We have the good fortune to be part of many exciting healthcare marketing, advertising, planning and public relations conferences and events this year. Here's a partial list of our upcoming engagements. If you're planning to attend, make sure to say hello, and if you are interested in having Franklin Street speak at your conference or event, drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. Read more »

For many hospitals, branding has lost its top spot on the priority list. For some, it’s the lack of long term funding. For others, it’s internal pressure to promote only service lines. Still others lack the marketing culture required to really implement such large-scale change. Regardless of the reason, it has resulted in many great hospitals not being known as great hospitals. Read more »

Adapted from Franklin Street's Healthcare Marketing Trends Report Where's your smart phone right now? Chances are good that it's within arm's reach. According to a Morgan Stanley study, 91% of smartphone owners keep their phones beside them 24 hours a day. (An interesting office poll: ask your colleagues how many sleep with their phones. The number who do will surprise you.) Read more »

Adapted from Franklin Street's Healthcare Marketing Trends Report. A new form of self-help in healthcare and health and wellness is emerging. Brands like Nike are embedding "feedback loops" into their products, allowing people to get real-time reactions on their activities – while reaping brand loyalty and profits in the process. Call it Do It Yourself (DIY) Healthcare or "Help Me Help Myself." Read more »

One of our clients reminded us recently that healthcare is a two-sided coin of Life and Death. Unlike any other business category, healthcare marketing and branding requires engaging prospective patients who would rather avoid the conversation altogether. We are starting to see the trend of audiences becoming increasingly engaged in proactive healthcare lifestyles. Read more »

Every year, Franklin Street curates a list of consumer trends that will have the biggest impact on healthcare brands. Click here to download the full 2013 Healthcare Marketing Trends Report.In short, this year’s most promising trends include:MOBILE: 2012 was the year that smartphone owners outnumbered non-smartphone owners. People are increasingly reliant on the mobile web for health information. Is your online strategy ready? TRUST: Read more »

The New Year means the chance to embrace change, and to grow. Here are our resolutions for the healthcare marketing community, which we are grateful to be part of. We wish you a bright and prosperous New Year.Resolution No. 1: We will do less and accomplish more.We will say no to those activities that do not solve our organization's business challenges. As Lisa McCluskey, VP of Marketing Communications at Memorial Health Care System says, Read more »

In healthcare marketing, we have to balance the accuracy of clinical terms with the need to use language our health audiences – most of whom try to spend as little time in a hospital as possible – will understand. We also want to use words that evoke positive associations. The Council of Accountable Physician Practices(CAPP) conducted focus groups around the country to test commonly used language surrounding ACOs. Toyomi Igus, the Communications Read more »

All marketers (healthcare and non-healthcare) say they measure their campaigns, and almost all feel they lack the  tools to connect the ROI dots.Information, we've got. We're drowning in data. Google Analytics can tell us everything about our web traffic, except how much revenue we're delivering our health systems with each new visitor.Klout scores (does anyone follow these anymore?) can tell us how cool our social online presence is, except Read more »