by Jodi Amendola | Feb 20, 2019 | Blog
Marketing, advertising and PR professionals know that words matter. And many companies are tweaking their internal and external communications to better reflect their mission and values. That might mean talking about those who work for you as “team members” to better reflect a belief that all employees contribute to the success of an organization.
Similarly, many companies are shifting how they talk about their customers, using terms like “partners” instead. The message is that they’re committed to help companies succeed with support and advisory services, rather than just delivering a product in a box and walking away.
In the healthcare industry, we’re seeing a shift in how providers are talking about patients, too. They’re also rethinking how they talk about the services they deliver and the conditions they treat. And anyone who is marketing to or communicating with providers should understand why the following three word choices matter.
1. Healthcare versus health care
The difference between these two terms is about more than house style or personal preference. The term healthcare–one word–refers to an industry and the system of providers within it. But health care–two words–is about improving health and caring for people, especially when it comes to treating populations. The current trend toward population health is about making communities healthier by supporting preventive care and wellness. The goal is to provide health care–in order to keep people out of the healthcare system.
2. Patients versus people
Speaking of keeping people out of the healthcare system, marketers should use caution when using the word patient. Many healthcare organizations–especially those that are focused on population health and accountable and value-based care models–are rethinking this common noun. In fact, some healthcare organizations have asked their staff to avoid using it whenever possible and use phrases like “the woman in room 401” or “the people we care for at our hospital.” Of course, it’s not always possible. It wouldn’t make sense to use the phrase “people outcomes” instead of “patient outcomes,” for example. But when you’re communicating with healthcare leaders who are passionate about their mission, keep in mind that they do, indeed, view their patients as people first.
3. Disease states versus conditions
Another trend showing up in the language of health services is to avoid conflating patients with their conditions. You don’t say a person “is cancer.” So why would you say a person “is diabetic?” Just as people are much more than patients, they’re also more than their disease state. And no one wants to be defined by what makes their lives most difficult. These days, the preferred phrase is “a person with diabetes.”
These may seem like small distinctions to you. And, yes, the differences are sometimes subtle. But it’s still worth taking into consideration. Because the use of these words speaks to the value and mission of provider organizations, physicians, nurses–and others across non-clinical departments, too–who have dedicated their lives and their careers to caring for people. A small effort to speak their language is not only a sign of respect for that passion, but also demonstrates you are well-versed in the current thinking about health care.
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Because, after all, words matter.
by Jodi Amendola | Feb 7, 2019 | Blog
With HIMSS19 right around the corner, my team and I are excited about networking with current and prospective clients, reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, and facilitating meetings with the best healthcare and health IT media and analysts in the business.
Even though HIMSS is a few days long, sometimes it seems like there aren’t enough hours in each day to accomplish everything you need and want to get done. With about 20 HIMSS annual meetings under my belt, I’ve learned a few networking strategies along the way to get the most marketing ROI possible from the time we all invest.
Whether you’re taking part in HIMSS19 as a vendor/exhibitor or individual attendee, here are some tips to make the most of your HIMSS networking opportunities:
Face time
Even if you’re tired after a long day of meetings, be sure to take advantage of the many face-to-face networking events at HIMSS. Meeting with other health IT execs in a more informal setting is a great way to make personal connections which in turn can become strong business relationships.
Pro tip: Find common ground and talk about something interesting or fun related to the show.
Pitch perfect
Whether you’re meeting contacts on the exhibit hall floor, in your company’s booth, or at a networking event, remember that there’s a fine line between promoting yourself and being overly self-promotional.
One way to talk about your organization is to come prepared with a well-honed elevator pitch. This is a two- to three-sentence description of your company that’s simple, easy to understand, and memorable. Don’t get bogged down in jargon and technical specs. Explain your product or service in laymen’s terms.
At our agency, every elevator pitch must pass the “Connie’s mother’s test.” In other words, if you explained your story to your friend’s mother or neighbor would they understand it? If not, you probably need to modify it.
If you’re an executive who’s meeting with media and analysts, that’s good advice for those situations, too. Talk to them just as you would anyone else you meet at the show. Be friendly, be yourself, and don’t be overly self-promotional. You want to position yourself as an industry thought leader, which means that sometimes the conversation will turn toward wider industry trends rather than specific solutions.
Pro tip: If you serve multiple client bases that use your products and services in different ways, come armed with an elevator pitch for each. They need not be completely different, but should speak to the pain points of the person you’re talking to.
