Email marketing for your healthcare practice

Email is the communications means of choice for many individuals, but it's a surprisingly neglected strategy that never gets off the ground for the simple lack of opt-in email addresses. Here are seven easy ways to build a permission-based contact list and grow a new provider revenue resource.

One of our big moments of frustration in working with healthcare providers around the nation is when we discover that they don't have an email marketing strategy.

The reason? Many offices have a record of only 100 email addresses, often less. That strategy is dead before it begins.

Email is a popular and effective marketing communications tool. It's accepted, even preferred, by a large segment of the public. Better than 90 percent of Internet users use email, most on a daily basis.

An email strategy is completely appropriate for many, although not all, providers. It is nearly immediate, easy to use and low cost. It's an effective way to increase patient satisfaction, retention, referrals and revenue.

To be clear, we're not talking about doctor-patient email involving medical matters where there are legitimate concerns about privacy, liability, reimbursement, workload, etc. This is a permission-based email strategy, and for many medical and dental practices, hospitals, orthodontists, cosmetic surgeons and other providers - principally in elective care - the healthcare marketing opportunities are strong and varied.

The bottom line is that email works, but the first step is to have a system to regularly collect email addresses. In all cases, we're talking about asking for their permission (opt-in, decline or opt-out), and that they opt-in with an understanding of what will be sent and that it will be pertinent and valuable to them.

These are individuals who want to hear from you; often they prefer email over phone calls or regular mail, and they are happy to provide their email information. (And with an understanding of the type of information you will be sending and that it is something they will value.)

In fact it's easy to build an email contact list. Many providers can use email successfullly in their marketing mix, but they are shy about the idea, unaware of its value, or are too busy to introduce a new office routine.

For more enquiries, please call us at 852-25801058 for more information.

www.medicalmarketing.com.hk

From virtual to reality: How social media can get boots on the ground

Written by John Gerzema, president of BrandAsset Consulting

If there’s one criticism that sticks to the idealists in the universe of social media it’s this: “You guys don’t know how to turn your words into action.”
What’s the point of having a great idea if we can’t get it past the point of RT’s and Diggs. Real progress happens when relationships leave cyberspace and become face-to-face teams making real progress. In a world where “FarmVille” is now at your local 7-Eleven, digital and analog are increasingly becoming one. Here are three strategies to turn virtual chatter into real action:

1. Treat your employees as media. In late 2008 Scott Monty, head of Social Media at Ford, got wind of a San Francisco-based blogger named Stefania Pomponi Butler, who had some negative things to say about auto companies. “We invited her out to our Chicago auto plant to interact with some of our managers and workers and to talk about quality initiatives and green practices and see what we are doing and who we were,” Monty says. She then wrote a post: How the Women of Ford, an Assembly Plant, and a Guy Named Larry Changed My Life. “It occurred to me that this company was not a heartless, soul-less corporation full of automatons (like so many crash test dummies) churning out crappy cars. This company was made of people. People who cared immensely about the products they were building. People on the line smiled and waved at us. They held up power tools and tires as if to say, ‘I’m building a damn fine product here. We all are. When are you smug city folk going to take notice?’ I felt like the worst kind of ignorant, half clued-in fool,” she wrote. “Democratize social media across the organization so that it’s not just one department or one individual that holds the power. We can deputize anybody who wants to speak about their company. Maybe not in an authoritative way as the official company spokesman, but somebody who can defend and who can educate and who can engage and identify themselves as being from Ford,” Monty says.
2. Think about social media as a business model. In greater Tampa-St. Petersburg, members of a graphic design community hosted by Meetup.com took a break from their own worries about job leads to donate their services to local charities. In less than six weeks, the idea for a “Designathon” went from an entry on a website to a weekend-long work session where groups like the local YMCA received free services from professional artists, writers and designers. The experience brought people with shared interest together and, in the words of organizer Brianne Swezey, gave them a break from “being down about how I need money for this and money for that.” All it took was a little leadership from Swezey — who quickly discovered that people will eagerly give of themselves when they are offered the opportunity. As former Meetup.com chief community officer Doug Atkin says, “the express purpose of a social group is to gather and to coalesce around ideas bigger than themselves.”
3. Organize to reward, not punish. The idea behind “carrot mobbing” is to turn protesting on its head. Instead of boycotting businesses that are poor corporate citizens, the mobbers scale their spending to buy products and services from the good ones. In cities such as San Francisco and Kansas City, Web-based carrot mobbers have rewarded liquor stores and grocers who upgraded their lighting, heating and cooling system to reduce their carbon emissions. The businesses got thousands of dollars in extra sales while the atmosphere was spared untold tons of pollution. Today, according to our surveying in BrandAsset Valuator, 68% of Americans now believe that they and their friends can change corporate behavior by supporting companies that do the right thing. In every case, whether carrot mobbers reward businesses with reverse boycotts or professionals organized on Meetup.com donate services to charity or employees who re-educate a disgruntled blogger, the action is positive and inclusive and nothing like the us vs. them activities common to politics and activism. If you are looking for a way to move from talk to action, those who have done so suggest the following:

