Lately I seem to have noticed more advertisements, commercials, Web sites, and e-mails that have missed the mark on the message they want to get across. They’ll make a statement, pose a question, or show an image that, if you stop and think about it, isn’t at all the message they want to convey.

Take Palm, for example. Palm is about to release a new phone: the Palm Pre. Just to be clear, I am not bashing the Palm Pre. From what I have read about it, it seems like one of the best phones on the market. But when I watched the video on their website, it opened with the question:

“What would a phone have to do to amaze you?”

That’s not necessarily the message I wanted to hear. I don’t want my phone to “amaze” me; I want my phone to make me more productive. I don’t want my phone to be cool; I want it to be convenient. Just because something is amazing doesn’t make it useful. I would have rather been asked:

“What could a phone do to improve your lifestyle?”

Now I’m more interested. Now you’ve got me hooked. I’m all about making my life easier. You say this phone can do that? How? Tell me more!

It may not seem like there is much of a difference, but the clearer your message is, the more effective it will be. Here are 4 tips to make sure your message doesn’t come across in the wrong way:

1. Know who you are communicating to.

Let’s say you are telling a story to a room full of 3rd graders. You would be sure to use small words that they could understand. You’d be sure to not ramble and lose their attention. You would probably make sure you frequently changed the pitch in your voice to emphasize parts of the story.

Now let’s say you’re telling the same story to a boardroom full of executives. Would you change the presentation? You certainly don’t want to sound ignorant or uneducated, so you would use bigger words, explain things in more detail, etc.

The same applies to marketing and advertising. Make sure you know who you are talking to. Do research on them. What do they like? What do they want from a company or product?

2. Set a clear goal.

Make sure that you, your colleagues, your boss, and your agency are all on the same page. Your message could easily get lost before you even start communicating it! Sit down, have a meeting, and hash out the end goal.

3. Develop multiple ways of saying the same thing.

I would recommend that you develop as many approaches as you can think of then choose the 3 that resound with you the best. Then, step back and take a look at your  audience and goals. Which one of the three would your audience react to the best? Which one communicates your goal the best?

4. Test your message.

If you have the time and money, focus groups are a great way to test messages. Unfortunately, most campaigns rarely have the time for them. Don’t let that stop you from testing though. Try a smaller campaign first and do A/B split testing. By the time you launch your full campaign, your message should be loud and clear.

Many times our firm has requests from potential healthcare clients wishing to learn more about us. While I can appreciate the questions that we’re asked, I find some of them void of common sense. I am perfectly fine with the thought that Talstone may not be the best fit for everyone’s marketing needs and goals. What I don’t understand is when we are a good fit for a client for all the right reasons but still lose the relationship because of an archaic requirement such as gross billings or number of employees. Should you consider a firm’s previous work and reputation? Absolutely, but here are five fundamental things to look for:

1. They should be an extension of your staff

The best marketing firm should know you and you should know them. This isn’t something that can happen within a few meetings, but the initial interviews with a prospective firm should reveal the necessary chemistry that will make for a profitable relationship. Just as the firm should want to get to know your organization as well as you do, you should likewise want to understand how you will have to work with the firm. It’s a simple case of brand loyalty – and yes, your healthcare organization has a brand whether you know it or not. It is crucial for you to ask questions about the firm’s processes and systems to ensure you are kept informed of progress and how your marketing efforts will be executed. I’m not suggesting that you have to invite the firm to your next birthday party, but building a relationship where you and the firm can be frank and jovial when appropriate will create a better synergy and yield better results all the way around. The highest compliment that can be paid to a marketing firm is when a client tells others within their influence that the firm is an extension of their team.

2. They should have a passion for your industry

As a healthcare provider you provide care to your patients that is specialized and focused. Whether you’re a GI physician or a corporate healthcare provider, you’ve devoted your life to a passion you’ve developed in a chosen medical field. Shouldn’t your marketing firm have a focused passion as well? Of course it should. A firm with a solid understanding of the healthcare industry will better serve you than a generalist firm that tries to be all things to all clients. A generalist firm will require you to spend valuable time educating them on the ins and outs of healthcare. I stated previously that you need a firm that will know you as well as you do, it is significantly difficult to achieve such a relationship when you have to first get a firm acclimated to your industry.  Passion is certainly easy enough to spot.  Look for the excitement in answering your questions or listen for use of correct use of industry jargon. A specialized firm in healthcare will spend a great deal of time in keeping tabs on industry movement and situations. This is a great benefit when properly positioning or developing strategies for your organization.

