Online Healthcare Marketing, Making the Customer Experience Exceptional

In the new world of healthcare where price and quality are the key drivers of an informed consumer, sharing a much greater burden of the cost, will begin to demand experiences online that they commonly have with other companies.

Online represents a great opportunity for consumer directed healthcare organizations to break from the pack and create an online healthcare experience that is memorable and exceeds an individuals or families experience, expectations.

Are you ready for the challenge?

Most healthcare sites today are static containing the usual about us, our services location, etc., etc., etc. Little use of video or other creative ways to engage the customer. Notice that I said customer and not patient. Not everyone that comes to your site is a patient or will be a patient. They are consumers looking for information. Could be a competitor too.

In any case, when you look at your site, does it:

Delight your customer?

Create sustainable differentiation?

Is adaptable to new opportunities?

Leverages your investment?

Deliver in every situation?

This is the lens that you need to look through to objectively evaluate your site. If it's not doing these things, then chances are you are not delivering an exceptional online experience. But for that matter, neither are your competitors. In a the world of healthcare which is too much "me too", the online healthcare experience is pretty boring.

Don't take me wrong, healthcare sites are usually pretty good if people internally have been paying attention to them. They can be described as warm, comfortable, informative, friendly. They can be described as "good enough". Not exceptional. Not delivering anywhere near to the capability inherent in an online presence.

I would suggest to hospitals, IDNs, nursing home, home healthcare operations and many others, that you look outside of the your segment of healthcare to pharma, medical device and other companies, viewing the type of online presence they have. Look to healthcare organizations in Europe and Asia. Look at retail organizations.

Make your online presence not just "good enough" but exceptional.

The time is now. The opportunity to change is here.

You can continue the conversation with me on:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/krivich0707
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mkrivich
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michaelkrivich

Michael Krivich is Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association and can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for consulting services in strategic marketing, integration of sales and marketing, media relations and interim marketing executive leadership assignments. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

>>> Online Healthcare Marketing, Making the Customer Experience Exceptional >>>

Marketing Accountable Care Organizations

Entering the new world of healthcare where quality and accountability are drivers to reduce cost, how do you market an Accountable Care Organization (ACO)? Especially as healthcare providers, namely doctors and hospitals, must compete on outcome transparency, quality and cost. A triple threat and uncharted territory. Outcomes data will be the driver and available to the consumer to make an informed choice. A monumental shift in the market place of who controls the information.

Anybody seen the new United Health commercials? They are already touting call us, we can send you to the best doctors. Anywhere in the country. Organizations that control the data, control the market and control the price.

So for those doctors and hospitals looking at ACOs, better get your track shoes on. The big insurers are already moving forward with physician groups and pilot programs to test the concept.

In the end, I believe that insurers will control ACOs by the simple fact that they have the data. They already know which doctors practice the best quality and most efficient medicine. The insurers already know which hospitals provide the most cost-effective and quality-driven care. All because they control the claims data. Insurers analyze, predict and can move much faster than others can. Stockholders demand it. So, while tax-exempt organizations engage in their annual lets build consensus before we can move forward on the idea, you are already late to the market and at a decided disadvantage.

Besides, I wonder if ACOs really pass the smell test of what Clinton tried to do in the1990s? And that failed. Maybe what we really have is the same attempt re-branded for 2010?

Marketing Accountable Care Organizations

Brand. Quality. Data transparency. Service. Price.

Your message needs to be clear and concise, echoing the ACOs brand promise and the value that you bring though your ACO to the consumer or the insurer. Focus on outcomes not high-tech or "touchy-feelly". Consumers are too sophisticated for such a simple message.

How you position your ACO vies a vie others is critical and you get one shot. You need to do it right. Remember, you can only take one of three positions in the market, superior, equivalent or inferior. The initial positioning of your brand is one of the most critical tasks you face. With an informed consumer bearing more of the cost, you have one shot to get it right. No do overs anymore.

