by Philip Anast | Apr 25, 2018 | Blog
In his book, “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business,” New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg explores the neurology of habits, why habits form in human beings, and how we can change them through a systematic approach of identifying their cues, rewards and routines.
Establishing new habits can become automatic, so that we don’t even think about them.
Duhigg employs multiple case studies to convey how habits are teachable to individuals, organizations and businesses, and societies, illustrating their profound impact. In one example, he takes us through the NFL coaching career of Tony Dungy and how he instilled certain habits in his players to help them react to cues in game situations without having to overthink their actions. The ultimate result was a Super Bowl championship in Indianapolis.
Another one centers on Paul O Neill, former treasury secretary in the second Bush administration and earlier, the President of Alcoa. O Neill’s emphasis on safety in his plants, much to the initial chagrin of fellow executives and board members, helped quadruple Alcoa revenues while instilling worker habits that empowered them to offer ideas for other improvements and best practices. The results were a happier workforce, and crucial business alignment between rank-and-file workers and management.
Such demonstrated success informs my thinking around best practices. While we have talented staff members who bring their own unique experiences and skillsets to Amendola Communications, it is important that we coalesce around certain “habits,” or best practices, to ensure consistent client service, delivery and results.
Best practices around account management/client service, content development, social and media relations help our agency be prodigious client stewards with the goals of fulfilling our PR program work and building long-term client relationships. Equally important is a workforce that understands its role, feels empowered to do its best, and delivers great results. In future blog posts, I’ll explore best practices around client planning and client communication.
by Jenna Warner | Apr 18, 2018 | Blog
First and foremost, this is a BIG show. Okay, obviously this is a big show. But it’s important to understand this isn’t the type of trade show where the cool startup with hopes and dreams of changing the world can make a huge splash. At least, not without a plan.
As a first-time attendee, there were some confirmations and surprises that led to a few insights. Here are some tips to help kick-start your strategy for your first HIMSS.
Stop singing the same old song
Reporters are booked solid well before the conference begins and they are hearing “stories” all day. If it’s your first HIMSS, you may be surprised by the amount of similar ideas, products and solutions across the board. Let me tell you, the editors are not.
Whether it’s your first HIMSS or your 30th, make sure you have something to say. Passion plus results are rewarded in almost any industry and the same rings true in Healthcare IT. Don’t offer one without the other.
No one wants to hear about a product and all the technical aspects you have painstakingly perfected. They want to hear about what your solution is going to do for them (or their readers) now.
Don’t get it twisted. We are all very thankful for all the hard work, but the fact of the matter is there is too much going on to appreciate all of that hard work. Have something to say with weight.
Do your research before you go
Don’t waste time deciding what you’re going to do once you get to HIMSS. Everything moves too fast, and it takes too long to get from one place to the other. The conference may be several days long, but it goes by in a blink. Have a plan as an attendee or as an exhibitor.
Most of all, don’t make meetings with people that don’t make sense. Time, space and (good) coffee are precious luxuries at HIMSS. Don’t waste them.
Talk to people, and ask questions
Not just any questions – ask the one that you are hesitant about.
As a millennial, I think that we undervalue face-to-face interactions. There is something about being in front of people where you can get answers to questions you might not ask in a formal meeting setting or email. For one, they can’t just ignore your question.
Before all of my telehealth peeps give me a hard time – don’t worry, I still have no interest in physically stepping into my doctor’s office on a regular basis. Telemedicine rules!
A lot of flash doesn’t mean a lot of cash…flow
It was sad to see the booths with a premier spot just watch all the attendees walk by without giving their super cool mini golf game a try. Booth traffic success comes in layers, and although this conference was in Las Vegas, you can’t just take a shallow approach to entice the shrewd people of this trade show.
Take a note from the brilliant Lisa Chernikoff, “As savvy marketing professionals know, the best trade show marketing strategies start early and establish a regular cadence of communication.” Emphasis on start early. Your booth traffic strategy should not rely solely on a game of putt-putt. Meetings with a purpose, strategies that give attendees something they can use to fix their problems and well thought-out strategies for making conversation are what seem to be the keys to success at mega trade shows such as HIMSS.
