// By Jane Weber Brubaker // What makes a story great? It is relevant. It is original. It is simple to understand and retell. It is easy to share. It builds on feelings and values. It often ties into a bigger story. It gives your audience an opportunity to create or add to the story. Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Social media has become a critical component of the digital marketing mix for most healthcare organizations. Social media command centers are making it possible for lean marketing teams to listen, respond, and engage with growing numbers of consumers on multiple platforms, and share information across the organization. Some command Read More
Ask the Expert, with Scott Mowery, Director of Digital Services at Cleveland Clinic // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Scott Mowery, Director of Digital Services at Cleveland Clinic, presented at HCIC 2015. His background in e-commerce intrigued us. We wanted to know how it shaped his approach to digital marketing in healthcare. We also wanted Read More
Scott Mowery, Director of Digital Services at Cleveland Clinic, presented at HCIC 2015. He used to work at American Greetings Interactive, and his background in e-commerce intrigued us. According to Scott, there’s a lot of overlap between e-commerce and healthcare marketing: “At American Greetings [my whole job was about] seeing how many subscribers turned into paying Read More
In early 2015, we spoke with Sheree Esser, Consumer Engagement Marketing Manager at Trinity Health, about a planned marketing automation pilot at Saint Alphonsus in Boise, Idaho. We recently followed up with Esser to find out the results of the pilot. The first step was to make sure the email list was deliverable, and that Read More
Sixty-six percent of respondents to Nielsen’s 2015 Global Trust in Advertising survey say they trust consumer opinions posted online. Reviews are the third-most-trusted source, after recommendations from friends and family (83 percent), and branded websites (70 percent). Yet Pew Research statistics indicate that only 3 to 4 percent of consumers write online reviews of treatments, hospitals, Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // In March, we spoke with Sheree Esser, Consumer Engagement Marketing Manager at Trinity Health, about a planned marketing automation pilot at Saint Alphonsus in Boise, Idaho. We followed up with Esser to find out the results of the pilot. The purpose of the pilot was to see if email Read More
To say that the past couple of years at Nebraska Medicine have been a busy time would be an understatement. As if launching a new name and brand weren’t enough, Nebraska Medicine completed the clinical integration of three separate entities into one operating unit, all while dealing with the international press as one of three Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // The CEO of Kindred Hospital in Mansfield, Texas was concerned. A patient and the patient’s family member had previously committed to coming to the facility. “Then they went online, and they read the reviews, and they came back and told [the facility] that they were not coming any longer,” Read More
To say that the past couple of years at Nebraska Medicine have been a busy time would be an understatement. As if launching a new name and brand weren’t enough, Nebraska Medicine completed the clinical integration of three separate entities into one operating unit, all while dealing with the international press as one of three Read More
Public-facing hospital websites are getting a lot of attention these days. Healthcare organizations are re-platforming and redesigning their sites to achieve organizational goals and live up to consumer expectations of the digital experience. With so many pressing demands and competing priorities, a health system’s intranet may be placed on the back burner for years. But Read More
“If you’ve worked in healthcare marketing for more than a few months, you’ve undoubtedly faced a request from a service line leader who wants to see a photo of himself or his team prominently featured in an ad,” says Dan Dunlop, president and CEO of Jennings, an advertising and brand development agency, and member of the Read More
We at Plain-English Media extend our congratulations to the winners of the 2015 eHealthcare Leadership Awards. Presented by Health Care Communications, Rye, NY, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards program recognizes the very best websites and digital communications efforts of a wide range of healthcare organizations. The winners were announced today at a special presentation in Orlando, Read More
“Delivering your brand promise through digital channels is obviously important to marketers at hospitals, health systems, and other healthcare organizations today,” note Mike Reinhardt and Phil Harding. “But what does delivering brand promise through digital really mean, and more important, how do you execute that delivery?” Reinhardt and Harding, both of Monigle Associates in Denver, Read More
// By Dan Dunlop // Think about how you act when you host a dinner party. You are strategic when you develop the guest list, and bring people together who have commonalities. You greet people as they arrive and introduce them to others. And you facilitate conversation by suggesting interesting topics and by filling in Read More
Your health system’s marketing messages focus on the positive attributes of your organization and all the great services you have to offer. They capture the essence of your brand. But what do your patients actually say about you and the care they receive from your providers? Are you delivering on your brand promise from their Read More
// By Mike Reinhardt and Phil Harding // Delivering your brand promise through digital channels is obviously important to marketers at hospitals, health systems, and other healthcare organizations today. But what does delivering brand promise through digital really mean, and more important, how do you execute that delivery? We believe digital brand management is trending Read More
Leading-Edge Healthcare Organizations Now Promote Physician Reviews Online—Why It Works // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Your health system’s marketing messages focus on the positive attributes of your organization and all the great services you have to offer. They capture the essence of your brand. But what do your patients actually say about you and Read More
Learn why University of Wisconsin Health redesigned its intranet and how it keeps the large organization connected. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Public-facing hospital websites are getting a lot of attention these days. Healthcare organizations are re-platforming and redesigning their sites to achieve organizational goals and live up to consumer expectations of the digital Read More
Web directors are assuming responsibility for the intranet in addition to public websites. Intranets require their own strategy, process, budget, and staff. Employees expect intranets to function as well as external sites. Employees want the ability to personalize content they use frequently for quick access. Intranets are adding social media-like features to content – commenting, Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // We’ve covered content management systems and hospital website redesigns extensively in the past few issues. In each case, once the hospital or health system was ready to start work, it faced a practical problem: how to migrate legacy content to the new site. The legacy content may be outdated. Read More
When James Yanek joined The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in 2011 as Director of Web Strategy, he saw the opportunity as well as the need to redesign the organization’s website, bring it up to today’s standards, and ensure that it was aligned with organizational objectives. The first step was to restructure the Web strategy Read More
// By Jane Weber Brubaker // Even one of the most recognized and respected brands in pediatric healthcare can’t be content to rest on its laurels when it comes to hospital websites, but needs to keep moving forward, as technology continues to raise the bar on consumer expectations of the digital experience. When James Yanek Read More
“Hospitals are becoming savvier at using their website vehicles to convert prospective patients in the ‘golden moment’ when those prospects are making active healthcare decisions,” says Stephen Moegling. Moegling is a partner at Franklin Street, a healthcare branding and digital marketing firm based in Richmond, Virginia. “In addition, because the decision-making for complex healthcare solutions Read More
Are you about to embark on a major overhaul of your health system’s website? A before-and-after user experience survey could help you prove that the investment was worth every penny. Or, maybe you just launched your new website and are itching to find out what site visitors think of it. gSight℠, a new Web experience Read More