mommyjenlin

New Year's Resolutions , for the most part, play an important role in most everyone's life. To lose weight. Live life more fully. Be a better husband, wife, or significant other etc. Value more what we have in our family and friends. And many more that I have missed. But have you ever considered New Year' Resolutions as a part of your business and managerial life? So my last Healthcare Marketing Matters blog for 2012, is about New Year Marketing Resolutions. My own Top 10 list to get things started. What are yours? 10 . Educate my organization about the value of my department and work. I will lead and prove my departments ROI . 9. Continue to scan other industries for their marketing successes. I will learn about them, adapt them to my industry, and implement successfully. 8. Expand my marketing education through webinars, seminars and conferences. There is always something new on the horizon to learn. 7. I ntegrate traditional, online and social marketing strate...

Sometimes, another organizations PR missteps, are an opportunity to learn how not to handle a PR crisis. Just ask the Chicago Bears , who historically have mishandled every PR crisis of the last 10 years, including the one the week of December 12. Yes that right, this one went on for a whole week, because they messed up right from the beginning. Is your response to dive for under the desk? Do you send out poorly prepared underlings, to face reporters and the public? Does leadership, make proud pronouncements at the outset, that could come back to haunt you because at this point, you just don't know? Do you react as an arrogant organization with the, "How dare you question us response"? Do you think that it can never happen to you? Do you have a crisis communications plan in place? Every healthcare organizations will face a PR crisis. How you handle the communications, will determine the amount of brand damage, and length of time people remember. In this age of social medi...

B2B Buyer behavior is undergoing an extraordinary sea change triggered by Internet technology. Tech marketing and sales teams haven't caught up. They still rely on a 112-year-old sales funnel model. IDC introduces a new Customer Creation Framework better suited for the way customers really buy. The Internet tsunami has radically changed B2B Buyer behavior. Before the Internet, the B2B buyer making a complex decision had few sources of information. Vendors leveraged that knowledge gap. The vendor sales person was the primary gateway to information the buyer needed to decide – a tremendously powerful position. Fast forward to today. The Internet and social media have triggered a turbulent change – the rich dialog has shifted on-line and away from the sales person. As a result, the B2B Buyer in a complex sale is now an expert buyer with very different behavior and expectations. Buyers are constantly on-line. IDC research shows that IT buyers find online search and the vendor website m...

The other day, I asked the question about hospital and health system debt as being the next financial crisis on several groups on LinkedIn. The response has been a resounding thud. The reason for the question was based on an article in Crain's Chicago Business , Monday, December 5, 2011, " New hospitals building debt", by Kristen Schorsch. It really got me to start considering the broader hospital and healthcare debt question in general, as healthcare continues to change in such dynamic ways. And I believe that the 800 pound gorilla in the room, locally and nationally, is hospital and other healthcare provider debt. It is no longer just a question of having an individual AAA rating. When you view the changes in the healthcare reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid . Declining admissions. Changes in reimbursement from production-based to quality-based. Payers introducing pricing competition, though user-friendly tools, which allow healthcare consumers to compare price...

Customer Generated Media (CGM). It can be a great unknown. It can be helpful. It can be harmful. It can be your best friend, or your worse nightmare. It has the power to influence thousands, if not millions, in this mobile social media aware society we live in. CGM can make your brand the greatest on the earth. It can send you to the ash heap of history. Anybody can blog. Anybody can do a video. Anybody can start a viral email campaign. Anybody can create a facebook page. Sorry to say this, but not everyone thinks you doing the great job that you think you are. If your marketing department is not monitoring CGM and your customer experience from a brand perspective, then you and your specialty pharmacy, payer, hospital, physician practices, or any healthcare organization is at risk. People are not afraid any longer to say things publically. It means that in the age of the Internet, disgruntled consumers and patients , unhappy employees, media, anybody, can opinionate about their...