The thought of tackling this type of huge trade show without a specialized agency and expecting results brings to mind a few analogies
- Scuba diving without a tank
- Planning a wedding for tomorrow
- Teaching a fish to ride a bicycle
- Baking a cake with cardboard appliances
And of course, the rumors are true – you will always be lost, hungry, searching for an outlet and totally amazed at what we are doing as an industry to improve healthcare. Now, I need to go buy some AirPods and avoid ever using or hearing the word leverage again.
by Lisa Chernikoff | Apr 11, 2018 | Blog
We’ve all heard of analysis paralysis the state of over-analyzing or over-thinking a situation so much that a decision is never made and the outcome is impacted. Recently I’ve been witnessing a curious yet similar phenomenon at healthcare IT companies across the country and the analysis paralysis is all about “strategy.” As in overall corporate strategy and direction.
In short, these companies are all about strategic planning, but in the end they seem to come out of it having virtually no strategic plans. They’re all about all-day strategy meetings which result in no strategy but rather more questions that prompt more all-day meetings and shockingly, yet still no strategy.
From the outside looking in, this cycle is an endless hamster wheel that leaves team members feeling tired rather than energized, frustrated rather than empowered, and most troublingly, so terrified that their actions won’t follow the still-to-be-approved (or never-to-be-approved) strategy that they simply don’t act. This inaction can be minor or major as it builds up over time but it’s always detrimental.
Back to basics to get results
Their “strategic focus,” while well-intentioned, sets companies on the wrong path in the short and long-term, especially in regards to PR which should have a constant, ongoing cadence to create momentum and maximize results.
While company strategies can be complicated and have a profound impact on PR efforts, many aspects of PR strategy are quite uncomplicated. In fact, there are core tenets which are quite basic and fundamental to any sound PR plan. There are the pillars that cannot be disputed so they need not be delayed regardless of executive indecision.
Whether your strategy is set or you’re one of many stuck on the endless hamster wheel, these four actions are key to success. They are mission-critical, and safely fit into any PR strategy for 2018 and beyond:
1. Write and distribute press releases
It sounds like a no-brainer but for many companies it’s not because they live in fear of being “off brand” or “misaligned.” They live in fear of putting out too many press releases yet not enough press releases. Those fears are unwarranted though since your company is doing good work. Why shouldn’t it be shared? Did you develop a new product? Let’s write a release. Did you sign a new customer? Let’s write a release. Is your CEO speaking at an industry event? Let’s write a release.
Writing a press release is one of the simplest ways to communicate what’s happening and why it matters. Distributing those press releases positions your company as a key player and thought leader in the ongoing industry dialogue. It’s not complicated. It doesn’t need to be debated and as long as you’re not regularly putting out more than 2-4 press releases per month, you’re not overdoing it. So, just do it.
2. Highlight your customer’s success stories
Once again, it sounds like a no-brainer. You have customers. They like your products. They like your team. They have achieved impressive results that they’re willing to share. Let them be your advocates. Capture their stories in writing. Put them in front of reporters who are eager to hear from both executives and end-users at provider organizations. It’s as simple as that. Just like with press releases, these customer success stories illustrate that your company is doing good work and that’s what makes more customers want to work with you, which of course is one of the biggest end goals of any strategy. It’s not complicated. It doesn’t need to be debated. As long as your customers are singing your praises, hand over the microphone and let them sing.
3. Emphasize your expertise
In addition to highlighting your clients, highlight your company’s thought leaders. After all, they are also doing good work (you may see a pattern here). They have knowledge to share. They have ideas to contribute. They are the faces of your company and you need some faces even if you don’t have a final strategy. This action can mean authoring bylined articles or blogs on their behalf or pitching them as experts for media interviews. By positioning your executives and SMEs as thought leaders and joining the industry conversation, you’re helping to make your company a go-to source for future media opportunities. It’s not complicated. It doesn’t need to be debated and it would really be a shame for their knowledge to go to waste.
