Skip to main content

The Patient Brand Evangelist Posting UGC - the Next Hospital Marketing Frontier


People Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Do you know who your patient hospital brand evangelists are, and are they posting User Generated Content (UGC)? I ask this question for a fundamental reason.  In an age where it’s challenging to define differentiation clearly and me too messaging amongst hospitals, in a pandemic that shows no signs of ending soon, how is a healthcare patient to make a choice?

I realize that many healthcare leaders will dispute the above statement.  However, hospital marketing -traditional, digital and social, fall into one of four general buckets, ‘it’s all about you”, “look at at our technology,”  “our facilities and locations,” and “look at our awards.” In an age of pandemic uncertainty, the marketing and communication efforts focus on features, not patient benefits.

Consider for a moment. 

1.       Patientsare now engaged in shopping behavior. 

2.       Patients are paying over one-third of the cost of care out of pocket. 

3.       A patient usesthe internet, social media, etc., focusing on reviews and recommendations are written by other patients.


Content image by Werner Moser from Pixabay

Maybe we should call this the age of User Generated Content.

Patients trust other patients’ UGC more than the published brand content. That is, patients, trust believable patient UGC.

That is why UGC is becoming critical to hospitals and other providers as healthcare continues its rapid evolution. Patient UGC is also the new word-of-mouth marketing too.

What are the characteristics of a believable patient user-generated content?

First, it’s authentic and in the patient’s own words, not a writer at an agency or the marketing team. Second, a good patient UGC makes an emotional connection with prospective patients. Third, the patient’s UGC needs to be on voice or video. Fourth, the patients you select match the patient buyers’ persona you have created. Fifth, timing is everything in patient UGC; find patients who have had a recent good experience.

You can pull out statements or transcribe entire interviews for marketing communications brand documents or website, or snippets for social media, but ultimately, seeing is believing. Providers understand why their demonstrated support for the vendor can accomplish. 

How do you ask for patient user-generated content?

Ask image by Deam Moriarty from Pixabay

It can be a challenge obtaining patient UGC with internal compliance policies and procedures, HIPAA, and other privacy regulations, but it is not impossible.  Add to all that in some hospitals the reluctance of leadership to let marketing talk to patients. But still, as healthcare evolves, the Internet is making the world a tiny place, making patient UGC and recommendations even more critical.

Ask the patient directly. Don’t hem and haw around the question or ask timidly. Be pleasant and direct. Answer the patient’s questions with transparency and honesty. Second, make it easy for the patient to create the UGC. Tell them exactly how to do it, where it’s done, i.e., a website landing page, and allow them to make it more personal by adding a photo if you’re not doing a video. Third, offer them a small gift as a thank you. Fourth, except for spelling and grammar edits, be clear with the patient it’s their words, not yours. Fifth, don’t forget the Release and Permission to Use for your records.

Take the time to build your patient relationship, design a strategic UGC program for the entire organization, teach people internally what their role is and how to support the strategy. UGC is first and foremost about the patient trusting the hospital. If you can’t get UGC from your patients, you may have more significant experience issues.

The hospital of today operates in a far different healthcare market than even 2020. But the idea and principles are the same. In many ways, UGC is even more important today than yesterday. Brand value, outcome, experience, engagement, and patient UGC are everything today.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Business & Marketing Matters is read in 52 countries and ranked No. 3 on 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites to follow by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives.  For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. 

Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Flipboard, and Triller. Use 815-351-0671 to call directly or message me on WhatsApp or Telegram for safe and secure end-to-end message encryption. Video conferencing is available via Zoom and  Skype; please use live: michael0753_2.

Signup for the e-newsletter Healthcare Business & Marketing Daily and have the latest healthcare marketing and business news for providers and vendors delivered right to your mailbox. Add your email address in the signup in the blog sidebar. You will not receive general or specific marketing emails.

Join Healthcare Marketing Leaders For Change, a LinkedIn Professional Group, for more topics and thought-leading discussions,

The opinions expressed are my own.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lessons from the Field: What is the Hospital Ambulatory Strategy and Branding?

Image by Pattie O'Loughlin from Pixabay. My primary care physician ordered a couple of tests and left me the option to choose the location. Near me was a free-standing hospital system-based ambulatory care center.   When I called the central scheduling department of the health system in question, I asked if the center near me did those tests. I scheduled one of the tests because of some pretest requirements and the other test nearly immediately as diagnostic radiology was available on a walk-in basis. Now, understand that I drive by this ambulatory medical center regularly and never had a clue that all this and more was available. In all honesty, I didn’t pay that much attention to the marketing either, as it focused on providing senior physician services that I did not need or have any interest in. Why did the system place ‘senior” in the name? When you put “senior” in the name, which is biased age-based segmentation and marketing, you automatically define the center’s per...
Post a Comment
Read more

Are Healthcare Marketers Using the Right Data for the Next Best Action?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Healthcare marketers, all marketers, are awash in data. I postulate that healthcare marketers’ amount of available data are complex data sets similar in the amount and velocity to what clinicians use. And in turn, enterprising marketers have turned to AI and algorithms to sift through the data for their next best action. You have developed your ideal patient personas, targeted the appropriate demographics, age, gender, lifestyle, community, etc. Some have even conducted primary research. All well and good. But are you measuring what matters to take the next best action? Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Would you consider this is an important question? If you do not measure what matters, then how do you know that the proposed next best action will have a chance to succeed? Artificial intelligence and algorithms are necessary and valuable. These tools have come a long way in a brief period. But, as we get enamored with the “gee-whiz” of Martech, it...
Post a Comment
Read more

2021 in Review – the Most Read Healthcare Business & Marketing Insights Posted in 2021

Image by Kristin Riemer from Pixabay Where did 2021 go? It was a challenging year for providers with changes in reimbursement, a pandemic that continues unabated, innovations in care delivery away from the hospital, innovative new competitors, and significant declines in revenues. I am glad that it’s ending. I will not go into the litany of good and adverse events for 2021. The news organizations and others will all do their year-in-review pieces. It should be interesting to see what they choose to publish or broadcast. It was a good year from a blog writer’s perspective. I had what seemed to be a never-ending flow of topics. I di start a new feature in some of the posts called “Lessons from the Field,” which were well received. Topics ranged from characteristics of success for mid-sized healthcare vendors, leadership, and operations to new ways to look at markets.  Image by Alexas Fotos from Pixabay I am thankful and appreciative of you for taking the time to spend it with me fro...
Post a Comment
Read more