Health Care Marketing During Changing Times docx

Health Care Marketing During Changing Times IndexSales & Marketing Strategies HealthCare Marketing 101 Reasons to Have a Marketing Plan What Is a Health Care Marketing Plan?. Elements of

Health Care Marketing During Changing TimesFred J Tyson PhD

Published by BayResearch & Consulting at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 BayResearch & Consulting

Health Care Marketing During Changing Times Index

Sales & Marketing Strategies

HealthCare Marketing 101

Reasons to Have a Marketing Plan

What Is a Health Care Marketing Plan?

Elements of a Marketing Plan

**A Target Marketing

**B Competition Analysis

**C SWOT

**D Goals, Strategies and Tactics

Marketing Budgets

Marketing Without the Risk

Guide to Market Research for Small Practice

How to Define Your Target Audience

Marketing as a Business Too

Writing a Press Release

Web Marketing

Sales & Marketing Strategies

In today’s changing economy people’s priorities in regard to health care are also changing Consider what the prospective patients want or need the most Don’t think about what you want to sell, but determine what it

is that they want to buy, and then deliver it to them

In a down economy the last thing you want to do is eliminate you

marketing budget, but instead at least keep it consistent The healthcare entity that stops communicating to the community is totally invisible to people who need its services The entity feels like it is preserving

resources, but it is giving up more in lost revenue and opportunity

Every dollar wisely invested as a stronger ROI potential when the

competition is reducing or stopping all marketing Take advantage of the competitive vacuum by using this time to grow market share

Instead of reducing marketing, slash any wasteful spending that has crept

in Take this time to carefully examine where there may be waste or more efficient processes

Now is a good time to look at new tactics that might not have otherwise been considered Healthcare professionals tend to be conservative and dismiss good or new ideas without consideration, ideas that could vastly improve profitability of their organization Remaining open to new ideas

is especially important right now

Since all other healthcare organizations are facing the same economic downturn, it is important to fortify and strengthen all professional

relationships These referral relationships are more important than ever, and better partnerships make a win-win situation

Refocus on lower risk internal marketing that may have been overlooked Internal marketing, working with existing patients is low cost, low risk and high ROI Your best assets are your patient base and it is a solid

source of referrals, especially in declining economy

Begin or increase your marketing in the internet arena It is getting

harder to be found on the internet; therefore just having a web presence

is no longer the only answer Look into Search Engine Optimization, Pay per Click, Cross promotion, Content Utilization, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc

If your healthcare organization is advertising with different media, us the opportunity of the rough economy to negotiate your pricing schedule

This is a time when the media is hungry for new business and they can be much more flexible about rates.

Look for ways to bundle your services that can create a value-laden and compelling package For example:

*Plastic surgeons are bundling together Liposuction, Botox, and Tummy Tucks into a product they call the “Mommy Makeover.”

*“Executive Physicals” consist of all the normal and necessary test usually spread out or ignored by busy people

*Cancer centers offering full coverage offering from prevention, testing, treatment, rehab, “Mind, Body, Soul” areas of retreat, education

centers, and many other services bundled into one center

You can test low risk offers by using existing valued customers that are willing to give you honest feedback Consider how you might use and profit from a trial offer on something in your office or facility Allowing for a low-risk or introductory trial is appealing to a conservative

audience Make sure you provide above expected value and word of

mouth will drive the marketing

Your marketing message should be much more about the value you

provide and less about gimmicks or fluff People respond to value as a means to get more for their expenses They are tired of being marketed

to, and then discovering the value was not as promised

Make sure your marketing budget and plan is at least 12 months long, and based on specific objectives and your ROI goals This plan must be based

upon who you are, how you practice, what you are trying to achieve, and your goals It should be organized by category Example:

everyone’s radar and it inspires greater confidence

In rough economic times, buyers are more selective Individuals will look carefully at purchases, and they might even delay their decision, but they are likely to buy from someone Healthcare organizations that remain visible communicate trust and patients gain confidence in knowing you will be there for them when they need you

