Mar
4

How can you make your hospital web site stand out from the pack? Resist the urge to cram everything you have to say on the home page. Less is more when it comes to your hospital home page. Think of everyone’s favorite consumer electronics brand - Apple. Its home page is beautiful in its simplicity. There’s one large, gorgeous “hero” product image that makes us believe that we want/need/gotta have whatever they’re selling. Then they offer three or four action-item options at the bottom of the page. Simple and smart.

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Sep
12

Is anybody listening to consumers? As I look at the landscape of hospital advertising, I see lots of images of physicians, technology, and plenty of boasting language about accomplishments.

But is that what consumers really want to hear? I don't think so. Let's face it; we're talking to ourselves.

In some recent consumer market research our firm conducted, women who make the health care decisions for their families told us that "every hospital sounds the same." Every hospital makes claims about awards and rankings.

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Aug
11

Health insurance companies find themselves in the center of the debate on health care reform, as Americans haggle about who should cover the uninsured. Cost and quality are recurring themes in the discussion. Now’s the time for health care insurance marketers to help their customers by making their web sites the go-to resource for provider quality and pricing information. Data show that consumers want their plan’s web site to include this information. Some hospitals are already doing this. I think it’s time we enter the fray; why should hospitals have all the fun?

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Jul
21

It needs an overhaul, too. Hospitals waste millions of marketing dollars on self-indulgent messaging that does nothing to advance the health of the American people. These ad campaigns are full of multi-syllabic jargon and posing doctor pictures that play well to the medical staff and the C-suite but do little to help consumers make important, well-informed choices about their health care. Really, how many “world-class” hospitals can there be? As health care marketers, we can use the excuse of health care reform as a catalyst for change in our own work.

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