influence thousands, if not millions, in this mobile social media aware society we live in. CGM can make your brand the greatest on the earth. It can send you to the ash heap of history.

Anybody can blog.

Anybody can do a video.

Anybody can start a viral email campaign.

Anybody can create a facebook page.

Sorry to say this, but not everyone thinks you doing the great job that you think you are.

If your marketing department is not monitoring CGM and your customer experience from a brand perspective, then you and your specialty pharmacy, payer, hospital, physician practices, or any healthcare organization is at risk. People are not afraid any longer to say things publically.

It means that in the age of the Internet, disgruntled consumers and patients, unhappy employees, media, anybody, can opinionate about their experiences, post photos, interviews and show to the world how good or bad you are.

Anyone with a computer and Internet connection can create CGM. Doesn’t matter if what is written is true or false. The world doesn’t care. And those who read it will believe it.

Look at: Comcastmustdie.com; Ihatedell.net; Technorati.com; Youtube.com; MrConsumer.com, all examples of CGM. And it could be you tomorrow.

If you don’t know what your consumers are saying about you or your competition for that matter, you are losing control of your brand.

You operate in a virtual marketplace where consumers know more than about you than you realize.

You lose in a customer/patient driven fast-break. Disgruntled consumer creates Consumer Generated Media, and is picked up by mass media- print and electronic. You won’t even know what hit you.

Monitor CGM like you do your competitors and you can possibly prevent being a victim, limit potential damage and improve the customer patient experience in the process.

Welcome to the age where customers and patients are the new paparazzi.

>>> What Are Your Customers, Patients, Doctors and Employees Saying? >>>

Are You Ready for Patient Engagement in 2012?

It has been a most interesting year of change for healthcare in 2011. Medical Homes, final regulations on ACOs, patient- centered or centric care focus, payment models beginning to move from production of care to payment for quality care and at least in some places, a growing understanding of the importance of healthcare marketing and branding. But, none of this will be successful unless you have an engaged patient.

In anticipation of still more change and continued progression to a fully reformed healthcare model, (regardless of what the Supreme Court of the United Sates rules), healthcare will never be the same. And it hinges in large part, on an engaged patient. Engaged in diagnosis and treatment. Engaged in wellness. Engaged in health plan selection. Engaged like they have never been before.

As you set your strategic marketing plans and tactical budgets for 2012, a key component is how you will begin to engage the patient, aka healthcare consumer. And it's not just wellness programs, seminars, community events or material copied on bright neon paper. It takes strategy, commitment and learning.

Here are nine strategies you need to employ:

1. Integrate your engagement solutions. That means information is delivered seamlessly to patients, so that they can interact with you any way they want, when they want too.

2. Marketing should be using both push and pull messaging. Messaging needs to be relevant to the patient at the point in time that they need it. Personalized, customized, aware of the cultural heritage and influences tailored to them.

3. Patient incentives and motivational techniques will be needed to keep patient engaged. That doesn't mean cash. Look to the gaming industry for gaming technology and gaming prediction, for ways to engage without cash. Be creative. Look outside healthcare for ideas, tools and techniques to engage. After all, patients are people too.

4.Create a sense of community. You have to compete for patients, especially if you are forming an ACO or employing physicians. You need to feed the beast. You have to get into the inner circle of your audiences and become the trusted advisor. It's not just about loyalty. You need to shape patient behaviors to the point where they will recommend you.

5. Know your audience and with who you are speaking too. This is really back-to-basics CRM understanding. Gender, age, integration of risk assessments, culture etc. You cannot engage the patient unless you are intimately knowledgeable about them, their needs and how to tailor the information they need to engage them.

6. Test and measure. This is no time to be reactive. You have to know how to approach patients and engage them, You don't have the answers. The only way to can figure out if it's working is to test and measure in a very methodical way.

7. Fast Failure. We live in a world of technology and you need to run a multifaceted, highly integrated campaign. With web, text messaging, mobile messaging, QR codes etc, if you structure it appropriately, and this is a big and, you are testing and measuring, you will know if it's working or not. If your marketing model is not working, get out. Get out quickly and allocate those resources elsewhere. Failure is successful because you learn from it. Fail fast.