Co-brand you member materials with insurers for members to educate and inform abut your ACO. Same with self-funded employers. Go to employers work site to reach employees.

Create a separate web site and social media strategy for the ACO and co-brand where possible, have everything online for patient education materials to forms and payment mechanisms.

Need an easy to read and understand dashboard that reports on quality measures for consumers, insurers and employers.

Commit to excellence in customer service and create a Voice of the Customer program to establish and maintain a continuous feedback loop with your key customers. This is not lip service; this is real change. Failure to do so will label you as inferior. Poor customer service is no longer acceptable.

Keep in constant communication with your members. Email is best. Use video emails and always , always have a call-to-action message.

Create a loyalty program. This is not a taboo and except for government program beneficiaries in Medicare and Medicaid or other government funded programs. You can create a loyalty program. Fact is not all patients are the same so you might as well take advantage of it before others do. It can be a powerful differentiators. Step out and be creative.

There is more you can do, but know this should keep you pretty busy.

More news:

Healthcare Marketing Matters is now read daily in over 20 countries around the world in excess of 550 page views a month. Welcome to the newest readers: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa and the Philippines.

Michael Krivich is Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association and can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for consulting services in strategic marketing, media relations and interim marketing executive leadership assignments. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

>>> Marketing Accountable Care Organizations >>>

How Can You Use Social Media in Your Healthcare Marketing Efforts?

A lot is being written about using social media in healthcare marketing. Most, if not all, pertains to driving patient volume and revenue. Though I am a heavy user of social media though facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and blogging, I really wonder if social media will ever drive volume and revenue? It may impact indirectly long term volume and revenue growth, but as of now, the jury is out.


My guess is that it won't short-term, but it can be used to build your brand effectively, raise awareness and provide you with a no-cost, low-cost way to maintain a continuous presence in your market. After all, presence builds preference, and too much of healthcare marketing is a one shot, one or two communication channels effort that is limited in exposure and audience reach due to lack of funding and sustainability.

So, if we assume the premise is correct that volume and revenue growth in the short term will not occur due to the impact of social media, that what should you do?

Well, you need to be in social media. It is a growing and important communication channel that allows you to control the brand message and connect with savvy consumers.

Consider these ideas:

Commit to a written plan and strategy for using social media. Resist the temptation to say we need to do this without making sure the strategy is part of your overall marketing effort, and the tactic makes sense for you with a clear understanding of what you want to do.

Use social media as a method for gathering competitive intelligence about your major competition. You can learn a lot by what that they are writing and talking about.

Make sure everything links back to your web page. Use email marketing to build sign-ups.

Measure the effectiveness of everything you do. Use that data to understand what your audience wants and give them more. Once that is established, begin introducing new ideas, concepts, services etc.

Keep the content current and interactive. Use twitter to broadcast changes to your web site, news articles, interviews, wellness programs, specials, doctor interviews, health and wellness tips.etc. Link with your facebook, LinkedIn and blog so that notifications are always automatic and posted to those sites. Video needs YouTube exposure. Always make sure you have a call to action- request more info, register for a program, make a doc appointment.

Be creative. There is so much health information out there published on a daily basis that this can be used to position you as the local "go-to" source for news and information.

Daily activity as opposed to once in a while. Make it a part of someones ongoing responsibility to do this daily. People lose interest if you're not changing, updating, educating, informing building your brand daily. No one follows an organization that is not current and relevant to the times. Make your brand strong.

This is all about brand building, your brand promise and value. Use social media to promote your brand marketing campaigns and public relations.

Your cost for doing all this is limited to the staff time involved. Now, if you so choose to outsource that a different matter and you need to budget for same.

Use social media to leverage everything you do.

Good luck and happy socializing!

News

I would like to share some exciting news. Healthcare Marketing Matters has gone international and page views are increasing at a regular rate. The blog is now read in the United States and then (in alphabetical order) Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Latvia, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia and Sweden.

