This article was previously published on Forbes.
Marketing to women still has a long way to go, including for hospitals, with two-thirds of women stating that they feel misunderstood by healthcare marketers. With a global value of over $6.5 trillion, the healthcare market offers a bevy of opportunity to hospitals and other healthcare organizations that show they consider women’s perspectives and experiences important.
Five key areas to emphasize
It’s estimated that 66 percent of caregivers are female, middle-aged and working outside of the home. The duty of being a caregiver, whether after a single outpatient procedure or for someone with a chronic condition, is stressful and arduous when combined with an already full work and home life. Fortunately, hospitals can market themselves not only as providers of great medical care, but as a source of guidance and support to empower women to make the right decisions for their family.
Use social proof and word-of-mouth to boost your brand’s credibility with women.
We believe what our friends say. According to a report by Nielsen, recommendations from friends are the most trustworthy form of advertising. And women are more likely than men to trust word-of-mouth, with 72 percent reporting that they’ve made a purchase based on a friend’s recommendation.
What does this mean for hospital marketers? Cultivating a strong foundation of brand ambassadors, or women who are loyal to and willing to speak out positively about your brand, will strengthen your hospital’s brand and make it attractive to new customers. Here’s how.
Set your hospital apart by marketing more than just your medical services.
For most people, visiting a hospital is not a regular occurrence, so the process can be daunting. But hospitals can help. From explaining exactly where to go to setting up easy payment options post-treatment, hospitals can use many tactics to show patients and caregivers that they are approachable, knowledgeable and ready to relieve the stressful burden of the unknown.
Now more than ever before, hospitals must market well to set themselves apart from their competitors. Simply claiming to have the best doctors or technology will not be enough when women expect all hospitals to strive to only provide the best. There are many ways beyond medicine that hospitals can market their amenities to drive preference.
Showing you know how to handle tech will drive preference for your brand.
While it’s true that women are open to — and even excited about — tech advances in healthcare that make their lives easier, they also have concerns. From the privacy of electronic health records to the reliability of automated medication-delivery systems in hospitals, your female consumers want the best for themselves and their families. You can drive preference for your brand by using your marketing materials to allay their concerns.
Here are four common worries women have about technology in healthcare, and ways you can show your target that you’re getting tech right.
Six paths to authentic content and increased engagement
Women are not only the primary decision-makers for healthcare; they’re also more active on social media. Engaging women where they spend their time is crucial to your marketing success. Here are six recommendations for creating a unique and relevant voice on social channels.
Avoiding the pitfalls of gender bias
You’ve likely encountered the stereotype that women aren’t as interested in or as proficient with technology as men. But consider how that stereotype might affect marketing innovative hospital services like e-visits, telemedicine and remote physician video chats. That flawed perception could lead to a gender bias that has a negative effect on your hospital marketing efforts.
How to increase female patient satisfaction — over the phone
There’s incredible demand these days for proprietary hospital mobile apps, but nobody seems to be getting it quite right. Here are some thoughts and tips to help your organization succeed in this space.
There’s a good reason the female-focused blogs on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are named Motherlode and The Juggle, respectively. Women are busy; we serve many roles, often at the same time. More than anything else, female healthcare decision-makers want help with the workload. Women are also tech-savvy, more than men at times. Statistics show that mothers are the most active female consumers online and adopt new technologies more quickly than average.
Following a few key do’s and don’ts can make the difference in driving preference among women for your hospital brand.
In 2012, Bic infamously introduced pink and purple “For Her” pens, packaged in pastel and adorned with a dainty font. The internet took notice and snarky Amazon reviews ensued: “It’s good,” one reviewer wrote, “that Bic [is] finally doing something to aid the plight of women.” Undoubtedly, executives at Bic had hoped to cash in by targeting a female demographic — but without a true understanding of what their female consumers wanted, the effort fell flat.
Since women make the majority of healthcare-related decisions, it’s important to gain a deep understanding of what drives their decisions. Doing so in a way that adds real value, shows commitment to understanding the whole person and fosters dialogue will demonstrate to women why your brand stands apart from the pack — in a good way.
Checklists can break down complexity, reduce risk and improve connections with female consumers.
I recently listened to a “Hidden Brain” episode about the power checklists have to save lives in hospital settings. By implementing a surgical checklist process, mortality rates can be reduced by as much as 47 percent. They’ve also been shown to reduce gender bias in hospitals, leading to better outcomes for women.
These staggering and fascinating statistics got me thinking about the value of transforming complexity into simplicity to eliminate failure points. There’s a plethora of evidence about how checklists can help reduce human errors in complex fields like medicine and aviation. Could they help hospital marketers do a better job at the complex task of connecting with women? Just as healthcare has become more complex over time and medical professionals have experienced increasing pressure to have ever-greater levels of expertise, a similar shift has happened in marketing healthcare — especially to women.