Top Tips for Creating a Lean and Mean Healthcare Marketing Budget

Healthcare marketing can be hard. But if it was simple, then everyone would be doing it. Producing an effective healthcare marketing plan shouldn’t be too difficult. But for many people, it can become a real challenge.

A health care professional who already uses marketing wants to improve and grow their practice, but the resources needed to do this are scarcer than ever. The practice may already have a number of resources, but your competitors have increased what they can offer patients. And then there are hospital advertising and marketing budgets that need to be split between a number of departments and (sometimes competing) interests.

How Can the Lean Principles Work in a Healthcare Organization?

Lean is designed to help get rid of waste while increasing value to customers. Waste is any process that reduces value to a client, or the client doesn’t think it has any value.

The Lean methodology identifies these wastes:

  • Inventory
  • Transportation
  • Waiting
  • Motion
  • Over-processing
  • Overproduction
  • Defects

The Lean methodology is usually associated with the manufacturing industry, but healthcare organizations and hospitals can use it to reduce or eliminate waste. Some of the areas that could be improved through these practices include:

  • Medical errors
  • Billing
  • Providing staff with the correct equipment to serve patients and stakeholders
  • Reducing the waiting times in offices and emergency departments

Many hospitals and healthcare organizations are now using this methodology to improve patient care and achieve more with less. Click here to learn more about lean principles in health care.

How do Lean Principles Improve Health Care?

There are a number of ways in which the Lean principles can help improve the healthcare industry including:

  • Reducing patient waiting times – this is one of the main complaints of patients accessing health care organizations or hospitals. Lean methods look at how we can reduce the amount of time people spend waiting – for example, by delivering test results through technology instead of a member of staff collecting them.
  • Manage inventory – having too much stock can lead to issues with storage, expiration dates for medicines and increased overhead costs. Technology could be used to keep track of supplies that are used regularly and order them accordingly.
  • Decrease defects – one of the best ways to reduce defects is to change to an information system that is technology-based. Doctors will be able to keep track of their patient records without having to rely on a patient’s memory.
  • Reduce overproduction – overproduction in healthcare includes providing higher levels of care than needed, ordering unnecessary tests, higher level doctors performing tests that less qualified (and cheaper) staff could perform.
  • Limit movement – movement identifies how information, inventory and staff move between different departments. Rooms that have the correct supplies and equipment on hand will reduce the amount of movement and time needed.
  • Reduce costs – all of the principles above will help reduce costs in the healthcare industry. You can also apply the lean principles to your marketing and advertising efforts.

The annual budget in healthcare settings and hospitals often challenges people to do more with less. Lean principles can help improve your marketing budget and plan in a number of different ways. Below are some of the best tips to help you create a lean and mean marketing budget and plan:

1. Work Out What Your Goals and Objectives Are

You need to work out what your marketing and advertising priorities are. Work out which priorities are the most current and likely to affect your bottom line. Sort them into actionable, specific and measurable numbers. Don’t just follow your competitors; you need to stand out. You need to focus on ensuring you get a positive return on your investment.

2. Know What Counts and Play to Your Strengths

Marketing efforts that don’t have enough money spent on them often fail. Find out what tactics don’t work in your marketing plan and change them. Concentrate resources that can be measured and quantified and where the impact is at its peak. It’s better to focus on a small number of amazing marketing ideas rather than attempt a large number of mediocre ideas and not spend enough money on them.

3. Times Change and You Need to Too

The tide of patient consumerism, healthcare reforms, hospitals acquiring practices, and many other changes mean that you need to constantly examine the marketplace, the target audience and the competition. Your marketing efforts need to change and leverage meaningful market trends while recognizing and avoiding fads that will pass.

4. Outsource if Needed

Most businesses assume that they will save money by doing everything themselves, but this isn’t always the case. In many cases, getting professional advice and help for a short period of time during a project is usually the most time-efficient and cost-effective solution.

5. Training is Important

The main objective of all healthcare marketing endeavors is to increase custom. Therefore, it’s extremely important that individuals within each department understand and support the plans and have the tools and knowledge in order to achieve them. A marketing budget that doesn’t include training is incomplete and won’t help convert opportunity into revenue. Improving employee knowledge and training will help to increase overall performance.

6. Changes May Need to Be Made

Nobody can produce a perfect plan or budget. It’s hard to anticipate everything that will or could happen. Opportunities often present themselves suddenly, and disaster often occurs without any warning. It’s always advisable to budget in a way that allows for changes to be made in case unforeseen circumstances occur.

