On the final day of the Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit, attendees again received a number of great tips, tools, and strategies to take home to the office.
Here are a few recommendations on what marketers can do to keep their brand up-to-date.
Go beyond “diversity.”
The closing keynote speaker, Kelly McDonald, a bestselling author and brand expert, urged healthcare marketers to not think of “diversity” in terms of race. Healthcare marketers need to be more comfortable marketing to people who are “not like them,” in terms of politics, gender, social, or political issues. “If you don’t try to understand the differences between people,” McDonald asked, “how will you know who you are marketing to?”
Write engaging headlines.
Marketers at Murray Friedman’s session got a chance to brainstorm headlines. During his session, he highlighted three email campaigns from Aurora Health Care. He’d tell the crowd the topic and then ask for ideas on what the headline should be. Next, he showed the two headlines his Aurora Health Care team used—and showed which one did the best, analytically. It was a great reminder of the importance of A/B testing.
It’s time for online scheduling.
Kelly Faley from Sharp HealthCare, asked attendees: “How many of you would book a trip with an airline if you couldn’t do it online?” Answer: Nobody. She urged healthcare marketers to implement online scheduling because patients want to make appointments after work—they don’t want to deal with the hassle of calling during their workday or being placed on hold for twenty minutes. “You have to provide better access to your patients,” Faley says. “You’re not competing with the hospital down the street—you’re competing with retail, like CVS.”
These are just a few of many lessons from the Summit. To learn more, order the Summit Playback. And, mark your calendars for #HMPS19 in Chicago, May 21-23, 2019 … hope to see you there!
Jessica Levco is a contributing writer for Healthcare Strategy Alert and the Forum for Healthcare Strategists blog.