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.

Trends in Healthcare

By Kathy Selker | March 30, 2024

How Mergers and Acquisitions Are Affecting Hospital Marketing

Hospital marketing mergers and acquisitions

This article originally appeared in Forbes.

Hospital mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are increasingly affecting the way women shop for and acquire healthcare in America. M&As include the consolidation of separate hospitals into a system (whether that’s a larger hospital acquiring a smaller one or multiple smaller hospitals merging), as well as hospitals/health systems purchasing physician practices or other provider services. These also include the merging and acquisition of healthcare services like skilled nursing practices, ambulance services, ambulatory surgical centers, nursing home facilities, pharmacies and more.

Technology

By Kathy Selker | March 14, 2024

Marketing Hospitals to Women With Chronic Conditions

Telemedicine is more than a nascent trend — it’s here to stay. This article explores how new technology, such as wearables, can help patients with chronic conditions better monitor their health — and how marketers can connect with and drive preference among these chronic care patients before a crisis happens.

Marketing

By Kathy Selker | February 26, 2024

Hospital Marketers: Promoting Rebrands

Forbes recently asked agency leaders on the Forbes Agency Council about their tips for working on a company rebrand project. As a member of the council, I contributed a tip about the value of consumer testing ahead of launch. While the focus of the article isn’t specifically on healthcare, the information is very relevant to healthcare rebrands as the landscape shifts and more hospitals and health systems launch rebrand efforts to stay relevant. My tip is below; you can check out the full article on Forbes.