Is It Time For a Brand Check-Up?

February 21, 2012 Leave a Comment

By: Mike Milligan, President Legato Marketing & Communications

Your brand is what differentiates your hospital or clinic from the competition. It’s the veritable DNA of your organization. That’s why it’s critical to conduct periodic audits to diagnose the overall health of your brand.

A brand audit can provide a qualitative snapshot of how consumers and stakeholders perceive your organization, its professionals and its services. While branding research normally looks at one audience (i.e., consumers), a complete brand audit assesses relationships with all of the important stakeholders of your brand, including both internal and external audiences.

For example, an audit can help you:

  • Test for name recognition and guide strategic decisions in market segmentation and messaging
  • Determine how your brand is being managed, marketed and audited internally
  • Assess your brand’s strengths, weaknesses and inconsistencies, as well as potential threats
  • Identify growth opportunities including those achieved by brand repositioning and brand extension
  • Build greater efficiencies in your brand’s communications strategy
  • Assess the consistency of your brand with consumer expectations
  • Define niche markets and related messaging

Brand audits can provide a roadmap you can follow to ensure consistency in the way your organization is promoted and perceived, which can ultimately strengthen your brand. And you know what that means …

A strong brand translates into customer loyalty. Customer loyalty translates into increased revenue. And increased revenue keeps your organization growing at a healthy rate.

Today, consumers define brands based on their emotional, experiential and economic interactions. They will ultimately choose the best-branded healthcare organization; an organization they trust. Make sure it’s yours.

Filed under Leadership, Management, Marketing, Organizational, Strategy, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Hitting Your Target Market Takes More Than Advertising

February 16, 2012 Leave a Comment

By: Mike Milligan, President Legato Marketing and Communications

Marketing and advertising. It’s six of one, half-a-dozen of the other—or so many mistakenly think.

No matter how often the two terms are inadvertently interchanged, marketing is not the same as advertising. Advertising is, however, part of marketing—but only one part.

Sure, you can take a shot in the dark with your advertising and play a game of hit (barely) or miss (big time), but without marketing, you won’t even have a target to shoot at. Why?

Because marketing encompasses everything from identifying and understanding your target market to how you’ll reach those consumers (which is where advertising comes in) and how you’ll differentiate yourself from the competition to get consumers to use your services.

In addition to advertising, marketing includes other important elements like market research, media planning, PR, product and service pricing and distribution, brand development, community involvement … It encompasses every touch point; every experience consumers and prospects have with your organization.

That’s why it not only makes sense to have a solid marketing plan in place before you advertise, it’s also critical to your success. A comprehensive marketing plan can help you:

  • Identify new/potential consumers
  • Identify your strengths and areas for improvement
  • Identify consumers’ needs and wants
  • Determine the demand for specific services
  • Identify areas for growth
  • Keep your budget and initiatives on track
  • Respond to new opportunities
  • Get your entire organization on the same page
  • Evaluate your efforts and make adjustments

The list goes on, but I think you get the picture.

Yes, advertising is an important part of marketing. But it’s not a silver bullet. Before you take aim at developing a ‘great creative campaign,’ make sure you have a comprehensive marketing plan in your sights.

If you think it’s hard to hit a moving target, try hitting one you don’t even know exists!

Filed under Leadership, Management, Marketing, Organizational, PR/Social Media, Strategy, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , ,

Ladies and Gentlemen: Start Your SEO Engines!

February 13, 2012 Leave a Comment

Have you ever done a web search for “healthcare marketing?” Ever look at how many results come up? I did: About 19,000,000 just today. Or how about “rural healthcare marketing?” Just a measly 11,000.

For both of these terms, I’m pleased to report that Legato consistently ranks in the top 5 of organic Google listing, and often is #1. I say this not to be boastful, but rather, to make the point that these results don’t just happen. They’re part of your marketing strategy, or, at least they should be.

Of course, I’m talking about Search Engine Optimization—or ‘SEO’ in techno-talk.

Put simply, SEO strategies use keywords to maximize the amount of traffic—relevant traffic—to your website. It’s a targeted way of driving people to your site who are specifically looking for the services you provide.

SEO can help you:

  • Get targeted traffic to your site. If consumers or patients have entered your website’s keywords/phrases into a search engine, they’re already interested in what you have to offer.
  • Strengthen your brand. If your site gets a higher ranking than other hospitals, more people see your name and become aware of your services.
  • Stay ahead of your competition. Showing up on a page before your competition can help increase the perceived position of your hospital in the marketplace.
  • Build brand credibility. When consumers find you organically, they’re usually more likely to bookmark your site, spend more time on your site and return to your site and/or use your services.

SEO is a powerful tool. But maximizing search engine rank-and-return positioning can be complex. If you don’t have the internal staff to help you develop an effective SEO campaign, it’s worth the investment to seek some help.

