All marketing has challenges – but healthcare marketing challenges are especially complex.

There’s no other industry like healthcare. The services we get and the relationships we build as patients are central to our well-being. It can be tough for even the most experienced marketer to catch that lightning in a bottle. What makes one doctor or clinic special?

For healthcare marketers, that question is only the beginning.

Though most of their tools and techniques are the same, they navigate an environment differently than any other industry. It’s crucial to understand how healthcare marketing is different before you jump in with both feet.

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Although every market has its own opportunities, the structure of healthcare limits what marketers can do and how. Working within those boundaries isn’t just important – it’s essential. Forgetting to do so can cost businesses millions or force them to shut their doors.

What Is Healthcare Marketing?

Healthcare marketing refers to the interdisciplinary practice that involves developing, communicating, and implementing customer-centered and scientifically sound marketing strategies to attract a diverse patient audience.

Healthcare marketing is used for healthcare promotion and health protection for patient education. This helps healthcare organizations build trust with patients and encourages them to take care of their physical and mental health.

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Healthcare marketing, as mentioned above, is unique, and practitioners in modern times are competing with a wide-range of practices, along with medical and health websites for self-diagnosers. This means their digital healthcare marketing strategies are more important than ever.

Let’s take a look at some of the common challenges healthcare marketers face and how these challenges can be overcome.

7 Healthcare Marketing Challenges (+ Solutions)

Here are seven key areas that are challenging for healthcare marketers, with helpful solutions to each challenge:

1. HIPAA Compliance Issues

HIPAA is the name of the game when it comes to all things healthcare in the United States. This complex set of regulations touches virtually every aspect of the industry, from the delivery of care to the healthcare sales cycle.

Healthcare marketing compliance is a head-scratcher. Up until the 1970s, it was illegal to market hospitals and practices. Healthcare marketers are restricted from using certain tools, such as re-marketing ads, in order to safeguard users’ confidential health data.

Solution

First of all, encourage team members to brush up on the HIPAA Privacy Rule in terms of how it impacts marketing. This way, your staff isn’t accidentally (or purposely) sharing patient information that is confidential. 

But most importantly, manage expectations through your messaging. You can’t make false claims or inflate the results of a certain service or product. Avoid using cliche buzzwords like “world class” or “best” because these aren’t quantifiable or accurate. 

Consider hosting a comprehensive HIPAA regulations training program to keep everyone on your marketing team in the know. Update this program throughout the year and retrain to keep compliance at top of mind. 

2. Public Perception of Healthcare

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Let’s face it: Most people aren’t in love with the healthcare industry. Recent skirmishes over the nature of health insurance have only underscored healthcare marketing challenges. Finding a doctor you trust is a relief, but not one all consumers have experienced.

Today’s consumers have been bombarded with some frankly weird medication advertisements and hounded by mountains of “mouse print.” It may take effort to win over a skeptical – even cynical – public. Luckily, practices can achieve a lot through inbound content marketing.

Solution

When you’re developing your inbound content marketing campaigns, find ways to humanize your messaging. A lot of your audience might be skeptical of your brand, but a human element can create an authentic, positive relationship with them. 

Use real stories in your content, while ensuring it’s HIPAA compliant. You don’t want to expose real patient information, but you can be strategic in how position testimonials and case studies. 

Also, include real employees in your content. This gives your audience a name and a face to relate to. 

3. Tight Marketing Budgets

Although pharmaceutical firms often have robust marketing budgets, one of the top healthcare marketing challenges is found across the other links in the value chain. Small practices and clinics traditionally don’t make marketing a priority, while hospital outreach focuses on donors.

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Hospitals are coming around to the idea they need to differentiate within a digital-driven and consumer-oriented healthcare market. However, it could take a lot of education and campaigning before the principals of other healthcare enterprises see the light. Budgets reflect that, sadly.

Solution

Earning buy-in from senior leadership for enough budget is one of the biggest challenges for marketing teams in healthcare. You need to approach your budget for both the short and the long term.

In the short team, measure your efforts and build reports that you can present to senior leadership proving ROI. This way, you can prove that marketing is not just a cost; it’s a revenue generator.

You need a skilled analyst on staff who knows how to make the most of tools like Google Analytics. They can attribute revenue to specific campaigns and tactics. 

Then, you can map out other concrete goals with senior leadership and customize goal-based budgets for upcoming budget planning sessions with the C-suite. For the long term, you can continually earn trust and faith as you prove consistent ROI, ideally leading to bigger marketing budgets every quarter or year. 

