7 Must-Reads for Healthcare Marketers
With another year’s end rapidly approaching, it’s a good time to reflect on everything you’ve accomplished and learned in the past year. Healthcare marketers know we can never stop learning. Below you’ll find some must-read articles and reports that are both helpful and eye-opening. They might just help you become a better decision-maker next year.
1. The Strategy That Will Fix Healthcare by Micheal Porter
This article from the Harvard Business Review is a great distillation of the theory behind value-based care, examining the current healthcare climate through the lens of one of the world’s most distinguished business strategists.
2. What Do Consumers Want from Primary Care? by The Advisory Board
Most doctors at your organization believe that brand reputation is mainly influenced by their clinical reputation, but marketers know this isn’t true. The value in this report comes from the quantitative data behind its insights to help nonmarketing types at your health system better understand that your brand extends far beyond the exam room.
3. 2019 Trends Playbook and Stat Pack by Smith & Jones
Because there’s so much hype in marketing, it can be hard to cut through the clutter and focus on the topics that really matter. Our playbook focuses on the top 13 trends marketers should be dealing with in 2019. The stat pack is also a great source of data points you can use to build presentations and convince non-marketing types of the importance of these issues.
4. Doctors tell all — and it’s bad by The Atlantic
Essayist and critic Meghan O’Rourke writes about the two-way relationship of the patient and doctor, which is still at the heart of medicine. But this relationship has eroded over the years because doctors are over-worked and have so little time. The way in which physicians treat patients will do more to influence your brand than the best marketing campaign ever will. Marketers need to understand the difficulty of doctors’ work and how hard it may be to deliver the patient experience the marketing team aspires of them.
5. Patients + Doctors + Machines by Accenture
Your patients want you to meet them in the digital world. Yes, even the older patients. This consumer survey proves and quantifies this demand and can inspire others to follow your lead further into the digital world.
6. Finding Quality Doctors by The Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago
This paper will surprise you and help you understand what’s truly important to patients who are looking for a new physician. Spoiler alert: it’s about soft skills.
7. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
There are certain unchanging truths in branding. As consumers are exposed to more ads every year, the principles of positioning grow more important.
Hopefully these reads will help inspire and enlighten both you and the nonmarketers at your organization. Ideally, they will help back up claims you are already making. Did we miss your favorite article, report or book? Let us know in the comments!
About the Author | Katie Sorce
Katie Sorce is a marketing assistant for Smith & Jones. She contributes to research and strategy projects, manages social media and digital marketing accounts, and assists with content creation, account management, finance and operations.
Smith & Jones is where health care brands come to get better. We help our clients create meaningful and desirable health care brands, align their internal teams, engage new and existing patients and drive downstream revenue.
