January 2009 Market Tenor | Marketing in Today’s Economy

Dave Zirkle Marketing in
Today’s Economy
By Brenda Beukelman, MBA

Health care marketing budgets have always been tight. They have often been the target of budget balancing actions; the first line item cut when things got tight. With the current economic challenge, how will marketing stretch the budget with even less? Is that even possible?

Renewing your annual plans by scaling back the number of direct mail pieces and cutting the quantity of newsletters will most likely not be enough. What today’s economic challenge requires is a new way of thinking, acting, and communicating with your target audiences.

Be Your Brand
Levels of stress and anxiety are running high in our communities. This provides your hospital an opportunity to live out their mission, vision, and values in their marketing efforts. Connect with the community (your target audience) and send a meaningful message through action. If your hospital has positioned itself as the caring, compassionate provider of health care, this is the time to live it. Reach out to your community with health screenings, partner with a food shelf, set up information booths in community centers and malls. Look at your budget and see the possibilities to use your team as an extension of your health system into the community.

What does that cost? Not as much in hard dollars as advertising campaigns, but it will require the same amount of staff time to develop and staff the events. Hopefully, staff costs are still in the budgets!

Here is an example: Virginia Mason Medical Center, in Seattle, WA strongly believed their community’s health would benefit from receiving the annual flu shot. So strongly in fact that they made a commitment to having 100% of their staff vaccinated, then took the step to offer a drive through flu shot clinic to the community. An organizational initiative that added credibility to their mission, reinforced their position in the market, and improved the health of their community.

Relationship Development
As marketing budgets shrink, the focus on relationship development needs to grow. Personal face time with your referral sources will help build your income streams and feed your programs. Timely issue resolution and leadership involvement will move your program to the front of the line as you reduce the stress of the physician and service line staff.

When communicating with your referral sources, make sure the tools you use allow for frequent updates. Outdated information may cost you referrals at a minimum because it gives a less-than-desired impression. Imagine the referral manual having handwritten updates in the margins. Or worse, imagine the manual being tossed out due to wrong information.

Create one compact, referral guide for your high potential service lines and growth programs using a flexible binding, to give it a long shelf life. It becomes an extension and reflection of the relationship and the trusted source for referring patients to your programs. Keeping it up to date is important to maintain the relationship and referral path. Not only are you saving trees, you are giving your physician relations rep the opportunity to call upon the physician to update his/her referral guide.

Advertising
Branding benefits from repetition and longevity. Now is the perfect time to keep an existing ad campaign going rather than develop a new one. While new campaigns bring new energy and excitement, it takes time to create the association to your hospital. Save the time and the money and dust off an ad you successfully ran in the past. Minor modifications to the call to action can be made, if needed, for a minor cost. A well-received ad can be viewed as comforting to the viewer and strengthen the connection in their mind to your programs and services.

One of the significant costs to advertising is the production costs. While advertising agencies provide exceptional ad production services, not everyone can afford those services. Some health systems have been able to save significant dollars on their radio spots by using an on-line production service. Your copy is read by a professional voice talent and emailed back to you. You are still responsible for purchasing and placing the ad. Just be careful to avoid the car salesperson voice talent, unless that is the sound you are going for!

Reevaluate Print Costs
Evaluate the annual expense of printing, especially the large documents, such as the annual reports. I know you may hear gasps of shock from certain groups, but hold tight. Offer to produce an abbreviated version of the full report, focused upon their specific purpose.

For example, if the foundation uses the annual report in their work, find out what sections are most germane. Produce a shortened, abbreviated version in a brochure format for distribution. The full report can be available on-line and/or output in small quantities with a smaller press, available with some printer vendors.

Marketing professionals are creative and flexible by nature. We usually like to look for options in a situation. The upcoming year may be just another opportunity to exercise our creativity.






