If healthcare is about the patient, then what is healthcare marketing but strategies to acquire new patients, keep existing patients coming back and having them evangelize about your hospital, medical / dental practice or product? And if patient centered care is key, then what is patient centered marketing? What is physician centered marketing?

The internet is has changed the economics of healthcare marketing. It has radically impacted pricing on media buys, the ways people shop for healthcare services – the e-patient – and the way they interact with your brand. Offline communications remains vital, but the right media mix is vital, coupled with referral stream support (physician or otherwise), messaging, among other tactics. Tactics are your tools, your strategy is your foundation.

Speak In The Language of Your Patients When Marketing To Patients

Ambulatory Care Center? 64-Slice CT?  What do these things mean to the patient. Healthcare is confusing enough without continuing to use more terms that patients either don’t understand or care about.  Patients go to hospitals, physicians, dentists, and use medical equipment to treat something. To make themselves feel better.  It is that “something” that must be addressed from a benefits point of view to the patient.  So why take the time, energy and resources to advertise an “Ambulatory Care Center” when you can talk about what you can do to heal that patient?  What good is 64-slice technology if the human expertise needed takes a backseat?  How effective are your messages?

Go Where They Are

This overstates the obvious, but healthcare organizations are still married to outdated means of communications.  The internet can help in a variety of ways including finding the various verticle markets in your own back yard to reach with the added benefit of helping you drive down the cost of effective impression.  Find out where they are online and go after them.

Save Money

Negotiate hard with your media outlets. Newspapers want your business, get the best possible deal you can. Get your agency to work harder for you on media buys…no more auto-pilots!

New Game

It is vital to understand that the internet is the ultimate game changer in healthcare marketing. A Pew Research Center Internet Life Project Study showed that healthcare is the number one searched category in United States.  And with the staggering growth of Social Media, how do we find the right media mix to reach our intended markets, and what are the business ramifications? More to come….