Junto ("june-toe") is sponsored by Franklin Street, a branding and full service advertising agency specializing in health and wellness. We call the blog Junto in homage to Benjamin Franklin, who created the first "Junto" brainstorming group, which established the first American public hospital.

Physicians as Marketing Allies

Posted: September 20th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: All Junto Health Posts, Healthcare Advertising, The Whole Enchilada | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments »

In the race to drive new volume, marketers must help grow referrals from physicians.

This can be achieved by targeting splitters and developing an assertive outreach program. But marketers often report that physicians see them as lackeys – believing the title “PR” stands for “Party Planners.” As a consequence, referrals wane and marketers don’t feel they have a seat at the table with their physicians.

To drive cardiac volume, we partnered with Memorial Health Care System to film an open-heart surgery procedure and broadcast it on the web with a live chat hosted by the lead surgeon. Response externally was tremendous. (The hospital is considering an encore performance because of the demand.)

But response internally was even more remarkable. Physicians once apathetic to the hospital’s marketing campaigns are now eager to be part of future campaigns. Referrals flow when physicians trust their hospitals for high quality care. The same goes for their perceptions of the hospitals’ high quality marketing campaigns.

Here is the complete 30-minute video, broken into three segments, along with screen grabs of the live event.

Screen Shot #1: Prior to Webinar

Screen Shot #2: During Webinar

Screen Shot #3: During Webinar

Online Advertising Promotion

Open Heart Surgery Video (segment one)

Open Heart Surgery Video (segment two)

Open Heart Surgery Video (segment three)

Lisa McCluskey, VP of Marketing at Memorial, and I are speaking at the 2010 Illinois Society for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations (ISHMPR) annual conference on Nov. 9 at Starved Rock Lodge in Utica, IL. Our topic is How to Make Your PhysiciansAdvocatesof Both Your Hospital & Your Marketing Campaign.

Email me at smoegling at franklinstreet dot com for a copy of the presentation deck.

3 Comments on “Physicians as Marketing Allies”

  1. 1 Wendy Hoke said at 1:00 pm on September 28th, 2010:

    Thanks for sharing this promotion. We've discussed doing something similar for 2011 so it's nice to see the whole marketing package. I would be curious to know how involved physicians were in this effort.

  2. 2 Stephen Moegling said at 5:51 pm on October 11th, 2010:

    Hi Wendy,

    This video was part of a comprehensive cardiac campaign, which allowed us to help promote all the physicians affiliated with Memorial's cardiac service line. Dr. Morrison, the lead surgeon in the video, was the first surgeon who agreed to be videotaped in this environment. Since the video aired, we have the support of other surgeons who are interested in participating.

    The surgeon, Dr. Morrison, was presented with the overall format of the videotaping — what we wanted to accomplish, and what to expect while we videotaped the surgery. His staff helped us to introduce ourselves and get consent from the patient.

    We edited the video based on overall direction he gave us, then we presented the video in rough format for his review. He made a few minor changes, but since we were all working together from the beginning on what we wanted to accomplish, it went very smoothly.

    I hope this information helps you as you develop your campaigns!

    Stephen

  3. 3 J U N T O » Blog Archive » Physicians as Campaign Spokespeople said at 8:36 pm on September 22nd, 2011:

    [...] mentioned in another post that quality marketing campaigns can attract physicians as allies to your organization and [...]

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