The social network
Although you shouldn’t ignore social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, you’ll likely get the most exposure by engaging with other attendees on Twitter. If you want to establish yourself as a thought leader, I suggest living tweeting from the show. A simple comment on what you learned about a session, or something interesting you saw or heard on the show floor makes for good fodder.
If you want to tweet but you’re on a tight schedule, one tactic is to retweet influencers such as the HIMSS Social Media Ambassadors and trade media with a heavy presence at the show. Also consider engaging with anyone who is effectively using the conference hashtag #HIMSS19, as well as any of the other official HIMSS19 hashtags such as #Aim2Innovate, #ChampionsOfHealth, #Connect2Health, #EmpowerHIT, #Engage4Health, #HITworks, #PopHealthIT and #WomenInHIT. (When you look at the conference hashtag feeds, be sure the list is sorted by “top” rather than “most recent” to filter out some of the noise.)
You should always be authentic, and it’s great to choose tweets that resonate with your own brand. But it’s okay to retweet something interesting or funny even if it isn’t 100 percent “on message.” In fact, many attendees scroll right by posts from vendors that only tweet their sales pitch and booth number. Of course, you should post links to your own blog posts, company announcements, events and promotions. But it’s always better to join a conversation rather than trying to dominate it.
You may want to also consider taking a team approach to your conference tweets. Platforms such as TweetDeck make it easy to post from multiple accounts at once, including your personal account and those of your team members as well as your official company account. This is a great time to follow new influencers and to engage with them to get likes, retweets and (hopefully) new followers.
Pro tip: If you have a few extra moments, you can personalize a retweet by choosing “quote tweet” and adding a brief comment to make it stand out even more.
Go beyond the big show
Trade shows are a fantastic opportunity to connect with potential clients and business partners as well as analysts and the media, but if you fail to follow up, you’ve missed a key opportunity.
Too often, attendees collect business cards, only to toss them in a drawer once they get home. You can use an app that turns cell phone snaps of business cards into text files or make photocopies of them. Send those to your marketing team so they can add them into your prospect list, and don’t forget to connect on LinkedIn.
Pro tip: Write some details about the person you met on the back of their business cards as soon as you can, so you have context when you follow up.
Remember to have fun
Any large conference can be busy and overwhelming. Planning ahead will help, whether it’s deciding which network events to attend, having the official conference social hashtags at your fingertips, or making plans to meet long-distance contacts for a quick cup of coffee.
I’m looking forward to the show and hope to see many familiar and new faces in Orlando! Here’s to a great HIMSS!
by Jodi Amendola | Sep 26, 2018 | Blog
Social media is often misunderstood as an unnecessary evil, especially in healthcare, but it is an amazing tool that allows you to reach your audience in a way that was never possible before. While developing and maintaining an online community does take time and resources, events like this allow users to reap some of the benefits quickly.
Even if you don’t have an internal social media coordinator or an amazing agency managing your online presence, you can still participate in National Healthcare IT Week and other similar events. Here are six reasons to jump on board if you haven’t already.
- Engage with like-minded people and companies. These types of events create a community around the cause. By finding like-minded people you may be able to make beneficial connections that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
- Gain a better understanding of the conversation. Conversations during these events come from a variety of perspectives. It’s common to get stuck viewing the world with tunnel vision by reviewing the same new sites, having favorite writers and viewpoints.
- Find new influencers. Participating in events like this including tweet chats are a great way to quickly find people with similar ideals with your company. You might find people experiencing problems you can solve.
- Gain trust with your target market. Trust is one of the most important aspects of the customer experience. These events offer a condensed time-frame that allows you to be a part of the conversation. It’s a great opportunity to show other users that your company actualThe question I hear most often from new clients and prospects is, “How do we know if PR program is working and how can we measure our success?”It’s not an easy question!To begin with, the goal of PR is to increase brand awareness and that’s not an easily quantifiable objective. It almost always comes from multiple touch points, plus calls for insight into different media outlets true audience numbers. That’s something my team works hard to get, as we’re not content to just take as a given the numbers these outlets report.
But here’s where the questions about PR success get scary for some in our profession. What customers and prospects really want to know is, how many leads will a PR program generate?
Honestly, this is only quantifiable if you put the work into web analytics and lead scoring, and tightly align your PR and marketing teams. We love our clients that go these extra lengths! Even better if you can align with a service such as Meltwater to measure and track placements and sentiment.
But that said, I have to tell you we hear from clients regularly that lead gen is a happy byproduct of PR, even when they aren’t taking those extra steps!