Prospective patients are looking for strong value in all their purchase decisions Carefully review and adjust your marketing message to

emphasize how you deliver solid value Communicate high value, not fluff Prospective patients want reassurance that you understand their needs and deliver effective solutions that directly answers these needs

Satisfied patients are a great source of referrals, but you have to ask them Because decision makers are more selective in soft economic

times, the referral of another patient carries added weight It is a simple process that is effective in any economic climate, but it can be easily overlooked when the office is busy

Many Healthcare organizations revert to “feel good” marketing Soft marketing is like giving away coffee mugs or sponsoring a little league team While these actions might feel good and seem safe, they simply do not produce results Others will just “throw spaghetti at the wall.” They feel they need to do something, but they begin with no plan and no idea

of what does or does not work

The better plan is to stick with your marketing and stay in the game Obviously the most productive and cost effective marketing opportunity is when there is little or no competition When other Health Care

organizations duck and cover with negative economic news, it opens the playing field for the smart marketers The competitive vacuum is a rich opening to reach and attract the patients who are still seeking services,

to protect your patient base and to build a larger market share

Focus on strategies that deliver a positive ROI Narrow your promotional sights from the wide field of all things you do to selectively focus your promotional messages on the professional services that build profits If money is super tight, it is ok to tread a little carefully at first, but again,

do not disappear from the marketplace Instead, take smart risks and reasonable steps until you find the combination of variables that works Once you do, turn up your marketing while everyone else sits on the

sidelines

Health Care Marketing 101

The bottom line objective in Health Care marketing is to grow the

organization Often this means attracting more patients, but a well

executed marketing plan will achieve more for the providers Effective and ethical marketing opens the door to benefits for providers to:

*Achieve profitable growth;

*Attract cases that the doctors either enjoy or have special expertise;

*Protect and grow market share against competition;

*Build the professional reputation of the provider with the community and peers

These high-level objectives also translate into answers for challenges and opportunities such as:

*Attracting better paying or more profitable cases;

*Reaching "ideal patents," directly and cost-effectively;

*Changing the mix of patients or types of cases;

*Winning more professional referrals;

*Supporting a new location, provider or technology (or all of these);

*Building volume for an ancillary service;

*Transitioning to a "cash business" or "all-referral" practice;

*Standing out from the crowd in positive ways;

*Answering competitive challenges;

*Finding more personal time and greater professional enjoyment;

*Tastefully building and extending your reputation

Many Doctors and Health Care organizations remain “marketing-shy”

more than 30 years after the landmark 1977 Supreme Court case made marketing legal for doctors and other professionals While the licensing boards deemed marketing to be ethical in the 1980’s, many doctors still feel uncomfortable because they are worried about coming across as

“needy, cheesy, or greedy.”

Marketing is an important channel for positive influence in shaping how others think of you You are telling patients what you do, and reminding them when, how and why to think of you and your organization Health Care marketing will produce professional results in measurable growth and enhance your reputation in positive ways

The starting point for Health Care marketing is like a blank canvas

People who do not know you are completely unaware of what you do and have no image of you at all The professional marketing messages of your organization communicate your credible, impressive, ethical and highly professional image and reputation

Health Care marketing is a positive tool to inform and influence people toward a better quality of health and life Unfortunately marketing can deliver a disastrous outcome if you do not know what you are doing or understand how to use it properly and effectively You will want to do proper homework and then seek out expert guidance prior to embarking upon a new marketing program.

