Steps for getting started

Start planning early. Consider sending out your message about a week before the end of the year, and allow yourself 2-3 weeks to write and edit your message.

Decide what your message is going to be.  Choose an element that is strong for your organization and highlight it. If you’re known for your friendly and helpful staff, consider a video greeting showing the staff wishing everyone a happy holiday. If your hospital is very active in the community, create a slideshow featuring event photos. No matter what the message is, keep it as upbeat and cheery as possible.

Next, you need to decide how you will communicate your message. Take a look a previous marketing campaigns to see where your strongest returns came from. You might know that your audience enjoys videos, or that they respond positively to mail pieces. Maybe you have an email newsletter, or a Facebook page with a strong following. Whatever it is, use your marketing strengths to get out your message.

Communication Mediums:

Direct mailer

It might not be as impactful as getting a holiday card with a picture of your newly born niece from across the country, but there’s still nothing like receiving a holiday card through the mail to brighten your day. Creating an elegant card with a thoughtful message and call to action is still a great way to reach out. CRM systems can help you create your mailing list and track the results, as well as personalize the message with each person’s name.  You can also target your mailers to make sure your message is getting to the right people.

Video Cards

Video cards can be simple to put together and offer a more personal feel than a written letter. It also allows you to be more creative about how you will visually present your message and include more members of your hospital staff. It’s also easy to track video views, and see comments from viewers so you can see how your message is received.

 Online interactive website

A bit more resource intensive but a great way to deliver a message in a mass forum. Consider creating a special web page for people to visit that they can interact with. An interactive web page can draw more visitors and encourage them to take some sort of action. Depending on how much time and money you have, consider creating a game, or an interactive slide show. This will increase traffic to your site and encourage visitors to interact with other parts of your site as well.

Email

Sending an email message has many of the same benefits of a direct mailer. If you have a sophisticated enough email marketing program, you can personalize and target your message to a particular audience. Email also has an advantage of being able to include trackable links and digital calls to action.

Finally, remember that no matter what medium you choose, the more ways you can promote it, the better. Send a direct mailer with a QR code to view a video online. Create a Facebook tab that has your holiday message on it. Send an email with a message that links to an interactive web page.

Things to remember for your end of year campaign:

• DO make your message entertaining— Don’t create messaging that is too long or without a memorable aspect to it. BE fun. BE Creative. BE concise.
• DON’T make it salesy—Be sure not to deter your audience with a happy holiday message that comes with a sales pitch.
• DO have a call to action, but make it beneficial for the recipient—Consider including a link to your community report, or a health guide or helpful information about choosing a physician – content that is relevant for all recipients.
• DO make it short—keep your text message to only a brief couple of paragraphs, and make the video no longer than three minutes.
• DO make it visual—make sure that your piece is eye-catching and makes people want to view it.
• DON’T think that you only have to use one medium—be creative.
• DO include a personal touch. This is a great chance to humanize your staff and get their faces out in front of the community.

Register here 

October 24, 2012 (11 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. MT / 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET)

Mary Washington Healthcare (MWHC) is a two-hospital system located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. They are situated between two major metro markets (DC and Richmond, Virginia) and until recently, experienced no local competition. They were the only hospital up until about six months ago. Due to the new competitive threats, along with the need to maintain market share and limit erosion, MWHC incorporated a new movers program into their marketing plans. This case study will detail a successful campaign strategy, lessons learned and the new strategy planned for the renewal campaign.

Reaching for the Stars: How to Start Your Hospital’s Quality Transformation

Register here

October 30, 2012  (11 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. MT / 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET)

They say in healthcare quality there is no status quo, you’re either getting better or worse. Studies show that five-star hospitals’ average risk-adjusted mortality rates continue to improve at a faster rate (30%) than 3- or 1-star hospitals (25% and 22%, respectively). Join Healthgrades Accelerated Clinical Excellence group to learn how to start down the path to transforming your hospital’s quality with real-life examples of actions that have made a dramatic difference in mortality and complication rates.

September 12, 2012

(11 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. MT / 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET)

Connect to the right patient, with the right need, at the right time – and do it with a personalized message to drive higher response. Discover CPM Healthgrades Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data driven, end-to-end solution which enables hospitals to retain high-value patients and drive incremental ROI.

Register Here

Physician organizations change, objectives and needs change… So can your CRM strategies

September 27, 2012

(11 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. MT / 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET)

Providence Medical Group has grown in four years from a handful of primary care clinics into nine primary care, 10 specialty and four walk-in care clinics. Providence’s CRM strategies have evolved throughout this growth to continue to acquire, retain, activate and cross-sell patients. Join us as Providence shares the story of the successes, lessons learned and changes implemented as they seek to maintain consistent, effective marketing and patient communications in the midst of the ever-changing marketplace, organization, leadership and objectives.

Register Here

Join us at the SHSMD Annual Conference – Connections 2012  taking place September 19-22 in Philadelphia.

Stop by booth #616  to chat with the CPM Healthgrades team and learn more about how we can help fuel your organization’s growth with simple solutions that help you identify, reach, educate and measurably engage consumers and physicians.  While you’re there, you can even register to win an iPad!

You can also find us at the show at the “Coffey Talk” Round-Table Luncheon on Day 2  of the conference, at 12:30 in the Grand Ballroom. CPM Healthgrades  Vice President of Business Development, Deb Voss,  will be hosting the discussion: “The Importance of Mining Data: Value for Volume and Value-Based Care” as she is joined by many other industry leaders.

Register for the conference here. Hope to see you there!

Send us an e-mail if you’d like to set up a time to connect with us or see a product demonstration at SHSMD.

That’s the power of delivering the right message at the right time, through the right channel.