3. They should have two ears and one mouth

We’ve heard of firms where a marketing account executive would come into a client with a little research and then pitch what the healthcare organization should do without really listening to the clients needs. What’s worse is that there actually are some clients that just listen and foolishly go along with the recommendations.  Most of us were given two ears and one mouth and your agency should listen twice as often as it speaks to you. If you have to spoon-feed your agency then you’re either not being listened to or you’re dealing with incompetency. A huge mistake that many healthcare organizations make is that they look for a plethora of work a firm has done or gross billings to determine whether the marketing firm is big enough for their needs. The problem is that the information presented in such variables is limiting at best. It doesn’t demonstrate that the firm is good at listening to your needs and building thoughtful strategy for you. If anything, such variables speak to firm’s ability to bill you. Is that what you’re looking for in your firm? Just as you get frustrated when a patient doesn’t listen to you, you should likewise be frustrated when an expressed need you have goes unheard by your marketing firm.

4. They should have vision beyond 20/20

The great bald eagles have two foveae, or centers of focus, that allow them to see to the side and forward at the same time. Their vision is so sharp that they are capable of seeing prey on the ground or in water while flying several hundred feet above. Just as your marketing firm needs two ears and one mouth they should also have very keen vision that allows them to see where you are and where you need to go. You should have confidence that they will research and learn your target so well that, when executed, the strategy stands a better chance of producing results. At the same time you need to trust that your firm will approach each opportunity with fresh and innovative approaches. Vision is only as clear as the creativity involved. If your firm’s eyesight is blurred in comparison to the direction you want to take your organization, then it might be time to rethink your marketing partner. It just might be that they have been looking at you with rose-colored glasses rather than seeing a clear picture of where you are and where you want to go.

5. They should demonstrate a sense of stewardship

We run across clients and potential clients who believe that the firms they have worked with on past projects were simply out to see how far into the organizations’ wallet they could get. The return on investment is weak at best. Efforts that fail to produce results are excused as “branding efforts.” It’s all about the money with these sorts of firms. In reality, it’s poor stewardship of your marketing dollars. Your money doesn’t come cheap and neither does your time. Why would you want to expend a great deal of either one on work that isn’t backed by sound logic, reasoning, and research? Whether you want to know why a survey question is asked or why a particular color was chosen for a piece of marketing collateral, you have the right to ask why something is done the way it is. If you get a sense that the reasoning is just because the firm liked it that way then you’re not getting your money’s worth. There’s no integrity in a firm that works that way and you should question them as such. A firm isn’t hired to just take your money and give you a pretty picture. That’s not marketing. A quality firm will strive to do the very best job they can for the budget that you supply them with. They will seek out ways to get the most bang for your buck no matter the budget size. A solid firm will also be honest with you and tell you as soon as possible when something isn’t possible given the parameters and variables you have. They don’t over or under promise but will deliver to the best of their ability the goals you have set. That’s solid marketing stewardship.

These are just a few foundational things you need to look for in your marketing firm. If you have found that then you should be grateful. If you haven’t then I suggest you reevaluate the relationship under the suggestions above. Only then will you find your marketing efforts a rewarding experience.

Imagine the scene. A curmudgeonly GI physician with a good track record when it comes to perforations has a patient on the table ready for a routine colonoscopy. A new nurse is present, helping the physician monitor the progress. All is going along well with a few polyps being removed with no complications. As he maneuvers through the thin-walled right colon, the instrument accidentally creates a small perforation that is noticed by the nurse but not the physician. The nurse, having heard of the quick temper of the physician, doesn’t call to attention what she saw, and no steps are taken to attend to the perforation. For the patient this isn’t going to turn out to be just a routine colonoscopy.

While the scene is fictional, it is all too real in most healthcare divisions. A recent survey published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, titled A Survey of the Impact of Disruptive Behaviors and Communication Defects on Patient Safety, by Dr. Alan Rosenstein and Michelle O’Daniel, recorded very unfortunate findings that illustrate the above story.

The results of the 22-question survey, answered by 2,846 nurses, 944 physicians, 40 administrative executives, and 700 other healthcare providers, showed that 51% of the physicians and 88% of the nurses have seen disruptive behavior from a physician, while 48% of the physicians and 73% of the nurses said that they saw disruptive behavior come from a nurse. In all, 67% of the respondents agreed that such incidents resulted in an injurious event. Of the respondents, 71% believe such disorderly behavior resulted in an increase in medical errors and 27% believed such behavior actually increased patient mortality.

Poor bedside manners may be the tone of the popular TV series House, but in real life it is a recipe for disaster.  Disruptive behavior isn’t only bad for the health of the patient but also for the professional health of a doctor, nurse, or hospital. Hospitals and health systems are always one incident away from a PR nightmare. Regardless of whether or not the general public hears about the incident, the patient that witnesses such behavior will tell others and the painful damage to reputation is irreparable. Morale of an already overworked staff will be drained, resulting in poor performance on their part.

Healthcare providers are no doubt under an enormous amount of stress. They are human, like the people they are serving, and a doctor or nurse can have a bad day just like the rest of us. However, they are also in a profession where a bad day could create a chain of events that could harm and even kill a patient. If that wasn’t bad enough the reputation of a good doctor, nurse, or hospital could be put on the line or worse – destroyed.