by Megan Moriarty | Jul 21, 2021 | Blog
Most people working in communications are familiar with the idea that storytelling creates the most impactful and memorable messages. Feeling a human connection to a story is what makes it resonate with us, and what makes us care. Working in the healthcare communications field makes it easy to tell great stories because we’ve all had our own healthcare experiences. Healthcare is personal and we can relate to any number of situations because of that.
When pitching/covering/writing about health IT, it’s important to center around the human element. Amendola CEO Jodi Amendola has shared that the best PR is personal, and the human connection is what makes any story relatable. My colleague Margaret Kelly also recently wrote about her perspective on health IT as a patient. Connecting the features of health tech to end users (physicians and other care providers) and to the ultimate benefits to patients makes stories more powerful and demonstrates the value of technology.
In the health IT world, there’s so much innovation and so many new tools, programs and systems that can improve the healthcare system. But the most important stories in health IT are not about the technology but instead about the patients who ultimately benefit from the technology. Patients are the ultimate beneficiary of all the innovation happening in healthcare, from safety, to efficiency, to patient satisfaction and ultimately improved health outcomes.
If, like me, you’ve had a telemedicine appointment this year because of COVID-19, you’ve experienced health tech innovation firsthand. While telehealth was not initially conceived as a method for delivering health care to prevent viral spread during a pandemic, it’s an unexpected use case for an innovation that was originally thought of as a convenience. The rapid adoption of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has likely changed health care delivery, and telemedicine is likely here to stay in a bigger role moving forward.
I can look at my own career in PR and see real-world examples of how healthcare technology benefitted physicians and patients in unexpected ways. I live in the Kansas, which is right in the heart of “Tornado Alley.” No, I’ve never actually seen a tornado, but the sirens are a familiar part of spring and summer in the Midwest. Tornados are destructive and can be deadly – you may remember the horrific destruction of the EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri in 2011 which killed 161 people and badly damaged the local hospital.
Even though there were reports of X-ray films being blown 70 miles away, patient records were also digitized. When the hospital was closed due to the extensive damage, the community set up temporary facilities to care for patients and the clinicians were able to electronically access medical records for those patients. Prior to the widespread adoption of electronic health records, this would not have been possible.
I was also working in health IT when a devastating tornado ripped through a medical center in Oklahoma in 2013. The roof was torn off and the medical center had to evacuate patients to other locations within the regional health system. Before EHRs, this situation would have left clinicians without access to the health records for the patients in their care. But thanks to the digitization of medical records and a regional health information organization (RHIO) for which my employer remotely hosted the records, patients could be transferred to other nearby facilities and physicians could access patients’ records for treatment.
This second example was actually a cover story in Modern Healthcare that highlighted how technology makes our healthcare system better and benefits communities and patients. It may have been an unintended use case for health information exchanges (HIEs) and remotely hosted records for disaster preparedness, but sometimes unforeseen events help to prove the efficiency and value of certain innovations.
Finding a meaningful way to communicate how innovations benefit people makes health IT messages more memorable. To make your health tech story resonant with audiences, always look for the human connection.
by Chris Nerney | Jul 7, 2021 | Blog
Successful marketers are persuasive. Whatever their medium – print, audio, video – the content and messages they create consistently prompt their target audience to take action.
There are multiple schools of thought about effective marketing, not to mention plenty of marketing and copywriting “experts” (legit or self-proclaimed) willing to offer you their insights through books, online courses, subscription newsletters, and other revenue-generating vehicles. Many of them offer excellent advice.
But there also is a seemingly unlimited amount of free online advice offering sound tips and strategies for writing deeply persuasive marketing copy. The advice ranges from the theoretical to the practical. I’ve pulled together five that jumped out at me for one reason or another. They are in no particular order. Let’s get going.
Know your audience
OK, right off the bat I lied, which admittedly isn’t a great long-term marketing strategy. The truth is, this first item – know your audience – actually is the most important piece of advice on the list, which now (so far at least) has a semblance of order!
You simply can’t hone an effective marketing message if you don’t know who it’s intended to persuade. One copywriting advice guy I read says “the key to great copywriting is to like your audience.” I understand where he’s coming from, but I would instead suggest it’s better to understand your target audience, particularly their needs and pain points that could be addressed by your company’s products or services.