• Be bold. By declaring your intent, you make your desire to act a binding public commitment.
• Be expansive. There is strength in numbers so whenever possible, design your action to include everyone who wants to participate.
• Be generous. Don’t worry about taking credit or gaining advantage. Credit will come in due course and third-party endorsement is the most valuable.
• Be positive. In the post-crisis age, optimism and hope are guiding forces that are helping people adapt and reinvent their lives. Ideas that turn into action are the ones we can feel instinctively because they come from the heart.

For more enquiries, please call us at 852-25801058 for more information.

www.medicalmarketing.com.hk

What’s Xoopit? A new tools in yahoo that you can view photos in yahoo mail by only single-click

 
Xoopit, has been acquired by Yahoo! for $20 million. Xoopit has emerged as a leader in mail applications, indexing, and content discovery – and is known for bringing the Social Web to the inbox. It finds the pictures, videos, and files buried in webmail’s gigabytes of free storage, and allows users to share, comment, and post them to their contacts on other social networks and blogs.
Yahoo! will be integrating both Xoopit’s photo sharing applications and content indexing and discovery technology into Yahoo! Mail and other services over the coming months.
“Congratulations to the Xoopit team,” said Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks. “The inbox has essentially been the largest untapped social network in the world. Xoopit socializes email, placing less emphasis on the social graph, and more emphasis on helping people manage their relationships and the content that is important to them.”
“Considering Yahoo! Mail is one of the largest repositories of photos on the Web, it will be exciting to watch the synergy between these two companies,” Solis continued.

For more details, please visit http://www.myphotos.yahoo.com/yahoovideo

For more enquiries, please call us at 852-25801058 for more information.

www.medicalmarketing.com.hk

Updating your Website for Fun and Profit

Keeping your healthcare website content fresh pays-back in marketing dividends

Healthcare marketing websites for organizations and practices of all types need to be maintained with regular changes for maximum effectiveness. It's a web-savvy rule that applies across the board for hospitals, manufacturers, physicians and surgeons, dentists, pharmaceuticals...virtually everyone. Here are the four main benefits that flow to your bottom line, usually with little effort in keeping content fresh and your website in top performing condition.

A website is definitely not a "set-and-forget" marketing tool. We didn't ask specifically about updating, but it's rare that people think about refreshing their online content after the initial launch—nd that's nearly as counterproductive as not having a website at all.

Benign neglect really hurts. Regular website maintenance protects your initial web investment, fuels your return, keeps your marketing message fresh and timely, and is an SEO visibility plus.

When was the last time you made content changes? Do you have a regular update routine? If you can't recall, or your site hasn't changed in the past few months (maybe ever), here are four top reasons to do it now.