4. Resistance to Change

Most consumers are pleased at having choice and agency in healthcare. However, some doctors have a contrasting view. They worry marketing proactively will increase the pressure to give in to ill-informed patient demands and cheapen the value of their expert advice.

It’s true that when it comes to healthcare, physicians are the experts. Modern consumers need to strike a balance and create partnerships with them. But doctors can serve their patients better than ever by looking for ways to strengthen trust and make each patient feel valued.

Solution

Paint the picture of the patient experience for your audience. This way, they know exactly what to expect when they arrive. For example, shoot a short video walking the viewer through every step of the service that you are showcasing. 

Also, put your team’s expertise front and center on your marketing channels, like your company website and social media presence. Introduce your team, and detail how long they’ve had experience, what their specialities are, and other important aspects (like their education history). 

5. The Power of Reviews

And that brings us to this. It’s understandable why some “old school” doctors feel resentful at the idea online reviews have so much influence. But don’t give in to pessimism: Doctors have immense power to garner reviews that move their business forward.

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Marketers can partner with doctors to help. While no one can control a patient’s health, reducing the ambiguity and confusion of the healthcare experience is vital. Better communication, clearer paperwork, and – yes – great digital content all play roles.

Solution

Patient care should always come first in the world of healthcare. And that dedication to your patient’s well-being needs to be apparent. 

Make that part of your brand’s messaging, and highlight how your company delivers the best results for their patient’s wellness. Impactful content that includes real stories can build trust over time, leading your audience to better understand your healthcare team’s expertise and knowledge. 

Some of the best healthcare marketing content can come from reviews, which you can earn through many tactics, including:

Making direct requests in person with clear instructions for patients to leave online reviews.
Engaging with all reviews online, like thanking those who leave positive ones and responding professionally to negative reviewers.
Delivering links to online reviews through email correspondence and adding links on your website. 

6. Market Segmentation

Over the last decade, healthcare firms have rolled out electronic medical records (EMR) systems to help them make sense of an enormous amount of information. However, most of them still do not use best in class marketing tools, such as a customer relationship management suite.

Before you can have effective campaigns – especially with personalized, high touch methods like email marketing – you need to know who your customers are. This requires both the tools and strategic thinking to lay out a plan that comports with compliance responsibilities.

Solution

Invest in tools that simplify collecting information about your audience. This kind of social data helps your marketing team deliver more contextual, impactful content.

With segmentation, your team can target specific audience segments, based on their age, gender, location, and even behavioral data. This also helps refine your marketing strategies and determine which channels to use. 

7. Marketing Triangulation

The U.S. healthcare system is one of the most complicated around. Hospitals need to have whole billing departments just to make sense of it. This affects marketers directly because prospective consumers who might otherwise be a “perfect fit” could be ruled out for insurance reasons.

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Squaring the circle of all the different stakeholders is one of the never-ending healthcare marketing challenges. In addition to consumers and physicians, marketers need to clarify how their work will be perceived by insurers, regulators, and even lawmakers.

Solution

It all comes down to gathering and managing your data. The more you know about your audience, the better you can market to them. 

The market can be complex and hard to pin down, which means your approach to managing your database needs to be ongoing. This helps you accurately gauge the size of your actual market and to stay current with pertinent information. 

Train your marketing team on data management and establish a clear plan for keeping your database clean and updated. While this process will require a good amount of time and resources, it’ll save you big by preventing you from marketing to people who are not actually a proper fit for your company and your products and services. 

Additional Healthcare Marketing Techniques

Review these five essential techniques for marketing your healthcare organization.

Take Advantage of Paid Search Ads.

Leverage paid health search ads as a part of your new healthcare marketing strategy. Pay-per-click or PPC ads are great for reaching the specific people who are the best fit for your healthcare facility. 

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Patients search for doctors within a few minutes from their home, and PPC ads can be hyper-targeted to only focus on serving local traffic. 

The best thing about PPC ads? You’ll only be paying per click, so your ROI will likely be higher than print or display advertising. 

Manage Your Reputation.

Word of mouth marketing has been amplified by the internet. People usually go to the internet before they start asking their neighbors for suggestions about healthcare providers. Every patient in your care is like a walking online review. Treat them as such. 

Satisfied patients will leave you good reviews that attract more patients.

