In a time when there are more hospitals than ever before, it’s harder than ever to distinguish yourself from the competition. The average person’s choice of hospital isn’t always just down to which one is closest or whether they have the right health insurance—patients choose hospitals based on many other factors, including levels of service and expertise.
Using creative hospital advertisements, facilities can promote themselves and build trust with potential patients. Whether it’s through patient success stories, informative blog posts, or valuable content in their app, these types of healthcare services can increase brand awareness, build credibility, and ultimately attract new customers.
As a result, it’s important to understand the healthcare consumer and their needs in order to effectively advertise a hospital. TEGNA’s new e-book, Checking the Pulse of Today’s Healthcare Consumer, provides some important takeaways that can help you better target your healthcare advertising efforts.
Healthcare services and hospitals often use TV ads to showcase their expertise and build a reputation within the community. The ads can include educational videos, testimonials from satisfied patients, or information about specific medical conditions and treatments. When used in conjunction with a targeted media strategy, these advertisements can have a huge impact on your hospital’s patient numbers and overall success.
Aside from promoting a hospital’s services, these kinds of healthcare ads can also be a great way to raise awareness about a particular issue or disease. This is especially effective for organizations that have strong ties to the local community, such as a children’s hospital or other medical foundations. By using an emotional, engaging approach, these hospitals can attract the attention of the public and encourage them to take action against diseases like AIDS and cancer.
When it comes to healthcare advertising, it’s important for hospitals to find a balance between highlighting their unique technologies and keeping the message relatable to potential patients. It can be difficult to translate the excitement that doctors and medical professionals have about their latest pieces of technology into an ad that will appeal to everyday people. To avoid this, hospitals can create healthcare advertisements that highlight real-life uses for their innovations.
For example, Mercy Health Fairfield used a powerful image of a mother holding her newborn child in their healthcare ad to show how the facility can assist in life-changing moments such as a birth. This hospital advertisement is simple in design but still manages to draw attention due to its powerful message.
Another excellent healthcare advertising idea is to use billboards near pharmacies and other healthcare-related locations that are frequented by the local community. These can be cost-effective and highly targeted and can help to drive traffic to your website and other healthcare-related digital channels.