Health equity matters. And there’s no more timely moment than the present to showcase your health care organization’s cultural competence.

Hospitals, clinics, and other care organizations are responsible for the well-being of an increasingly diverse population. “Minority” populations will become the majority nationwide within 30 years.

And yet, health disparities persist due to discrimination impacting culturally diverse populations.

Diverse patients are looking for clinicians who understand their culture, appreciate their unique attributes, and are sensitive to the ways in which their identities may have been disregarded in the past.

When care teams announce their commitment to cultural competence, diverse patients can more easily find the care they deserve.

‍5 tips for marketing clinical cultural competence.

‍‍‍Here are Violet’s five tips for marketing your hospital’s commitment to health equity:

1. Be accessible. Create a skimmable and engaging marketing campaign that announces your health care organization’s commitment to diversity. Accessible marketing includes multilingualism, image alt text, image descriptions, and more. Messages about diversity should always be accessible across languages, devices, and formats.
2. Spotlight patient testimonials. Rather than being self-congratulatory, put patients at the center of marketing campaigns by using testimonials and focusing on their stories. User-generated content is an impactful way to produce patient-centered marketing campaigns. Rather than over-emphasize institutional messaging, it is both more effective and relatable to spotlight patients who are the main beneficiaries of commitments to diversity.
3. Create a public service announcement. When diverse populations experience health disparities largely due to discrimination, advertising your care team’s cultural competence is a public service announcement. Let’s treat it like one. PSAs are an integral part of communicating public health. Right now, the U.S. is facing multiple public health crises partly driven by discrimination. It is crucial for hospitals to amplify bespoke messaging for impacted communities and across popular marketing channels to address patients where they browse on the Internet. Use email, social media, blog posts, and search ads to let patients know about your hospital’s diversity commitments. Direct-to-mail brochures can also be an effective approach to reaching people where they live.
4. Celebrate diversity! Uplift patients rather than stereotype certain identities in marketing. Social cause marketing always runs the risk of stereotyping or pitying affected communities. The campaign will fail and do more harm than good if pictures, illustrations, copy, or tone worsen discrimination. It is safest to stick to celebratory copy that uses the most up-to-date language to describe diversity and patients, while using abstract illustrations, like shapes or textures, instead of pictures or illustrations of people that could easily be misconstrued or stereotyped. For example, a mistake like adding text over the image of a diverse patient is actually a disrespectful design. Safe copy and design decisions are important to maintaining dignity.
5. Communicate specific examples. How is your care team building cultural competence? It is important to be transparent about your team’s journey toward health equity. Let your patients know about the exact steps you’re taking to make a difference and deliver quality care. Either by way of emails, blog posts, or press releases, patients need to make informed decisions about their care.

With Violet, we can train your care team in cultural competence and create marketing campaigns.

‍By marketing your care team’s dedication to cultural competence, patients can more easily match with providers who are right for them.

Seamlessly improve inclusive care delivery with Violet. When health care organizations get verified by Violet, they can signify their inclusive care commitments to their patients online. Additionally, Violet creates press releases and marketing campaigns to let patients know where they can find identity-centered care.

Violet is trusted by leading health care orgs to improve inclusive care delivery. Read our joint partnership announcements here.

Reach out to us at joinviolet.com/demo if you would like to get verified by Violet.