8. Know the influence of the patients culture on behavior to engage them. You need to know who the individual is culturally, their affinity groups, and religious beliefs to name just a few items, beyond gender and age.

9. Time it right and add value. If you health messaging is not resonating with the patient when they receive it, then you have lost them. Communicate relevant messages to a committed patient right before healthcare decisions are made. That means knowing the patient like you have never known them in the past. For example, a patient or healthcare consumer, going to a restaurant to eat, or a supermarket to purchase groceries, means sending them health messages at that time, in order to enable them to make the right food choices. It's not impossible.

You are moving patients from passive healthcare participants to active healthcare participants. That's why you engage them. Time to get started.

>>> Are You Ready for Patient Engagement in 2012? >>>

Will There be Brand Conflict Between Traditional Healthcare Organizations and an ACO?

Have you considered the question of your brand, or brands, the ACO brand you may create, or as an ACO participant? This is really a much more important question than you may think. For some healthcare organizations, it won't be, as they have a highly developed brand architecture and strategy. For others, that haven't been paying as much attention to their brand architecture and strategy, it will.

I would surmise that large healthcare systems and payers will be ahead of the branding game, and able to seamlessly create and launch an ACO under their current brand umbrella. I think the brand challenge for healthcare systems, will be when they have to contract for services outside of their traditional system.

In those organizations that have more brands under the sun than stars in the galaxy, it will be a challenge supreme. That is what happens when there is no clear marketing leadership in most of these healthcare organizations. If you did the brand market research as well, you would probably find in these organizations, no clear brand recognition and brand confusion in the marketplace.

Creating a brand for your ACO or participation isn't just throwing a name and logo up. Some items you need to consider:

How does the ACO fit into the brand architecture of the organizations?

What will be the ACO brand impact on the existing organization? If you are reducing cost, providing higher quality medical services and better outcomes, you need to consider that impact on other populations served not in the ACO. If they are not recipients of all these ACO benefits in their care, regardless of payment model, you are in for a world of hurt.

Does your brand promise for the ACO fit in with the brand promise for the traditional healthcare organization, outside of the ACO?

Are you a house of brands, needing to create and implement a brand architecture, fixing all those service and clinical program line brands?

What are the resources you have committed to creating the ACO brand, its brand promise, brand value and brand awareness?

Did you consider the need for market research to fully understand you current brand position and how the ACO will make an impact on existing brands? Did you budget for that expense?

Are you ready for the expense of fixing you multiple brands, creating a clear, definable brand architecture and strategy?

Will you create and implement organizationally, a brand manual that everyone is accountable to follow?

Will senior management support marketing in being the "brand police"?

This list isn't all inclusive. But, you have to start somewhere. Sooner rather than later.

On another note, Healthcare Marketing Matters is now read monthly in 49 countries. With some of the request for information and comments I receive, the U.S.A. doesn't have sole ownership of cost and quality issues. Others around the world are facing the same things more or less. And from what I can tell, have been far more successful than us.

Medepage (you can find a link in my notable sites), is an Australian- based international healthcare job search site, has added a blog feed from Healthcare Marketing Matters to its site. Thank you Tony!

With the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday next week in the U.S., I am not sure if there will be another post. The kids are off high school and the wife took off a couple of days. So maybe it's time to step back and recharge for a few days.

Thanks for reading

>>> Will There be Brand Conflict Between Traditional Healthcare Organizations and an ACO? >>>

Have You Listened to Your Automated Voice Answering Attendant Recently?

How often do you call in from an outside landline or cell phone, to your organization too experience what a customer does when calling? This isn't such a strange question. We all go through the evaluation process, seek the system we believe will reduce our cost, improve response and service, which will hopefully result in less dropped calls, increase customer or patient satisfaction and revenue.

But you know, sometimes we make the system so complicated, that we forget why someone calls us.