Here are just a few real examples of this PR magic:
- After securing a case study commitment from a hospital that used our client’s predictive analytics, we were able to place this customer success story in a healthcare publication that hospital CIOs regularly read. Sure enough, our client’s phone was soon ringing from a CIO who had read the story and said, “This is the tool we ought to be using.” Shortly after, this hospital launched a pilot of our client’s solution, and from there, became a full-fledged and highly quotable customer.
- We landed one of our clients a coveted spot on a leading publication’s symposium on the opioid crisis. After the panel discussion, a prospect approached our client, who shared with us, “We basically closed a $1 million deal right then and there.”
- One of our telehealth clients has raced up the Google rankings thanks to the many PR placements we’ve secured. This has been particularly meaningful for our client’s marketing department, which typically expends significant resources on keeping these rankings high. According to our client, PR has organically done what paid SEO never did: garner the top ranking in the client’s respective space. “And made our competition a distant spec in search ranking!” said our client.
- 10 minutes after a story we pitched to a trade publication ran the client received a qualified lead.
- Industry conference publications are a hard outlet to crack unless paying for a spot, but this past year, we managed to secure a number of write ups for Amendola clients, at no cost, in one of the most widely read publications in the lead up to HIMSS18. This resulted in prospects reaching out to our clients, including to one client whose CEO subsequently sent out a memo stating, “This is what PR and marketing does for us.”
Check out more examples of Amendola’s PR magic at our collection of customer success stories here. As you’ll see, PR does work in many ways, to achieve many different business goals.
Interesting in making some magic with us? Shoot me an email at jamendola@acmarketingpr.com. I’d love to hear from you!ly wants to help. Humanize your brand and spread awareness for the cause.
- Stay top of mind. Your competitors are likely participating in these events. Stay top of mind with your prospects and target market. Bonus: you will be top of mind with good sentiment.
- Take advantage of scalability. These events allow your organization to really adjust your involvement based on your resources. Participate in every aspect or do what you can with the time you and your team have available.
Here’s how you can get involved:
- Become a partner
- Share on social media
- Share your story
- Create or participate in an event locally
Be sure to let us know how you participate in the comments below too!
by Jodi Amendola | Mar 14, 2018 | Blog
Some people network the traditional way. They attend networking events, dinners, and happy hours. Or they join membership organizations, serve on boards, etc.
The planned socials are not really my thing, though. Rather, I have built much of our public relations agency’s success on being open to engaging others, at just about any time, place or event. That’s a lesson I learned from my mom and dad!
They always pushed me to talk to everyone. I can still hear my Dad say: “Go talk to him. You never know where it will lead!” and “Go say “hi” to her. You never know who she knows.”
Not surprisingly, my parents were right and today it’s a philosophy I live by: network with everyone. You just never know! I have built my business on the unintentional events and truly believe that one experience leads to the next.
Here’s a great example. I recently received a LinkedIn note from someone looking for a national healthcare/pharma PR agency; her CEO had suggested she meet with me. Of course, it felt great hearing that the CEO remembered me and our high quality work especially since it had to be at least 12 years ago that he engaged us.
A meeting was scheduled. We barely got into the office when the lady said, “I can’t believe how you and Michael met. What a funny story!” To be honest, I had totally forgotten but when she gave me some details, it jogged my memory and wow, it was a good story!
Michael and I met at a car wash. Yes, a car wash!! It was a Friday afternoon and we were both waiting for our cars to be done. My mom, who was with me, engaged Michael in conversation. When she learned he was in healthcare she proceeded to sell him on my services!
There are not too many people in the healthcare/healthcare IT/pharma public relations space in Arizona, and Michael was impressed that I knew the lingo. We exchanged cards and met the following week at Starbuck’s. We did some project work for them and then lost touch … until now.
Here’s another example. Jim R. was a neighbor of mine. We were chatting at a pool party and became family friends. He was an entrepreneur and encouraged me to start my own business. I had been thinking about doing just that, and Jim’s encouragement gave me the extra push I needed. He also became a client and remains a good friend today.
And one more example one of my favorites–about how I met Gregg C. in the taxi line at the Dallas airport. In town for the HIMSS convention, along with tens of thousands of others, the line stretched on forever. Finally, the man managing it all yelled out, “Anyone else going to the convention center?”
