Brand Promises

Concerns over patient privacy and general defensiveness about being inundated by daily messages initially kept many doctors and healthcare organizations from social media.

But more and more companies and healthcare organizations are turning to “hybrid marketing” as they search for an optimal mix of online and offline communications.

According to a survey by Manhattan Research,  physicians doubled the amount of time they spent online for professional purposes between April 2008 to 2010.

Medical practitioners use the internet to research information, stay on top of industry news and satisfy CME requirements. Increasing reliance on smartphones and experimentation with Facebook in their personal time have further eased them along the digital-adoption curve.

Many companies know they should be using digital communications but aren’t sure where to begin, how to allocate funding or how to integrate new programs into their traditional marketing activities.

A well-optimized website or blog is a good beginning and can pay for itself simply by reducing or eliminating thousands of dollars a year in telephone directory advertising.  Other opportunities may be able to be funded out of existing programs that have produced questionable results.

Although experimentation is valuable, hybrid marketing requires an understanding of both traditional and social media. They are used differently and must be knowledgeably integrated to find the right mix and achieve an acceptable return.

Don’t rely on just natural selection to evolve your business. Explore the new world of digital opportunities, adapt your traditional programs, select the right team to guide your hybrid marketing and, above all, be one of the fittest to survive.