Surveys indicate that up to 85% of Internet users find websites through search engines. However, the majority (some say up to 90%) of Internet users don’t go past the top 30 search engine results—at most. They simply type something else in if they can’t find a relevant site.

With statistics like these, there is no doubt that the battle for pole position on the search engine leader board will continue to heat up.

So I ask … “Ladies and gentlemen: Are you ready to start your SEO engines?”

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Is Your Website Out of Sight?

February 7, 2012 Leave a Comment

OK, so you’ve invested a lot of time and money into developing a website that will WOW your customers. But building your website is only half of the battle. Marketing it is the conquest that follows.

I won’t get into the technical aspects of getting people to your site (at least not in this post). Instead, let’s focus on some basic marketing tactics to drive people to your landing page.

Think you’ve already thought of everything? Think again. It never hurts to check and cross-check to make sure you’re leveraging every opportunity to drive traffic to your site.

Sometimes, the most obvious avenues have been overlooked because, quite frankly, they’re blatantly obvious. Have you ever received an invitation to an event or run an ad that inadvertently left out a date, a time or a call to action? I rest my case.

Many organizations assume they have all of their marketing bases covered when it comes to promoting their website. They put their URL on business cards, letterhead, brochures, invoices—everything that’s fit to print.

Good start. But let’s not forget the other not-so-top-of-mind marketing opportunities, like:

  • Becoming an active member in, and contributor to, forums that are related to your site. Be sure to include your website link in your forum signature.
  • Submitting your site to healthcare industry-related directories.
  • Including your URL on videos you post on YouTube or other video-based sites.
  • Exchanging links with reputable and respected sites that are related to your business.
  • Putting your URL on employee uniforms under the logo.
  • Including the URL on employee nametags—at work, community events—wherever nametags might be worn.
  • Including your URL in your phone book ad.
  • Putting your URL on company vehicles.
  • Labeling your waiting room magazines, “Provided by …” with your URL listed.
  • Joining an industry chat group that allows your URL to be your login.

Don’t let an opportunity to promote your URL pass by. With an estimated 366, 848,000+ sites on the worldwide web, you can’t afford to have your site out of sight—anywhere—anytime.

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Are Your Employees on the Brandwagon?

February 2, 2012 8 Comments

By: Mike Milligan, President Legato Marketing & Communications

Ok, so you’ve invested time, energy and dollars into branding or rebranding your hospital. Now it’s time to get the word out, right? How about getting the word ‘in’—first?

Before you invest in marketing tactics to communicate with external audiences, it’s important to get internal buy-in from your employees. After all, who’s going to follow through on the brand promises you make to external audiences? You got it!  Your employees.

In the report, “Transforming Employees Into Brand Advocates,” five best practices were uncovered after interviewing experts from academia to healthcare. Here’s a brief summary.

  1. Share: We marketers have a tendency to keep activities brand-related activities within the confines of our own department. We need to start sharing. Marketing plans, campaigns, brand insights, customer information … Share it—across the organization.
  2.  Involve. How can we expect employees to take ownership of a brand promise if they don’t feel like they play an active role in driving the direction of the brand? Involved them. Let employees’ voices be heard. And listen to what they have to say.
  3. Personalize: Don’t let your ‘marketing’ title put you on a self-proclaimed pedestal. Create a personal connection with other employees. All of them. Help each employee understand what the brand promise means—every day—in every role they play.
  4. Enable: Don’t just tell employees what to do, show them. Train them. Create guidelines for behavior. Let them participate in hiring decisions for customer-facing employees. And empower them to do what’s right for the customer.
  5. Reinforce: Build off of the momentum employees are creating. Small and large-scale recognition practices can help employees stay energized about following through on brand promises.

Got the T-shirt, now what? Keep in mind that employee brand advocacy isn’t created overnight with a free T-shirt, a bumper sticker or an email from upper management. It takes a concerted, continuous effort from everyone from the top down—all the way down.

Once your employees are on the brandwagon, then—and only then—can you truly fulfill your brand promises to your customers.

Filed under Leadership, Management, Marketing, Organizational, Strategy, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , , ,

What’s All The Buzz About Blogging?

January 24, 2012 2 Comments

By: Mike Milligan, President Legato Marketing & Communications

To blog or not to blog, that is the question.

Whether ’tis nobler in the minds of marketers to suffer from the absence of a blog or to take arms against the competition and join in the posting revolution … Now, that’s another question in itself.

I can tell you from personal experience that blogging has it pros and its challenges. For one, it’s time-consuming. It also takes discipline to keep posts current and to provide content that people care about. So what’s the up side?

A blog provides an effective, low-cost alternative to conventional marketing. It can help rural hospitals level the playing field when competing with big-city hospitals with big-city budgets.

