Ohio State Wexner Medical Center faced a challenge. It wanted to combine blog content and news from several high-performing system websites into a single mega site called Ohio State Health & Discovery. But much of the content it planned to use had earned high rankings in Google’s search engine results pages (SERP), including many placements Read More
Now that 2023 is officially underway, it’s a good time to examine the various trends expected to shape the healthcare industry this year. Hospital and health system digital marketing teams will face significant headwinds in 2023, but they will have many opportunities to rise to the occasion as they have done many times in the Read More
In today’s climate of diminishing trust in institutions, how do you attract patients in a way that both highlights your organization’s services and builds longlasting trust with your healthcare brand? “Of all the marketing tips for healthcare, the most important (and simplest) one is this: express empathy,” says Wendy Margolin in a new article. “Empathy Read More
Why travel by horse and buggy when you can drive a Tesla? That’s the metaphor used by three presenters at a recent conference to explain how MedStar Health went from the dark ages of measurement to a souped-up analytics platform that enables insightful, actionable, and easy-to-understand reporting. Ben Waxman, president of Tessellati, LLC, jokes that Read More
2022 has been a momentous year for digital healthcare leaders, in part because the delicate balance — of returning to “normal” after so many years of a global pandemic and returning to the continuous push for more digital transformation — is a fine line given budget constraints and resource limitations. But striking that balance is Read More
Nationally, more than 2.5 million youth in the U.S. have severe depression, according to The State of Mental Health in America, a report published by Mental Health America. Multiracial youth are at greatest risk. According to the report, 10.6 percent of youth in the U.S. have severe major depression, or depression that severely affects functioning, Read More
Healthcare organizations use customer relationship management (CRM) platforms to manage patient information, appointments, and communications. If your organization uses a CRM system to engage patients, you may think the data in your system is clean, accurate, and reliable. But a recent study suggests that health systems may be putting too much trust into the accuracy Read More
Without the right tools, it’s hard to meet your strategic goals. With the right tools and partners, it’s as different as night and day. At St. Bernards Healthcare in northeast Arkansas, trying to prospect for new patients among new movers wasn’t working. That changed when the health system adopted a CRM platform, Virgin Pulse, in Read More
With millions of Americans at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people turned to the internet to learn more about the novel virus. That caused a surge in traffic on hospital websites and social media channels. According to a report from Baldwin publishing, one hospital marketing director who manages more than 80 websites reported a Read More
Consumerism is a growing force in healthcare. The industry has been pushing consumers to take a more active role in their health and wellness for many years. With growing involvement comes a set of growing expectations that healthcare providers will operate on consumers’ terms and that they’ll meet health consumers where they are. In a Read More
In a post-COVID healthcare industry, how do you better communicate with patients in a way that both closes patient care gaps and improves your healthcare delivery? For one health system, the answer may lie in leveraging your organization’s CRM capabilities. When you put a stake in the ground in a big and high-profile way, everything Read More
When you’re ready to make the transition to in-house digital health marketing, finding the right partner is key. Small marketing teams often lean on third-party providers to run their marketing campaigns. As these teams develop skills in digital marketing, they gain the confidence to staff up and bring campaign management in-house. By 2020, VCU Health’s Read More
Primary care plays a central role in the healthcare delivery system. But the COVID-19 pandemic upended primary care services. As a result, many primary care physicians closed their offices, offered reduced services, or used virtual care services to connect with patients. But when offices began to reopen, patients remained reticent to return. So is a Read More
“I’ve been a healthcare marketer for what seems like a very long time (20 years), with a big chunk of that at Scripps Health in San Diego,” writes Marc Needham, chief growth officer for Combinaut. “Over that very long period, I’ve seen lots of seemingly impossible problems vanish and other problems that seemed easily remedied Read More
In healthcare, CRM is often referred to as the software itself — as a noun — versus the activity of managing customers — a verb. In some cases, it’s a checkbox for a technology neither mapped to organizational goals nor mapped to driving metrics that matter to the health system. Innovative health systems have started Read More
If you’re running digital healthcare advertising campaigns, you’re probably aware of blockchain technology. To hear some tell it, blockchain is the answer to just about every problem faced by modern society. Others describe it as a solution in search of a problem. One area in which blockchain has seen some success is in helping to Read More
Every successful healthcare content strategy needs two main ingredients: substance and structure. But how do you merge these two together to create a seamless web experience for your customers? In 2017, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center announced its intent to merge with Beth Israel Deaconess, creating what would be the largest hospital merger in Massachusetts Read More
When starting a health system website revamp, numerous decisions have to be made. What are the priorities? Who will have the final word? How will you align your decisions with your health system’s strategic plan? But most importantly, how will you engage your stakeholders and win their approval when doing a health system website revamp? Read More
For decades, hospital leaders have struggled with the question: “How does the industry do better on behalf of its customers?” For one health system CEO, the answer might lie in a bold new approach to bridge healthcare strategy and operations. John Marzano, in a new article, describes the scenario like this: “As a former chief Read More
As a healthcare marketer, how can you justify the investment required for web personalization? While web personalization is perceived by many healthcare systems to enhance their digital marketing and improve the customer experience, a sizeable number of organizations find the tools challenging and have difficulty measuring success. Geonetric’s 2021 Healthcare Digital Marketing Trends survey showed Read More
When your kid is sick, you need a quick and easy way to get information about what to do. Should you go to the ER? Or is a virtual visit appropriate? Is urgent care the best option, or an office visit with your pediatrician? Children’s Wisconsin wanted to give families a tool that would meet Read More
For most people, Super Bowl 2021 was a throwdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Tampa’s home turf. But for the marketing team at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in central Ohio, gameday was an opportunity to highlight the talented medical center staff and tackle vaccine misconceptions head-on. “It Read More
Google’s Universal Analytics is ending. Are you ready? In March, Google announced that it plans to officially retire the current version of Google Analytics and require all users to move to the next generation, Google Analytics 4, or GA4, by July 1, 2023. That’s nearly a year from now, and you may be tempted to Read More
If you’re an email marketer, you’ve likely heard the refrain “Email marketing is dead” countless times. But that’s just not true. A Pew Research survey found that 92 percent of adult internet users use email. That’s compared to 79 percent of internet users who have a social media profile. In addition, email is more efficient Read More
“Hospitals and medical practices are constantly refining their communication plans and budgets to produce the most effective results and greatest ROI,” says Marty Summa of Sage Growth Partners. “Nowhere is this more evident than with social media strategies.” Here’s an excerpt from Summa’s new article: When it comes to developing successful social media marketing campaigns Read More