The key steps in reducing risk and achieving success include:

*Learn from the marketing outcomes of other healthcare practices and organizations;

*Create a strategic marketing plan based on strategies and tactics most likely to be successful, including geography, specialty, personalities, strengths and weaknesses, etc.;

*Test whenever possible before committing significant sums of money;

*Track results carefully;

*Roll out the "winning" strategies

Health Care marketing is not an issue of expense or “expensive.” Some highly effective marketing strategies and tactics are low or no cost Other tactics may require a reasonable investment of some kind No matter the cost, there should always be a ROI that is positive

The correct approach to a sound marketing budget is to begin with the end in mind Clearly define what you intend to achieve in specific and quantifiable numbers Start with the overall incremental growth

objective even if your marketing plan has several segments Your goals and your budget are two parts of an equation that need to be aligned

with each other The purpose of your 1 month budget is to assign

adequate resources to achieve realistic goals, and this goes hand-in-hand with tracking and calculating ROI,

Health Care marketing should not be confused with Medical Practice Management Medical Practice Management embraces operational

matters such as coding, payer selection, accounts receivable, staffing, HIPAA, software, cost cutting, and other issues that are the day-to-day business of the business/practice Health Care Marketing is about

building a positive reputation, getting your phone to ring, getting people

to come in for a first appointment and converting them into patients

Practice Management is largely about the wheels that turn inside the practice

Health Care Marketing is the planned process of communications that goes on with individuals who, for the most part, are not yet aware of or part of the practice

Advertising is a small sub-set of marketing, and one that you may not even need

While marketing and advertising are often mistakenly used

interchangeably, marketing is the very broad, overarching heading

Marketing encompasses many variables, oftentimes referred to as the Seven Ps of Marketing These "Ps" include:

*Product (the services you deliver and needs you fulfill)

*Packaging (how you bundle services)

*Price, Place (physical facility and geography)

*People (you and your staff)

*Positioning (why you)

*Promotion

That final "P" for promotion includes doctor referral marketing, patient referral marketing, publicity (free press), branding (the sum total of experiences the patient has with you), internet marketing, community marketing, case presentation, point of purchase displays and finally

advertising A well-considered marketing plan may or may not include some form of advertising, depending upon objectives, budgets,

philosophy, marketplace and many other factors

The fact is that you DO market your business Like it or not, call it

something else if you like, but virtually everything you do is sending a marketing message

-"You cannot NOT communicate." Paul

Watzlawick -It may be that an organization does not have a written Marketing Plan, or that it deliberately avoids newspaper or other forms of external

advertising It is a mistake to think that a provider "never markets“, this

is more than semantics Marketing includes;

*The way a business greets and interacts with patients

*The decor and appearance of the office

*The demeanor of the staff in person and on the phone

*Caregiver manner

*What patients are likely to say (or not say) about the business to others

The result of this—intentionally or unintentionally—represents the

messages that are communicated about the business Marketing includes communications, by any means, about a business that encourages the recipients of the communication to respond positively The question is,

"Are you actively controlling your message and therefore reputation and results, or are you simply allowing things to happen by chance?"

Reasons to Have a Marketing Plan

Answer aggressive competition which has emerged in the area Attract higher paying, elective and/or cash cases

Attract more cases that you enjoy or have special expertise

Be able to hire the right people

Become more profitable

Become recognized as a leader in a specific field or communityBring cash or ancillary cases into the practice

Build a practice recently joined or purchased

Build the organization's reputation (brand) for positive recognition Build volume for new technology, equipment, procedures/servicesEthically attract cases that reimburse well

Grow the number of new patients

Increase revenues

Increase the marketing effectiveness

Move the office and/or add another office; assure all locations are successful

Multiply patient referrals

Reach more people to provide service to the community

Rebranding for better differentiation in face of change

Reduce reliance on low paying insurances

Reduce over-reliance on a small number of referral sources

Spend more time as a doctor (not an administrator)

Support new providers, new partners, and new locations

Take more time off for family and/or other interests

Win more doctor (or other professional) referrals

Work smarter not harder

What Is a Health Care Marketing Plan?

