5 Examples of Brilliant Healthcare Marketing

What are some examples of Brilliant Healthcare marketing?

2020 has presented unique challenges for every industry, and healthcare has been tasked with rising to the challenge of both working the front lines of COVID-19 while continuing to provide for the everyday health needs of the population.

At a time when fear and uncertainty have ruled the news cycle, we’re seeing an alternative viewpoint in healthcare marketing campaigns: messages of hope and empathy.

The following are some of the strongest healthcare marketing campaigns of 2020.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health

Behind the Mask

Dartmouth-Hitchcock launched a video series that features its hospital doctors speaking on a range of salient topics that would be important to patients who need care amidst the pandemic. Its tone is one of reassurance and education — to answer the questions in our minds before we have to ask them.

This campaign wins points for:

+ Emphasizing the educational impacts of hospital service lines

+ Addressing patient objections about hospital visits during a pandemic

See their videos in action on the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health YouTube channel.

Northwell Health

Together We Well

The TV spot for this campaign is very New York, and it cuts to the point: the pandemic really, well, sucks.

Northwell Health levels with us and gets real—doesn’t sugarcoat the fact that we’ve fallen on hard times. But the core of this message is community and resilience.

This campaign wins points for:

+ Resilience

+ Community orientation

+ Emphasizing wellbeing and acknowledging the challenges we face

Check out the campaign landing page here.

Cleveland Clinic

For Every Care in the World

This campaign isn’t a COVID-19 campaign in theory, but I could argue that every marketing campaign since February has been a COVID-19 campaign.

Cleveland Clinic focuses on the fact that there’s still a whole world of medicine outside of the pandemic and they’re here for it—for every care in the world as they put it.

Ultimately, this campaign is a great example of how Cleveland Clinic articulates its differentiators among a host of healthcare options.

This campaign wins points for:

+ Empathy

+ Emphasizing the customer experience

See this campaign landing page here.

Baylor Scott & White Heath

C’mon Back

Baylor Scott & White launched their “C’mon Back” initiative relatively early in the pandemic as a campaign whose aim was to keep people coming for everyday care and, when Texas lifted the hold on elective procedures, to get back to pursuing their health despite the inherent unease that comes with COVID-19.

“We’re not running COVID hospitals, we’re running hospitals,” CEO Jim Hinton said in a recent interview with the Dallas Morning News.

I bring up Jim Hinton’s quote here because he’s offering a sober, sane perspective at a time when we really need to hear it.

This campaign wins points for:

+ Brevity

+ Emphasizing safety

While examples of this campaign aren’t readily accessible, the current Baylor homepage is a great example of a simple UX that cuts to the heart of the matter of a great customer experience. It’s direct, simple and the path to action is very clear.

Ballad Health

#SafeWithUs resources for hospitals

In Tennessee, Ballad Health is doing something that few if any other hospitals have done: they’ve published free marketing campaign templates for hard-hit rural hospitals. In a marketplace that has become rapacious toward the underperforming hospital, this olive branch is a signal of hope.

Competition is healthy and necessary for a thriving economy, but that doesn’t mean businesses and healthcare organizations can’t help each other.

The truth is, there are more than enough patients to serve. And keeping the lights on in our rural hospitals saves lives.

This campaign wins points for:

+ Community orientation

+ Altruism

See Ballad’s ad templates here.

More examples of great healthcare marketing campaigns for 2020 can be found in this recent article from Becker’s Hospital Review.

What Is a Healthcare Marketing Plan?

Practically speaking, a healthcare marketing plan encompasses a wide berth of tactics aimed at promoting public health and acquiring new patients. This would include but not be limited to:

• Inbound marketing funnels powered by educational content
• Social media campaigns that function to build a larger audience for the organization
• Digital ad campaigns that drive traffic to the bottom of the funnel for getting directions to locations, setting appointments or requesting consultations like MRI reviews
• SEO tactics to improve search engine visibility for your hospital and service lines
• Patient educational information that helps people self-identify a need for care
• Broad campaign initiatives that speak to the zeitgeist like those I mentioned earlier

The thing to keep in mind when coming up with a marketing plan is that all of these tactics have their place. The challenge comes in the prioritization, organization and execution of these tactics as matched to the goals you create.

What is an example of a health care system?

All of the healthcare systems whose campaigns we surveyed have unique advantages they’ve set forth through marketing. That said, the leading systems like Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic have created a new elite tier in healthcare marketing. Obviously, not every healthcare system will have a marketing department or agency budget as robust as those of Cleveland or Mayo, but these organizations are great examples of healthcare marketing leadership and their models are worthy of further study, especially when it comes to integrating channels and tactics.

What are the 5 P’s of healthcare marketing?

The five P’s we’re talking about are people, place, product, promotion and price. This is a framework to help determine where your healthcare services may have a unique advantage. The five P’s can also be useful to shift your perspective into the mind of the patient vs. viewing the question from the mind of the provider.

So when you’re thinking about your marketing messaging, here are a few questions you can ask about your organization and about your competitors:

• Where can patients access care? Is it location dependent? How accessible are your services?
• How am I talking about my service lines and care options? Does the language resonate and reflect the voice of the customer?
• Do my prices align with market standards? Are my prices transparent and simple?
• How effective and accessible is your customer service? Do patients enjoy interacting with your staff? Are they easy to reach?
• Are you promoting your healthcare brand in places where prospective patients can see and interact with your marketing content? This requires more than billboards and TV spots. Start to think beyond the traditional toward the digital.

How do you market healthcare?

Simply put, there are two basic angles for any healthcare marketing initiative: prevention or cure. So all of the messaging either drives preventative wellness and health screenings, or it serves to speak to the patient who suffers from a condition they need to heal.

In the world of direct marketing, cures sell. Just consider the world of ergonomic products that promise a better night’s sleep or back pain relief. Or the supplement market that promises relief from symptoms.

Selling prevention on the other hand is a bit more difficult.

The reason for this? People rarely choose to take action unless they are sufficiently motivated to do so. And the unfortunate truth behind this is that people are more easily motivated by pain and fear of losing their health.

What is the most effective marketing strategy?

Ultimately, the most effective marketing strategy is the one you implement, measure and improve upon. The marketing landscape is always evolving. Platforms and algorithms roll out updates on a near-constant basis. The scientific mindset is the key to creating effective strategies.

Conclusion

Great healthcare marketing strategy is neither calculus nor rocket science, but it does demand a serious amount of effort, commitment, planning and resources to execute. If you need some help to figure out what next step is right for you in your business, I’d be happy to work with you. Drop me a line or check out my consulting options to get started.