In healthcare marketing, if you’re not talking about the obvious, you’re leaving most of your patients at risk. You’re failing at the most basic mandate of your job.
Here are some tips to deliver the message the patient doesn’t always want to hear – and to make it stick:
- Make it Personal —Tell the story of one child, not a group of children.
- Ditch the Shame Game—Shame makes it difficult, if not impossible, to participate. Give your patient permission to be honest by framing the question in a way that avoids the shame game.
- Details, Details, Details—As realtors know, it’s all about location, location, location. For health topics, it’s all about the details. Set the stage with details a patient can relate to and understand.
- Dig into Reality —The closer the link between the behavior and the threat to health, the more motivated a patient will be to change.
- Find a Narrative with an Arc—Interview someone who recognized the problem and who’s making changes. Get him or her to explain how they are managing to do it, and then share those ideas (without breaching confidentiality).
- Ride the Community Surf—Allow creative, innovative ways for people to connect on shared topics of interests about their health and their community.
- Stay on Message —Stay focused on the primary health issue and how to sustain the story over time.
- Plan for Failure —Consider a sidebar story with tips for making a plan to deal with a possible relapse.
- Remember the Power of the Positive —Focusing on the positive, rather than the threat, is more potent at encouraging measurable health change over time.
Pulling all these factors together into one compelling story can be challenging, but it can make your story more inspiring and result in real change for real patients. And, it’s change you can measure.
Help From Experts
We help clients tell their unique stories in ways that affect what people think, feel, say and do when it comes to:
- Choosing your physicians, services and facilities over the competition
- Believing in your people and processes to deliver high quality care
- Buying into your brand and your reputation
Call us for more information on these and other insights. It’s easy to work with us. We meet our deadlines, and we keep our promises. That’s our bottom line.
