• HITMC 2019 Takeaways from Matter Health

    For the third year in a row I was lucky to attend the annual Health IT Marketing and PR Conference or HITMC (pronounced hit-mick). While each conference has been valuable and informative, this year held special meaning for me personally for a few reasons, not the least of which was the location, which just so happened to be in Matter HQ’s backyard of Boston.

    Not only did we celebrate our new dedicated healthcare brand, Matter Health, I was lucky enough to present to and collaborate with some of the most passionate and talented communications professionals in the industry. My presentation “Breaking Down Silos: What’s the Right Strategic Mix of Earned, Paid, SEO, and Social?” focused on lessons learned executing a fully integrated program for our client, Myomo, which develops robotic braces for people with limb paralysis. Matter Health also sponsored the conference’s first social networking event, which quickly evolved into Matter Health’s official “launch party.” The part was very well attended and the setting at Lucky’s Lounge in Boston’s bustling Seaport district was the perfect place to cement existing relationships, develop new ones and celebrate our continuing commitment to healthcare.

    For those unfamiliar, HITMC is an annual conference organized by one of the most successful and influential bloggers in the space, John Lynn, and his partner in crime, Colin Hung. The conference brings together some of the best and brightest from healthcare marketing and PR, both in-house and agency side. This year’s conference was punctuated by a smattering of Matter Health staff and many of our Boston-area colleagues, friendlies and clients.

    Here are highlights from my experience at HITMC19 that I hope those in healthcare and healthcare communications find relevant and thought provoking.

    Patients reign supreme

    The time has come to finally put the patient first. To anyone outside of healthcare, you may be asking yourself why this is just now happening? While there have always been healthcare professionals who prioritize patients, the sad reality is that so many competing priorities have emerged over the years making it difficult, if not impossible, to keep patients at the top of the list where they belong. So, what does this mean for healthcare communicators? Stories need to be told with human perspective and emotional appeal. Patients want to feel like they matter, and they should. Even if you are an EHR or RCM company selling into the C-suite of hospitals and health systems, you should be thinking about the patient and how your solution contributes to better care and a better care experience. It may not always be a direct line to the patients, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t incredibly important.

    The power of moments

    This year’s keynote featured Dan Heath, a New York Times best-selling author who received a standing ovation after he spoke about meaningful experiences and the power of moments. His message, which I wholeheartedly support, is that moments are really what matters. As humans we are hard wired to problem solve, and I can confirm that this is particularly true in healthcare. What we should do is focus more energy on the positive moments, bolster them and embrace them as communicators. I’ve seen companies and people fall into this trap many times. You spend 80% of your time trying to solve problems for a small audience that is unhappy and end up ignoring those that are happy. Spend more time on the things that are working and the people whoare bought in. It will be easier as communicators to create moments if we are telling stories through the eyes of your “love group.”

    Evolve or die

    Patients are feeling the cost of care in their wallets, which is causing many to pay closer attention and ask why healthcare gets to function so differently from other industries? Things like price transparency and customer service are no longer options. We enjoy too much convenience in our daily lives to navigate cumbersome technologies and processes, just to access care that is increasingly expensive. This coupled with outside forces like Amazon pushing in, and the writing is on the wall that healthcare organizations across the continuum need to adapt or risk suffering the same fate as: [insert name of any number of Amazon casualties]. The effects of this these tectonic shifts can be felt across the continuum of care, whether a provider, payer or vendor of virtually any kind.

    Teamwork makes the dream-work

    Truly integrated marketing and communications in healthcare is very much akin to care coordination. It makes sense that patients will achieve better outcomes if they are treated by a care delivery team, which may include their PCP, specialists, pharmacists, care managers, and nurses, that is aligned and working toward a shared goal of improved health. These same principals can be applied to communications and will certainly have a similar impact on the health of a brand. We can no longer let PR people and marketing people and events people and developers, etc. function in silos. There is too much to be gained by aligning on an integrated strategy and team structure to ensure a consistent message and the ideal mix of paid, earned and owned media. This is much of what I discussed during my presentation, and I was unable to find a communicator in the room who disagreed with this hypothesis.