You can manage your online reputation in a variety of ways. For example, focus on the following:

Sending friendly reminders.
Sending patients anniversary, holiday, or birthday cards.
Contacting dissatisfied patients directly to resolve undesirable experiences.
Asking for reviews from satisfied patients.

Maintain a Strong Digital Presence.

Your online facility needs to be just as up-to-date and impressive as your healthcare facility. Over 80 percent of people search for information online before they make a decision about where to purchase a product, or in this case, a service.

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Building and maintaining a strong web presence is a necessity for your healthcare marketing plan in today’s market. Your digital presence is comprised of the following:

A functional healthcare website: Your website should establish your brand, list your services, allow your medical staff to showcase their expertise, and educate your patients with your messaging or blog posts.
Social media pages: Having established Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram pages can boost your online presence. Facebook is a great tool for engaging your patients, and they can share their experience with your practice or facility on there as well.
Directory listings: Healthcare directories are a quick and easy way for patients to locate you. Take time to submit your facility on a local online directory so you can increase visibility and improve your web presence.

Pay Attention to Local SEO.

Make sure you have a webpage dedicated to your local area. This page is called a location page, and it helps to boost your local search visibility on search engines.

Some things that you can add to your location page to boost your local SEO include:

Maps
Your address
Events
Customized menus
Reviews for the area
Team member bios
Backlinks
Local content

Keep Up With Content Marketing.

We’ve quoted this sentiment before, and we’ll quote it again: Content is king! Don’t neglect it.

Content holds its relevance in this marketing landscape. Sharing content online helps to improve retention with current patient audiences and is likely to attract a well-defined new audience. 

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It can also help you to build authority in your field, which helps increase the trust your audience has in your expertise. 

Some content ideas include:

Helpful health tips
Virtual ask and answer sessions
Podcasts
Blog posts
Interviews with doctors and other important staff 

Healthcare marketing is more necessary to patient decision making than ever. Craft your campaigns with these issues in mind, and you’ll help your brand stand out in this crowded field.

 

Original Source: bluleadz.com

joe biden nancy pelosi
Former Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

President-elect Joe Biden met with top Democrats in Congress on Thursday to discuss another COVID-19 relief package, which has been stalled in Washington.
Biden spoke on a call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about the growing need to distribute aid to Americans bearing the brunt of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“They discussed the urgent need for the Congress to come together in the lame-duck session on a bipartisan basis to pass a bill that provides resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, relief for working families and small businesses, support for state and local governments trying to keep frontline workers on the payroll, expanded unemployment insurance, and affordable health care for millions of families,” according to a press release.
Congress initially passed the CARES Act with bipartisan support at the onset of the pandemic but has since struggled to come to a consensus on a follow-up stimulus package.
Since then, the House of Representatives has passed an additional stimulus package, but the GOP-controlled Senate has bristled at the cost. Similarly, the Senate put forth a “skinny” version of a stimulus package that was shot down by Democrats as not enough to help the American people.
The White House has been inconsistent with its messaging, with President Donald Trump at times shutting down talks and other times demanding a larger bill than the Democrats’ plan.
Pelosi, who had been in talks with the White House to negotiate a bill, has been under fire from members of her own party in the House for the continued delay, as critics ask her to prioritize the needs of Americans over the politics of the bill.
Pelosi responded to critics saying that they don’t understand the nuances of the bill as conversations continue while the US braces for surges in infections in the fall and winter months.
Alongside discussing the fallout of the pandemic and how to remedy it, the trio also touched upon Biden’s legislative plans that will spur bipartisan support.
“They also discussed the importance of finding bipartisan solutions to create millions of good-paying union jobs, including through investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, research and development, and clean energy,” the press release read.
Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Read the original article on Business Insider

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Top 5 Insurance Forums Contents [show] ⋅About this list & ranking Insurance Forums Insurance Forums Indian Insurance Submit Blog Do you want more traffic, leads, and sales? Submit your blog below if you want to grow your traffic and revenue. Submit Your Blog Insurance Forums View Latest Posts ⋅Get Bloggers Contacts 1. Insurance Forums United States About […]

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Original Source: blog.feedspot.com

By Kevin Quinn, Vice President of Claims and Customer Experience at Mercury Insurance 

Drivers, it’s time to be honest. How do you really feel about semi-autonomous vehicles?