• Regular updates help win and maintain high visibility with search engines. When people in need are searching online for healthcare help, you want them to find your site among the top results. Sites that change regularly get more notice by search engines (think Google), and do better in the ranking system. Over 80% of visitors come through search, so search engine visibility is the gateway to attracting new visitors.
• You stay relevant to current and prospective patients. It's not difficult to maintain a fresh, connected and relevant face to your target audience. It lets site visitors know that you are tuned-in to their needs and that you have effective answers for them. Conversely, static content leaves the impression that there's nothing fresh or valuable for the people who you want to reach and serve.
• Being quick to shift gears as needed is critical to success. As with any marketing tool, make changes according to how well your website is performing in the marketplace. Measure what's working and adjust for maximum return on investment.
• It's easy, inexpensive and profitable to keep your site fresh. Updating online content does not take a lot of effort and is highly beneficial. And if your chose the right vendor, it's not expensive. For the websites we create for our clients, we provide an hour per month at no extra charge just to assure that the site keeps producing.

Do-it-yourself? Maybe, maybe not: But get it done.

There are two cost-effective models for updating your website: Do-it-yourself or all inclusive packages.

With the do-it-yourself option, you typically pick a generic template, and make all your own updates via an online interface. If you have a fair amount of time and are a serious do-it-yourselfer, this may be a tempting way to go.

On the other hand, we find that busy healthcare practices, hospitals, organizations rarely update their site as much as they would like. "Busy" is the usual stumbling block and there's never quite enough time, writing talent is a rare gift, and there are always more urgent business matters at hand.

The second option is to use a vendor who can make ongoing changes for you. That way, you can access professional talent who is skilled at both SEO and attracting patients (our firm offers this model). If you need our help, please call us today at 852-25801058

Either way, the primary goal is to get the job done. For an individual private practice, a group of physicians, a hospital or other healthcare organization, your website content could probably enjoy an update right now. As an added bonus, your competition is likely neglecting their website, so grab an advantage AND win additional business with a website update.

For more enquiries, please call us at 852-25801058 for more information.

www.medicalmarketing.com.hk

Three key elements to maximize your efforts on medical marketing – ask patients to refer, maximize online exposures and “first phone call”.

 

It's also important to work the top gateways, and they may not be what you think. Gateways into the practice may have shifted in the new marketing landscape. People don't come in the door because you "do everything." They opt for elective care that answers a specific need-a marketing gateway-that you can provide to them.

If you're wondering where to start—and your marketing war chest is strained—begin by beefing-up your internal marketing effort. In our experience, communicating with present and previous patients via email is often underutilized or totally forgotten. Email is a low cost tool, especially when compared to full-page, color print ads in up-scale magazines.

Don't be reluctant to ask for patient referrals. It's a task that shouldn't be delegated or neglected. Satisfied patients are not only a great source for referrals, they are often eager to respond. (Increasingly they use digital and social media for recommendations and referrals.) But you have to ask—and make it a habit.

Online marketing tools are relatively low in cost and the payback can be good. Tune-up your internet strategy for maximum leverage. Are you getting the most from your internet investment or is your website overdue for updates? Are you pulling people into the site with email, online advertising, a video strategy, and other tools? Do you have new marketing gateways to present? Is your website attracting visitors and page views, but the phone isn't ringing?

Your website needs regular attention, but blogs and social media have become an important part the new landscape. Do you have a blog, a Facebook page, and/or a Twitter account? Many practitioners have adopted these communications channels with impressive results. Here again, the cost is low, but the highly individualized nature of these tools—often delivered to a personal smart phone—makes them exceptionally effective.

It's also important to know exactly what's happening at your front desk. More often than you'd like to hear about, a lot of potential business is lost in the first phone call. It takes a special talent, training and experience to handle inbound phone inquiries and convert these calls to office appointments. Many first-time callers are curious, but not convinced. And without the right person helping them, they often disappear.

For more enquiries, please call us at 852-25801058 for more information.

www.medicalmarketing.com.hk