Thank You

My twitter following continues to grow as well. Several hospitals in Florida are now following me and I am grateful. The hospitals are: HCA East Florida; Palms W Hospital; St. Lucie Medical Center; Central Florida Regional; Kendall Regional Medical Center; HCA St. Pete General; Northwest Medical; HCA West Florida; and Ed White Hospital.

Michael Krivich is Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association and can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for consulting services in strategic marketing, media relations and interim marketing executive leadership assignments. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

>>> How Can You Use Social Media in Your Healthcare Marketing Efforts? >>>

Driving Volume and Revenue in a Recessionary or Slow Growth Economy

"It's the economy stupid", to quote a now famous phrase.

Revenue in hospitals, clinics and physician offices are down. Looming Medicare cuts. Slow pay or no pay from Medicaid programs across the country. Increased self-pays. Lowered insurance reimbursements.

As much as we like to believe otherwise, healthcare is not a discretionary purchase. And, there is little if any differentiation between medical providers. With so many individuals out of work, consumer confidence eroding and wage earners fearful of losing jobs, healthcare, whether doctors visits, medication purchases, or hospitalizations, are the last thing on peoples' minds.

What is a healthcare provider to do?

We all know the drill. Cut costs, lay-off staff, hiring freeze, decrease marketing. etc. All retrenchment strategies to "weather the storm." In most cases necessary steps. All fatal to the healthcare organization. When recovery ensues, which it will, you can't take advantage of new opportunities that present themselves because you are trying to recapture what you lost. Focusing your resources and efforts to make back the revenue and market share that you lost.

You can drive volume and revenue is a recessionary or slow growth economy. Here's how:

Step One: Recognize that healthcare is a purely a discretionary purchase. No one wants to get sick. No one plans to get sick. No one thinks about what health provider they will go to when they get sick.

In recessionary or slow growth economy here is the paradigm: ( I am not saying its right to do, but it is what people do.)

I get sick » self diagnose and try over the counter medications » doesn't work » consider retail clinic yes/no » call primary care physician yes/no » go to hospital ER.

Hospitals are last on the list, and individuals decisions in the economy are driven purely by price. What is going to cost me in co-pay or out of pocket if no insurance and what is the cheapest price?

Realize too that there is little if any differentiation among providers. You all look and feel the same. Market and "walk the talk" about value and price, not about image.

Step Two: Focus on physician and patient experience. Understand every touch point that a doctor or patient comes in contact with you from the first moment that they learn about your brand, to the medical services, to leaving is an opportunity to create a lasting positive impression and repeat business. Complete a patient experience map and a physician experience map. Find the issues and fix them now.

Step Three: Focus on the core. That's right, focus on your core services that pay the bills. No wild fancy flights of new services that are consumer or physician discretionary or elective in nature. People won't buy them in this economy. So don't waste the time and energy, except for planning for those new service lines when the economy turns around. But not now.

Create pricing and service specials for your existing outpatient lab services such as schedule, test and results in two days (STaR2).

Step Four: Crank up the media relations. Press releases, statements, white papers, outcomes studies, anything that puts you in a positive light and keep you in the media. Consider a steady stream of health and wellness tips etc. Drive people to your web site and don't forget to use social media efficiently and effectively. Patient and physician success stories are needed as well.

Step Five: Constantly measure and evaluate. Change on the fly. Don't stop. Be consistent in your brand messaging.

The opportunity is now.

Michael Krivich is Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association and can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for consulting services in strategic marketing, media relations and interim marketing executive leadership assignments. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

>>> Driving Volume and Revenue in a Recessionary or Slow Growth Economy >>>

Revenue and Marketing Opportunities Due to the Affordable Care Act

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (aka healthcare reform) underway, do you think that there are any revenue and marketing opportunities?