4. Educate your sales team about PR efforts
Regardless of strategy indecision, your sales team needs to close deals. There is nothing off-strategy about building your business. Media placements from your PR efforts are one of the most powerful but underutilized tools in your sales team toolkits. Obviously, sales prospects are not interested in the same information as the media. In fact, they may be turned off by being sent a press release about a new client that just signed on. However, they may be very interested in press coverage from well-regarded industry publications that profile your company news, thought leadership, and customer success stories. That is not only informative but also adds credibility and implies that you want to keep them in the know.
Similarly, if one of your client case studies is featured in a third-party publication, that’s a prime opportunity to reach out, share the article and offer a reference call with the client quoted. It’s not complicated. It doesn’t need to be debated and if you’re earning media placements it is certainly a shame not to use them to their fullest potential.
It’s time to get off the hamster wheel and get on with the real work that makes a difference.
by Ken Krause | Apr 4, 2018 | Blog
One of the biggest changes that has happened in healthcare IT (HIT) public relations over the last 10 years is the increased demand for vendor-neutral byline articles, blog posts, and other materials.
It makes sense from the publications business model perspective. With ever-thinner margins they can’t afford to keep a legion of writers on-staff, or even to pay a legion of freelancers to write for them.
So, they supplement their own articles with content provided by various vendors. The caveat, of course, is that it must be vendor-neutral. In other words, it can’t overtly promote a particular company’s products or services. Instead, it must address a general industry topic, or adopt a general industry point of view.
While it makes sense to those of us directly involved in HIT PR, the idea of being vendor-neutral doesn’t always appeal to everyone within the organization. Especially those who are closest to the products, such as product managers.
“What’s the point of writing an article or a blog post if we can’t link back to our product (or service)?” they’ll ask. “Do we think customers or prospects will hunt for it on their own?”
While it’s easy to understand their concern, it represents transactional thinking. They expect readers will be so wowed by a product or service that they’ll click on the link immediately. And start engaging in the sales process.
That would be nice. But it doesn’t represent reality. Most products and services in HIT tend to have long sales cycles due to the cost, complexity, or disruption involved in replacing what an organization is already doing with a new solution.
That begs the question, “If the goal isn’t to secure a direct sale, then where’s the value in contributing the article at all?” Actually, there are several benefits.
Opening the conversation
In some cases, organizations who have been doing things a certain way for a long period of time may not realize they have a need. Or there is a different, better way to accomplish what they’re doing.
For example, a health payer may have systems and technology in place that enables them to process claims at a rate that keeps them profitable. But they may not realize they could be doing it in one-quarter of the time at one-eighth of the cost.
Or a provider may have analytics that are giving them a comprehensive view of what is happening in the organization. But they may not realize the same data could be telling them what to do next instead of looking back on what they’ve already done.
The vendor-neutral article or other materials become the opening salvo, alerting them to possibilities they haven’t even considered. That doesn’t mean they’re going to run right out with a credit card in their hands. But if they come to realize everything isn’t as hunky-dory as they thought, it creates an opening where none existed before. And guess who they’re going to look to when they start looking into solutions?
Establishing expertise around a topic
What if they organization realizes on its own that it needs to make a change? If the decision-makers don’t know how to address it internally, or they don’t have the resources to dedicate to it, most likely they’re going to perform some type of search to see who has expertise around that topic.
Returning results tied to articles from respected industry publications will have far more credibility than simply returning sales sheets. It will show your organization understands the problems HIT faces and is trying to help solve them. As opposed to your competitors who are simply trying to sell products.
Offering these vendor-neutral articles or other materials in a knowledge center on your website also helps establish your expertise. And your desire to work with them as a partner.
By demonstrating you understand what is happening within the big picture of healthcare, customers and prospects will get more of a feeling you’ll help them address their specific issues. Rather than just try to sell them whatever product you have that comes closest.
Once they feel you understand their needs, you can direct them to the product(s) or service(s) that address their issues.
Building your brand
Most vendor-neutral materials are created with the express desire to have an immediate impact on sales at some level. But they also provide another valuable function. They help build the brands of companies as well as the individuals attached to the materials.
