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6 Successful Marketing Strategies Shared During 2022

Analysis  |  By Melanie Blackman  
   December 29, 2022

Healthcare marketing execs kept consumers top of mind this year while implementing strategies to engage with and meet consumer expectations.

It's no secret that to be successful in healthcare marketing initiatives, hospitals and health systems need to keep patients and consumers front and center. This is due to competition not only from other hospitals and health systems, but also from retail companies, drugstores, and on-demand virtual care companies that have come into the mix.

To create brand loyalty and meet patients where they are, healthcare marketers need to listen to patients and consumers and have a clear, consumer-focused strategy.

Below are six articles about how healthcare marketing events have successfully kept consumer engagement top of mind this year.

Successful Consumer-Led Marketing Strategies

Consumers are calling the shots, now more than ever, in healthcare. To keep up, healthcare marketers should focus on implementing consumer-led and consumer-focused strategies to retain current patients while also bringing new patients to the organization.

Virtua Health, a nonprofit health system serving communities in southern New Jersey and the Philadelphia area through five hospitals and over 270 care locations, is doing just that.

As the chief marketing officer of Virtua Health, Chrisie Scott, MBA, oversees the organization's marketing, communications, public relations, and human experience departments. She also oversees the consumer access center, which is available for patients to call 24/7 to get questions answered and get connected to care.

Read more.

How Healthcare Marketers are Innovating to Address Workforce Struggles

The evolution of healthcare marketing is driven by the creative innovations that marketing teams adopt to keep up with the ever-changing demands of consumers. Those same factors and innovations come into play when addressing workforce shortages.

Hospitals and health systems are experiencing what's being called the Great Resignation, and they're facing new competition in recruiting needed staff. While clinical care staff has been in short demand, the marketing departments have also experienced turnover.

During the HealthLeaders Healthcare Workforce of the Future roundtable event this past summer, chief marketing executives— Sandra Mackey, the chief marketing officer for Bon Secours Mercy Health and William "Skip" Hidlay, the chief communications and marketing officer for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center—had a candid discussion about the creative innovations their organizations have created to address workforce issues

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Using Technology to Drive Your Consumer-Centric Strategy

Today's healthcare consumer is more tech-savvy and connected than ever before. They want to be involved in how their care is delivered. They want more than a simple transactional relationship with their primary care physician. They want options and they want to be in the know.

To keep up with their patients, health systems are developing new strategies that focus on the connected consumer. This includes developing patient portals and digital health apps that connects patient to provider at any time and place.

Kathy Azeez-Narain, who serves as vice president and chief digital officer for Hoag, a regional health system in Orange County, California, helped develop Hoag Compass as part of their consumer-centric strategy. The application and services provided help connect their patients to their health and strengthen the relationship between patients and physicians.

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How Consumers are Looking to Northside

Marketing plays a significant role for Northside Hospital, a nonprofit health system headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The five-hospital health system has focused on a few marketing campaigns in recent years, with a focus on more than just driving consumers to their locations.

Lee Echols, VP of marketing and communications for Northside, led marketing campaigns including "Healers, Helpers, Heroes," "Look to Northside," and "#TalkAboutIt," which were shaped by the impact of the pandemic, but looked deeper into what messaging the community needed at the time.

Echols, who joined the health system in 2014, heads the organization's advertising, marketing, media relations, social and digital media, employee communications, direct marketing, community partnership, and issues management.

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Atlantic Health Chief Marketing Officer on Meeting Consumer Expectations

Marketing to communicate with and meet the needs of consumers transcends industries, and learnings from other industries can be applied to the healthcare sector.

Eric Steinberger, who has experience in building brands and meeting consumer expectations in the finance, media, and retail industries, is proving just that in his new role as chief marketing officer for Atlantic Health System.

He joined the nonprofit health system, based in Morristown, New Jersey, in November, and has completed his onboarding, part of which happened during the COVID-19 omicron surge in December.

Read more.

How Banner Health Uses Technology In Its Marketing Strategy

Consumers know what they want. And if you listen, they will tell you.

Alexandra Morehouse, who has served as chief marketing officer of Banner Health since 2015, uses this philosophy in the organization's marketing strategy along with a strong utilization of technology.

The health system, which has hospitals, urgent care, and emergency care locations, home care and telehealth programs, and imaging practices across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Wyoming, operates with a mission that Morehouse created: making healthcare easier, so life can be better.

In an interview with HealthLeaders, Morehouse shares how Banner Health utilizes technology and active listening to successfully cater to the organization's consumers and to make healthcare easier.

Read more.

Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.


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