7. Budget Annually, but Analyze and Alter the Budget Monthly

It’s important to produce an annual budget, but you need to make sure that you continually review what’s working well and what could be improved. It’s advisable to schedule a time (at least once a month) to analyze your marketing efforts and how effective each part of the budget and marketing has been. Spend any additional money on areas that are working well, and re-think, change, re-design or get rid of parts that are underperforming.

Marketing is important in all business in order to attract customers. Marketing in a healthcare organization or hospital can be extremely tricky, particularly when you only have a small budget to follow. Follow some of these top tips above to create a lean and mean marketing budget for your healthcare organization.

5 IT Security Tips For eCommerce Businesses

Whether you are hoping to sell physical products or services through your start-up business, the internet offers a huge wealth of opportunity for bringing in revenue. Therefore, so many businesses have invested heavily in an eCommerce company website, a digital marketing strategy to bring visitors to the website and convert them into customers. While eCommerce websites do offer a simple and effective selling platform, there is more to setting them up than meets the eye. If your business’ eCommerce website is not created securely, you may be leaving both your customers and your business open to attacks from cybercriminals. 

1. Use a secure website host

When you ask customers to enter their personal and financial information into your site, you are taking on a lot of responsibility. You need to ensure that customer data and transactions are stored confidentially on the server by choosing a secure website host. The server or host is where the website ‘lives’ so it’s important to choose a secure option which can be easily scaled up or down to meet your changing business needs. 

2. Encrypt your system

In addition to using a secure website host, you also need to ensure that a cybercriminal cannot intercept customer data by enabling a secure socket layer (SSL) protection on your website. The SSL certificate encrypts all data moving between the website server and the customer’s browser. The SSL certificate protects customer data from being intercepted via the browser, but cybercriminals can still attack your system from the back end, so you should also be using encryption tools on your servers and databases. Even if the data is stolen, it won’t be usable as it will be encoded.

3. Carry out regular testing for vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities in your website’s security could leave the door open for a cybercriminal to gain access. It’s not enough to wait and see if your security is breached – this could spell operational downtime, financial and reputational losses or even the end of your business. 

You need to be proactively looking for your weaknesses, so you can fix them before an attack takes place. This is called penetration testing and is best carried out regularly by an external company specializing in MSSP cyber security. They will try to hack into your system as a criminal would to identify weaknesses and tell you how to fix them. These companies can also provide security monitoring which will detect unusual activity or attempted attacks before they cause damage so you can take steps to prevent them.

4. Make sure you are compliant with privacy laws

Online privacy is a big topic all over the world and businesses which do not take care of their customer data diligently face severe consequences. In 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was passed in Europe. If your website is open to European users, you need to be compliant with the GDPR, including obtaining explicit consent to send them marketing materials and keeping them informed about how their data is stored and shared. If you are found to in breach of GDPR, you could face hefty financial penalties. 

5. Back-up your business data

Unfortunately, cybercriminals are always coming up with new ways to attack websites, and it’s not always possible to prevent them. Make sure you put in place a strategy for backing up your data securely so that in the event of a data loss, you can retrieve vital information for your business.

What To Consider As You Launch Your New Business

There’s a lot to think about and do when you’re getting ready to launch a new business. In the digital age, it’s not as simple as putting an open sign outside your door and hoping people see it and stop by.

Marketing your business should be a top priority for you so you can begin to build a book of loyal clients. Consider the following elements as you get started and are trying to decide where to focus your time and attention. Manage your time wisely and put your to-do list in priority order so you can achieve all that’s on your wish list and move your business forward. 

The Future

You should consider the future of your business and realize that what occurs is sometimes unpredictable. Set yourself up for success and growth by securing small business insurance for your company. You never know what will happen or unfold down the road; therefore, prepare yourself to deal with any unfortunate circumstance that may come your way. You’re going to have assets and employees to protect and will want to ensure you don’t get caught up in any costly mistakes.

The Quality of Your Website

Furthermore, consider having a website ready to go when you’re launching your new business. You want to have a robust online presence right from the start and a place where consumers can go to learn more about you. However, don’t just create a website, make sure it’s user-friendly, mobile-friendly, and contains essential information for answering any questions consumers might have as they browse through it. Have your employees test it out before it goes live so that you can confirm it’s free from any errors.

Promoting Your Products & Services

No one’s going to know about your business or what it is you do when you first open. Therefore, figure out a game plan for what you can do to market your products and services successfully. Make sure your marketing strategy includes both online and office tactics to help you get in front of your target audience at the right time. You might want to consider launching email campaigns and engaging on social media to help you drum up interest in what you’re selling.

