How a custom magazine can dramatically improve your hospital’s brand

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On September 10, 2017
  • Custom publishing

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” We’ve all heard the expression, and it’s still true—even in the ever-changing world of marketing, even in our age of smartphones, marketing automation and social media.

Some of the most effective marketing tools at your disposal were around long before Al Gore invented the Internet. Perhaps the most powerful of those time-tested tools is the custom magazine.

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If the rain comes: How to get motivated on a gray Monday

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On July 6, 2017
  • Motivation

Suffering from a lack of motivation? Look outside—it may be the weather.

If you feel less motivated than usual on those days, you’re not alone. Scientists haven’t been able to identify exactly why our motivation disappears when the sun does, but they have some ideas. There’s even a mood disorder called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, that affects people who live in places that are consistently dark and dreary.

So what do you do on those mornings when you feel like you can’t get anything done? Instead of sending yourself into a caffeine coma, try some of these methods to get your motivation back.

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Young people still read print magazines

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On June 25, 2017
  • Custom publishing

“Print is dead.” If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times.

These days it’s impossible to go very long without reading or hearing about how smartphones and tablets are replacing printed materials. But while it’s 100% true in many respects, there’s one medium where print still reigns: magazines.

There’s a common belief that only older people read magazines. Even if you’ve read about how custom magazines drive online sales and web traffic, you may be hesitant to spend time planning and launching a custom publication for your organization for fear of a slow and steady decline as the Baby Boomers get older.

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How often should you blog to be effective?

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On June 2, 2017
  • Blogging

“How often should I blog?” Type those words into Google and you’ll find more than half a billion-with-a-b results trying to answer that question. Everyone is looking for an answer to the same question, but with so many experts offering so much conflicting advice, it can be almost impossible to make sense of it all.

Coming up with a blogging plan can be an even bigger challenge for a hospital marketer. There are few hospital blogs to use as examples as you hone your own organization’s blogging strategy, and what works for a Fortune 500 company or for a small business might not be best for your audience.

Here’s how to design an editorial calendar that works for your blog.

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Brand You

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On February 27, 2017
  • Career management

Linkedin’s CEO, Reid Hoffman, talks of work today in terms of “tours of duty”—not a lifetime (not even long-term) job.

According to Hoffman “tours” last approximately four years (but with a review after two years). That’s how long a company can expect to sign up an employee to one job. After four years both sides should sit down and decide if another tour works for both parties. If not, you’re a “free agent”!

In fact, Seth Godin argues we are all an army of free agents, whether currently employed or not, and as free agents we need to position ourselves for our next gig. We become the product that we need to market. And that product needs a brand.

So what is your (personal) brand?

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How to have a hospital blog and a life too

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On February 18, 2017
  • Blogging

Just the thought of starting a blog is enough to make many hospital marketers run for the exit. You have no time already. How can you possibly add a blog and still have a life?

But you may also know there’s growing evidence that blogging produces results (see chart below from Hubspot).

You also know these results don’t come for free. It takes us on average 60-90 minutes to write a blog post. That’s a sizable investment in today’s harried business world.

One way to increase your chances of getting a good ROI from your blogging is to reuse the content you create in as many other formats as you can.

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The 4-Hour Workweek: 7 practical gems

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On February 13, 2017
  • Productivity

Provocative. Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek is certainly that.

It’s hard to read the book without having some emotional reaction. You’re likely to love it or hate it. But as business books go you’re not likely to find it a bore.

If you read business books and have not read the 4-hour Workweek, I highly recommend it. It’s full of unusual ideas that you probably have not read elsewhere.

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How to get an empty inbox

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On February 6, 2017
  • Productivity

I took the plunge a few years ago and I’ve never gone back. I have an empty email inbox.

My empty email inbox comes about from my adoption of Getting Things Done (GTD) system.

From my experience, the main benefits of getting your inbox to “zero” are:

  1. You won’t miss important items. In the worst case, there will only be several items in your inbox at any one time (before you process them)—not hundreds of items or thousands
  2. You will feel less stressed. Your brain will just feel better looking at a small list of emails versus an ocean
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Hospital marketing tip: patient personas

  • Posted by Nigel Edelshain
  • On February 4, 2017
  • Blogging

If I had to bet on one thing you have not done, this would be it: I’d bet you have not developed personas of your patients.

I’d bet on this because I’ve developed a persona of you. My persona of you says you have very little time. And with very little time available this is a step in marketing it’s very tempting to skip. (I’ve skipped this step many times myself and I’m in marketing too.)

But skipping this step is a bad idea.

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