     

    I do understand that none of this advice may seem that profound. However, that doesn’t make it any less valid, impactful or quite frankly necessary. In fact, I would argue that prioritizing patients, focusing on the positives, working together and continuous evolution are perhaps more important than ever for healthcare professionals, whether clinical, operational, finance, admin or, yes, even marketing and communications.

    Stay tuned in the weeks and months to come, as we plan to roll out some insights from leaders we connected with at HITMC on key trends in healthcare, including digital therapeutics, patient engagement and interoperability, just to name a few.

    Ryan Lilly

    , , , , ,

  • The Problems and Solutions for Healthcare Video Marketing

    The Problems and Solutions for Healthcare Video Marketing

    Earlier this month, I had the privilege of attending the Healthcare IT Marketing & PR Conference (HITMC), a get-together specifically tailored to professionals in the healthcare marketing space. Daily sessions included strategy discussions about the common challenges healthcare marketers face, and how to overcome them. There were also panel discussions about how the holistic industry; an industry that has historically been slow to adapt to progressions in technology, and what it can to do keep up.

    After chatting with some marketing professionals at the show, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the common video professional and a corporate healthcare marketer. Meaning, some things that marketers view as challenging hurdles, we see as opportunities to collaborate. Here are two key problems and solutions:

     

    PROBLEM: Just because your organization has a video, doesn’t mean it’s engaging. Some healthcare companies may see that “a video on the website” as a checklist item – something that needs to get done so they can point people in its direction and move onto the next thing. Even before I attended this conference, I cannot count how many smart companies overlook this. Seeing a YouTube channel which only contains hour-long webinars makes me cringe, and you should feel the same way. I appreciate that there are a lot of restrictions when it comes to healthcare marketing, with HIPAA being the most prominent. For this sole reason, a lot of companies just assume they won’t even bother make public-facing videos.

    SOLUTION: Instead of focusing on the hospital as a whole, focus on one single patient, a single procedure, or a single doctor.Humanize great care. The story of how a revolutionary new treatment helped someone live a better life is a story worth telling, and it has a long shelf life. Take a look at this video our team produced for UMass Memorial Hospital back in 2016.

     

    PROBLEM: Marketers know that they want video, but feel like it’s on them to create everything. The mentality seems to be, “this is my brand’s story I’m trying to tell, and since I’m the one with insight into our customer’s perspective, nobody can tell the story but me.” Marketers then believe the burden of scheduling, coming up with interview questions, and crafting the messaging in editing is on them to nail, because the videographer doesn’t understand X, Y, and Z. about their business.

    SOLUTION: A video production company. A videographer is your typical “guy/girl with a video camera” who tends to get thrown into the mix at the last moment, and is often setup for failure at the get-go. A video production company will do its best to take care of all the logistics up front, so that you, the marketer, only has to answer a few questions here and there. We also strive to produce videos like the one below, to help get rid of the “fear of the unknown” that you may have.

     

     

    C-Level decision makers are (finally) realizing the value of video. One fact all CMOs can agree to is that they would like to be everywhere at once, but can’t. Internal announcements, new hire processes, and sales tools can all be streamlined with concise videos so that money isn’t wasted on travel or extra training. The C-suite must understand that the real value of video is that the exact same message is getting to the right people in a shorter amount of time, and available 24 hours a day. Although it’s taken awhile, I’m noticing that companies are beginning to have less sticker shock when it comes to the price of video, because they know how it will prove its value – and even alleviate many headaches – later. Less companies are coming to us saying “we want to do a video,” and instead are providing examples they like and asking how to replicate it for their own use.

    Overall, marketers in the healthcare space have challenges to overcome, but help is out there. Preparation is key and while patient privacy is something to be respectful of, it’s not a reason to stop your creative idea dead in its tracks. Video can be a key differentiator for a healthcare brand, and the sky is the limit when you partner with the right creative team.

    Fill out the form below to schedule a free strategy call with our team.



