To market, to market with in-house pubs
Sell videos, pamphlets to health care institutions
Each year, Sacred Heart Medical Center produces about three videos and six booklets for staff or patient education that can be added to its catalog of materials available for purchase by other health care institutions. While these materials aren’t produced specifically for market, they are slick, medically accurate, and generic enough in content to fit the bill.
"The material needs to be clinically accurate, professionally produced, and the topic needs to be relevant to patients in other health care facilities," says Sister Pam White, SP, media services coordinator at the Spokane, WA-based medical center. "If it is very specific to our institution — say, for heart transplant patients, where treatment might be a little bit different here — then we wouldn’t consider marketing that."
The health care facility has been selling materials since 1983, and quite successfully in most years after a rocky start. Sacred Heart’s media services department went $25,000 in the red when it was first launched, but soon was in the black and remained there, although profits fluctuate from year to year.
There are several factors that can make or break such an endeavor. These include:
• Number of annual productions for sale.
Enough new material must be produced each year to keep the product line fresh, says White. Sacred Heart usually produces at least three videos per year that can be marketed, but a few years there have only been one or two. New products must be generated to replace items that become outdated. "We have some old, old programs that people still use because the content is good, but we try to reduce the prices," says White.
The medical center currently is translating many of its patient education materials into Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese. While this is being done to meet an in-house need, it will be good for marketing purposes. "We feel that if we need it for our patients, there must be needs in other health care facilities for the same type of materials," says White.
• Funding to distribute products.
"You may have a good product that is packaged nicely, but if you don’t have the funds to distribute it, I don’t think you will make a go of it," says White. A facility needs start-up funding dedicated to promotional activities to market in-house materials.
These costs include printing promotional materials and postage for mailing them. If an outside mailing service is used, costs go up. Last year, White spent $9,000 printing 25,000 catalogues. The medical center provides funding for promotions, although the budget seems to get tighter each year, says White. (For information on when to solicit the help of an outside distributor, see story, p. 89.)
• A catalog to show off the products.
A catalog is essential to marketing. Sacred Heart’s media services department creates the catalog on a computer with desktop publishing software. Initially, it takes a lot of time to input the information, but once the first piece has been created, updating the publication is much easier. "It is not so hard to make a few edits, but when you go to a new format, that is time-consuming," says White.
• Price it right.
Sacred Heart tries to keep its pamphlets and videos reasonably priced because staff know that budgets are tight at most health care facilities. Therefore, most videos are $195 and run about 12 minutes. People can preview a video by renting it for one week for $45. Booklets that are 8½ x 11 inches are priced at $1 to $2 apiece, and smaller pamphlets sell for 50 cents.
A standard format for labeling videos and designing covers for booklets is followed to help keep production costs under control.
Marketing can make or break endeavor
• Hitting the right market.
The media services department mails bro chures and catalogs to health care facilities in the United States and Canada. To make sure the right person receives the catalog, the medical center purchased two mailing lists last year from Irvine, CA-based SK&A Information Services. One list targets U.S. directors of nursing and patient education coordinators and cost $2,471.69. The second list, which targeted U.S. home health care agencies, was smaller and cost $621.72. (For details on the company that sells mailing lists, see editor’s note at end of article.)
• Consistent marketing efforts.
"The more mailings you have, the better response you have, but that is going to increase your budget," says White. Currently, Sacred Heart mails catalogs and brochures twice a year, which is the minimum, according to White. However, budget cuts make it impossible to increase mailings.
Last year, a Web site went on-line that makes it possible for the media services department to reach people all over the world. While orders have come in from foreign countries, quantities have not been high. "I suppose in the future that may grow, and then that would be a good way to advertise our program and people can order directly from our Web site," says White.
• Plan to track invoices.
It’s important to be able to track invoices as well as print them out; therefore, good billing software is needed. The program should be able to print invoices as well as reports, says White. An aging report will tell you who has paid and who hasn’t. The software also can be used to track videos that have been rented on a trial basis and when they are due back.
• Sufficient stock on hand.
It’s a good idea to stock 10 rental videos and 10 sale copies initially. If the product is selling well, double the amount kept in stock, advises White. You never want to have back orders, she explains. As for pamphlets, print about 5,000 of each topic, because people usually order 100 to 200 copies at a time.
[Editor’s note: Sacred Heart Medical Center purchased a mailing list of health care professionals who have the title of director of nursing or patient education coordinator from SK&A Information Services, 2601 Main St., Suite 650, Irvine, CA 92614. Telephone: (800) SKA-LIST (752-5478) or (949) 476-2051. Fax: (949) 476-2168. Web site: www.skainfo.com. The company markets comprehensive lists and databases of health care professionals. Costs vary depending on the list.]
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