A Health Care Provider marketing plan is not just a list of marketing ideas from which the marketing department randomly selects different ideas to test or combine for trial-and-error or experimentation This concept is just random, “spaghetti on the wall” marketing activity This technique

is almost always a high risk attempt that results in disappointment,

failure, frustration, and very expensive

A marketing plan should be a strategic document that is designed to

achieve specific business goals and objectives over a specific time period Compare not having one to hiring contractors to build a new hospital

without first developing and approving blueprints Without a marketing plan you are engaging in random, reactionary marketing processes

without first strategically developing a well thought out plan

Most marketing plans are conceived to extend no longer than a year

before the plan goes through a reassessment for modifications, additions, subtractions or entire evaluation depending on changing business goals A well designed marketing plan is constantly being assessed by accurate and consistent tracking systems to evaluate the plan’s performance

against the goals set down The continual evaluation is done so that

ongoing adjustments can be made to improve the plan’s end results

A good marketing plan allows you to:

*Anticipate

*Assess progress

*Prepare for volume of patients

*Build a road map to follow

*Cover-Your-Bases

*Construct necessary support systems

*Improve chances of marketing success

Elements of a Marketing Plan

efficiently reach you intended audience Target marketing is a better use

of the most valuable resources, time and money, to generate additional revenue

The goal of targeted marketing is to get to know as much as you can

about your existing or prospective customers The more you know about your customers, the better you will be able to make decisions that will enhance your ability to communicate and influence them

There are four general ways to identify Target Markets:

Demographics: The age, gender, income, family composition and size, occupation, and education of your customers Example:

Married

Between the ages of 21-35

At least one child

Lives within the Zip Codes 71223-71556

Psychology: The general personality, behavior, lifestyle, rate of use,

repetition of need, benefits sought, and loyalty characteristics of your customers Example:

Values time and considers it their single most limited resource

Excited about accepting and using innovative ideas and products

Consistent Web users

Prefer the Internet over magazines and newspapers for information they trust

Increasing resources invested into safety and security issues

Beginning to plan for their future

Behaviors: The needs and wants your customers seek to fulfill, the level

of knowledge, information sources, attitude, use or response to a product

of your customers Example:

They are leaders in product selection and respond to the opinions of the

“industry experts” when making purchase decisions

This group will first look to the Internet to acquire this information

They defend these decisions under most any circumstance and will

adamantly “sell” those that ask why they use the product or service and why they made the choice they did

One of the marketing fundamentals is focusing on benefits, this

perspective is critical to target marketing Establishing an intimate

understanding about the needs and wants of your desired target market is critical Questions to ask about your targeted marketing:

*How will your customer benefit from using your services or products?

*What intangible or tangible benefits might customers realize, and is it possible to quantify these benefits?

*What is your customer really buying? (No one wants to buy surgery, or dentistry, physical therapy, or invasive procedures)

People purchase services and products to realize life-improvement

benefits: Therefore focus on the Benefits:

When target marketing consider who will benefit the most from your products and services Consider the client and their most common

characteristics and attributes Start with looking at your existing

customer base Who are your ideal clients and what do they have in common

B Competition Analysis

Health Care success is not achieved by ignoring the competition, but rather anticipating competitive issues and influences so you can always have a proactive plan and strategic strategy for staying ahead of the completion Ways to compile a good research on your competition:

*Simple Google search

*View their website and take note of:

**How they are positioning and differentiating themselves

**List of the scope of programs, services, and products they offer

*Yellow pages-Size and Placement of Ad

*Physician location sites on Web

*What categories they are listed

*Order they come up using search engines

*Scan and collect competitor advertising from local newspapers, direct mail, TV commercials, radio commercials, billboards and other media

*Search Social Networks like Face Book, Twitter, Blogs, etc

Keep your ear-to-the-ground Competitor Research is a very effective way

to gain competitive intelligence, especially from those competitors whose marketing is not advertising-based or visible in the media Have others in your employment act as information gatherers and pass along any

information they hear, see, or learn about your competitors Another great source are those outside your facilities:

