Health IT Marketing Minutes

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Posted By: Carol Flagg August 27, 2020

What makes marketing in the health IT space unique? Who are the movers and shakers? What’s working, what’s trending? Where can you learn more? This monthly roundup post will focus in on all things health IT when it comes to marketing.

Events

Thought Leadership in Healthcare: Landscape for Streaming Radio and Podcasts During and Post COVID
On September 1 at 2 pm ET I’ll be hosting a webinar on the current and future landscape of thought leadership and making the case for streaming Internet radio and podcasts as a content strategy during and post COVID.

Here are a few things that we will discuss, so join me:

    • The rise of the Age of Voice – and why it’s not going away anytime soon
    • Latest research on streaming Internet radio and podcasts
    • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Internet radio and podcast consumption
    • Discuss the differences between streaming Internet radio and podcasts – and what that means for Alexa and Siri
    • How the two provide an opportunity to create multiple content usages
    • The elephant in the room – Listener Analytics
    • ROI and use case examples
    • Q&A

Registration

A Look At Provider Websites

To Read:
Is Your Website Causing Issues for Patients on Their Phones? – By Scott Zeitzer, President, from P3 Practice Marketing (@p3practicemktg) writes, Over the years, we have often mentioned the need for practices to have mobile-friendly websites. Mobile-friendly websites are very important in terms of user-friendliness and keeping your patients happy, as more and more patients browse the internet via their mobile devices. In fact, if your website isn’t easy to use on phones, you could be driving your visitors away. With the wide availability of mobile devices, people have come to expect instant access to the information they need. A website that isn’t optimized for mobile usage could be frustrating to your website visitors, and you may have some give up on your website altogether. A poor mobile experience could also affect your website’s ranking in Google in a number of ways. How important is the mobile performance of your practice’s website? Here are some important stats on why mobile performance matters.

To Listen:
From What’s My Tagline, Carol talks with Ross Kimbarovsky, founder and CEO at crowdspring.com, a design company where more than 220,000 experienced freelancers help companies, agencies, and non-profits with high-quality website, logo, graphic and product design. Ross joins the program to talk about website design for healthcare organizations and the impact COVID-19 is having on messaging. He winds up the episode letting us in on what’s trending in website design. In addition to his role at crowdspring, Ross mentors entrepreneurs through TechStars and Founder Institute, was honored as one of Techweek100′s top technology leaders and business visionaries and has founded numerous other startups, including Startup Foundry, Quickly Legal, and Respect.

To Read

Merge
Perspectives From a Healthcare Marketing Director: How the Pandemic Shifted Marketing’s Role From “Informer” to “Encourager” – Jess Beard, Account Director at Merge (@weareMERGE) says, Many would describe the last five months as a whirlwind, chaotic and stressful. But amid all of that, we’ve also seen beauty and kindness and an appreciation of our communities and frontline workers. During this time, digital technology has been propelled forward and accelerated the need for different strategic communications priorities. It’s changed how we market to customers.

Brafton
Why Marketers Need A Strong Media Asset Management Solution – Alexander Santo, Writer at Brafton (@Brafton) says, From startups to enterprises, businesses that want to make a name for themselves need an engaging web presence to grow their customer base. Media assets lie at the heart of every campaign, drawing in readers and spreading brand awareness.

Amendola Communications
5 Helpful PR Tips for Rebranding – Grace Vinton, Account Manager at Amendola Communications (@AmendolaComm) writes, Many healthcare technology companies are choosing to rebrand because of the impact that the novel coronavirus has had on the healthcare ecosphere. Capabilities or focus points which may not have been on the forefront before this year-long industry earthquake are now front and center. Clear company identities and market differentiators have never been more important. When rebranding, there are 5 strategic public relations best practices that you will want to make sure you are clear on before finalizing your overall rebranding marketing efforts and plans.