While liking them might help get you there, doing some research would be even more illuminating and productive. Another way to help sharpen your understanding of the target audience is to create a profile or persona based on demographic data.
Know your message (and tighten it)
You can’t market effectively if you 1) don’t know what you’re marketing and 2) how to explain it in various levels of detail. The latter can be particularly challenging for healthcare technology companies that have complex platforms or services. There’s a lot to explain! One cofounder I know told me he knows the exact moment when he loses potential customers as he tries to explain his startup’s technology: “I can see their eyes glaze over.”
Eye glazing is never a good sign. Make sure you can explain your technology – and, more importantly, what problems it can solve – clearly and concisely. That’s a struggle for some technologist entrepreneurs, which is why many of them hire marketing and PR professionals to help them shape and deliver their message.
Write about your audience (not about what you’re selling)
Your content needs to read as if you’re personally addressing your target audience, as if you can read their minds and are on their side. The best copywriting puts the focus on the needs of the audience, not the merits of a product or service. Yes, those eventually will have to be discussed, but only in the context of solving a problem for the potential buyer. At all times, it is about the customer. A lot of “you” in your marketing content goes a long way.
Write for your medium
How you write content for a 2,000-word white paper will be dramatically different than how you would write 150 words of web copy for a home page. People who sit down to read a white paper they downloaded have different expectations than those who are surfing around looking for something to interest them – or a solution to their problems.
For the former, you have room to delve into how your technology works, how it applies to various use cases, etc. You can geek out. In the latter case, your mission is to capture readers’ attention and keep them on your site. That requires the equivalent of emotionally hard-hitting ad copy that leads to data capture, lead generation, and potential customers.
Invite a conversation
Granted, you can’t do this with every marketing asset. But a steady social media presence can enable you to have an ongoing dialog with members of your target market. There may not be an immediate revenue payoff, but social media is about the long game. It’s for building relationships, encouraging engagement, learning about your customers, and establishing a consistent voice for your brand. Writing for social media should be relatively informal and conversational.
Conclusion
Marketers have more tools and channels than ever for connecting with existing and potential customers. To get the most out of your marketing strategy and efforts, you must understand your target audience, know how to talk to them (depending on the medium), know what to say to them, and be eager to listen and learn.
by Philip Anast | Jun 23, 2021 | Blog
A recent cyberattack on a fuel pipeline has hospital and health system officials rethinking what they need to do better to protect their own networks from breaches and the huge consequences that can result.
For communications professionals at such institutions, rehearsing such crisis scenarios and what should follow can be the difference between saving a reputation or seeing it destroyed.
The ability to respond promptly to disasters or damaging reports can build confidence in constituents that the organization is on top of the crisis and is a leader in its sector.
One thing to consider is that crisis plans should make very clear who is responsible for what. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind:
Prepare in advance with inputs from the organization’s functional areas. The time to plan for a crisis is long before it hits. A well- thought-out crisis plan is designed to help an organization communicate internally and externally with clear, succinct, and timely direction.
The goal is to minimize confusion and maintain confidence amidst whatever crisis may occur. Opinions vary and emotions are strong when the stakes are high, the book Crucial Conversations tells us. The time for addressing conflicting perspectives is in the preparation phase of a crisis plan, not during the crisis itself. While there will undoubtedly be differences of opinion in one’s approach depending on the circumstances, a detailed plan rehearsed with key players and influencers can minimize disruption when things get tense. Still, even if things get heated, the book’s authors tell us to leverage the power of dialogue with absolute candor and deep respect for others’ viewpoints to realize the desired goals.
Identify stakeholders. Designing an effective crisis management plan also requires an understanding of stakeholders and their roles. Stakeholders are all those who have an interest in the outcome. For a health system, the list is generally long and can include patients, governments, administrators, board members, and clinicians. Each might need slightly different things during a crisis, which is why each stakeholder should be considered a separate audience.
Identify a communications chain of command. Crisis plans should – in advance – identify all of those who will be involved with managing a crisis, what areas they are responsible for and who is ultimately responsible for making decisions. Then, all of those involved should receive the training they need to be effective in their roles. For example, specialists from all functional areas of the organization should be available to lend their expertise should the need arise, and executive spokespeople should receive media training.
