HAVE YOU COMPLETED A HOSPITAL MARKETING DEPARTMENT AUDIT?

Seriously, when was the last time an audit of the hospital marketing department was completed?

Image by Mohamed Hassin from Pixabay

I ask this question as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has changed everything in healthcare for the hospital. When I say everything, my focus is on top-down from financial planning to business strategy, operations, and care.

Given that is the case, then why wouldn’t the hospital or health system audit the marketing department to ensure that the messages, brand and positioning strategies, tactics, execution, results, and marketing department structure, reporting relationships, and personnel are still relevant?

It’s an important question.

With hospital care upended due to the pandemic, it forced patients to become connected digitally, and in finding alternative, more convenient sources of care, i.e., telemedicine, for example, means it’s a new day for hospital marketing. 

Image by Enign Akyurt from Pixabay

Patients are not returning in droves for care for a variety of reasons, one of which is the loss of health insurance due to job loss. Merely putting a beautiful picture of a nurse with a facemask, a couple of copy lines about safety, and then throwing in the kitchen sink isn’t working.

Early on in pandemic hot spots, hospitals and health systems were forced to engage the patient and community at an unprecedented level. By establishing a new standard of communication, engagement, and experience, out of necessity, a new expectation on the part of the patient and community was established. The same level of patient and community engagement, experience, should be continuing. But what I see except for a few exceptions, is an old pre-pandemic marketing strategy, messaging, and channel use.

Hence the need for a full marketing audit.

Now I am not attempting to get anyone fired. Still, considering the titanic shifts in the hospital care market in such a short period, new approaches, strategies, messages, and channel presence are needed to rebuild patient and community trust. And, until confidence is restored, utilization will not increase for any provider hospital or physician.

The hospital or health system has a fiduciary responsibility to understand if their marketing department and the personal are operating at peak efficiency and effectiveness. It needs to be known if the marketing plans, go to market strategies, and messages are appropriate, responsive and generating a return.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Another compelling reason for the audit is that the patient and community experience has changed. How has the marketing operation altered to reflect the new patient experience, and to manage? Has the marketing operation responded to the digitally connected patient, and has the marketing plan with timely execution changed to reflect the new engagement realities?

What is the content creation plan and production schedule? Is the hospital or health system using social media effectively to engage? Are the topics, and content created for patient and community consumption relevant in the new marketplace? What is the promotional schedule for distributing content regularly for digital channels and social media?  How are you measuring the outcome of marketing, and not the activity of marketing?

Running print advertisements may make everyone to the hospital feel good, but ads are the easy way out. Newspaper circulation and readership continues to decline.  How have resources shifted away from print to digital and social media?

There are many other reasons for undertaking a marketing audit, but now is a prime time opportunity for ensuring that the hospital and health system marketing is in sync with the marketplace, patient, and community, as well as being proactive and responsive, not reactive.

Take advantage of the marketing audit opportunity now as you right the financial and operational ship of the hospital and health system for the new realities of health care.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and is listed on the 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites ranked at No. 3 on the list by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives. An expert in healthcare marketing strategy, digital marketing, and social media, Michael is in the top 10 percent of social media experts nationwide and is considered an established influencer. For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Opinions expressed are my own.

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