For this I have coined Mike's Law: "The smaller the organization, easier to use is the automated answering solution. The larger the organization, the more complex and harder the automated answering solution is to navigate." Use is very different than navigate. One implies simplicity, the other complexity.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

In calling a local hospital when a family member was hospitalized, it was really very straight forward. Dial in, hear the message, dial the extension or room number if you know it, or wait for an attendant to come on the line and assist.

I have found that most of the time you can short circuit the whole thing and just dial 0, get to the live person, and to where you need to be.

Then there is the most complicated system, integrating your existing customer data into the call, because you are a current customer. Then it plays what seems the game of 20 questions, tries to push you entirely to an automated solution to solve your problem, that could be resolved in less than 60 seconds if you could get to a live person.

When you keep trying to get to a live person, that systems automated response, keeps attempting to push you to an automated solution. Even when, I indicated every way that I could, three times (yes three separate calls), that I wanted to talk to a service representative before hanging up. The best part of the encounters was the "voice" telling me, "I can't help you, goodbye".

It was like being in a Monty Python episode.

From a marketing standpoint, your automated answering attendant is an integral touch-point in the customer experience chain. It may even be the first experience that someone has with your organization. But, how many times has marketing been included in selecting the automated answering attendant, beyond, writing the copy for the greeting, options menu and submenus?

Marketing should be involved in nearly every decision you make that effects your customers and patients from an customer/patient experience standpoint.

It's seemingly the rare organization that considers the experience and needs of customers in selecting the system. Its more based on what the needs of the organization and solutions to cost and headcount issues, than what will make the customer experience exceptional.

The moral of the story.

Consider the customer experience and the impact both positive and negative, that your automated answering system will have on a caller. You have a clear choice. You can make a customer evangelist with a great experience, or create a customer with a negative experience and view of your company, no matter what good you have done, simply because, you couldn't answer the phone.

After all, that old land-line technology, which even cell phone users will access is get to you, usually is the start of a positive or negative customer/patient experience.

Which one do you want?

>>> Have You Listened to Your Automated Voice Answering Attendant Recently? >>>

How do You Market Healthcare IT Solutions?

Having worked on marketing in the hospital, healthcare group purchasing and IT vendor side in Radiology Information System, (RIS), Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR), the marketing challenges of selling into two spaces simultaneously, against a bevy of competition, seems to be increasing exponentially.

Just an observation, but everyone may be starting to look the same. It's easy to lose that differentiation every company craves, when selling similar products and services . In respect to all, the Healthcare IT space is beginning to look a little commoditized with a lot of product sameness.

So why is this happening? Lots of reasons. Let's take a short look at some common marketing techniques and what could be done to break the log jam. Less is more.

Key Messages

Leading provider, reducing cost, improving quality, reducing medical errors, innovative, next generation, improving productivity and efficiency, easy to use, interoperability with all systems, IHE, user groups that deliver real information, increasing satisfaction for the physician, C-suite and patients are key messages everyone is using. What is wrong with this picture? The pun is intended!

Sales and Marketing Integration

Marketing and sales really need to be more highly integrated than they are. It is much more than sales saying "marketing makes things look pretty", or marketing saying "if the feet on the street sold it the way we tell them it would work".

There needs to be a sales and marketing advisory committee, that is set up with sales reps from the various regions. Agenda driven, these weekly calls discuss what going on is sales, issues in the marketplace, what they are hearing about competitors and feedback on how the sales tools are being used. Marketing should be listening, understanding and discussing what is coming up. The sales force should be soliciting comments from the larger sales team and carrying information back.

Marketing should also be on the weekly sales funnel calls. Joint goals and objectives should be developed for sales and marketing collaboration. Share in the gain share in the pain. Marketing should also be going on sales calls and have access to trip reports in the Sales IT system. And, marketing staff should be trained in the sales methodology that is currently being used.