Create real-world tools that can be modified later. One of the most valuable things to have in a crisis is a head start. Messaging, scripts, and spokespeople should be prepared in advance. The communications team or the company’s PR firm can later assist in adapting standard scripts to specific situations based on the event and fallout.
Ensure that crisis management messaging addresses various aspects of the crisis. When communicating bad news or another type of crisis, it is imperative that the organization’s spokespersons do the following:
Elaborate with the “what” – explain what happened with concise language, together with the organization’s position on the issue
Educate with the “how” – explain how audiences should respond to the situation and how the organization is responding
Engage with the “why” – explain the impact the situation has on operations so that impacts are not blown out of proportion
By giving thoughtful consideration to the development of a crisis management plan, organizations are more likely to be able to recover from bad news. In some cases, they might even exit the crisis with stronger brand relationships.
by Michelle Ponte | Jun 9, 2021 | Blog
In the 1994 book Bird by Bird, author Anne Lamott dispenses advice legendary among writers on how to write a draft worthy of hitting send. Her key gem (and the only piece of advice I recall after nearly 30 years): “Just write a “sh***ty first draft.”
That short sentence is the mantra that informs every article, case study, white paper, and…er, today’s blog post that I create. Writing on command can be challenging, especially for marketing, PR, and media relations professionals who produce copy on deadline about complex healthcare topics. There are times when that first sentence just won’t come to mind, making us fall prey to believing we have writer’s block.
However, after writing for a living for 20+ years, I no longer believe in so-called writer’s block. Why? Because that tired phrase suggests I don’t have control of the writing process. Hundreds of well-received articles, reports, and other papers would suggest otherwise.
What I finally figured out is once I write those first 100 throwaway words (okay, 200 or 300), I need to trust that the creative process will kick in sooner—rather than later—and lead me to a final, polished, client-worthy draft.
Even so, the writing process is never as easy or linear as we would like it to be. If I still can’t produce quality work after writing that terrible first draft, as Lamott suggests, I know it’s time to stop and redirect as quickly as possible. I find there are two primary reasons why writers get stuck, which are relatively easy to fix with the right approach.
Zero creative inspiration. You just came off a 12-hour writing jag, and now it’s time to do it all over again with a 2,000-word byline. While you may have a strong command of the topic and direction, you are getting stuck with the lead, introduction, or headline. This is a common stumbling block for writers because this is where your words need that spark to draw in readers. When this happens, I stop, switch gears, and do activities that will inspire creative thinking.
This typically involves browsing publications from other industries. A few of my go-to pubs are Fast Company and Wired, both of which have punchy headlines, good pacing, and well-structured articles. I also read current healthcare news for inspiration and comb through a desktop folder of well-written articles and reports I have saved for this specific purpose. I may even listen to an audiobook for a few minutes or do push-ups and squats next to my desk. The activity doesn’t matter, it just needs to help you shift from an analytical to a creative mindset.
No direction, and it’s due end of day. You have three interviews to sort through, conflicting directions from the client, and the outline in your head is spinning out of control. Been there, and yes, there is a solution. Take another look at the assignment memo or creative brief for clarity. If it still doesn’t make sense, rewrite it in your own words until it does. If guidance wasn’t provided, quickly write a creative brief for yourself that includes a one-sentence objective and three key takeaways (one sentence each).
Still stuck? Take it next level and write a one-page outline resembling the basic four-paragraph essay you learned in high school. The four-paragraph essay includes the headline and four paragraphs with topic sentences (the intro, two middle sections, and a conclusion.) After you have committed to this outline, add more paragraphs under each of the four sections and give them topic sentences as well. Drop chunks of information into each paragraph, finish that bad first draft, rename it, and move into the writing zone.
I also write down ideas in my notes app on my phone as they occur (knowing I will never remember them later), usually after a shower or before bed when I am more relaxed. Some of my best writing starts this way. Finally, I keep an editorial cheat sheet crammed with writing goodies, including a list of words and phrases I can grab and use to polish that final draft.
Need more tips to fix your writer’s block? Check out this blog from my colleague Morgan Lewis.
by Brandon Glenn | May 26, 2021 | Blog
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues its inexorable march towards consuming more and more jobs previously done by humans, it may be a question of when, rather than if, humans become the new horses.
