Marty the marketer meanders on measurement
One day, Marty the hospital marketer was asked: “Marty, why aren’t you measuring your marketing results?”
Marty replied: “I have no clue where to begin. Every time I start to think about it, it overwhelms me. What are our goals? What objectives should we target? Whose approval do I need for those? What are we going to measure? How are we going to measure it? What metrics should we use? Where do we get the data? How will we know if we succeed? I believe in measurement, but I don’t really know how to do it, or where to begin. Maybe next quarter.” Read More
What’s on your mind, healthcare marketer?
I was on the road last week speaking to two healthcare marketing groups. First, we talked marketing measurement at the Cincinnati AMA monthly meeting. Then, I presented “Joe Public Doesn’t Care About Your Hospital” to the Virginia Society for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations (VSHMPR) in Charlottesville, Virginia. In talking with attendees and fielding questions, a few common points of interest seemed to emerge at both venues. What was top of mind for marketers in these two markets? See if any of these sound familiar: Read More
Be careful when setting expectations
Expectations are a funny thing. A former president famously attributed his political success to setting low expectations and then beating them. While some might argue he struggled to accomplish even that, his point is worth considering when it comes to how you set objectives for your hospital marketing efforts. It’s the old “perception vs. reality” equation at work again – the perception of whether you hit or miss your established target can be more powerful that the actual results themselves. Read More
New book on marketing measurement set for release
“A Marketer’s Guide to Measuring Results: Prove the Impact of New Media and Traditional Healthcare Marketing Efforts” is a new book authored by Interval president Chris Bevolo. The book, set for release in April, can now be ordered from publisher HCPro, the parent company of HealthLeaders Media. For more information on the book, check out the official press release. And stay tuned for more to come as we use the book to drive dialogue and dive deeper into the issues surrounding measuring healthcare marketing results.
Join us for webcast on measuring marketing results
Healthcare marketers can now register for a new webcast on measuring marketing results, hosted by Interval president Chris Bevolo. The webcast, titled “Beyond ROI: Prove the Success of Your Marketing Efforts,” will outline how healthcare marketers can use baseline and relative comparison measurement techniques to demonstrate the results of the marketing efforts. Read More
Two words that often kill great ideas: “prove it”
When it comes to healthcare marketing, one of the most feared comments from executives, physicians and operational leaders is this: “If you can’t prove this will work, then we’re not doing it.”
As we’ve stated many times over the past year in our blog posts, podcasts, and paper, we feel passionately that marketers should strive to measure the success of their efforts whenever possible. Measurement allows you to demonstrate marketing’s value to leadership, and, more importantly, to better understand what works and what doesn’t. That kind of measurement discipline can help marketers answer that dreaded question by allowing them to pull from past experiences and demonstrate that yes, this can work, and this is how it has in the past.
Except in one case: when the idea is brand new and hasn’t been done before, either by you and your organization, or, even worse, by anybody else. Of course, launching a new idea before anyone else can lead to great success (iPod, TiVo, Starbuck’s “third place” experience, etc.) But in a conservative culture, the lack of a proven track record is often what kills an innovative idea. An article in this week’s BusinessWeek titled “Innovation’s Accidental Enemies” does a great job of reminding us why the lack of a proven track record should be considered an opportunity, not a deficit. Read More
Social media snake oil
There’s a standing mantra among healthcare marketing consultants and those who follow social media closely: “If someone refers to themselves as a social media expert, run to the hills.” This is driven by the idea that social media is so new, and so little is actually known about its long-term impact, that very few if any social media marketers could have obtained enough experience to claim the title “expert.” Read More