DMD Intelligence

Health system CEOs have a substantial undertaking. Given the current spirit of the holiday season, you might compare a CEO to a certain jolly fellow in the North Pole and the great responsibility that accompanies his role.

Of course, Santa’s advantage is that he has all those extra helpers. If you’ve ever seen Elf or a similar holiday movie, you know his elves are efficient, productive, and happy. To quote Will Ferrell’s character, “Smiling’s my favorite.” And, elves are always aligned in mission—something not always possible for hospital marketing and healthcare staffing departments, given their varying responsibilities.

Healthcare conferences typically draw a wide range of marketing experts, and this year was no exception. We heard many of these experts speak across numerous events: presenting on the changing scope of hospital marketing, the role of digital strategists, and the promise email offers within the competitive physician recruitment landscape.

While all of the conferences we attended in 2018 provided great insights, a few of them rose to the top with regards to quality, depth, and applicability.

In 2018, hospital marketers faced a number of challenges. Attracting—and retaining—referrals, building physician loyalty, and growing service lines are always top of mind for hospital marketers. As we head into the new year, the goal of maintaining top marks on the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals list takes center stage.

The good news is, a responsible email approach is an effective way to address these challenges. As 2019 inches closer by the minute, keep these three things at the top of your hospital marketing checklist:

Holiday shopping can be a weary process. Think of how much easier it would be if you could view, in real time—like a fly on the wall, the items your family members were browsing online for their own wish lists? 

That's something healthcare staffing professionals have been asking of Santa for years—to be able to identify, on an individual level, the physicians currently viewing online job posts even if they do not complete an application or set up a profile. Thankfully, the jolly ol' fellow has come through.

This year was filled with a number of significant developments for healthcare marketers. The rising demand to respect individual privacy rights dominated conversations surrounding digital marketing, as did the increasing importance of using data-driven email marketing tools to increase physician engagement and retention.

Our most popular 2018 blogs covered many of these issues. Here’s a quick look.

The rise of digital communications means our inboxes are fuller than ever. Think back to the overwhelm of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when it seemed every single entity you’d ever given your email address to (and maybe some you didn’t) was emailing with some sort of offer. While those are exceptionally frantic days, using email as a regular means of communication will continue to grow.

How can you ensure your emails stand out in your healthcare providers’ overflowing inboxes? It starts with providing value. Doing so will condition your physicians to recognize your messages as important and worthwhile.

A healthcare marketer I met with recently happened to mention that one limitation with his organization’s traditional physician marketing campaigns is that there’s no way to identify who they reach.  There’s also no easy way to measure the impact of these projects to tell if they lead to physician referrals.

With the increasing emphasis on marketers to prove their worth, I pointed out the value of adding email marketing to complement his organization’s broader physician communications strategy.