Think, for a minute, about how absolutely essential horses were to the economy 200 years ago. With much of the economy still industrializing and dependent on agriculture, horses were vital to the farm work that produced the world’s food. With no automobiles, horses also played a critical role in transportation, delivering goods to market and enabling humans to travel in coaches or by horseback.
Horses were so important that the U.S. equine population grew six-fold between 1840 and 1900 to more than 21 million horses and mules, according to a report in Foreign Affairs. Then came the internal combustion engine, replacing horses with cars in cities and tractors on farms. The U.S. equine population plummeted to 3 million by 1960, a drop of 88% in just 60 years.
For decades if not centuries, a related debate has loomed, ranging from “The Grapes of Wrath” to “2001: A Space Odyssey” and many others: Will technology replace and make human labor irrelevant? (Given that McKinsey reported five years ago that “currently demonstrated technologies could automate 45% of the activities people are paid to perform,” this is a subject that should be a concern for all workers – and that was five years ago!)
Now, with the rise of AI in marketing and public relations, the “Are humans the new horses?” question has begun to hit a little closer to home for PR professionals. Today, we may use AI software for routine, manual, time-consuming tasks such as transcribing interviews. Tomorrow – as AI gets better and smarter, which it most certainly will – we may use AI to write press releases, product descriptions, website copy and the like.
Once AI gets good enough to do that, it will likely begin to take human jobs. Sure, companies will still need some humans to feed information into the AI software to help the software write a press release, but assistance from AI will mean that companies need far fewer humans to produce the same amount of output.
Already, we’re seeing some examples of PR and marketing AI software – just not the kind that is sophisticated enough to take human jobs in a significant way. Copy.ai promises an “end to writer’s block” by helping users “generate marketing copy in seconds.” (I signed up for a seven-day trial and played around the software a little bit to write a product description; it seemed pretty good.) Similarly, Contilt pledges to “put the power of AI at your fingertips” by using software to generate article drafts and do research. No doubt there are plenty of similar startups today, and there will plenty more in the future.
These companies like to sell their AI as tools that will help humans do their jobs, better, which is true enough in the beginning. Then the AI gets smarter, and it begins to approach, but not meet, humans’ ability to edit content or draft a byline, for example. At this point, we’ve started on the slippery slope to where AI’s “good enough” work product becomes so much cheaper for companies to produce than a human-written article, that “good enough” becomes the industry standard for all articles and human writers start to lose their jobs. What a time to be alive!
So what’s a concerned PR professional to do? Data scientist Michael McBride offers three points of advice:
- Don’t get cocky: In one notable survey, 90% of responders thought that up to half of jobs would be lost to automation within five years, but 91% didn’t think there was any risk to their job. Don’t fall into the “It can’t happen to me” trap. It can.
- Make a process map of your job (extreme kudos to anyone who actually does this!): Create a process map that “visualizes the set of decisions and actions that make up your day-to-day life.”
- Double down on soft skills: Professions that require a tremendous amount of empathy and human interaction are among those least likely to be automated.
The good news is that, as it stands in 2021, there are still PR jobs available. Humans haven’t become horses – yet. Nonetheless, prepare for the coming onslaught of AI as if your career depends on it, because it probably does.
by Chris Nerney | May 12, 2021 | Blog
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of healthcare podcasts available to listeners in 2021. There even are podcast networks devoted exclusively to healthcare topics. For healthcare professionals, these podcasts can provide valuable information. They also offer a platform for healthcare pros to get their messages across as podcast guests.
But how do you get on a healthcare podcast as a guest? In some cases, you may be asked. Daily and even weekly podcasts that use an interview format are always recruiting guests. It’s an endless process. Further, they are constantly looking for episode ideas. So while waiting around to be invited as a guest may pay off, you should consider pitching a topic for which you are an expert to podcasts you want to be on. Even if they say no initially, that will get you on their radar screens.
A great thing about podcasts is that almost anybody can launch one. A bad thing about podcasts is that almost anybody can launch one. And while the terrible podcasts tend to flame out quickly, there are ongoing healthcare podcasts that struggle to retain an audience through most of an episode, often because (I’m just being honest here) they’re boring.
