Top 9 Hospital Promotion Ideas for National Hospital Week
The most effective hospital marketing efforts are more personalized and patient-centered than ever. Today’s patients have a choice in the medical facility they want to entrust with their healthcare. To attract and retain patients, you’ll first need to get their attention.
National Hospital Week will occurs yearly in May, soon after Nurses Week, making it the ideal time to expand your community outreach and celebrate your medical team. Here are the top nine hospital promotion ideas you need to know!
1. Nail down a Networking and Marketing Plan
To stay on track with your marketing goals (and conserve resources), you’ll need a marketing plan for your hospital.
Keep these tips in mind as you begin mapping out your networking and marketing plan:
- To identify gaps and gauge demand, research the services and resources offered by other facilities in your area.
- Get to know your immediate and surrounding communities to determine the services potential patients want (and need).
- Take a patient-centered marketing and networking approach.
- Lean into digital marketing strategies, such as creating a user-friendly website and social media channels.
2. Spread the Word About the Services & Resources You Offer
Did you know researchers predict that U.S. Healthcare advertising expenditures will reach $29.2 billion by 2028? Maximize your marketing budget by promoting your medical facility's offerings.
For today’s hospitals, that means leveraging the Internet as much as possible by:
- Optimizing your website with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to broaden your reach.
- Keeping your website up-to-date with your latest services.
- Claiming your Google Business Profile and taking full advantage of local SEO.
- Using email marketing to make the community aware of new services and more.
- Leveraging social media for free advertising opportunities.
3. Expand Your Community Outreach with Meet-and-Greet Events
Planning community-wide outreach events is an effective way to shake hands with existing and future patients. You could host one or two public events every month, inviting the public to:
- Tour your facilities to lessen any anxiety or fear about future hospital visits or stays.
- Meet different members of the medical team for Q&A events and more.
- Take your team members to local schools, fitness centers, and nursing home facilities to field common questions.
- Consider guest-speaking opportunities at your local community colleges and universities if you're a teaching hospital.
When you head into the public, remember to bring along branded giveaways that people will enjoy receiving and remember you by.
4. Keep Customized Giveaways on Hand For All Visitors
A sterile hospital environment might not sound like the most welcoming place to visit. So, it’s no surprise that patients and visitors may feel anxious when visiting at first. Part of taking a personalized, patient-centric marketing approach is making anyone who enters your facility feel at ease. That’s where customized giveaways enter the equation.
Consider placing your hospital’s name and logo (and mission) on the following branded promotional items for patients and visitors:
5. Enhance & Personalize Your Waiting Areas
Your waiting rooms are the public’s/your patients’ first touchpoint before receiving medical care. These areas carry more potential for patient-centered marketing than offering worn-out old magazines or playing the local news on your TVs.
In fact, research shows waiting rooms are prime areas to educate and engage patients and visitors. Consider enhancing your waiting areas by:
- Creating an inviting space with comfortable furniture, greenery, and privacy areas.
- Displaying digital signage that shows informative health and wellness content.
- Placing scannable QR codes at your check-in and check-out areas linking to patient portals, educational content, and visitor feedback forms.
- Designating a family room/children’s area for maximum privacy.
As for engaging with your youth visitors, consider offering games in the children’s section:
- The Expressions Block Game is ideal for small groups of patients or patients and their families.
- The Giant Dominoes Game set will keep kids busy during the waiting period.
- The Giant Tumble Tower Game can brighten kids’ spirits as they wait.
6. Host Community-based Health and Wellness Education Classes
One of the most critical hospital promotion ideas involves offering community-based health and wellness classes for the public. Doing so can help combat any medical misinformation circulating and build trust between your facility and the public.
Also, remember to bring customized giveaways with your hospital’s logo for participants to take home, such as notepads and pens to help them document everything that they learned.
7. Form Partnerships With Local Practitioners
As the saying goes, “We’re better together.” This is especially true in the medical profession, where a range of specialists and caregivers must work together to offer patients the best medical care possible.
Reaching out to local practitioners for potential partnership opportunities will broaden your network, knowledge base, and resources.
8. Seek Regular Feedback from Patients and Visitors
Your marketing initiatives are meant to evolve over time. It’s a trial-and-error process, which means regular feedback from visitors and patients is essential to determine what’s working.
Including a feedback form on your website or incentivizing feedback face-to-face are two of the best ways to discover what your patients and visitors think. For instance, you could lay out several Combination Clipboards around your facility to collect feedback in person (while their patient experience/visit is fresh in their minds).
9. Send Branded Gifts Home While Celebrating Your Medical Team During National Hospital Week
Your medical team works around the clock to ensure they give their patients top-quality care. Celebrating their efforts is a cornerstone of National Hospital Week.
When choosing how to acknowledge them best, consider choosing one (or more) of the following customized employee appreciation gifts they can enjoy during their time off. These items double as hospital promotion ideas as your staff will be sporting your logo when they’re out & about using their new gifts!
- A Calm and Relax Cozy Gift Set to encourage relaxation and well-being.
- A Mobile Professional Computer Backpack to help them organize their personal and professional lives.
- Treat their sweet tooth(s) with a Brownie Points Gift Set.
- Encourage them to get outdoors with a La Cuisine Picnic Table & Carrier.
- Mix it up with a Batch & Bodega Speakeasy.
- Prepare them for the summer weather with an Easy Bucket BBQ Set.
Prefer a smaller gift? You could also assemble a personalized tote bag for each team member, complete with any of the following:
Committing to a personalized, patient-centered marketing approach is critical to earning the community’s trust (and retaining your patients) as a first-choice hospital.
Our hospital promotion ideas will give you a leg-up over neighboring facilities during National Hospital Week and beyond. At Crestline, our team will help you choose the right customized promotional items for your budget. Contact us today to get started!