    Colter Beote

    , ,

  • Blurring Lines Demand a New Approach to Healthcare PR and Marketing

    Blurring Lines Demand a New Approach to Healthcare PR and Marketing

    This piece originally appeared on the HITMC blog:

    The many predictions made at HITMC17 regarding increasingly blurred lines in healthcare seem to be coming to fruition. National headlines have been dominated for the last several months by stories regarding mega-mergers (CVS & Aetna, Cigna & Express Scripts) and speculation around technology giants like Amazon, Apple and Uber pushing into healthcare, not to mention JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway throwing their multi-billion dollar hats into the ring. But what does it all mean? At a macro level the answer remains to be seen, but at an organizational level it means that the stakeholders organizations have traditionally communicated to may be changing. This is, or at least should be, inspiring more and more brands to update communications strategies, reevaluate audiences and adjust value propositions.

    No piece of the healthcare continuum is immune to impending changes. As we shift further toward value-based care and traditional models continue to be challenged, everyone is looking to move care away from acute settings. Simultaneously, urgent care centers and retail medicine are becoming increasingly accessible, providing patients (consumers) with more choices than ever before when it comes to accessing care. Not to mention that the pieces seem to be finally falling into place for telehealth and concierge medicine.

    It is no longer enough to be “in network” or just one of a few options in a given geography. If you’ve spent any time in a new urgent care center recently, you will know what I am talking about. These places look increasingly like spas and are highly focused on customer (patient) experience and service – not traditionally healthcare’s strong suit. This means Open-Table-esque apps for scheduling and monitoring wait times, zero paperwork and an overall enjoyable experience for patients. Once they add ride-sharing into the experience, a perk some providers are already looking to leverage, accessing affordable healthcare via apps and automation becomes every consumer’s reality. If this isn’t enough to inspire change, just imagine the day when every CVS is also a retail clinic. This is the kind of market competition that should motivate communications professionals to revisit their brand differentiators, value propositions and overarching strategy.

    Health technology vendors are also being directly impacted by the shifting ecosystem. With traditionally consumer focused vendors like Apple making their way into the industry, outdated user experiences within health IT will no longer be acceptable. After more than a decade of having cumbersome technologies pushed on them, healthcare providers are now demanding intuitive user experiences and functionality like that which they experience on their smartphone in their personal lives. There is no reason that a doctor should experience a digital downgrade the moment they enter the hospital and log onto their EHR.

    In addition to the inherent demand for intuitive and interoperable technology, provider organizations are also increasingly looking to differentiate themselves through their vendor partnerships. While the technical nuts and bolts still matter, today’s hospitals and health networks don’t want to hear about your software; they just want to know if you can solve their problem and help them provide better care, attract more patients or reduce physician/clinician burnout and turnover. It took some time, but healthcare finally seems to be figuring out what consumer tech knew a long time ago – the technology is only as powerful as a person’s ability (willingness) to use it and affect meaningful change.

    Innovation and a new generation of decision makers seem to finally be delivering on the transformative power of technology in healthcare. The market is also being “challenged” by outsiders, which is bringing new competition and forcing legacy organizations to reimagine their structure and role within the overall system. It is up to us as communication professionals to interpret and evolve with these changes. This can be challenging, as healthcare PR and marketing have traditionally benefited from a level of expertise and a somewhat specific approach. That said, now is not the time for a “because we’ve always done it that way” approach. We should increasingly look to consumer brands and other industries outside of healthcare to borrow and learn from their communications strategies and programs. Tactically, this may mean targeting non-traditional media, using different social channels or up leveling messaging to appeal to an average consumer. The most important thing is to never stop evaluating and evolving your program, because at the current rate of change what worked today might not work tomorrow.

    Having spent the majority of my career in healthcare, like many of the readers of this blog, I am the first to acknowledge the perpetual, virtually annualized, conversations about tipping points and shifting sands in healthcare, or whatever nomenclature you prefer. That said, I think Dylan’s lyrics have never been truer – “the times they are a changin.” The question we have to ask ourselves is whether or not we, as marketing and PR pros, are ready for the change.