Typically, we will ask clients what they want to be known for in a branding exercise. The answer is never a product. It’s always some sort of solution to an industry problem.
There’s no better way to get that message out there than to create materials that support this point of view. If you want to be known as the company that simplifies collecting from patients, producing a series of materials that explain what the need is and what needs to be done, at a high level, helps you capture that position. Especially if all your competitors are only offering up product-related materials on their own websites.
Establishing a strong brand gives buyers confidence that they are making a safe choice in a risky, uncertain world. That’s especially valuable for start-ups and/or companies venturing into new areas. You’ll be chosen more often if you look like the smart choice.
Accelerating the sales cycle
One of the least-understood aspects to public relations, especially in the digital age, is the value doesn’t come solely from the original placement. It’s what you do with the placement afterwards that really makes the difference.
A vendor-neutral article that has been published in a respected industry media outlet opens up all sorts of additional, sales-accelerating opportunities.
It can be added to your website, preferably in a knowledge center as mentioned earlier. That way, when a customer or prospect is looking around your website they get a sense that your organization is an industry expert, not just a seller of products.
It gives salespeople another reason to contact customers and prospects with a twist. An email that shares knowledge from company experts is far more likely to be read than another overt sales pitch.
Sales can use it both in an email blast to everyone and as an answer to specific inquiries, too. Imagine the power of a response that includes both the vendor-neutral article and the product or service that fulfills the needs the article lays out.
Vendor-neutral materials are perfect for sharing on social media. The organization can use its own channels, and even post in groups it belongs to (where appropriate). High-quality content will be of much greater interest than a product message that can be easily dismissed.
The more you use them, the more customers and prospects will become groomed to the idea that you have the solutions they need.
Taking the long view
For most HIT products and services, the sales cycle is a long one. It takes multiple touches, many of which will come before you’re even aware a buyer is interested.
Authoring vendor-neutral articles, blog posts, or other content helps you raise awareness of your organization. It also demonstrates you understand the challenges facing customers and prospects. It’s then a shorter leap to demonstrating how your products or services solve those challenges.
by Linda Healan | Mar 28, 2018 | Blog
Like many around the world, I enjoyed watching the Winter Olympic Games. I love the fanfare of the competition, tracking medal counts and seeing well-known athletes winning gold again. Shaun White is my hero!
One of the other things that I love to see is the camaraderie among the athletes and how they relate to their coaches. I can’t help but wonder about the feedback they receive from their coaches in between each competition. You can do it! Don’t think about the last score, focus on what you do best. Next time go higher, faster, longer. Remember everything we practiced and most importantly have fun. I can only imagine the observations, evaluations, words of wisdom and encouragement that the athletes receive.
It makes me think of the importance of feedback in public relations from the media, regarding writing and most importantly with clients. So what, exactly, is it? The term “feedback” is used to describe the helpful information or criticism about prior action or behavior from an individual, communicated to another individual (or a group) who can use that information to adjust and improve current and future actions and behaviors.
With the media
When a public relations person pitches a story to our editorial contacts, best practices dictate that we have done our research. We know who the audience is for the publication, what topics the editor or reporter likes to cover, and we structure our pitch in a way that should be compelling enough for the editor to want to write the story. But that is not always the case.
Sometimes there is a piece missing to our pitch or an angle that would be more interesting to the editor. Sometimes their focus has changed or it’s just bad timing. Without specific feedback from the editor, we might not know how providing a customer or fresh data to support our pitch would be what is necessary for a compelling article.
PR people like to please and we are aggressively working to get coverage for our clients. We will jump through hoops to get the additional information for an editor to meet the deadline and to get the coverage. Knowing is the key.
Getting the writing right
The same is true with writing. It is such a subjective form of expression. Haven’t you had an experience where you really like someone’s writing style and other experiences where you didn’t? It doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an effective form of communication.
Feedback in writing for public relations is so very important from basic editing and proofreading to ensuring accuracy. When you’ve worked on an article for hours, sometimes a fresh set of eyes is needed to see obvious mistakes that you overlook.
