By Kathy Selker | September 23, 2020

Hospital Marketers: Targeting Women in the Wake of Price Transparency

This article originally appeared on MediaPost.

Any woman who’s tried to learn how much a surgery, test or procedure will cost for herself or a family member knows it’s almost impossible to shop for healthcare in America on price and quality. Increased regulation has fallen short of its promise to make it easier to determine what consumers pay. But efforts continue: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently changed the rules about how hospitals must share pricing information. Starting January 1, 2019, hospitals will be required to publish their standard charges on the internet.

Advertising

By Kathy Selker | September 8, 2020

How Hospital Marketers Can Master the Art of Live Video

image: iStock

As a member of the Forbes Agency Council, I recently had the opportunity to contribute to a thought-leadership piece on how brands can master the use of live video to connect with their audiences. The article offers a collection of excellent tips, tactics and strategies for the general market, and a number of them can be adapted to a healthcare-specific audience. Here are just a few.

Marketing

By Kathy Selker | August 22, 2020

Hospital Marketers Benefit From Understanding Doctors

image: iStock

Atul Gawande, author of “The Checklist Manifesto,” recently penned an article for The New Yorker titled “Why Doctors Hate Their Computers.” The article offers great insights into the pressures doctors face as they deal with complicated medical software that often negatively affects the quality and duration of their time spent with patients.

Women Insights

By Kathy Selker | August 6, 2020

How Hospital Marketers Can Anticipate Women’s Questions

How Hospital and Healthcare Marketers Can Anticipate Women's Questions

Answering common concerns can drive volume and preference.

When a market goes through the kind of wild swings we’ve seen in the healthcare industry over the past decade, it can be hard for marketers to predict the ways consumers will balance their needs against their means to meet those needs. Particularly in healthcare, where costs are spiraling while incomes remain flat, marketers are struggling to know how they can reach their mostly female targets in an effective way.

Fortunately, there are a few constants healthcare marketers can depend on.

Trends in Healthcare

By Kathy Selker | July 22, 2020

Getting Them in the Door: Marketing Healthcare to Millennial Women

A generational shift in how patients view primary care providers is causing industry upheaval.

A recent story in the Washington Post reported on a healthcare trend that has primary care practitioners concerned: Millennials are increasingly turning away from primary care and toward options that provide more convenience and price transparency.

Trends in Healthcare

By Kathy Selker | July 6, 2020

Opportunities to Market Hospitals to Women With Chronic Conditions

A new billing code could help hospitals promote the use of wearables to improve lives for patients with chronic conditions.

Chronic disease is a critical and growing problem for Americans. While women and men experience conditions at different rates, women tend to be affected earlier in life, and thus need care longer. According to the CDC, nearly half of Americans have a chronic disease, and per a March 2018 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the number is growing.

Women Insights

By Kathy Selker | June 19, 2020

10 Tips for Marketing Healthcare to Women

This article originally appeared on Medium.com for the American Marketing Association.

There are many misconceptions around how to best market hospitals and healthcare services to women: Use pink or don’t? Do gendered messages have stronger appeal? Is it okay to skip focus-group testing? Here are 10 tips for crafting more effective healthcare messaging for women.

Trends in Healthcare

By Kathy Selker | June 3, 2020

Women, Gaslighting and the Power of Respect in Hospital Marketing

How a cultural shift is affecting the healthcare industry

This article previously appeared on Forbes.

Sexism comes in many forms and has profound and lasting consequences, but it’s particularly galling when it happens in a place meant for healing. Because of recent headline stories in publications such as Vogue, The Atlantic and The New York Times, as well as documentaries on Netflix and highlights in podcasts, women who have been dismissed or gaslighted by their doctors now know they have strength in numbers. And they’re demanding change.

Marketing

By Kathy Selker | May 18, 2020

Digital Relationship Marketing for Hospitals

Three strategies for continuing the consumer journey after discharge

Every hospital’s duty is to help patients get better so they can go home and, hopefully, never come back. But that doesn’t mean the relationship between hospital and patient has to end at discharge. Hospitals must communicate frequently with their former patients and those patients’ loved ones in order to grow and maintain strong relationships.

Loyalty

By Kathy Selker | May 3, 2020

Earning Early Loyalty With Hospital Marketing

Satisfying multiple dimensions of customer need is key to long-term loyalty.

This article originally appeared on MediaPost.

A few strategies in healthcare marketing can cross industries and help every marketer. Here’s one example of how a specific healthcare marketing challenge — connecting with women who suffer from chronic disease — can offer strategies that apply across industries.