Chances are that you or someone you know has recently driven a vehicle equipped with intelligent or adaptive cruise control, parking assistance or collision alert systems. If so, it’s official – you’ve driven a semi-autonomous vehicle!

While there may be a lot of confusion from drivers over what semi-autonomous means or how safe semi-autonomous features may be, there’s no denying the influence semi-autonomous vehicle technologies have in the current automotive marketplace.

Survey results

Last year, Mercury Insurance polled U.S. drivers to ask how they felt about semi-autonomous vehicles. Less than half (45%) of drivers said that they felt safe using semi-autonomous vehicle features when driving. And more than half (51%) said that they did not trust semi-autonomous vehicles and their drivers on the road.

Most frightening, however, was that nearly 70% indicated that they do not know how to properly use semi-autonomous features.

The apparent gap in trust and understanding between drivers and the industry is unfortunate because autonomous technologies have enormous potential for saving lives and reducing human error, which is responsible for 94 percent of serious crashes.

How can this be addressed? First-hand experience is always going to be the best way to become comfortable, but if you don’t own a vehicle with these features, driver education can help. For example, did you know most semi-autonomous vehicles require the driver to keep a firm grip on the steering wheel? Here are a few cutting-edge technologies with which you should definitely become familiar:

Volvo Pilot Assist

Volvo has been at the forefront of innovative technologies for decades, beginning with its development of the three-point seatbelt in the late 1950s. Volvo’s semi-autonomous driving system, Pilot Assist (currently in its second generation), offers adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist, among other features.

Offered since 2015, Pilot Assist helps reduce the need for drivers to constantly change their speed in relation to the vehicle ahead of them and adjusts the steering to keep Volvos in their lanes. An important note: the system will not function unless the driver is holding the steering wheel.

Here’s a video providing a tutorial for using the Pilot Assist function.

Nissan INFINITI ProPilot

Nissan’s INFINITI was the first line to debut the Back-up Camera and Lane Departure Warning System in the U.S., unveiling the technologies on its 2002 Infiniti Q45 and 2004 Infiniti FX, respectively.

First introduced in 2017, Nissan INFINITI’s ProPilot offers autonomous technologies that react to certain driving situations and reduce the stress of stop-and-go driving and highway cruises. Drivers can relax a little behind the wheel and watch as their vehicle automatically brakes, accelerates and keeps their car centered in highway traffic.

Here’s a video capturing ProPilot in action.

Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot

Mercedes-Benz’s history of innovation dates back to 1959 when they developed the crumple zone safety concept, which allows the car’s bodywork to absorb the kinetic impact of a crash and direct it away from passengers.

A recent step in Mercedes-Benz’ pursuit for innovative progress was its offering of the Drive Pilot system in 2016. Drive Pilot combines driver assist features, such as lane-keeping assist, emergency braking, automatic steering and automatic lane-changing, to allow the driver to hand over direct control of steering and speed.

Watch this simulated video to see the full scope of Drive Pilot’s capabilities.

Cadillac Super Cruise

Cadillac’s Super Cruise system, first unveiled in 2017, is the world’s first true hands-free driver assistance feature. The system will only be active when it ensures that the driver is “active,” utilizing a camera mounted on the steering column to monitor driver attentiveness – this means the system will not perform if it detects you sending texts and driving distracted!

Precision LiDAR mapping data and a network of camera and radar sensors are used to navigate the vehicle on the highway, and hazard lights will be activated before the vehicle comes to a controlled stop when drivers do not respond to certain cues.

Watch the Super Cruise’s range of features.

BMW Active Lane Keeping and Traffic Jam Assistant

BMW provides its Active Lane Keeping and Traffic Jam Assistant to enhance safety and improve driving conditions in crowded traffic. Steering corrections and a side collision prevention feature assist the driver in ensuring the vehicle stays in the center of the lane.

Here’s a demo of BMW’s semi-autonomous vehicle technology offerings.

Importance of Safe, Educated Driving

Despite the innovation of these semi-autonomous safety features, it is still extremely important to be thoroughly educated about these features if you intend to use them, so here’s a little more information to help you become a semi-autonomous vehicle know-it-all.

A staple for semi-autonomous vehicle technology is a radar, typically outfitted on the front and rear bumpers to identify traffic as well as register the speed of any object it sees. Unfortunately, the bumper happens to be one of the most likely areas to sustain damage in vehicle collisions.  Rear-end collisions are the most common claims we see nationwide. Mercury Insurance had nearly 60,000 customers report they were involved in rear-end collisions last year.