We rely on our clients as experts in their field to make sure what we are communicating about their company, solution and industry segment is correct, especially if it is a new area to us. Feedback in writing will always produce better content.
Building client relationships
The most important feedback of all quite often comes from the relationship with our clients. We are here to work with you as your partner and to provide a service.
For us to be effective, we need ongoing, regular feedback and information. And quite often, it goes both ways. We regularly provide our clients feedback on positioning, making the best use of your marketing communications budgets, and what is newsworthy and what isn’t. Treating us as part of your team makes for the best client relationships and leads to outstanding results.
Toward better feedback
What makes feedback important?
- It is effective listening. It’s important that the person providing the feedback know that they are being understood and that it provides some value.
- It can motivate. By asking for feedback, it allows the receiver to perform better.
- It can improve performance. Feedback should be constructive criticism and is the best at helping to formulate better decisions to improve and increase performance.
- It is a tool for continued learning. Feedback is important across an entire organization to remain aligned to goals, create strategies, develop service improvements, improve relationships and to continue learning.
- Feedback should not be uncomfortable. Regular, positive or constructive feedback motivates everyone to perform better from award-winning PR teams to medal-winning athletes.
So, when working with your Amendola PR team, remember the importance of feedback. It makes us all more effective and like our Olympic athletes, we all want to win the gold. Go Team USA!
One of the other things that I love to see is the camaraderie among the athletes and how they relate to their coaches. I can’t help but wonder about the feedback they receive from their coaches in between each competition. You can do it! Don’t think about the last score, focus on what you do best. Next time go higher, faster, longer. Remember everything we practiced and most importantly have fun. I can only imagine the observations, evaluations, words of wisdom and encouragement that the athletes receive.
It makes me think of the importance of feedback in public relations from the media, regarding writing and most importantly with clients. So what, exactly, is it? The term feedback’ is used to describe the helpful information or criticism about prior action or behavior from an individual, communicated to another individual (or a group) who can use that information to adjust and improve current and future actions and behaviors.
With the media
When a public relations person pitches a story to our editorial contacts, best practices dictate that we have done our research. We know who the audience is for the publication, what topics the editor or reporter likes to cover, and we structure our pitch in a way that should be compelling enough for the editor to want to write the story. But that is not always the case.
Sometimes there is a piece missing to our pitch or an angle that would be more interesting to the editor. Sometimes their focus has changed or it’s just bad timing. Without specific feedback from the editor, we might not know how providing a customer or fresh data to support our pitch would be what is necessary for a compelling article.
PR people like to please and we are aggressively working to get coverage for our clients. We will jump through hoops to get the additional information for an editor to meet the deadline and to get the coverage. Knowing is the key.
Getting the writing right
The same is true with writing. It is such a subjective form of expression. Haven’t you had an experience where you really like someone’s writing style and other experiences where you didn’t? It doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an effective form of communication.
Feedback in writing for public relations is so very important from basic editing and proofreading to ensuring accuracy. When you’ve worked on an article for hours, sometimes a fresh set of eyes is needed to see obvious mistakes that you overlook.
We rely on our clients as experts in their field to make sure what we are communicating about their company, solution and industry segment is correct, especially if it is a new area to us. Feedback in writing will always produce better content.
Building client relationships
The most important feedback of all quite often comes from the relationship with our clients. We are here to work with you as your partner and to provide a service.
For us to be effective, we need ongoing, regular feedback and information. And quite often, it goes both ways. We regularly provide our clients feedback on positioning, making the best use of your marketing communications budgets, and what is newsworthy and what isn’t. Treating us as part of your team makes for the best client relationships and leads to outstanding results.
Toward better feedback
What makes feedback important?
- It is effective listening. It’s important that the person providing the feedback know that they are being understood and that it provides some value.
- It can motivate. By asking for feedback, it allows the receiver to perform better.
- It can improve performance. Feedback should be constructive criticism and is the best at helping to formulate better decisions to improve and increase performance.
