Storytelling in Marketing: Attract Potential Patients with Inspiring Anecdotes
A local woman has struggled for years with complications from diabetes. The disease has affected her vision, her kidney function, and the nerves in her hands and feet – causing her to withdraw from activities she once loved. Despite these challenges, she remains selfless, upbeat, and hopeful for a brighter future. She connects with a physician in your healthcare system, and her life begins to change. With a healthy diet, medication, at-home monitoring, and participation in a support group, her A1C level is down, her energy and mood are up, and she’s living life to the fullest again.
Why are stories like these such powerful marketing strategies? Most decisions are driven by emotion, and people take comfort in and are inspired by stories with happy and uplifting outcomes and messages. If they can relate to the person at the center of such a story, they’ll be driven to seek the same kind of hopeful, transformative care.
How to Use the Art of Storytelling in Healthcare and Hospital Marketing
Consider your audience and their stake in the story.
Great stories allow for effortless emotional connection between the reader or viewer and the story’s “hero.” To inspire this connection and convince your audience that their own positive outcome is possible, share stories that address potential patients’ needs and experiences.
Example: Heart disease and stroke are prevalent in the local population. Share a story about a patient whose life was greatly impacted by one of these conditions. Highlight his journey, under your healthcare system’s care, as he turns his life around with careful medical management, your smoking cessation and fitness programs, and the compassionate support of your staff.
Capture and keep their attention.
Video is a highly effective storytelling format when you’re trying to reach any demographic. Seeing and hearing someone convey their story fosters an instant connection. It is a better fit for modern attention spans than wordy testimonials. Aiming for a younger, tech-savvy audience? Share videos on Facebook. Targeting the older generation? Consider commercials or radio spots. Patient photos and impactful quotes can also be shared on your website, landing pages, billboards, hospital signage, and direct mailers.
Help patients write their own happier, healthier stories – and keep sharing.
Inspired by the story you shared, a woman with high blood pressure and other risk factors for stroke seeks your healthcare system’s services. Your heart care team works with her to find the right medication, helps her create a healthy diet plan, and connects her with a community fitness program for stress management. After six months, her blood pressure has come down and she’s decided to develop a yoga class specifically for people at risk of heart disease and stroke. Sharing her life-changing story on social media and through other marketing materials continues the cycle, attracting and inspiring others who could benefit from your care.
Hospitals and health systems across the country have turned to Lightstream for help in reaching an increasingly sophisticated audience of healthcare consumers. Reach out today to learn more.
