Birmingham, AL – The healthcare system in Alabama is going through a crisis right now. We knew it was coming, the public was woefully underprepared and now are in the center of a major pandemic that had no signs of slowing down or stopping. There are a lot of factors that are playing into our current situation, some of which are easier to control more than others. But what will happen to your private practice? What kind of healthcare marketing can you do in order to make patients aware of what you have to offer?
One way to find out is to analyze what we can do by looking at our obstacles and focus how to work around them in order to make things better for both Birmingham, Alabama, as well as the rest of the state. These strategic points should also not just be serviceable at the moment either. It should be something that all health care providers can get behind to make the state, let alone the city, a healthier place to live in.
Increase Public Awareness about Preventative Healthcare
Did you know out of all 50 states that:
- Alabama Ranks the 5th Highest State in Obesity?
- It is the state with the 10th Highest number of STDs?
- The number 1 leading cause of death in the state is heart disease?
- The state of Alabama has 70,358 cases of Covid-19 out of America’s 3.9 Million? That is over 50% of the cases in the country!
With all of those alarming statistics, there is no doubt a serious healthcare problem in the state of Alabama. But what are those statistics saying? If we were to strip down the results to a root cause, what could that possibly be? And how can we adjust our messaging to meet the healthcare needs of the current state of affairs? After all, it does no good to market something if you don’t have what people need or want on offer as a business.
The nature of these conditions and just how widespread they are pointing to one thing. They are all conditions that can be mostly preventable. Whether it is an STD, or obesity all of these conditions could be reduced or prevented with education and accessibility for preventative care. But how does that translate to healthcare marketing in Birmingham, AL?
Educational content also serves as a healthcare marketing platform for your practice. Whether it is a simple PSA or an entire seminar dedicated to patient education, it will garner awareness of your practice. It also serves as a public service to your community, where all of your patients come from. But to pull it off you need to be more than good at your job. You also need to be approachable towards your patients. That means learning how to be more engaging with the public that you are working with.
Speak The Language of Your Patient
Being a medical specialist, it is mostly a given that you and your colleagues have a higher level of education, usually in the form of a degree. It is easy for doctors, surgeons, and nurses to share the same language because all parties involved use a special language to suit your communication needs in a medical context. There is also a certain level of desensitization involved in the world of medicine, especially if as a medical specialist, you are exposed to disease, death, and gore on a regular basis.
But as much as it works for your interactions with coworkers and makes you effective at treating your patients during a crisis, it does little for getting patients to listen to your message. In fact, it has been proven that specialized language or “jargon” is the fastest way to socially alienate a person who does not use it in their day to day vocabulary. And what do people do when they come across something that seems impossible to understand? They shut down or they try to fake their way through it.
Even words like “social distancing” or “flattening the curve” are often said with little context behind them for the average Alabama citizen to understand. But this isn’t just a problem unique to Alabama. The literacy level of the United States as a whole is only slightly above the International Average.
To succinctly put it, If you want your patients to listen to you, you need to speak in a plain language that everyone can understand. If you do that, they will be more inclined to listen to you and will feel less intimidated by speaking with you.
Conclusion – Healthcare Marketing Needs Open Communication with Patients to Work
There is an old riddle that has often been the subject of debate. “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Just because soundwaves are being produced that does not mean that anyone is around to hear it. So, if no one is around to hear it, why should anyone care if that tree is still standing or has fallen over?
The same logic applies too when it comes to healthcare marketing in Birmingham, AL. If your practice is not participating by being visible in the local community, and speaking the same language, why should your patients care if it exists? Your business needs to make an effort to both engage with and be transparent to the local community if you are expecting to make any impression.
The idea sounds scary, and it is a lot of work to put your practice through, especially during a time when it seems like everything is disastrous. But there are plenty of resources out there for your practice, and we at Purple Tie Guys are always here to help with your healthcare marketing needs.