Case Studies

Case studies are important, and I would think everyone agrees on that point. Maybe however, our audiences suffer from information overload. The observation is that those documents are way too long. Sometimes, it seem like we get paid by the word, or we are so enthralled by our own system prowess, that we must write in excruciating detail. If I have learned anything about case studies and white papers for physicians and the C-Suite, it's two pages tops. And even that needs white space. Organize as follows; Background , Solution, Outcomes. And yes they can be written in two pages or less. Just because they are shorter doesn't mean you're treating your audience like an idiot. They most likely will appreciate the brevity.

Also, if you keep them shorter you can use them as the basis for email campaigns. But that too requires creativity. Use a video spokesperson to introduce the white paper or case study, to drive the audience to your web site. Its electronic and can be done for $15,000 or less, including email list procurement.

White Papers

White papers it is believed, add a measure of thought leadership to your space. They do, provided you are putting them out on a regular basis and (this is the important part), are more than you writing about what you know about. White Papers need to be used as mechanism for thought-leadership, not simply writing what you know about. To be a thought leader in your field, you need to write like a "thought- leader". That means taking on topics you may not feel so comfortable about. It may mean becoming a visionary and projecting out where an industry may be going. To be seen as a thought-leader, you must generate though-leading content.

For example, those vendors who operate in the international space, think of the lessons you have learned in single payer government sponsored healthcare systems, or in Europe where there is a mix of payers where everyone has health coverage. How do those lessons translate into the transformation of the American healthcare system? That is thought leadership.

Association Meetings and Trade Shows

Exhibits are what they are. But adding workshops, presentations and discussions on the booth are a must have. You are the focal point with the doctor, hospital, whomever is playing a supportive testimonial role. Yes, you do have a role as a presenter but this is the soft sell and credibility established as a the content expert, as well as showing you understand the pain and can make it go away. Consider being a major sponsor as well to access key decision makers one-on-one. Sales must have pre-established appointments on the booth. No appointments, no go. Immediate lead generation and follow-up on every booth visitor is another must.

Webinars

Needed, yes. However it seems that most people are still in the 9-5 mentality. Most physicians and professionals I know, are usually working in their office or the hospital. So why not have these webinars in the evening or early morning before they start reviewing x-rays? If they are not reading x-rays then they are not making money. Don't infringe on that valuable time. Be more responsive. For the C-suite, lunch time is usually good for them scheduled later in the week rather than early in the week or the middle.

Internet usage

Interactive, interactive, interactive. Readers neither have the patience nor the desire to have to read the fine print to see what they want. Make sure your site is user friendly and designed for mobile access. Use video messaging. Don't forget about facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, blogs, YouTube etc. Your audience is out there. Messages delivered across multiple channels are more effective then a one size fits all approach. Build a following. Have apps for your site. Use QR codes linked to account executives, white papers, case study or web site as suggestions.

Customer Evangelists

Got to have them. If your hospitals, doctors and others won't stand up for you, then you have a problem. You're just another vendor who can be replaced. Testimonials, implementation success stories, outcomes, data transparency, anything that show others are passionate about your product. Third party conferred credibility is a powerful medium and message. Don't lose sight of it. Find them and leverage.

And rankings do matter. KLAS is important. Add in ECRI and Hayes as well. Tie them all together if you can for your products with customer evangelist testimonials.

Media Relations

More than just press releases, this is the down and dirty of getting coverage. Major stories in targeted publications will do more for you than any advertisement, banner ad, webinar etc. people do believe what they read. You need a steady stream of news and information. Be proactive, build press relationships. Use the Business Wire. Target your messages for the specific press you are trying to attract. Build your news around current events in healthcare. Don't be afraid to issue a statement on your position on a topic of importance. Be seem as a content expert so that when news develops around the industry you're in, you become the go-to organization for the quote. it confers strong expert credibility for you and your companies solution products. Copies of articles can be used a leave behinds and in campaigns. Can't buy that kind of coverage and credibility. Build more than a press page- build a bio of the senior team and a speakers bureau for conference, seminars etc. If you are not out in the market presenting, then you are not being seen. Presence builds preference.

I have gone on long enough and probably too long for that matter. But from what I have seen in the segment of the healthcare industry, everybody is starting to look the same.

If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes.

>>> How do You Market Healthcare IT Solutions? >>>