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I mage by StartUpStockPhotos from Pixabay Well, I am trying something new. Beginning with the end of the month in October 2021, I recapped the posts published in the month, with a post summary and clickable links for each in one place. This way, if you missed a post or wanted to reread one, the months’ published content is in one easy-to-find place. During October, we looked at why providers need to market core values, moving to one view of the patient to the hospital system and vis versa and finished with removing ageism from healthcare marketing. I’ll be honest, and I am not sure if it will be of benefit for you, but I’m giving it a try anyway. As the saying goes, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Image by Peter Linforth from Pixabay. October 5 - Why Healthcare Providers & Vendors Need to Market Core Values https://bit.ly/3DdD6Mz In the latest Healthcare Business & Marketing Insights blog post, I explore why healthcare providers and vendors consider marketing organizati...

Image by Rudy Anderson from Pixabay, A funny thing happens when you get older.  Brands, especially those in healthcare, suddenly decide that based solely on age, one is now in need of senior services, specialized care, and other age-based items. Ageism and inaccurate stereotypes occur not only in healthcare but in many consumer brands. Based on legend, past practice, misguided beliefs, and stereotypes, ageism is harmful. Ageism harms society, the individual, and employment opportunities.   It’s nonsense how Boomers, Gen-X, Gen-Z, Millennials, and other age groups are perceived by marketing harmful and inaccurate stereotypes. It is ageism and it is wrong. Image by Brandon Roberts from Pixabay Age-based stereotyping is wrong on many levels. Age assumption-based marketing does not reflect the new market realities of how someone of any age uses technology, their experiences or expectations as individuals, and how they relate to the world, beliefs, self-perceptions, attitudes, an...

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.  Change can be good in the leadership of healthcare providers and vendors. Conversely, change, if not managed correctly organizationally, can be debilitating. And the professional sports world is full of examples of good and bad change, from leadership to players. The point is that major professional sports teams in leagues worldwide live in a continuous cycle of evaluation and change regardless of the sport. In the professional sports world, the common saying from GMs and coaches to owners, players, staff, and fans when explaining change is “if you’re not changing, you’re falling behind.” Thinking image by Pexels from Pixabay. When you think about that statement, there is a pearl of intuitive wisdom for healthcare providers and vendors, working in a sea of change coming from all directions. This was never truer as we continue to experience upheaval driven by seismic shifts in technology, diagnosis, treatment, care delivery, and innovative new e...

Image by ganderboy from Pixabay Marketing to physicians is hard. It is tough to reach physicians trying your mightiest to get that elusive appointment for face-to-face selling. Then came the pandemic, and it became nearly impossible. One segment of the vendor healthcare market hit particularly hard was revenue cycle management (RCM) vendors. These companies battle among the thousands of local mom-and-pop billing and coding shops and the national behemoths. Competition in the healthcare vendor segment is primarily price-driven and can be considered in many ways that billing and coding are commodities. So how can an RCM break through this loggerhead? You need to get the physician's attention in the right marketing channel, with the right message, the first time. Image by Sammie Mendes from Pixabay Getting the attention of physicians and practice leaders can seem like a nearly impossible task for business development executives. At the same time, cold calling sometimes works and re...

  Image by Gerd Altmann ffrom Pixabay I could have written a rant about how healthcare vendor sales executives are using LinkedIn to prospect. It doesn't matter if it's revenue cycle management, medical device, pharma, information technology, analytics, or any other vendor segment. But I didn't as that would have been too easy.  Unfortunately, there are some common characteristics in prospecting using LinkedIn, causing wasted time, effort, and rejection. But in thinking it over, I decided to provide some helpful tips for using LinkedIn for becoming more sales productive .   And maybe in the process, stop getting useless, poorly targeted, as well as disjointed sales emails and calls. Oh, and this goes for their employing companies too. Now that being said, I get that currency for being on LinkedIn is relationships, connections, networking, and the ability to prospect. I am good with that.   What I am not okay with is the seemingly increased amount of inappropriate ...

  Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay First, let me ask you a few questions. Have you ever used an alias and tried to access the hospital services like find a physician, schedule an appointment, or used the hospital or health system website to find information? Have you ever gone to your website and reviewed the informational content that a new patient searching for a physician would find to verify that the content is correct? How about calling central scheduling for a test or getting a call back from your call center after completing an online request to schedule an appointment with a physician service? Was the website easy to use? Was the information on the physician correct? When you completed the form, how long was it before you heard back? When you heard back, could you schedule the appointment easily, or were you told information opposite of what your website contained like you have to call the doctor because they schedule their appointments?   Was the call center repre...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Think for a moment using the lens of marketing and ask what a hospital or health system does control? Do they control the insurers? No. They negotiate but do not control them. Do they control Medicare or Medicaid? Do they control the independent physician they need to utilize the hospital inpatient, outpatient, and emergency room facilities and services? No. Can they control the patient at any other time when they are not in the system of care receiving some medical care?   I think that is a no as well. For the sake of the discussion, let's agree that control is too harsh a word in its truest sense. So maybe the better choice would be the ability to influence the patient and others. However, the answer would still be a resounding no from a brand marketing viewpoint, especially in a buyer's market beginning to exist today. Four areas of influence to manage. The four areas that ultimately impact the hospital or health systems' ability t...

  Image by Anastasia Gepp from Pixabay Word-of-mouth marketing. We all talk about it. We all understand the importance of patients and clients spreading the good work of our hospital or business. So, while we all talk a good game, little attention is paid to the "how" of how you leverage word-of-mouth marketing. Taking an "if it happens, that's a great approach," providers and vendors then turn their attention to the traditional and digital marketing channels to get the brand message out. Interruptive marketing is easier the implementing a word-of-mouth marketing plan. Word-of-mouth means you will take a risk to identify strategies, tactics, and metrics to execute.   It also means that in highly undifferentiated markets such as those that exist for hospitals and revenue cycle management companies, word-of-mouth marketing can be a powerful way to break away from the competition. Word-of-mouth marketing is far more targeted and persuasive than traditional forms...

  Image by photosforyou from Piaxabay I was thinking the other day about the lessons of patient and physician engagement in specialty pharmacy and how that could transfer to providers. That is  meaningful engagement for managing population health, changing health behaviors, keeping physicians, referrals, and patients in the network, while improving engagement and experience. It occurred to me that specialty pharmacy has been engaging physicians and patients for a long time, long before "engagement" and "experience" became the corporate buzzword in hospitals. Specialty pharmacy is more than just a transactional drug fill. Due to the expense and side effects of many of the specialty pharmaceuticals, a high level of patient engagement by clinicians, customer service, and feedback on patient compliance and side effects is essential. Specialty pharmacy also requires a seamless and well-designed experience for physicians and patients. Image by Tina Koehler from Pixabay ...