- It is a tool for continued learning. Feedback is important across an entire organization to remain aligned to goals, create strategies, develop service improvements, improve relationships and to continue learning.
- Feedback should not be uncomfortable. Regular, positive or constructive feedback motivates everyone to perform better from award-winning PR teams to medal-winning athletes.
So, when working with your Amendola PR team, remember the importance of feedback. It makes us all more effective and like our Olympic athletes, we all want to win the gold. Go Team USA!
by Matt Schlossberg | Mar 21, 2018 | Blog
Before social media, cross-platform campaigns and general business trends toward greater economy and efficiency of services, public relations and marketing though often collaborators were two distinct disciplines. Despite a kind of “kissing cousins” relationship, each had its own mission and purpose.
In today’s world, however, public relations and marketing are connected in ways that are both complex and granular. How effectively these well-blended professions work together is key to positively and creatively positioning your business for success.
Two Faces or a Vase?
It used to be that marketing handled advertising and PR handled earned media. Both jobs required that they make the business look good. That’s still true today kind of. It depends on how you look at it, and even then it can be hard to explain.
Let’s start with a visual the Rubin’s vase. This is a rather famous optical illusion that is usually depicted as a simple black-and-white image that can be interpreted differently depending on who is looking at it. One person looking at the image may see the shape of a vase, while another might glimpse two faces in profile facing each other. The person who sees the face can eventually see the vase, and the person who sees the face can see the two profiles, but neither person can they maintain both images concurrently.
This is what PR and marketing used to look like. Marketing helped move the company’s product (two faces), while PR sold the “vase” in the form of the company’s brand and reputation.
Today, those distinctions are not as stark. Businesses are expecting their PR and marketing teams to find a way to see two faces and a vase at the same time. Like never before, PR and marketing need each other to help a business succeed.
A Distinction without a Difference?
OK, so the average business executive may not really care about whether PR and marketing represent a single entity or distinct areas (after all, they care about results, which as we know, always fall freely from the magical Results Tree). It’s OK we’re used to it.
But you should care. More than anyone else in the company, the PR and marketing teams orbit in close and consistent proximity to your customers. Understanding how they best work together can make or break a business. If they are not on the same page, your company will not be on the same page with the customer.
You do the math.
The Content Example
One of the reasons why PR and marketing are “colliding” is that in today’s environment content is king. Byline articles, blog posts, tweets, status updates, e-mail blasts. It seems that every new piece of content is “old” by the time the final stamp of approval is given.
Campaigns highly customized to the business or even a specific initiative within the enterprise maximize your business’s core messages. But they also act in a way to bring a measure of control, discipline and meaning to the tsunami of content most businesses need to produce to stay relevant in hyper-competitive industries.
The success of these campaigns often hinges on how well marketing and PR work together.
With any initiative, the Golden Rule is “early and often.” This means that your PR and marketing pros need to engage early and often in order for the client to enjoy the end result (capitalizing on the success of a campaign or initiative).
PR and marketing teams feed on data both internal (from sales, product developers, c-suite executives) and external (customers and market shifts within the industry). That data will ultimately define the functional aspects of a campaign (the best vehicles and channels to reach prospective customers) and the emotional resonance (how the precise positioning of a message impacts a customer and their willingness to buy from and stay loyal to the business).
Final Thoughts
When I start with a new client, one of my first goals is to get to know the marketing team and what they are working on. I also ask to engage with the sales team. What are customers connecting with? How do they interact with the company? And I don’t accept stock answers. I drill down. Sometimes, a turn of phrase or just the right word can be the different between a lost sale and a signature on the dotted line.
Years ago, I might not have thought to do this. Today, I understand that the data I acquire from them will inform the shape of my PR campaign. I also understand that my PR campaign will affect everything on their side from sales presentations and the keywords and phrases used in a brochure to social media campaigns and the priorities on the content calendar.
Marketing and PR, while still very much distinct, are travelling toward the same goal and often taking the exact same road. There are the occasional places where the two diverge, but understanding those subtle differences is where true collaboration and the success of your business lies.