The point is you shouldn’t jump at a guest opportunity simply because one was offered. If a podcast sounds amateurish or induces sleep, appearing as a guest will do you little good. Then there’s subject matter. If you, an oncology expert, are asked to be a guest on a podcast about the revenue cycle, you should politely decline (and the podcast should find a new producer). Make sure the podcast is a good fit relative to subject matter and overall vibe.
An easy way to determine subject matter fit is to read descriptions of past episodes. Can you imagine the audience you want to reach being interested in those topics? In terms of a show’s vibe, can you picture yourself having a stimulating conversation with the host or hosts? If the answer to both is “yes,” go ahead and book it.
Whether you’ve been recruited or successfully pitched yourself for a healthcare podcast, now that you’re going to be a healthcare podcast guest, you have to prepare. If you haven’t listened to any episodes of the podcast for which you’re booked, now’s the time. Does the host seem informed and prepared? Does conversation flow freely or are there painful silences? Understanding the dynamics of the podcast enables you to 1) visualize your own performance, and 2) develop strategies and ideas for the episode.
Once you’ve listened to a couple of episodes, all you’ve got to do now is show up and knock it out the park. Just kidding! “Winging it” frequently ends poorly, even if you are a legitimate expert or thought leader.
It is imperative that you and the podcast host/producer communicate clearly about the episode’s topic and beyond the tentative title. A good podcast team will send you a preshow form to fill out that helps align participants regarding the episode’s content. However, do not wait to be contacted. If you don’t hear from anybody within a week of the recording date, send the host/producer a list of questions you can be asked or an outline of points you want to cover. Make sure they acknowledge receiving it.
In addition to boredom, nothing chases away a podcast audience faster than bad audio. Though some podcasts will send guests a microphone prior to their appearance, I’d recommend buying your own mic and headphones – especially if you think you’ll regularly be guesting on podcasts. You don’t have to spend more than $100 on each. (Here are good guides for mics and headphones. USB mics plug into a computer and are vastly superior to laptop mics, which make you sound like you’re trapped in a box.)
When the big day arrives, you’ll be sent a link by the podcast host/producer to Zoom or another videoconferencing platform such as Riverside.fm, SquadCast, or Zencastr. Click on that link and you’ll likely be dropped into a “green room” where you can check your video and audio. (Many podcasts will use video for the recording, even if the episodes are released only in audio.)
And the show has begun! If you and the host are well-prepared, all you’ve got to do now is be your engaging, insightful self. Focus on the conversation and not the fact that you’re doing a “show.” This will help you be more relaxed and in the moment, as you naturally would be in a conversation that wasn’t being recorded.
You also need to be yourself plus. Amp it up a bit, go to 11, show some passion for your topic. You can’t get your message across if listeners are drifting away. Remember, to a large extent a podcast is a performance. Avoid monotone and project personality and humanity. That will make listeners remember you and get you booked on more podcasts.
Here are a few other quick tips:
- If you’re asked an open-ended question, try to keep your answers relatively concise. Don’t ramble or excessively repeat yourself.
- Use the host’s name in conversation. Write it down beforehand or make sure to note it on your computer screen.
- Prepare a summary to use at the end of the episode that ties together your main ideas and messages.
- Don’t talk too fast and don’t be afraid to pause for a second or two before answering. The podcast folks can cut out excessive dead air.
- If you stumble over an answer, just say, “Let me try that again.” Then pause and give it another shot. They’ll cut out the false start.
- Prior to the show, prepare stories that are relevant to the topic and that you know well. That way you can whip them out at the right moment. Listeners (and podcast hosts) love stories.
- Silence any devices that could make distracting noises during the recording.
When the show is wrapping up, make sure to thank the host (by name) and listeners (and to include any calls to action.)
Once the episode is published, promote it. Podcasts love a good guest, but they love a ratings hit even more. If you or your organization has a large email list or social media following, let everyone know about your appearance on the podcast (and include a link).
The right healthcare podcasts can help promote your organization or establish yourself as a thought leader. To fully leverage these opportunities, you need to be prepared, be yourself, and be willing to promote the episode when it’s released. Do those things consistently and healthcare podcasts will be fighting to book you.
