Last fall, MarketingWeek released results from their Language of Effectiveness survey, which showed that marketers are almost twice as likely to focus purely on brand awareness. The survey included responses from 1,610 marketers, with 14.9% reporting that their organization focuses entirely on brand marketing, compared to only 8.6% who concentrate solely on performance marketing. While most respondents employ a balance of both tactics, the majority skew towards brand marketing. This shift in focus reflects the increasing importance of branding in the macro landscape.
In healthcare, we know that brand awareness impact both consumer decisions and physician behavior. Although marketing directly to physicians is a proven way of building awareness, many healthcare organizations do not have robust resources to meet this need. Often healthcare marketers are more comfortable reaching consumers and they might have a more clearly defined consumer-facing brand. Plus, they may be unsure of best practices for physician outreach.
To complicate the issue, it can often be harder to demonstrate return on brand marketing investment and, therefore, more challenging to get leadership buy-in on brand-focused strategies. However, physician-focused brand marketing can have an impact on bottom-line behaviors. By using marketing to build a positive reputation for the organization as a whole, as well as individual physicians, healthcare organizations can improve their chances of increasing referrals, making sure that patients can access the care they need. Plus, next to ensuring that existing patients are retained, referrals are the second easiest way to increase patient volumes. So, brand marketing strategies can go hand-in-hand with revenue-focused goals.
When considering a physician-focused brand strategy, it is important to reach both external and internal physicians with these efforts. Physicians outside of a healthcare system are unlikely to be familiar with the skill set of that hospital’s staff. Just as relevant, physicians within a healthcare system are often unaware of their colleagues’ expertise outside of their department. Not to mention that for nearly half of all healthcare organizations, patient leakage represents an over 10% loss of revenue. By targeting both internal and external physicians, you can showcase the strength of your organization and your physicians, and magnify the results of your brand campaigns.
For more information, download our white paper on building physician reputation.
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