by Will Wells | Jun 27, 2018 | Integrated Marketing, Social Media
You know the importance of having a social media presence. Staying relevant and continuing to show how your organization interacts in its community plays a large role in this digital era. Social media marketing for healthcare and hospital brands is at an all-time high, almost every system has a presence. But once you build your audience, what do you do with it? There are many opportunities, and one way to utilize it is for healthcare market research. Leaning on your owned audience for their opinions is just one way to benefit from engaging your followers. Conducting Healthcare Market Research Whether you want consumer opinions though an online survey, or you want to recruit them for a focus group, once you have built up an owned audience, you can reach to them for information on many topics related to your healthcare brand. Online surveys are a cost-effective way to get information from those involved with your brand. Your social network is already familiar with you and your brand; therefore, they are more knowledgeable on what your brand offers and more willing to provide insight. Whether your hospital or healthcare brand is looking to capture market research or measure customer satisfaction, you can start with the followers on each of your social media channels. Once you develop a good list of questions, you can create a visually engaging social media post that will help ensure your post gets clicked on and drives consumers to your questionnaire. Springboard has been using these tactics and finding a high click-thru rate. In addition, we also see a high completion rate from our followers vs. non-followers. In addition, focus group recruiting can also be handled in this new age, innovative fashion. If your brand is seeking to measure satisfaction or conduct healthcare market research, look to utilize your social media audience first. Developing the right questions and the most compelling creative visual is a solid way to recruit participants in your market research study at a fraction of the cost. Contact Us Learn more about how to conduct healthcare market research on your social... 
by Rob Rosenberg | Jun 27, 2018 | Branding & Identity, Integrated Marketing, Social Media, Springboard News
The blue box has never been hotter. Sales and stock prices are at record highs and Tiffany appears to be soaring; even with some of the highest price points in the retail jewelry sector. The reason for this performance is that Tiffany is thinking outside its box and embracing new customers, lifestyles, and preferences with innovative products and open-armed service. Long regarded as a stodgy, conservative brand for those consumers who step right off a print advertisement, Tiffany also has recognized that brands change at the speed of culture, and it was time for a different course. After 178 years in business, the company is recognizing that marriages are different as are household compositions and it’s paying off for them. One excellent example of this is Tiffany’s first advertising campaign targeting same-sex couples. A series of print ads is being introduced. Not only do they feature these couples, but are also showing traditional marriages which represent more than husband and wife. Today, there are kids and other family members involved and new messages and products are hitting that sweet spot. Heartbeat Branding We talk about “Heartbeat Branding” at Springboard. Tiffany is doing just that. They have found the “sweeter spot” at the intersection of brand benefits, consumer needs, and cultural influences. Their brand attributes include excellence and elegance. Their consumers want excitement and commitment. Cultural influences also include new marriages, household composition and a stronger economy. Mix it all together and they’ve hit the “Heartbeat” of their brand. Branding today is about heartbeat, not chest beat. Tiffany is one example of making your brand super relevant. Brands that are looking for their heartbeat need to think outside their own box and more into the lifestyle, needs, and passions of their audience. That’s what Tiffany is doing and what heartbeat branding is all about. Contact Springboard today to learn... 
by Rob Rosenberg | May 23, 2018 | Branding & Identity, Springboard News
Most research studies provide excellent insights into your brand. For example, knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions people have of your brand, their intent to use, and likelihood to recommend. In addition, there’s data collected on who replied to the survey; gender, age, income, etc. Yes, this tells you about what people think of your brand. However, it doesn’t tell you anything about the people who use it, or want to use it. Creating the highest level of relevance with your brand requires knowing more about the people you’re targeting than has been customary. Just like in good advertising practices, it’s about them – not you. A heartbeat brand is one that appeals to the interests, lifestyle, visions and dreams of your audience. Use your market research to help you understand these traits so your brand can be more effectively positioned and modified to meet their needs. There should be a section within your questionnaire that asks people about what matters most in their lives. How they spend their time, activities they enjoy, hobbies they pursue, etc. Armed with this information, you can begin to reflect these passions and interests in your brand communications. Images become more than design background; they become eye-catching relevant scenarios. Your audience sees themselves and how their life intersects with your brand, not the other way around. Knowing your audience in new, relevant ways will help you create positioning and messaging platforms that break through and become noticed. Why? Because you’ve captured the essence of what’s most important to people you’re trying to influence, not trying to influence them with your brand message. Contact us today to learn more about your heartbeat... by Mike Chapman | May 22, 2018 | Branding & Identity, Social Media, Springboard News
How savvy healthcare marketers are using content to more effectively tell their brand’s stories to engage, attract and retain customers. We all understand that the benefits of content marketing help build awareness, authority and trust for your brand in a way that helps your audiences make decisions and take action. And we also get that Google values fresh and original writing, leading to better SEO and more visitors to your website. But how do you put an actionable strategy behind everything you create? The roadmap goes like this: Plan, Create, Distribute, Measure, Optimize, and Repeat. Plan First, understand the marketing purpose of everything you produce is to support your organizations strategic objectives – make sure your content strategy is on sync with them and generate content that’s aligned. Planning also includes the following: Your target audiences – their needs, wants and desires Your organization’s point-of-view – to uniquely carve out your niche The specific themes, causes or initiatives that support the goals of your organization This is also the time to identify your sources – service line directors, physicians and other influencers in your organization that will help generate ideas, vet and approve any clinical language. Create Use the insights from your sources to create content that’s original, specific to your organization, and unique