		Marketing in Today’s Economy By Brenda Beukelman, MBA Health care marketing budgets have always been tight. They have often been the target of budget balancing actions; the first line item cut when things got tight. With the current economic challenge, how will marketing stretch the budget with even less? Is that even possible? Renewing your annual plans by scaling back the number of direct mail pieces and cutting the quantity of newsletters will most likely not be enough. What today’s economic challenge requires is a new way of thinking, acting, and communicating with your target audiences. Be Your Brand Levels of stress and anxiety are running high in our communities. This provides your hospital an opportunity to live out their mission, vision, and values in their marketing efforts. Connect with the community (your target audience) and send a meaningful message through action. If your hospital has positioned itself as the caring, compassionate provider of health care, this is the time to live it. Reach out to your community with health screenings, partner with a food shelf, set up information booths in community centers and malls. Look at your budget and see the possibilities to use your team as an extension of your health system into the community. What does that cost? Not as much in hard dollars as advertising campaigns, but it will require the same amount of staff time to develop and staff the events. Hopefully, staff costs are still in the budgets! Here is an example: Virginia Mason Medical Center, in Seattle, WA strongly believed their community’s health would benefit from receiving the annual flu shot. So strongly in fact that they made a commitment to having 100% of their staff vaccinated, then took the step to offer a drive through flu shot clinic to the community. An organizational initiative that added credibility to their mission, reinforced their position in the market, and improved the health of their community. Relationship Development As marketing budgets shrink, the focus on relationship development needs to grow. Personal face time with your referral sources will help build your income streams and feed your programs. Timely issue resolution and leadership involvement will move your program to the front of the line as you reduce the stress of the physician and service line staff. When communicating with your referral sources, make sure the tools you use allow for frequent updates. Outdated information may cost you referrals at a minimum because it gives a less-than-desired impression. Imagine the referral manual having handwritten updates in the margins. Or worse, imagine the manual being tossed out due to wrong information. Create one compact, referral guide for your high potential service lines and growth programs using a flexible binding, to give it a long shelf life. It becomes an extension and reflection of the relationship and the trusted source for referring patients to your programs. Keeping it up to date is important to maintain the relationship and referral path. Not only are you saving trees, you are giving your physician relations rep the opportunity to call upon the physician to update his/her referral guide. Advertising Branding benefits from repetition and longevity. Now is the perfect time to keep an existing ad campaign going rather than develop a new one. While new campaigns bring new energy and excitement, it takes time to create the association to your hospital. Save the time and the money and dust off an ad you successfully ran in the past. Minor modifications to the call to action can be made, if needed, for a minor cost. A well-received ad can be viewed as comforting to the viewer and strengthen the connection in their mind to your programs and services. One of the significant costs to advertising is the production costs. While advertising agencies provide exceptional ad production services, not everyone can afford those services. Some health systems have been able to save significant dollars on their radio spots by using an on-line production service. Your copy is read by a professional voice talent and emailed back to you. You are still responsible for purchasing and placing the ad. Just be careful to avoid the car salesperson voice talent, unless that is the sound you are going for! Reevaluate Print Costs Evaluate the annual expense of printing, especially the large documents, such as the annual reports. I know you may hear gasps of shock from certain groups, but hold tight. Offer to produce an abbreviated version of the full report, focused upon their specific purpose. For example, if the foundation uses the annual report in their work, find out what sections are most germane. Produce a shortened, abbreviated version in a brochure format for distribution. The full report can be available on-line and/or output in small quantities with a smaller press, available with some printer vendors. Marketing professionals are creative and flexible by nature. We usually like to look for options in a situation. The upcoming year may be just another opportunity to exercise our creativity.

		Other Articles in the January 2009 Issue of The Market Tenor Impact Starts with Our Thoughts and ActionsGO Physician Recruitment ... And All Those Other DutiesGO Creating Collateral to Support Your Physician Visits: Tell, Then ShowGO The Research and Analysis is Done – Now What?GO

		Not yet a subscriber to The Market Tenor? Subscribe now!