Developing High-Quality Content

As you launch your new business, you’re going to want to consider how you can continuously develop high-quality content. Think about publishing a blog as a way to share exciting news and facts with your audience and posting your articles to your social media accounts. Be consistent with creating and sharing information so that you can build a strong following over the years. Hire a team of marketers who can manage your online accounts and respond to questions and comments.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to consider as you launch your new business, so it’s vital you stay focused and don’t become easily distracted. Put these ideas into motion, and you’ll likely find you’re able to attract attention to your business and secure loyal customers. Get off on the right foot so you can avoid any significant setbacks right away in your entrepreneurial journey. 

3 Tips to Improve Your Digital Marketing

3 Tips to Improve Your Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a powerful tool used by businesses to advertise their products and services, increase market reach, enhance brand reputation, and boost sales and revenue potential. Modern companies can take advantage of a huge variety of digital marketing strategies, including search engine optimization, social media marketing, and affiliate marketing. To help you market your business effectively, here are three tips to improve your digital marketing today by our strategist Kay Walker

1. Focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

SEO should be a key focus in any digital marketing strategy. When used correctly, SEO will make your website more visible and improve your search engine rankings. This should increase organic traffic to your site, boost conversions, and generate more sales and profits in the long run. Content is an essential part of SEO because it allows you to reach and engage with your audience. For instance, a beauty salon may post a series of blogs on the top beauty treatments to try or ways to enhance your natural beauty. When someone searches for this information on Google, the blog should come up, and the salon will have the chance to build a relationship by offering valuable advice. SEO can be complex due to regular updates with technology and algorithms. Experts at an SEO company in San Diego advise how “it’s important to maintain your site with optimizations and regularly updated content.” This will help you to stay ahead of the changing SEO landscape and take advantage of new updates. 

2. Track your social channels 

One of the most powerful digital marketing tools available to modern businesses is social media. Social channels allow companies of all sizes to connect with their customers, increase their market reach, and advertise their services and products on a global scale. However, it is only effective when used correctly, and you should be actively monitoring the performance of all social channels within your marketing strategies. Tools like Google Analytics can be used to track your performance on social media platforms by providing valuable information on things like the number of shares and overall engagement. This will allow you to tailor your social media marketing to make it more effective in the future. You can find advice on how to track social media in Google Analytics

3. Understand your audience 

You cannot implement effective digital marketing strategies if you don’t know who your audience is. Market research will allow you to better understand the needs of your customers and create marketing campaigns that will engage and captivate your target audience. Audience analysis is now easier than ever and can provide you with valuable consumer insights such as buying trends, potential barriers, and socio-demographic characteristics like gender and age. Overall, audience analysis helps you create a clear picture of your target audience and how to reach them most effectively. This will help you improve your overall marketing strategy and enhance the customer experience. Ideally, audience analysis should be conducted at the start of any new digital marketing campaign. 

Can I use Shopify to sell products in Singapore?

FAQ about Shopify in Singapore

Can I sell in Singapore dollars or so I have to use US currency in A Singapore based Shopify store?

Shopify is flexible in that it can use any one currency of dozens from around the world. You control this in the Shopify dashboard. But yes you can sell in Singapore dollars in a Shopify Store.

Shopify store currency SIngapore dollars

Can I sell in a difference currency than Singapore dollars but based my Shopify store in Singapore?

Yes you can sell in any currency you like. However you need to declare one currency for each store.

Can I sell in a multiple currencies in my Shopify store in Singapore?

While you have one currency set in the store you can install a plugin to display funds in a different currency. However the transaction will go through in your primary currency, and it will convert on the customer’s credit card.

Shopify has an advanced platform called Shopify Plus that can replicate a single site across multiple regions supporting each country’s currency natively in the store. So for example you could run widgetstore.sg, widgetstore.com.my, widgetstore.com.kr

Is Shopify Payments available in Singapore?

Yes when you sign up for a Shopify store you can run all your transactions through Shopify Payments. No need to get a third part credit card clearing payment gateway. This is the simplest and best option.

What third party payment credit gateways can I use on Shopify in Singapore? 

If you want to use another payment gateway there are a series of options. See list below which was current as of mid (May) 2019.

Shopify Singapore payment gateways

What Singapore ecommerce business already use  Shopify? 

Here is a partial list of some Singapore business that use the Shopify platform


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Can I use Shopify to sell products in Singapore?

Top Tips for Creating a Lean and Mean Healthcare Marketing Budget

Healthcare marketing can be hard. But if it was simple, then everyone would be doing it. Producing an effective healthcare marketing plan shouldn’t be too difficult. But for many people, it can become a real challenge. A health care professional who already uses marketing wants to improve and grow their practice, but the resources needed …

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