Blogs can also help community hospitals strengthen their connection with the community, enhance recruitment efforts, and position their medical professionals as experts in the field. For example:

Want to highlight a patient success story?

Put it on your blog. Localize it. And watch the news spread throughout your community—and beyond.

Looking for a specialist to fill an open position?

Ask one of your on-staff physicians or surgeons to be a guest blogger. He or she can highlight features and benefits of your hospital, and give a personal perspective of why it’s the right career move to join your organization and live in a rural community.

Want to leverage a health topic that’s getting national attention?

Start blogging about it. Have designated physicians, nurses, OTs and other professionals share their expertise. They’ll become recognized as local experts. It’s also a great way for community members to get to know the doctors and nurses on your staff.

So back to the question, “To blog or not to blog?”

While you don’t have to be Shakespeare to write a post, the content must be relevant and current. If you don’t have the time or talent internally to create and maintain a blog, consider outsourcing these services. If that’s not an option, err on the side of caution.

Remember, using a blog as a promotional tool is a great way to keep your website content fresh, and keep people coming back. But your site will only be as current as your last update, which ties back to the amount of time and effort that you invest in it.

Filed under Leadership, Management, Marketing, Organizational, PR/Social Media, Strategy, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Proud to be a Healthcare Nerd

December 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

My name is Mike Milligan, I’m 44, and I’m a healthcare nerd.

Ok, I’ve publicly declared what my teenage girls have said since they could speak.

But, being comfortable with my high geek level, I took the day after Christmas to finish up my self-study course on Competitive Strategy from the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

And yes, I enjoyed it.

I appreciated the reminder about how differentiation and service are so critical in healthcare.  But not as always glaringly obvious to me throughout the year, is that consumers need to value that differentiation.  Do consumers view the attributes of a service as unique or different?  In other words, why should they care?

And this, my friends, is where marketing strategy comes in to play.  We as marketers need to help consumers not only understand what makes our sleep center unique; they need to fully understand and appreciate how this differentiation benefits them.  In other words, branding and awareness have their roles, but so does good ol’ fashioned persuasion.

Another takeaway for me is to not become complacent.  I’ll encourage our clients to make sure we have our differentiation defined for the various services before we advertise – and that we don’t rely on advertising to cover for poorly defined strategies.  We need to ask the tough questions, and use the answers to define and refine our products and services into market-ready profit centers.

Wishing you and your family a safe and Happy New Year,

Mike

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Employees and Patients: your most valuable assets or your most valuable marketing tools?

December 9, 2011 Leave a Comment

By: John Corpus, Vice President, Client Services

Let us get the basics out of the way: employees are your most important asset; the patient is always right; brand = promise = experience! But, what does all of this mean?

Does your organization truly believe that its employees are its most important asset? More importantly, do the actions of your system demonstrate this? I am familiar with a number of healthcare entities that tout this message, giving notice to the public while trying to convince their employees at the same time. Yet, actions mean more than words and usually indicate otherwise.

Your employees are your strongest ambassadors: do they tell their friends and families how much you value them or how much you take advantage of them? Do they interact indifferently with patients and complain about various aspects of work or are they friendly and professional during patient interaction? Make sure that the answers here are positive, for believe it or not, your employees’ actions will attest more to how you value them than you stating it.

Is the patient REALLY always right? We know that this is not true. Does it matter? No! The concept of right or wrong is second to the experience. Instead, ask yourself if the patient walks away feeling respected, valued, and understood. Make your employees feel this way, and it will trickle down to the patients. In other words, treat them like they are your most important asset and they will do the same with their patients.

Has your organization constructed a brand promise it can keep? Perhaps even more important is whether the promise is meaningful or desired by the patient. Think about it: did you develop your brand promise based upon what patients want or upon what you think patients want.

Patient-/customer-centered service development and enhancement are paramount. Do it right the first time; determine what patients want versus what you have to offer; determine what patients want to buy before determining what you want to sell; continuously explore the needs of your patients instead of believing that you know what the patient needs.

Am I saying anything new? No. We tend to forget the basics however, often getting lost in the bottom-line once business is going well.

So, keep these points in mind:

  • Stop telling everyone how your employees are your greatest asset – it means nothing when every other organization is saying the same thing. Be different: treat your employees as if they are your most important asset; their actions and statements will speak for themselves and are worth more than anything you can say.
  • It does not matter if the patient is always right or sometimes wrong. What does matter is making the patient feel respected, valued, and understood, by turning any negative event into a positive experience.
  • Patient experience defines your brand promise. Make sure that you are focused on the needs and desires of your patients versus what works best for the organization and its bottom-line.

Filed under Leadership, Management, Marketing, Organizational, PR/Social Media, Strategy, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , ,

WHO BUYS HEALTHCARE?