Across the healthcare industry, everyone is looking at adopting a CRM system, if they don’t have one already. CRM is extremely targeted, enabling you to create and send a communication designed for a specific individual with tremendous efficiency and accountability. A CRM system optimizes your data, customizes your message, and ultimately measures the effectiveness of your communications so you know how well you’re doing at building relationships and improving health within your community.

In our analysis of 2,500 hospital CRM programs, we found hospitals that delivered campaigns designed to communicate on a one-to-one basis resulted in more than a million healthcare services that saved countless lives and improved the health of patients in areas including cardiovascular care, emergency care, oncology, screenings and immunizations, senior health, and women’s health.

In turn, these hospitals experienced a 5% lift in service line utilization, giving them an 8:1 ROI^[1].

CRM programs enable you to better segment, reach and educate patients in your community — but more importantly, hospital CRM solutions enable you to build relationships and inspire better health in people. Consider them “nudge medicine”: You’re helping people do the things they ought to do to take care of their health.

Reaching a uniquely valuable audience: Hyper-targeting with banner ads on healthgrades.com

August 28, 2012 – (11 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. MT / 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET)

While digital media offers the potential of hyper-targeting, it can often be difficult to find websites that truly fulfill the promise. Often, healthcare content is broadly defined, serving the most casual visitor. Or, the ads cannot be served at geographic granularity relevant to a hospital’s service area.

Find out how CPM Healthgrades has delivered on the promise and solved this problem for our hospital clients. Join us to hear how you can reach consumers who are actively looking for a physician; target at the specialty level; and match to your service area.

How Process, Culture and Marketing Interrelate for Accelerated Quality, Physician Engagement and Business Development Outcomes

August 30, 2012 – (11 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. MT / 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET)

Quality outcomes and transparency are critical topics for all areas of the healthcare organization. While the onus of quality performance remains with clinical and quality teams, it is imperative for marketers and the like to be collaborative partners in order to optimize the clinical excellence outcomes for the organization. This session will review the goals, challenges and outcomes of Mary Washington’s intense orthopedics service line performance excellence program —emphasizing what those responsible for marketing and business development may do to leverage clinical excellence into building market share, physician alignment and patient retention.

Register now

Roger has also spent a considerable amount of time reimagining the role of marketing within the health system. At the 2012 HealthShare Symposium, he shared his perspective on the five key ways to strengthen a hospital’s digital marketing strategy, right now:

1) Find consumers where they’re looking for you.
This sounds so obvious, but it makes sense to review the numbers. More than 80 percent of people online are searching for health information. And yet hospital marketers continue to spend a disproportionate amount of their budgets in traditional media – 7 percent is spent on digital media; 44 percent is spent on TV.  Look to the health internet, which affords even local marketers with broadcast-size scale at a local level – millions of qualified visitors, not thousands, seeking information which can lead to your doorsteps.

2) Drive consumers to take actions, and measure those actions.
Shift to web, where you can identify and segment your audience, educate, and drive measurable actions. And don’t merely advertise; engage consumers where they’re looking for information and build a relationship.  Programmatic solutions  like CRM campaigns drive registrations, screenings, appointments, and downstream ROI that’s measureable.

3) Physicians are the entry point to your system. Differentiate your doctors as you would your hospital.
Finding patients where they’re looking for a physician is an ideal place to engage and build relationships. Online, dimensionalize your doctors just as you dimensionalize your hospitals – after all, not all doctors in one specialty are the same. You can differentiate your doctors across the 5 P’s: Personal, practice, professional, procedural and performance criteria. This will cost a lot less than differentiating your hospitals and get you a lot more.

4) Leverage your quality and patient satisfaction data to differentiate your physicians.
Conjoint research conducted this spring suggests that hospital quality and patient satisfaction scores are more important to consumer preference than broader claims of overall hospital reputation, let alone recommendations for family members or friends. Put simply, patient satisfaction and quality data increase a person’s likelihood to book an appointment with your physician.

5) Position yourselves as health information experts within your community.
As the health model evolves into a new world where health systems are more like payers than they have been in the past – a business focusing on attracting patients – you’ll need to think about your branding and positioning differently. In this world, you’ll need to engage with patients way before they need hospitalization by fulfilling their need for information. Become a brand people in your community turn to when they have a new diagnosis, prescription or condition. You’re not merely the local care provider, you’re a trusted advisor.

Smarter Growth. Measurable ROI. Feel the Impact of Patient Direct Connect™

Thursday, July 26, 2012
(11 a.m. PT/ 12 p.m. MT/ 1 p.m. CT/ 2 p.m. ET)

Fifty-one percent of CPM Healthgrades visitors make an appointment with a physician they find on the site – and they do it within one week of visiting. Want to make sure those appointments are with your doctors? Patient Direct Connect is the only patient and physician engagement solution that delivers a pre-determined, measurable ROI and proven results – all with the accountability of direct marketing programs. Learn how Patient Direct Connect impacted hospitals across the country. Join us to hear real case studies and ask your questions about the most efficient and effective hospital growth solution available.

Register now

Speaking at the 2012 HealthShare Symposium in June, Dr. Dunaway explained that healthcare marketing strategists are the ones driving a lot of the change in healthcare today. Dr. Dunaway also pointed out the dictionary definition of the word “expert” and explained, “You are an expert — an individual who has openly declared and professed to be an expert and a teacher of the highest order to an almost religious degree in the healthcare field. If you don’t sell yourself on this, you’ll never sell a doctor on it.”

We caught up with Dr. Dunaway just before he took the stage. Here’s a snippet of what he had to share with us.

We had the good fortune to chat with Mary Lou at the 2012 HealthShare Symposium, where we asked her:

What are the three most important things healthcare marketing strategists must know about marketing to women?

Here’s her response.