4 Rules For Effective Hospital Marketing

To stay financially viable, hospitals must increase their patient numbers. To do this requires marketing their services to potential referring physicians and patients.

Here are 4 rules hospitals should follow to create a successful marketing campaign.

Rule 1. Conduct market research

Before you start on a marketing plan, you need to know what your competitors are doing and who your audience is. If your hospital is close to a clinic offering the best diabetes care in the country, it will be difficult to market your hospital as a leader as well.

Research hospital data to cross-reference it against national and local hospital data to see the percentage of the market you have in a particular field to see how effective a marketing campaign might be. If you have a large market share in a particular specialty, the market for growth is smaller.

Market research the needs of your community and consider how your hospital can meet them. If the community has a high incidence of heart disease, consider marketing your cardiology programme. Focus on the values that are important to the community, for example getting a same day appointment may have more of a positive impact than being told the hospital rooms have new curtains.

Market research will also confirm how your hospital is perceived. Prioritise marketing to repair negative perceptions as well as promoting positive perceptions.

Rule 2.Prioritise marketing goals

Base your marketing goals on empirical data and do not be persuaded otherwise by pushy personnel. Answer the following questions to decide which area to market:

• How much capacity does a particular department have?
• What does the department contribute to the hospital's bottom line?
• What is the market potential for growth in the department?
• What technological resources can the department offer patients?

Focus on departments that are generating demand and increasing volume. If departments have great market potential, but haven’t received much attention, add these to your marketing campaign list. It is a poor use of resources to market departments with little room for growth, contribute minimally to the hospital's bottom line and have few relationships with referring physicians.

Rule 3.Plan your budget

Your budget must meet your priorities. You need to market to three audiences: referring physicians, in-house staff and consumers. Prioritize the budget for each audience based on how much volume each campaign might create. Remember, one good physician referrer can translate into literally hundreds of patients, so you may want to focus your budget by focusing on departments that have a strong physician referral component.

Use free online sources to stretch your budget A good website and socially-engaging content on a variety of social media will engage all audiences and can be used to connect with hard-to-reach communities. Social media can improve communications much more effectively than direct mail marketing or other print materials.

Rule 4.Create a tactical plan

Once your strategy is confirmed, a tactical plan is required for your campaign. The tactical plan will be repeatable steps including social media, print advertisements, website updates, television campaigns etc. that are influenced by your strategy. You have to decide how to target each audience, which will depend on how your audience receive the majority of their information.