Category: Advertising & Marketing

Building a Better Healthcare E-Newsletter

Posted on by Brian Lee

INTRODUCTION

newsletterAn e-newsletter is a regularly scheduled publication sent to a hospital’s stakeholders, such as patients, donors, community leaders and volunteers. As a result, an e-newsletter is a tool for customer retention, not customer acquisition.

Healthcare newsletters are an effective way to stay top-of-mind with recipients. They also can demonstrate how your hospital is a fixture of the community.

HOW TO SET UP A HEALTHCARE NEWSLETTER

You should use MailChimp over other email marketing platforms such as Constant Contact and Vertical Response for its ease-of-use, lower cost and integration with other programs, including CRMs.

After you’ve imported your contacts—remember, because email marketing is a form of permission-based marketing, these contacts must provide consent to be added to your list—you should segregate them, for example, by their relationship to your hospital. That way you can tailor your messages to each subscriber subset.

For your e-newsletter design, you can either modify existing templates, or you can upload your own custom HTML design. Set up blocks for 3-4 short articles and at least 1-2 graphics.

HOW TO CREATE RELEVANT NEWSLETTER CONTENT

First, you need to give your audiences a reason to subscribe to your newsletter. Make the promise of relevant, timely information, and be up front on the frequency of your emails (e.g. weekly or monthly).

Here are some topic ideas:

  • Humanize your hospital (e.g. write bios of physicians and staff).
  • Promote events (e.g. flu shots).
  • Share case studies and good deeds.
  • Educate on national health concerns (e.g. Zika virus).
  • Be transparent (e.g. report on the operations of the hospital).

Mapping Out Clear Communication

Posted on by Allison Wallner

mapout

A friend of mine recently asked me to review a mapping project to be displayed at his house. He’s a GIS mapping specialist, and looking at Google Maps is the extent of my experience, but I gladly reviewed the project.

When I looked at this map, I was confused with the markings that appeared. My friend was surprised at my apparently obvious question. The map was not conveying a clear meaning to someone with no advanced mapping knowledge.

What does this have to do with marketing?

Well-established communication is mandatory from the sender to receiver to establish a shared meaning. A shared meaning occurs when people understand each other’s perspective and meaning. This is crucial within any presentation, sales pitch, form of writing and simple conversation. Making sure your audience, no matter how big or small, is on the same page as you when doing business is a must.

Evaluating your audience when developing your marketing message can help with this objective. Becoming familiar with the realm of knowledge, goals and needs of your audience will make building your marketing message easier to communicate and understand.

Back to my example, my friend now understands that the symbols placed throughout the map are not clearly communicated to his audience. The map now has an easy-to-read map key displayed in the bottom corner.

Clear communication will lead you to a shared meaning, which avoids confusion and creates success.

Why are you buying furniture on Presidents’ Day?

Posted on by Jessica Hamilton

Presidents DayAccording to Wikipedia, until the 1970s most businesses were closed on Presidents’ Day. The holiday was originally created under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which observes certain holidays throughout the year on predetermined Mondays.

It was not until the mid-1980s that advertisers began to use the phrase “Presidents’ Day” to encourage sales during the three day weekend. According to the Nevada Daily Mail, advertisers began to play a role in the changing of the name in 1986 after Congress enacted Martin Luther King Jr. day to be the third Monday in January. Since neither George Washington nor Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays fell on the third Monday of February,  advertisers began using the time between Lincoln and Washington’s birthdays as a “Presidents’ Day” sale period.

Today, companies use the holiday to get rid of old merchandise to make room for spring items. Most commonly advertised are mattress and furniture sales. Real Simple said new furniture designs hit the market in spring, causing furniture stores to mark down many of last season’s items.

Meanwhile, Payoff.com said that spring brings an increase in home sales, therefore increasing the demand for new mattresses and furniture. Mattress models turn over in May, so deals begin in the new year during times when marketers know that shoppers have extended time off of work (like Presidents’ Day weekend).