instantly health

  Image by Peter Linforth from Pixabay. Marketing changes a lot. Sometimes driven by leadership in providers and vendors. It could be an old idea they used in their early leadership days, “with it worked, then it could work now.” It could be from reading an article, attending a conference, a recommendation from the Board of Directors, or private equity ownership.   But in any case, leadership always chases the shiny new marketing nickel. Fads and trends come and go in marketing all the time. What is old is new and what’s new is old. But some things do remain the same. While tactics, messages, and channels change all the time, it can be a case of the tail wagging the dog. Don’ take me wrong. Marketers need to innovate, create engaging content, and drive an exceptional experience while finding the mediums that patients, providers, and vendors inhabit with an attention span of a newt . It can explain why so many providers and vendors focus on features, not benefits, which in ...

  Recruitment image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Employee recruitment marketing using current employees in providers and vendors comes and goes as a marketing recruitment tool. Carefully selected happy and long-term employees tout the culture, work environment, co-workers, etc., and why they have been there so long. It’s not uncommon to see comments about the mission-driven company and how everyone is treated with dignity and respect. I know because I have created and executed in partnership with HR these types of campaigns. Not only do they attract qualified candidates, but it provides employees the opportunity to be an active brand ambassador of the provider or vendor.   Then comes the job candidate’s experience, which may or may not reflect the marketing and brand claims. Best place to work awards, top company to work for, and other awards have people scratching their heads wondering what happened. How you treat the job candidate is as important as what you say in the co...

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.        Patients are now engaged in shopping behavior .  2.        Patients are pay...

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...

The last 20 or so months have seen an unprecedented wave of change in healthcare. The way patients search for information, access care, and its delivery due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Direction image by Kalhh from Pixabay The patient is more in charge with the adaption of telehealth, new entrants stepping into areas that were previously the domain of the hospital, and other care delivered in more convenient, affordable, and accessible locations. Add on top of all of this access to pricing information, and you can see why I call it Healthcare 3.0 Healthcare 3.0 Healthcare 3.0 is an entirely different market animal from anything hospital leadership has ever had to contend with.  The competitive animal has teeth with little regard for whether a hospital or health system survives. Highly competitive, innovative, and retail, the sole focus is on understanding and meeting patients' needs.  Most hospital marketing by focusing on features of the hospital- facilities, technology, s...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay It seems like the year just started. Now you're at the mid-point of executing the hospital marketing plan, so it's time to look at how it has gone. I know you do the monthly reporting, but this isn't about individual months' performance but a more analytic and subjective holistic evaluation of how well the plan performed to expectations, what unexpected changes you had to make, where the next six months are headed. It's a tall order but a necessary evil. We all like to think about our prowess as marketing planners and the ability to execute. However, we can all be lulled into the "it's the plan, so we have to do it mentality" or are on autopilot with social media tweets and other posts driven by prescheduling with marketing automation. Besides, we are coming out of the pandemic with vaccination challenges and the Delta variant of COVID-19. The last 19 months saw a transformation of how care was delivered, from pat...

  Image by PixxlTeufel from Pixabay As the provider market for the patient and physician continues to consolidate through merger, acquisition, liquidation, or disintermediation, there is one clear outcome due to the lasting effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Fewer providers mean heightened competition within hospitals or health systems in a bid to stay atop the food chain. But with the patient's realization that they need a hospital for only three things, emergency care, intensive care, and care for complex acute medical conditions, patients are more in control with their physician of the selection process. To become the patient's choice for healthcare, successful providers will recognize that understanding the patient’s selection decision matrix is the new way of marketing and how it impacts growth. Patient Decision Matrix In this environment, providers are already losing meaningful differentiation. Marketing campaigns with fluff messaging about caring, facilities, or q...

  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 ...