HITMC
Has COVID Created an Ultimatum for Healthcare Marketing? – By John Lynn (@techguy) – In a recent social media interaction with Jared Johnson, Digital Brand Consultant and Founder of the Shift.Health Content Network, he made the following assertion: We’ve known the answers for how to improve healthcare marketing for years. COVID has simply given us an ultimatum to accelerate those efforts or be left in the dust. It’s up to us. Intrigued by the comment, I asked him what things he thought marketers should be doing to accelerate this shift to improve healthcare marketing. Basically, what were the ultimatums for healthcare marketers as he saw them? His response was so insightful, I wanted to share it with the HITMC provider marketing community:

Aria Marketing
The New Normal in Healthcare PR – Scott Collins, President at Aria Marketing (@AriaMarketing) says, The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to global society and economic activity, and we will surely be coping with its aftereffects for many years to come. However, there have been some silver linings, such as less pollution, normalization of remote work, accelerated use of telemedicine. In our work, we have also seen a real boost for health care PR and thought leadership. Healthcare and the ideas and technologies that make it work have become headline news, and while our clients have benefitted from the 24/7 COVID-19 news focus, we are starting to see the total dominance of that issue in the media begin to give way to interest in other stories. As a result, we are working with our clients to start preparing to adapt their strategies to a next phase, where it’s not “all pandemic all the time,” and other news and ideas can get attention.

KNB Communications
4 Reasons Why Healthcare Marketers Should Use Social Media At Work – Paige Rossi at KNB Communications (@KNBComm) writes, While working as a healthcare marketer, using social media is engrained in the job. Healthcare marketers use a variety of social media platforms to market their clients as well as themselves. Since healthcare marketers are so reliant on social media to perform their job effectively, here are 4 reasons why healthcare marketers should use social media while at work.

ClarityQuest
HIMSS21 … hotter than ever – Melanie Hilliard, Senior Marketing Consultant at ClarityQuest (@CQmarketing) says, It’s official, the annual HIMSS Conference in 2021 has been moved from its original date in March to August 9 – 13. That’s right, Las Vegas, in the dog days of summer. For health tech marketers, this is the show to end all shows where deals are made and most of the year’s marketing budget is spent. With large in-person shows out of the picture in 2020, here’s a handy list of 7 smart ways to spend this year’s trade show budget on growing your brand and increasing leads. But it’s not too early to start planning future trade shows.

Agency News

Matter Health Achieves Record Growth: Top Healthcare Practice Adds 13 Recent Client Partnerships
Matter Communications (@MatterComm) announces the continued momentum of its healthcare marketing practice, Matter Health, highlighted by the recent addition of 13 new client partners from across the healthcare continuum. The Matter Health team combines robust industry knowledge with the larger agency’s full range of capabilities to deliver comprehensive, integrated campaigns for healthcare industry clients, including frontline combatants in the fight against COVID-19.

Aria Marketing Named Top PR Firm in Boston by Research Firm Expertise
Aria Marketing (@AriaMarketing) announced it has been named one of the Best PR Firms in Boston by Expertise, a research organization and publisher of top-ranking local business lists. This recognition comes at a pivotal time for the agency as it continues to experience a rise in demand for its services in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As a thought leadership-driven healthcare PR agency, Aria is uniquely positioned to support the healthcare industry during this time of crisis.

Marketing Hires & Hiring

MERGE Appoints Jean May as President of MERGE West
MERGE (@weareMERGE) announced the retirement of Joe Kuchta and the appointment of Jean May to president, MERGE West, effective immediately. Kuchta stepped down from MERGE after 35 years of having served as principal of Sandbox and president of MERGE West. May transitions into the role of president after serving as chief performance officer.

Matter Communications

To Listen

Tune in to one of our latest shows, Overrated & Underused. Killer public relations, marketing and social media in healthcare requires making the right moves at the right time. Hosts, experienced marketers Jen Jennings (@Jen_Jennings) and Tom Testa (@Tom_Testa) have emerged from the trenches to provide the answers. In each episode, they will debate the most OVERRATED and UNDERUSED promotional tactics – evaluating each not only for their effectiveness, but their cost-effectiveness, while sharing best practice examples and challenging the status quo. Take a listen.