Drivers may be unaware of how getting into a collision, which causes damage to their vehicle along the crumple zone, could also break some of the expensive gadgets that are now stored in their bumpers to stop the collision.

Drivers need to stay vigilant even while using such semi-autonomous features. If you have this technology, you still need to focus on the road to avoid getting into collisions and always be ready to take evasive action in case the technology fails.

Kevin Quinn is currently the Vice President of Claims and Customer Experience at Mercury Insurance, leading an organization with more than 1,300 insurance professionals. He has more than 23 years’ experience handling auto insurance claims.

The post What is Driving the Confusion About Semi-Autonomous Vehicles? appeared first on .

Original Source: blog.mercuryinsurance.com

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before — mortgage interest rates are at an all-time low. For what seems like the past 10 or 15 years mortgage rates have been dropping. Every time they reach a new low, everyone thinks “Wow, I need to refinance — rates will never be this low again!” And time and time again, rates continue to drop. If you’re thinking about refinancing your mortgage, here are five reasons you should consider it.

#1 To get a lower interest rate

Even if you’ve refinanced relatively recently, you might still be well-served by refinancing again, even if you’re still in the same house. With rates having continued to fall, refinancing again can lower your interest rate which will likely lower your monthly payment. That extra money each month can be put to good use by paying off debts or starting an emergency fund.

#2 To shorten your mortgage term

Another good reason to refinance your mortgage is to shorten your mortgage term. Each year that you are still paying off your mortgage is a year that you are paying thousands of dollars or more in interest. Going from a 30-year to a 15-year mortgage can save you tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of interest over the course of the loan.

Decreasing the term of your mortgage will raise your monthly payment, due to the fewer number of total payments your loan will have. But rates on a 20-year mortgage are typically lower than those for a 30-year, and 15-year rates are usually even lower still. So the lower interest rates will often offset the increase from decreasing the term, keeping your monthly payment amount around the same. Use our free loan calculator to crunch the numbers and see what makes the most sense for you. Make sure to include the fact that refinancing does come with some up-front costs, which you’ll need to pay out of pocket or roll into your loan.

#3 Get rid of PMI

Another great reason to refinance your mortgage is to get rid of private mortgage insurance, or PMI. PMI is often used when you have less than 20% equity in your home. If you are still paying PMI and your home’s value has gotten to the point where you now have more than 20% equity, it can make sense to refinance in order to stop paying PMI in addition to your regular monthly mortgage payment.

#4 To convert out of an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM)

Another reason to refinance your mortgage is if you currently have an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM). An adjustable-rate mortgage is one whose interest rate can vary over time. With rates so low, it may make sense to lock in a low fixed rate so you don’t have to worry about interest rates going up in the future.

#5 To tap into your home’s equity

If you have a significant amount of home equity, you may be considering using some of that equity in other areas of your life. While it’s not a good idea to take the value of your home equity on a weekend trip to Vegas, there are many reasons you might want to tap into your home’s equity. This could be to make large home improvements, pay for higher education, pay down debts or other large expenses.

One way to do this is through a cash-out refinance. In a cash-out refinance, you refinance into a loan with a HIGHER loan principal amount. After paying off the balance of your existing home mortgage loan, you can use the rest for whatever reason you want. Another option for getting cash from your home’s equity is a home equity line of credit (HELOC). A home equity line of credit achieves many of the same aims as a cash-out refinance, but does it in a slightly different way. Check out our article comparing the two to see which might be right for you.

READ MORE: Home Equity Loan Vs. Cash-Out Refinance

One reason not to refinance your mortgage

Just because you CAN refinance your mortgage doesn’t always mean that you should refinance your mortgage. Generally speaking, it’s not a great idea to refinance your mortgage only to lower your monthly mortgage payments. Lowering your monthly mortgage payments is often a side-effect of refinancing, but unless you have one of the reasons we mentioned above, it might not be a great idea.

There are two reasons why refinancing your mortgage solely to lower your monthly payments might not make sense. First of all, the extra closing and other costs that you pay with a refinance can add thousands of dollars to your principal amount. Then there’s the fact that lowering your monthly payments often means EXTENDING the term of your loan — you might end up paying tens of thousands of dollars more in interest.

The post 5 Reasons to Refinance Your Mortgage appeared first on MintLife Blog.

Original Source: blog.mint.com