A good questions since many, if not all of the current health insurance plans offered by employers either through a third party, or as self-insured are in grandfathered status. But that should not stop you from looking at the Affordable Care Act (ACA) innovatively and creatively to find and capture those revenue opportunities.

The basic reason is simple, employers do give a damn about grandfathered status, but will be unable over time to maintain it. In the business world, cost is king. Period. Employers will do anything they can to drive down that cost by making changes in co-pays, coverage and carriers. When these changes are made grandfathered status is lost. If you're not planning and getting ready to execute your revenue and marketing strategies now, you are already behind in the game.

Think Walgreens and CVS/Caremark are waiting around and not planning with their work-site and retail clinic programs?

Your first opportunistic date is September 23, 2010.

On September 23rd, the Preventive Services Covered under the Affordable Care Act become a reality.

The Opportunity

There are three primary areas: Covered Preventive Services for Adults; Covered Preventive Services for Women, Including Pregnant Women; and Covered Preventive Services for Children. I am not going to go into great detail here as there are a large number of covered services in each category, so if you follow this link to http://www.healthcare.gov/law/about/provisions/services/lists/html where
you will find all the information in great detail.

Important point to remember. These are services that must be covered without people having to pay a copayment or meet their deductible, when these services are delivered by a network provider. Be that network provider.

What you need to do is create a comprehensive preventive care product offering in these categories, price it accordingly and sell it to your exiting insurance companies and employers in your community. Screenings lead to diagnosis, and treatment. Revenue and volume. It's a straight line from one to the other if you are out in the market. Cost is king and if you are not cost competitive, you won't get the initial business and potential downstream revenue.

This play is B2B, B2B2C and B2C, requiring close communication and collaboration between business development, insurance contracting and marketing to pull it off. Create a strategy, develop the tactics and then execute. Remember, the view always looks the same if you're not the lead dog. Consider co-branding with the insurance plan and employer.

Don't stop there.

Marketing should be part of any discussion that's going on and it's not just make me some pretty materials. You need a strategy, clear brand messaging and tactical execution across a wide array of channels and communication vehicles. Your audiences are: insurance plans; employers; physicians; TPAs and consumers. Tactics include direct sales; video emails; direct mail to covered members; web; social media; media relations; community events and work-site programs. Deliver what you can on-site, in retail locations and create special fast-track registration and service delivery methods for preventive services. Keep your cost down and compete.

Be accountable. Be Measureable. Lead your markets. Healthcare is changing, don't get left behind.

Lots to do and little time to do it.

Michael Krivich is Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association and can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for consulting services in strategic marketing, media relations and interim marketing executive leadership assignments. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

>>> Revenue and Marketing Opportunities Due to the Affordable Care Act >>>

Selling to Physicians Through Integrated Marketing and Sales

Physicians are the lifeblood of many a healthcare organization. As competition increases for their attention whether it be a hospital, specialty pharmacy, medical device manufacturer, or pharmaceutical company to name a few, cutting through the din of messages and relationships can be a daunting task.

For hospitals failure to build successful relationships and sales strategies mean that your docs could admit patients elsewhere. Note to hospitals: If you are not selling to docs, then you're missing a great opportunity to build volume by creating a more committed medical staff than if you just doing "relations or liaison" activities. You can sell legally and effectively if you know what you are doing.

For medical device manufacturers, failure to sell the doc mean a more difficult time selling your product into the venue where the physician practices medicine.

For specialty pharmacies, the physician sends his or her patients elsewhere.

So how do you cut through all of the chatter and have marketing and sales work together effectively?

No magic answers here.

No pixie dust either.

But here are 10 rules of thumb for moving forward:

1) Your sales people must be using a common sales strategy across the enterprise. I have seen too many organizations where everybody's left to their own methods resulting in incorrect messaging and using poorly designed home-grown materials which could have some significant legal repercussions for the organization. Your sales force activities are about relationship selling and acting as the liaison for the physician to your organization. If you don't have a method and training, chances are you will not be as effective as your competition.