Gregg and I got into the same taxi (pre-Uber days, of course!), and soon fell into conversation all the way into the city. It turned out Gregg was a top exec at Intel, and also from Arizona. At the time, I worked for a different healthcare IT PR agency, and Gregg said that Intel might need some specialized healthcare PR. He introduced me to a colleague, Chris, and the rest is history Intel’s Internet healthcare division became one of the agency’s clients.
But it gets better. I invited Chris to an event. She brought her colleague, Kate. I remained friends with Kate long after the engagement with Intel ended. In fact, years later when I launched my own PR agency, I reached out to Kate, and hired her to start our marketing department. Now, 14 years later, Kate is a vital part of Amendola, still leading our marketing efforts and so much more!
Networking has continued to build Amendola Communications. It was about eight years ago that I got a call from Jim G. He looked me up because I led his company’s PR efforts decades before. We not only re-connected but became great friends, attending HIT meetings and network events together, and cross-referring business leads.
Jim referred me to so many great HIT influencers that today, I rarely participate in RFPs. I don’t need to. Between my many years in the business, networking with editors, clients, and others, business leads just come in.
Of course, it is also a testament to my team and the agency that we have so many repeat clients: Doug, a four- time Amendola client; Jay, a three- time Amendola client; Brett, a three-time Amendola client; Steve, a two-time Amendola client; Michele, a two-time Amendola client; Laura, a two-time Amendola client. And the list goes on and on.
Mom and Dad were right. You just never know what that one connection will lead to! Why not connect with us today? At the very least, you’ll have a free, no-obligation consultation with the healthcare IT industry’s leading public relations agency. Shoot me an email at jamendola@acmarketingpr.com. I can’t wait to hear from you!
by Jodi Amendola | Nov 21, 2017 | Blog
A Secret “Trick” to Add to Your 2018 PR & Marketing Strategy
With Thanksgiving around the corner, it got me thinking: one day simply isn’t enough to contemplate all there is to be grateful for. Especially when adding our professional blessings to the mix, like the partners, colleagues and employees who contribute to our success. So let’s give thanks for more than just one day and create an ongoing thankfulness program as we plan our 2018 marketing and public relations initiatives.
Giving thanks and showing gratitude is an obvious yet often overlooked gesture in our fast-paced work day. Too often, we just shoot a quick text or email (if that) and check it off the “to- do” list. Remember the days when we actually went to the Hallmark store and bought a card and wrote a personal note? I had one team member who actually took the time to write me a four-page thank you note recently. WOW! It truly meant the world to me and is something I won’t forget anytime soon.
Now imagine if we all took the time to regularly give those who impact our professional success that same “wow” factor. If sincere, it can have a tremendous impact on performance, sales and overall happiness.
Let me give you another example. Last month, we celebrated our 14th anniversary at Amendola. We commemorated the milestone with a companywide retreat, bringing together all 20+ 
employees to collaborate, brainstorm and unwind for a couple of days. We spent so much time and money planning activities, entertainment, meals, hikes, etc. but at the end of the event, what was the activity that had the most positive feedback? The awards ceremony!
This fun event gave me the opportunity to demonstrate my gratitude to each member by sharing stories, memories and anecdotes about how each team member is a unique and valuable asset to the organization. As the crowning touch, I presented each team member with a certificate that included their own unique designation.
For the veteran PR account director who I know won’t rest until she gets her client a coveted media placement or top tier speaking engagement, I presented with the “Commitment to Excellence” certificate. For the young millennial social media manager who lives, sleeps and breathes new ways to create huge online followings for our clients, I presented with the “Rising Star” certificate. And for the tireless media relations wiz that regularly gets PR mentions in publications that for others are impossible to crack, I presented with the “Winning Streak” certificate.
And so on for every Amendola team member. I wanted them all to know that they are appreciated and that their efforts don’t go unnoticed. Our tremendous growth and success would not be possible without each one.
You will need deep pockets for public relations, social media, content marketing and marketing communications activities (hint, hint!) to stand above the crowd in 2018. But don’t forget about your most important assets: your team, clients and partners. As you plan for the holiday season and into the trade show blitz, I urge you to put aside some time and some budget for personal notes/direct mail, emails and blog posts giving thanks and gratitude to your internal and external clients.
Of course, you may want to implement an awards program, too, or donate money in your clients or team’s honor. Whatever approach you take, just remember that a personal thank you goes a long way and will be remembered with appreciation.
Happy Thanksgiving, and a special thank you for all who have helped me and supported both me and Amendola Communications along the way! I am so grateful for my team, clients, prospects, media, analysts, and of course, my family.
With heartfelt appreciation,
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