by Rob Rosenberg | Apr 16, 2019 | Branding & Identity, Healthcare Branding, Healthcare Marketing, Springboard News
During an annual exam, your physician can get a good sense of your heart health with an EKG. As healthcare marketers, a Brand EKG can also give you a quick read of your brand’s health. Several years ago, this model was introduced to help hospitals, namely C-Suite representatives, understand consumer research findings and implications. As indicated above and based on the classic consumer marketing behavior model, a brand has to have established a strong sense of awareness and preference before leading to trial. This model has been expanded to include brand attributes such as likability, intent to recommend, and other layers of behavior. Based on an analysis of nearly 100 consumer studies, and validated by leading healthcare researchers, we concluded that a “healthy” brand EKG would have a variance of 12-15 percentage points between key indicators. A larger number would indicate an “unhealthy” brand that is not converting on the preceding attitude. For example, a brand with a preference score 20 percentage points higher than usage is not converting market share. This could be the result of many factors including accessibility, customer service, and operational considerations (schedule, capacity, etc.). Those brands not converting awareness to preference indicate a lack of differentiation or strong consumer brand relevance. Fast forward to 2019, and the same model can be used to assess the health of your digital marketing efforts. Springboard’s Digital EKG Healthcare marketers can add to their digital dashboards by providing a Digital Brand EKG indicating the level of conversion being established from a preceding behavior. For example, if impressions served (or similar metric) are significantly higher than CTR, you’ve done...
by Rob Rosenberg | Feb 22, 2019 | Healthcare Branding, Healthcare Marketing, Integrated Marketing
Healthcare is not simple. For consumers, it’s difficult to navigate the waters of patient care, referrals, and insurance costs/reimbursements. For physicians, balancing patient care with enterprise-wide business and growth goals is challenging. And for employees of larger health systems, there is confusion as to other providers in the organization and how/when to make appropriate referrals. These issues, along with many others, make healthcare one complex industry. And healthcare brands have become just as complicated. That’s why healthcare marketing needs to be made simple. After all, the simple definition of marketing is “meeting customer needs”. Making a complex buying cycle and multi-layered organizational structure easier to understand are right in line with the basic tenants of marketing. Why simpler is better for consumers Healthcare marketers face a ‘double whammy’ when trying to reach and motivate consumers. First, studies show that the average consumer is exposed to 5,000 – 7,500 brand messages and marketing content a day (depending on which study you read). And with more and more channels being developed to reach consumers, that number is growing dramatically on a daily basis. The School of Human Sciences and Technology estimates that consumers switch between screens up to 21 times an hour and the average person’s attention span is now just eight seconds. Eight seconds! Not only do healthcare messages need to gain consumer attention, they also need to communicate a story, capture their interest, and cause an action, all in less time than a ten second commercial. This leads to the second whammy; healthcare marketing and messaging has traditionally not been that simple, or made that interesting. It’s often...
by Rob Rosenberg | Jan 23, 2019 | Branding & Identity, Springboard News
As the new year kicks in, there are all sorts of tips and habits to break in order to help improve your personal and professional success. For those in healthcare marketing, here are eight bad habits that need to be broken to help fix your strategies and outcomes. Focusing on marketing and not business building Marketing in many healthcare organizations still lands on the promotional side of the equation. Successful marketers are those who understand the growth goals of their organization and develop strategies, beyond campaigns and clicks, to generate revenue and support new customer acquisition. Developing the wrong dashboards You know you’re too focused on the promotional side of things when your marketing “dashboard” consists of primarily digital terms that leave the C-Suite in the dust. When you include business metrics, too, your dashboard will truly provide a snapshot of your organization’s marketing success in terms of share-of-wallet, customer acquisition, profit margin, and conversion rates. These will be sure to get the attention of your CEO and put your department and initiatives in a new light. Using market research to learn all about yourself Most market research studies ask a lot of questions about the brand, not about the customer. Other than demographics at the end, very few ask consumers, for example, about their interests and passions, what’s important to them, and the issues they’re most interested in. Look at your customer research from their POV and you’ll gain great insights on how to make your marketing strategies much more relevant and engaging. Not having a clearly defined brand position It’s head scratching and nail biting to develop...
by Rob Rosenberg | Dec 18, 2018 | Branding & Identity, Springboard News
When it comes to reaching and motivating consumers, healthcare marketers face a double “whammy.” First, studies show that the average person is exposed to 7,500 brand messages and marketing content every day. The School of Human Sciences and Technology estimates that people switch between screens up to 21 times an hour. As a result of this overload, the average person’s attention span is eight seconds! What makes this even more complicated for healthcare marketers is the second whammy; making healthcare messaging engaging, simple, digestible, and differentiating in less time than it takes to say “multi-disciplinary, comprehensive, continuum of care.” As healthcare systems continue to grow adding new capabilities, physician practices, and other services, messaging becomes more complex – all the while consumers are giving them less time. Here are 8 ideas on how you can manage the “8 Second Rule” for healthcare brands A long-time colleague, copywriter and tagline maestro friend of mine, Jim Morris, developed a great tagline for taglines, “Long story, short.” I’ve always loved the power and simplicity of this idea. A tagline becomes a part of the brand’s lore and legacy. Healthcare brands still sound unimaginably similar. And the development of a unique, crafty tagline is one way to stand out and live on after your eight seconds are up. So much more to say on this, but I’ll keep it short. Consistency of messaging from one medium to next, one screen to the next, is also another important idea. Too many brands have too many different “faces” from one screen to the next. Knowing your time is limited, should limit this practice. Become a...
by Rob Rosenberg | Oct 30, 2018 | Branding & Identity, Springboard News
I had the pleasure to present at the SHSMD Connections conference in Seattle a few weeks ago. My co-presenter, and fellow disruptor, Paul Szablowski and I were thrilled to see a full house for our session. Healthcare marketers were eager to learn business lessons from the hit reality television show “Shark Tank.” Healthcare marketers are under constant scrutiny from their CEO’s to demonstrate value and Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI). Walking into a shark tank each time budgeting and annual planning rolls around is all too much a reality. Here’s a recap of our presentation. If it leaves you swimming with questions or additional thoughts, I look forward to hearing from you. The Waters are Murky for Healthcare Marketers Marketers in all industries are facing intense pressure to perform for their organization. Many studies suggest that there is definitely a realignment needed between the C-Suite and marketing department in terms of expectations, accountability, and responsibilities. Nearly three quarters of CEO’s want their marketing department to focus on growth goals and new customer acquisition. And the same percentage of healthcare marketers believe their jobs are not designed to let them achieve this for their organizations. Perhaps this is why the average tenure of a Chief Marketing Officer is only four years – the shortest length of any position in the C-Suite. Another reason is that healthcare marketers have focused too much on “marketing” and not enough on growth goals. So before walking into your “shark tank,” this mindset has to shift or you’ll be quick to sink in your organization. Lesson 1: Know your role Yes, you’re The Director of...