November 11, 2011 Leave a Comment

John Corpus, Vice President, Client Services at Legato Marketing & Communications

IT IS NOT JUST THE END CONSUMER

CONSUMERS PAY for healthcare, BUT THEY DO NOT BUY IT.  Employers are the major buyers of health insurance, the decision makers. Employees only choose whether to participate in whatever plan the employers have chosen.

Consumers over the last five years are however, buying lower-cost healthcare services, due to employer cost shifting of healthcare expenses via higher deductibles (first dollars out-of-pocket) and HAS/HRA plans.  Employers have also transitioned to benefit plans based on healthy behaviors: healthier employees (and spouses) may purchase richer benefit plans.  As more consumers enter the “buying” phase of healthcare transactions, they are beginning to recognize the real cost of healthcare.

Smart employers recognize that the inherent cost shifting of higher deductible HSA or HRA plans is not the same as cost-savings: it is simply a change in the payer mix, more by the employee and less by the employer.

Smarter employers educate their employees regarding cost-saving behaviors, e.g., exercising, diet, annual age/sex related check-ups, smoking cessation, etc.

The smartest employers however, educate employees, in conjunction with the aforementioned smart tactics,  about appropriate access of care, e.g., going
to a retail clinic for a sinus infection instead of the emergency room; utilizing an urgent care clinic for stitches or x-rays; heading to the emergency room for serious/traumatic injuries or conditions.  For those who are unsure as to when an emergency room visit is necessary, think of it this way: you will decide when
to visit a retail clinic, a primary care clinic, or urgent care; others usually decide upon the emergency room because you are in no condition to do so.

Employers are the buyers, yet health systems focus the bulk of their marketing on the patient only and rightly so.  Health systems however, need to leverage
their relationships with employers.  A complete health system’s marketing plan requires a focus on developing strategies to demonstrate their commitment to 1) reducing employer healthcare costs, and 2) partnering with employers to develop their workforce health strategies.

Constructing strong healthcare savings partnerships with employers creates another vehicle for marketing to the consumer.

  • Imagine having an employer choose you as its healthcare partner because it believes in your mission, your vision, your philosophy, your integrity, and not because you are the lowest-cost option on its broker’s menu.
  • Imagine an employer serving as your advocate when holding its open enrollment sessions, instead of handing out a packet of information without regard for what is inside.
  • Imagine an employer working with your health system to define and design the future of healthcare in your community, from the perspective of all stakeholders versus the perspective of the health system itself.
  • Imagine the employees of business & industry voicing their preference for your health system to be the provider of choice or at least one of the providers in their employer’s health plan design.

Healthcare is not a game anymore.  In fact, it never was.  So let us stop playing the cost shifting games and the “cliché” games of quality and care, to focus on what really counts: healthcare versus sick care and meeting the needs of the buyers and the payers of healthcare through partnership, respect, and a sincere desire to provide the best experience possible for all concerned.

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Does anyone know what you do for a living?

September 21, 2011 2 Comments

By: Mike Milligan, President, Legato Marketing & Communications

I give up.

My Dad still doesn’t know how I earn a paycheck. But he is getting a little
closer.  I’ve recently heard him explain, “Michael does those ads for hospitals.”

Then last night, when editing my 15-year-old daughter’s Language Arts paper, I discovered that she, too, doesn’t understand “what Dad does.” Within parenthesis she had written, “Dad, write here what you do.”

It made me start thinking about what many of our healthcare marketing clients face. There seems to be a trend in which senior management isn’t necessarily knowledgeable about what marketing pros do. In their minds (not all), the marketing department develops clever advertising, period. It’s not the fault of upper management that they don’t always understand marketing’s role. While It might be hard to swallow, quite frankly, it’s the fault of marketing to not make its role clear—its ability to increase patient volumes and profit.

Your leadership team might know your job description: produce the external and internal communications. But, don’t let yourself be limited by that vague description. Your role is much broader than that. Marketing pros are the drivers behind understanding the marketplace, the organization’s culture, available opportunities, and what targeted audiences expect with the goal of increasing awareness, patient volumes, and profits.

That means looking at all of the elements of what brand is. It’s everything from how employees answer the phones, what the signage looks like, how patients are treated at the front desk, how long it takes to get an appointment—every action, every experience a patient has is your brand.

And here’s the kicker. Don’t just talk about it, show the connection between all of these factors and the results they can have—or have had—on the organization. And don’t just identify problems, bring solutions. Show you are a problem solver—and a strategist—by thinking about what questions your senior leaders will have, and have answers ready. Show your leadership skills. By doing so, you educate others on the value of marketing—not by preaching—by doing.

My years of healthcare management experience have shown that as time goes on, your CEO and other leaders will have a completely new perspective on marketing.  Sure, advertising still will play a clear role.  But more important, marketing is so much broader.  It’s strategic.  It examines all the components of the sales process.  It identifies barriers and overcomes them. It produces results. And that’s something your leadership team will understand clearly.

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