Marketing

By Kathy Selker | September 10, 2024

Hospital Marketing: Is There a Difference Between “Patient” and “Customer”?

Raising the bar on customer service in hospitals

Customer or patient? Some hospital marketers consider the words synonymous. Others prefer “patient” as a more precise description of their target. Make no mistake; there is nuance between the two. Take a look at the definitions:

Patient: (noun) A person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment. Synonyms: sick person. (adjective) Able to accept or tolerate delays, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. Synonyms: Uncomplaining, resigned.

Customer: (noun) A person or organization that consumes products (goods or services) and has the ability to choose between suppliers. Synonyms: consumer, client, purchaser, buyer, patron, shopper.

Audience

By Kathy Selker | August 24, 2024

A New Perspective on Marketing Hospitals From a Patient POV

Compassion is key to building trust for your hospital’s female patients.

I recently had a bicycle accident that left me with a broken elbow and a referral for surgery. While it wasn’t fun, it was a good opportunity to experience the patient journey from a different perspective than my usual view as a hospital marketer. What I learned along the way led to some surprising conclusions.

Driving Preference

By Kathy Selker | August 7, 2024

What Women Want From Hospital Marketing

An understanding of how women choose hospitals can help shape your marketing messages.

Consumers are shopping for healthcare in ways they previously haven’t. Thanks to the proliferation of sites like www.Healthgrades.com, www.ClearHealthCosts.com, www.PatientsLikeMe.com and more, patients are finally getting windows into cost, quality of care and patient experience, metrics that greatly influence their choice of hospitals and healthcare providers.

Before we look at what women want in marketing from hospitals, it’s important to examine how they choose them.

Audience

By Kathy Selker | July 22, 2024

Why Internal Hospital Marketing Campaigns Matter

How marketing to employees trickles down to make patients feel more valued and cared for.

Much has been written about the importance of internal branding and communications. A strong internal hospital branding campaign can maximize engagement and inform employees on how best to interact with patients. Nurses are the frontline staff in the hospital patient experience, and since they tend to be overwhelmingly female, it makes sense to cater to women internally as well as externally when introducing new marketing campaigns, reworked branding initiatives or consolidated branding after a merger.

Women Insights

By Kathy Selker | July 6, 2024

Strengthening Your Hospital’s Brand Position to Market to Women

How to position your hospital’s brand with your female market

Whether they’re patients or caregivers, women make the majority of healthcare decisions, and they are busy consumers. When they research products and services, they expect to get the information they need quickly so they can make a decision and move on.

Advertising

By Kathy Selker | June 20, 2024

What Hospital Marketing Can Learn From Restaurants

Five marketing takeaways from the dining industry

To optimize marketing efforts to women, sometimes it helps to step outside our industry and borrow cues from another one. Here are five marketing insights from the restaurant industry to help spark ideas for customer satisfaction, online search, growth strategies, damage control and patient convenience.

Loyalty

By Kathy Selker | June 5, 2024

Five Lessons Hospitals Can Learn From Loyalty Marketing

How to build loyalty and drive long-term growth

If you’re like most of us, you probably have a punch card (or five) in your wallet. Loyalty programs allow brands to build relationships and trust, encourage repeat visits and enhance customer loyalty. According to Bond Loyalty, consumers are 81 percent more likely to continue to do business with brands that offer loyalty programs.

How can hospitals use loyalty-marketing principles to connect with women? Here are five ways.

Patient Journey

By Kathy Selker | May 19, 2024

Before Marketing, Test Your Hospital User Experience

Put yourself in your consumer’s shoes.

Have you ever approached your hospital as a consumer or potential patient? What you learn from this user experience test could help you positively impact the patient experience. Users of hospital services are not experts in the field, so when and how we communicate with them needs to take that into consideration. It doesn’t hurt to remember that when a consumer is out of her element or a little overwhelmed by a health concern or test, it’s nice to have a care team available for guidance.

Recently, I needed to schedule my annual mammogram. I chose a local hospital, since it’s convenient and offers 3D screening. Here’s how my experience went, and where I saw room for improvement.

Marketing

By Kathy Selker | May 3, 2024

Marketing Hospitals to Men via Women

Reaching the male audience through wives and moms

According to Sheconomy, women account for 85 percent of all consumer purchases in America. The healthcare sector is no exception, with 80 percent of men reporting that their spouse or significant other influences their decision to visit a doctor. How can we as hospital marketers capitalize on these statistics? Here are five tips for talking to women about men’s healthcare.

Advertising

By Kathy Selker | April 16, 2024

Hospital Marketers: Create Engaging Videos

Forbes recently asked agency leaders on the Forbes Agency Council about their tips for creating engaging videos. As a member of the council, I contributed a tip about how humans process stories and why they’re useful. While the focus of the article isn’t specifically on healthcare, the information is very relevant to healthcare brands because of their frequent use of testimonial campaigns. My tip is below; you can check out the full article on Forbes.