2) Use a sales database system to collect information and the marketing department needs to have full access. If your just starting to look at one, marketing needs to be at that table. Don't assume that sales or IT knows what marketing needs. They don't. Systems breed accountability on all sides of the ledger.

3) Create an interdisciplinary marketing and sales advisory committee. Where most organizations fall down is the poor communication and working relationships between sales and marketing. You have to get past the "the feet on the street" don't deliver the brand messages and promise in the right way, and all that marketing is good for is creating stuff, because I need more stuff to leave behind attitudes.

4) Train your marketing department in the sale approach that your sales people are using. This way marketing begins to understand the opportunities and challenges faced, and how your sales staff is trained to overcome them. This means that all marketing materials should be created to be applicable and useful at some point in the sales cycle. It's all about shortening the sales cycle. Effective materials will assist in that goal.

5) Let your marketing people go out on sales calls and major presentations. They can be a new set of eyes and ears as well as providing them with new perspectives on how difficult the job is. Insights from other areas will make you a stronger organization.

6) Cut down on the number of slide you use for presentations. An 80 page slide deck is all about you and nothing about your potential customer. If you have to use more than 10 slides, you don't know what you are talking about and don't understand your audience. Talking head are boring.

7) Marketing departments need to see what sales people have created for use in their markets. Sales people are creative and resourceful. You may find some useful material to use and distribute across the entire organizations.

8) Have marketing attend you sales meetings and weekly funnel calls. It's about relationships and dialogue. Marketing should have a roll in explaining the organizational strategy, and what they are doing to generate meaningful leads for sales to follow-up on.

9) Joint marketing and sales goals and objectives should be established. Share in the pain and share in the gain.

10) Constantly evaluate and begin again.

Michael Krivich is Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association and can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for consulting services in strategic marketing, media relations and interim marketing executive leadership assignments. Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni, both highly respected and successful international sales training organizations , I can lead your organization though the challenge of integrating sales and marketing.

>>> Selling to Physicians Through Integrated Marketing and Sales >>>

Marketing Healthcare PACS & RIS IT Solutions

This post is a little different for me. Usually, I am looking at the hospital side of the marketing equation and not so much the sales vendor side. Having worked on both the hospital and IT vendor side Radiology Information System, (RIS), Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR), it is most interesting to compare. The great challenge is selling into two spaces simultaneously, the physician and the C-Suite. Messages may be the similar and different at the same time. Once size does not fit all. Additionally, this is not an all inclusive look at marketing PACS and RIS.

I am not addressing the sales side of the equation. That's a discussion for another topic at a later date. I am not anti-sales by any means being Huthwaite SPIN selling trained and a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling alumni. The integration of marketing and sales is for another day.

Just an observation but everyone is starting to look the same. It's easy to lose that differentiation that every company craves when selling similar products and services .

Key Messages

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!

So let's take a short look at some common marketing techniques and what could be done to break the log jam? Less is more....

Case Studies

Case studies are important and I would think everyone agrees on that point. Our audiences suffer from information overload. Where 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 and that is content beyond what you know.

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

Here is not so much exhibiting which some do allow, but being a co-presenter with a hospital or doc on how working together the hospital lowered cost, improved quality, increased efficiency etc. You are not the focal point but the doctor or hospital is the focal point, You play the supporting character with your product. 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.

Webinars

Yep another me too category. 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, digital or film? 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. Way too much copy heavy web pages. 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; no more than 3 clicks to find information. 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.

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, patient success stories, outcomes, data transparency, anything that can 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. Shame on you if you don't.

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. And that could lead to a commoditization of the PACS & RIS environment where people buy only on price and nothing else.

So seller beware.....

Michael Krivich is Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association and can be reached at michael@themichaeljgroup.com or 815-293-1471 for consulting services in strategic marketing, media relations and interim marketing executive leadership assignments.

>>> Marketing Healthcare PACS & RIS IT Solutions >>>