C SWOT

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Part

of your strategic marketing process is a periodic evaluation of your

internal and external environment Because SWOTs are inherently

subjective, it is good to get an external SWOT analysis from a well

informed but objective third party

Strengths and Weaknesses are the internal evaluation Opportunities and Threats comprise the external evaluation One of the definitions of

marketing is that “Marketing is the process by which resources are

brought to bear against opportunities and threats.” Therefore to

determine which resources you can bring to bear against opportunities and threats (external), you have to understand your strengths and

weaknesses (internal)

Strengths are your capabilities and resources that can be used as the core for developing a competitive advantage Your strengths to evaluate are:

*Your special expertise and/or experience

*You new, innovative product or service

*Location of your business

*Quality processes and procedures

*Any other aspect of your business that adds value to your product or service

Weaknesses include:

*Areas you need to improve and/or avoid

*Can be considered as the absence of certain strengths

*The flip side of one of your strengths

*Lack of marketing expertise, plan or system

*Undifferentiated products or services

*Location of your business

*Poor quality goods or services

*Damaged reputation

Opportunities include:

*A developing market

*A new technology, service or procedure you can offer

*Mergers, joint ventures or strategic alliances

*Moving into new market segments that offer improved profits

*A market vacated by an ineffective competitor

*Changes in population profile, social patterns, lifestyle, changes, etc

D Goals, Strategies and Tactics

Because they have never established Goals, many of today’s health care businesses have failed Goal*setting which is the blue print for the

Market Plan should include:

*Specific, Synergy, Systematic, Significant

*Measurable, Motivational, Meaningful

*Achievable, Action-based, Agreed-upon, Accountable

*Relevant, Realistic, Responsible, Results-Oriented, Rewarding

*Tangible, Thoughtful, Time-Based

Most HealthCare entities seriously establish both short-term and term goals

long-After you have established your goals, you need to evaluate, prioritize, and organize the specific marketing strategies and tactics that will be best suited to use in pursuing the goals established

A well designed marketing plan is an example of a “the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts” In other words, the strategies and tactics work together to complement one another for exponential

positive overall results

To understand the difference between Goals, Strategies, and Tactics, the following differences are important to understand:

*Goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and tangible

business objectives Example:

**Goal: Increase new patient volume by 20% in the next year

*Strategies are the ideas and approaches that are developed to achieve the goals Example:

**Strategy 1: Improve patient experience to inspire more word-of mouth referrals

**Strategy 2: Leverage relationships with established patients and

improved patient experience for more word-of-mouth referrals

**Strategy 3: Develop and test targeted external advertising campaign

*Tactics are the specific actions, details and activities that must occur in order for the strategy to succeed Example:

**Tactics 1: Institute quarterly customer service training sessions for staff and owners

*Create incentive program for staff based on increased referral volume

*Devote one staff meeting per month to new ideas for improving patient care

**Tactics 2: Develop and institute new patient satisfaction survey leaving space on survey for happy patients to refer others

*Executives, doctors, nurses ask patients for referrals at opportune times

*Staff supports management with additional encouragement to patients

to refer when the opportunity presents itself

*Post “Thank You for Referring” bulletin board in reception area with names of patients who have referred others

**Tactics 3: Test new print ad series in local newspaper

*Test direct mail program to new residents using oversized postcard

In a completely implemented marketing plan, all strategies and tactics are implemented comprehensively Each strategy in your plan should be implemented in the same comprehensive and synergistic manner that it was conceived

marketing expenditures on a case-by-case basis, a process consistent with random marketing activities.

Random financial decisions made out of context of a real strategic

marketing plan frequently yield disappointing results In a marketing plan, a pre-established and committed budget is essential to assuring the plan’s success In the goals section, “Achievable” and “Realistic” goals are important How can an entity know that they are achievable and

realistic marketing plan if they do not know what budget resources can

be committed?

A Healthcare entity can put most of their focus on budgeting for

operation cost centers Cost centers cover the expenses that are

required to service and operate the business But a revenue center refers