Big Marketing on a Small Budget

Healthcare marketing is a unique beast to tackle when compared to other fields. Marketers cannot guarantee their work. Quality is tough to measure. Healthcare is a service most people use because they have to, rather than because they want to (except for those who like lounging in examining rooms and undergoing surgeries). And because privacy standards are set high, there are limits on data usage.

In order for healthcare marketers to be credible, they need to be able to prove the worth of their efforts, especially in a cash-strapped economy. It is tough to determine when and how each marketing dollar tied to a campaign will pay off. Example: If there is a campaign promoting the emergency department of Hospital B, there’s no good way to tell who chose Hospital B as a result of the campaign, and who chose it for other reasons.

Though the measurement of marketing dollars can only go so far, I wanted to explore some ways healthcare marketers are watching their ROI and making the most of their  budgets.

Genesis Health System in Davenport, IA started a blog in 2004 to educate their patients about bariatric surgery. The blog features bariatric surgery patients who provide regular updates about their experiences. In order to see the blogger updates, viewers must sign up and provide information such as email, address, age, and how the viewer discovered the blog.

Smart move. Collecting this small sample of information is vital when it comes to measuring how people are responding to a marketing effort.

Other health systems have websites boasting patient success stories and examples of what services they offer. The upside of funneling some of this information into a blog that requires registration can allow marketers to appropriately measure who chooses their services as a result. They can even cross-check names when patients check-in to see which ones are signed up for the blog.

Genesis spent $16,000 on media advertising ---a flexible number based upon the health system’s financial resources. The same goes for allocated staff time and resources. The bloggers were not compensated, but their work time spent on the blog must be factored into expenses. Here's the breakdown according to A Marketer’s Guide to Measuring ROI:

• Blog development --- $1,000
• Staff time --- $2,500
• Media advertising --- $16,000
• Total = $19,500

Genesis tracked new patients resulting from this effort by asking new registrants for the bariatric surgery program if they used the blog. Factoring out business they would have received anyway --- the total of new cases as a result of the campaign was 30. The average net revenue per case is $1,500:

        Net Revenue ($45,000) – marketing expense ($19,500)

        Marketing expense ($19,500)

= ROI% (131%)

• Factor out business you would have received anyway.
• Designate a time period in which you expect the efforts to pay off
• Designate a service you can measure (to the best of your ability)
• Measure net revenue derived from patient volumes

The resulting positive ROI (131%) of the bariatric surgery blog shows it did, in fact, boost patient volume for Genesis Health System.

Here's another tip: Provide a section for the patient to enter a patient identification number. This way, the fact that they follow the blog can be included on their electronic medical record (EMR). This way, data is centralized and easy to find.

Genesis Health System's blogs are an example of a marketing effort that is well-connected. Staff act as bloggers and champions of the services, a simple questionnaire at check-in helps monitor blog patient volume, and media efforts promoting the blog also help to boost awareness.

How do you measure your marketing ROI? Discuss in our comments section below.