Hospital Branding: The Power of Testimonials in Healthcare Branding

If you aren’t already using testimonials in your healthcare marketing plans, I hope that this inspires you to do so.

Testimonials are a powerful tool that can persuade potential customers to buy or use your services. In fact, testimonials could be one of the most powerful marketing tools you have! People feel more confident engaging in a relationship when they know there are other satisfied customers. Through testimonials, you can give potential patients a reason to believe and a trusted opinion from a third party.

Testimonials are effective because they:

• Build trust. Your customers share the positive experiences they’ve had with your organization’s services.
• Provide feedback. Asking for testimonials is a great psychological spur to encourage companies to continually strive for their best performances—and allows quick corrections if they begin to drift off course.
• Aren’t “salesy.” Because they aren’t written in your corporate voice, they stand out as unbiased and authentic.
• Overcome skepticism. A good testimonial has the power to convince your toughest prospects that your products or services are worth pursuing.

A few quick tips:

• Ask for testimonials at every opportunity and quote the best ones throughout your marketing materials: brochures, website, emails, etc.
• Customers value different things, so select a range of testimonials that will appeal to all of your customer segments. You can’t have too many glowing customer testimonials!
• Don’t use family members, friends, or paid actors to do testimonials. Testimonials should come from people you’ve selected who genuinely admire your healthcare system.
• Get written permission from your customers before using their testimonials.
• Keep your testimonials up-to-date. The information will begin to seem irrelevant if it was posted more than a year ago.
• Remember that natural conversations are most compelling—not overly-scripted, canned testimonials.

Potential obstacles that you may face:

• Negative feedback can be even more influential than positive. For example, a patient may not have the desired outcome that you anticipated.
• When a testimonial is given by a doctor, it’s expected that they’re credible and giving sound advice. If the doctor’s reputation is deceptive or tainted, then this could negatively impact your business.
• Marketing budgets can blow up quickly! Keep a close eye on your production costs.

Things that you can do:

• Your homework! Fact-check and research the people that you have selected to do testimonials before production begins.
• Have a “Plan of Action.” This allows you to respond quickly if you encounter a problem and have to pull a testimonial from your marketing materials.

Pick your media placement carefully so that you have the option to pull spots quickly, if needed.

by Donna Pascente 

Springboard Brand & Creative Strategy