for Google. Even more, ensure it aligns with your strategic objectives. This can take many forms, but as with most of the marketing communications produced now – think mobile first. Other creative considerations should include: Selecting the most appropriate platforms, including the following: Web, blogs, online videos, Facebook Live events, social media posts and ads, case studies, podcasts, eNewsletters are all forms of content and are all measurable Speaking the language and designing specifically for the demographic of each social media platform Directing your audience to a specific page on your website or to take a specific action Use this to help your audiences better understand how you can help, the options you provide, and ultimately the benefits of choosing you. Distribute As Jay Baer, digital expert and New York Times best-selling author once said, “Content is fire and social media is gasoline.” It’s like social media was made for distributing content, and fortunately, most platforms can help us target our desired audiences very effectively – with minimal investment. Distribution best practices include the following: Put all pieces you produce into as many channels as possible, but remember to customize for each to ensure it resonates with its intended audiences Use content to expand your “owned” audience by soliciting engagement and content sign-ups on your website Create a repository for everything you create. It can be a page on your website that visitors (and Google) can find organically to access advice and the latest news from your organization – many purposely make this page look like a newsfeed Measure Measure, test and test again. Create a scorecard for each campaign that includes analytics and the desired “conversion events”; this will help you prove success and guide content going forward – never be content with your content. Test the following: Emotional stories vs. facts and figures Various creative approaches, images and channels Target audience, time of day and geographic reach of your social media posts And don’t be afraid to fail – not everything that’s created will be a home-run, learn from every piece of content that’s distributed, and move on. Optimize The data will tell you what works and what doesn’t from a content, audience and media channel standpoint. Use that data for optimization, including: If your audiences engage with testimonials and real-life stories more than facts and awards, give them more. As a result, start using that lens to produce future writing If video is the preferred vehicle, find more ways to incorporate it The thing we’ve always liked about digital media is the ability to use analytics to shift your media spend to where it will above all, work hardest for your brand. Repeat We all know building a brand is never a one and done. Keep engaging your target audiences with content that, from the data you collect, is valuable to them. Learn more about how Springboard can develop and support your content strategy by clicking... by Natalie Wong | Apr 18, 2018 | Branding & Identity, Springboard News, Website Development
Your healthcare website is the hub of your digital marketing strategy. It is the place where patients, members and influencers want to learn more about your organization. While many medical product and service companies have an online presence, they don’t think of search engine optimization (SEO) while building it or even after the site’s been developed to maintain it. A website can look great, but if it’s not built for SEO, no one will be able to find you. Follow these 5 important factors to make your website more successful, including design and development, and what to do once the website is live. Simple is better, especially for healthcare brands. Before you get started with a new website, first define your goals. What do you want your visitors to see and what do you want them to do? This all contributes to the design of your new site. Not everything can stand out. Highlight a few things that sets you apart from your competitors and make those stand out on your homepage. If visitors want more information, then they can click through the inside pages of your site to learn more. Keep in mind, if your website is too cluttered or looks confusing, it overwhelms your visitors. They may end up leaving your site because they can’t find what they are looking for. Also, your site should be optimized for conversions. How do you want to measure success? Make sure you have that clear call-to-action. Built for quality. Many people can build a website but it’s how you build it that matters. When people think of search engine optimization (SEO), they tend to think of keywords or content. However, it’s more than just that. Your website needs to be built and optimized for SEO, it needs to be built to perform on the web. For instance, the way a website is coded can affect the load speed of your site. Load speed contributes to your SEO. The faster your site loads, the higher quality score it will get. Research shows that if your website takes 3 seconds or longer to load, your visitors won’t wait. Your site also needs to be responsive. Whether you are viewing the site on a tablet, phone, laptop or even a TV, it needs to automatically adjust accordingly to fit each screen size. Engagement. How will you keep visitors engaged on your healthcare website? Make sure your content is easy to read by avoiding chunky paragraphs. Your content should be concise with captivating headlines. Share content that is compelling to visitors, such as patient testimonials, stories or exciting news. Also, incorporate photos and videos as well. All of this is shareable content. Post on your social media accounts or send out e-newsletters to subscribers. This will also help to drive traffic back to your website. Security. Unfortunately, websites are prone to security risks. There is no such thing as having a website that is 100% secure. Website security is more about risk reduction than risk elimination. The first thing you need to do to enhance the security of your website is installing an SSL Certificate. SSL Certificates are what make a website trusted. In addition, search engines typically list websites that are secure and safe first. To make your website even more secure, you should conduct daily backups of your site. In the instance your site were to get hacked, which can happen at any time, you can revert the site to a time prior to when it was hacked – maybe a day or two or even a couple of hours. This allows for minimal loss of the site if you frequently add content. Maintenance. Your website will always grow. Whether you have news to share, photos to add, new testimonials or stories to promote, it’s always good to add it to your site. Google loves fresh and relevant content. It also shows Google that your website is consistently active. Be sure to link Google Analytics and Google Search Console to your website. These are great tools to have so that you know where your visitors are coming from, how they are navigating throughout your site, and how your website is ranking on Google search results. These are all great success factors for a very effective healthcare website. Keep in mind, if you take care of your website, it will take care of you and you will have a great return. If you are thinking about redesigning your healthcare website or want to know how effective your site is in terms of SEO or development, contact Natalie at Springboard today for a free website... 