     

    Ryan Lilly

    , ,

  • Key Takeaways from the 2017 Health IT Marketing and PR Conference

    Key Takeaways from the 2017 Health IT Marketing and PR Conference

    I was fortunate enough to attend the annual Health IT Marketing and PR Conference or #HITMC (pronounced hit-mick) in Las Vegas. For those outside of the healthcare marketing and PR world, HITMC is a conference put on by one of the most successful and influential bloggers in the space, John Lynn, and his partner Shahid Shah, who is also a widely respected thought leader in the health IT world. The conference is unique in that it brings together some of the best and brightest, and me, from healthcare marketing and PR, both in-house and agency side. When you consider how quickly healthcare and PR / marketing are evolving, it is immensely valuable to be able to collaborate with and learn from others who are facing the same challenges as you. I was hoping for a very collegial and educational experience at HITMC, and that was exactly what I got. Here are a few key takeaways worth sharing for both healthcare and those in healthcare communications.

    /></p> <h1 style=Healthcare Trends to Watch

    • Continuing convergence of payers and providers: With the shift toward value-based care (doctors get paid for making you better) and away from our current fee-for-service model (doctors get paid for everything they do whether you get better or not), there is more incentive for payers (insurers) and providers (doctors / hospitals) to work together. This is likely even extending into other areas of healthcare, like pharma. This convergence is transforming the business model of two of healthcare’s key entities, and subsequently the way that technology vendors and service providers must work with and for them.
    • Healthcare is being infiltrated by “outside technology”: Healthcare, which has been traditionally slow to adopt technology and innovate, is finally trying to catch up with the tech experiences we enjoy in our personal lives, and across other industries. This is opening the door to major tech companies that weren’t born into healthcare, like Google, Apple and Microsoft. Because these outside entities can innovate so much more quickly, or so it would seem, many healthcare organizations are willing to take a gamble on their new solution purchases. While they may not believe these outliers to have the best solution today, five years from now they probably will because of their ability and willingness to innovate. This is also driving an increasing number of partnerships between traditional healthcare players and non-traditional tech companies looking to get into healthcare.

    Lessons for Communicators – Healthcare and Otherwise

    • Focus on your “love group”: This was a great lesson delivered by the conference keynote Gary Rhodes regarding where we should focus our energies as communications professionals. Too many companies and marketing departments fall victim to focusing on brand detractors. Every brand has them and they should be addressed, but this should be done quietly and behind the scenes. Where we should really be focusing our energy is on the customers that love our brand / company / client. Learn to see the world through their eyes and let them inform your communication strategy and key messages. Use their love to convert the indifferent and detractors and attract new customers. Spend 80% of your time with your “love group” and 20% focused on detractors. Unfortunately, many businesses and communications departments fall into the trap of reversing this ratio.
    • Know what your media wants from you: This goes back to PR best practices, but still seems to be a challenge for many in the industry. Know what reporters are important to you and your customers and learn what is important to them. After listening to a panel, which included a handful of highly regarded journalists from Forbes, Health Leaders, and com, it quickly became clear that not one of them wanted the exact same things as the other – imagine that. Some like to be asked what they are working on, some hate it and think that you as a PR person are asking them to do your job for you. Some love data and infographics, some could care less and are annoyed by them. Most agreed that they generally don’t care about your product press release. Most also agreed that they’d rather talk to your customer than you. All this said, they all want different things and want you to work with them in different ways. Learn what they like and do your best to give it to them.

     

    These represent just a handful of the many takeaways that I had from the event. Since these topics have inspired several follow on conversations between me and my colleagues over the last week, I thought that perhaps they’d be worth sharing more widely. For anyone in healthcare tech marketing or PR, I’d definitely recommend the HITMC conference as a great way to collaborate and sharpen your skills. There are also pretty active social communities on Twitter and LinkedIn for anyone looking to engage today. I look forward to attending next year’s event and hope that it will continue to grow in popularity. Please don’t hesitate to drop me a note if you’d like to discuss any of these topics or if you’d like to connect at next year’s event.

    Ryan Lilly

    , , , , ,