“Story telling is the oldest form of teaching,” Matt Cavallo declared when we met on May 23. I couldn’t agree more. Great story telling has always intrigued me. Maybe that’s why I’m in PR. I have always believed that behind every organization is a zealous individual with an epic story waiting to be shared. It’s usually the CEO or founder, though not always.
Matt is a passionate patient advocate who dedicates his life to the fight against multiple sclerosis. He has been named among the top 10 Social HealthMakers by WCG and his blog was selected as one of Healthline’s top multiple sclerosis picks in 2015. His story of being diagnosed and overcoming the physical and emotional challenges associated with having a chronic disease can be read in his memoir, The Dog Story: A Journey into a New Life with Multiple Sclerosis.
What started as a simple half-hour meet-and-greet with Amendola Communications agency staff turned into a 90-minute conversation. Who has that kind of time, you ask? Well, Matt knew how to keep our attention: he had us laughing one moment and fighting back tears the next. It’s a skill few people have but many aspire to. This ability to connect comes in really handy during media interviews at large trade shows (such as HIMSS) where our PR clients (health IT vendors) get to pitch their product or solution to editors who decide on the spot whether they care enough to write about them or not.
GetWellNetwork founder and CEO Michael O’Neil was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 28. While the medical outcome was excellent, the patient experience was challenging. After four cycles of chemotherapy, he started GetWellNetwork to help hospitals improve performance and outcomes through patient engagement. Michael and his team work tirelessly to ensure the voice of the patient is heard. Today, more than 4.6 million patients use GetWellNetwork technology to engage in their healthcare. Take a minute to watch Michael tell his story in this short video.
Growing up in a family of doctors, ClearDATA CEO Darin Brannan got a firsthand look at the challenges healthcare practitioners face in treating patients using paper and outdated technology. It made him painfully aware of the number of people who die each day as a result of medical errors long before it became national news.
Despite the availability of electronic health records and other technologies that were supposed to solve the problem, reports show that more than 1,000 people still die each day due to medical errors. At the center of this seeming disconnect is a lack of cohesiveness among advanced information technologies. Darin believes that, “Healthcare is less of a science problem, it’s more of an information problem.”
In 2011, he co-founded ClearDATA to apply his cloud computing expertise to healthcare in order to remove the technical obstacles inhibiting patient safety and costing lives. Today, ClearDATA is recognized by organizations such as CB Insights as a leading healthcare information security services company, with $54 million in funding and a customer portfolio that includes some of the largest healthcare providers in the nation.
Dave Bennett, EVP, Orion Health, is passionate about precision medicine. He often tells the story about his son, Carter, who has cystic fibrosis (CF). Here is how he tells it.
Carter’s story
About a decade ago, my oldest son, Carter, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.
Like most kids with CF, Carter had a host of physical problems, like lung infections due to mucous build-up and thrive issues due to pancreas blockage. In eighth grade his lungs needed a thorough cleaning, so he was hospitalized and homebound for three consecutive weeks with a PICC line.
Five years ago, Vertex Pharmaceuticals released a drug designed to address Carter’s specific genetic variation of CF, one that only four percent of patients have.
But when I told Carter’s doctor about it, he said it wouldn’t help Carter because he didn’t have that genetic variation.
Once I pressed the doctor to review 60 pages of Carter’s data, however, the doctor soon reversed his position.
“This is a game changer,” he said.
Now let’s be clear: Carter’s doctor is a great doctor. But he didn’t have the tools to help him analyze that 60 pages of data and connect my son to a promising new drug therapy that went on to stabilize his lung function, end his annual sinus surgeries, eliminate his regular bronchial scopes, made his ED visits a thing of the past, and allowed him to flourish into a six-foot-two-inch, 225-pound captain of his high-school football team. Today, Carter is a thriving college student, our payers don’t have to pay for all the procedures mentioned above anymore, and his mom and I don’t worry about him one bit.
That is the promise of precision medicine exemplified. But in the future, rather than rely on a highly interested advocate like a parent who’s passionate about precision medicine to provide that cognitive support, payers and providers will be able to rely on technology that synthesizes and analyzes the data (e.g., those 60 pages Carter’s doctor couldn’t effortlessly process) and utilize it in the right context at the right time.
“This is my mission,” Dave tells journalists. “I want to help doctors and patients in making decisions about what will help them. To do this work, you really need focus at the mission level, because it’s going to change healthcare for the better and make a difference in people’s lives.”
Who watches the watchdogs? It’s a phrase that conjures the creation of police commissions or intelligence oversight committees. But if you’re a believer in the sanctity of the Fourth Estate (and God knows we need them now more than ever), then the watchdogs who need watching are journalists. And no one watches or analyzes, or critiques journalists in greater depth and with sharper insight than the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University.
The purpose of the Nieman Lab is to figure out how journalism can adapt to the Internet Age while remaining relevant and profitable. Recently, in “Newsonomics: The 2016 Media Year by the Numbers and a look toward 2017,” the Nieman Lab’s Ken Doctor turned up some fascinating trends that will both bedevil and delight those of us in PR and business who strive daily, with more or less success, to earn the media’s adoration and praise.
Have Your Fake and Eat it Too
The bedeviling side of Nieman Lab’s look back at 2016 is the messy shift from print to digital, a transformation long underway that is weighing ever more heavily on the news media. The industry-rocking trend of 2016, of course, was the rise of “fake news” or rather the rise in awareness of fake news, thanks to the Presidential Election. Doctor takes some easy swipes at Mark Zuckerberg for his much-publicized claim that 99% of Facebook’s content isn’t fake. “Ever heard a publisher proudly proclaim, “We get it right 99 times out of a hundred?” he asks.
But the fake news phenomenon isn’t going to have much impact on the field of technology PR. More significant for the business of Media Relations is the sharp increase in the number of PR “targets” as the Internet continues to make it easier for small, independent content producers to compete with the mainstream media. This democratization of publishing and broadcasting offers both more opportunities and more diluted opportunities for getting the word out about a company, a product, or a thought leader.
The Young and the Restless
Here’s Nieman Lab’s take on one of the biggest online outposts, a not-so-new media that has finally come into its own after a decade of unrealized promise and that is quickly disrupting its Old Media birthplace, radio:
“Podcasting now reshuffles the deck, mixing and matching talent on scheduled airtime and on demand, with unpredictable consequences. The movement of younger talentwithin the emerging podcast economy poses both a great opportunity and threat for public radio as we know it, and is a boon for newer entrants like Gimlet Media, Panoply, This American Life/Serial, and Midroll Media.”
A related trend that accelerated in 2016 and into 2017 is the flight of ad revenue from mainstream publishing as advertisers spread their dollars online in search of eyeballs (and now ears, too).
“The Wall Street Journal lost more than a fifth of its overall advertising revenue in the third quarter of 2016,” Doctor writes. Other blue ribbon outlets suffered similar losses: The New York Times saw print ad revenue decline by 18 percent; McClatchy reported a 17 percent loss; Gannet lost 15 percent; and Tronc (the former Tribune Company) lost 11 percent.
To compensate for those huge loses, publishers are seeking revenue directly from readers in the form of digital subscriptions and add-ons. That requires high-quality content and attractive digital platforms something that “only the national/global dailies have been able to achieve,” according to Doctor. How will the rest of the nation’s dailies fare amid this historic transformation? Judging by the number of journalists losing their jobs, not so well. Nielsen Lab counted just 27,300 journalists working for U.S. dailies in 2016, 4,000 of whom work for the four national titles. The size of the local press has declined by half, according to Doctor.
Heads Up to PR customers
What does that mean for PR? The math is pretty simple. With an ever smaller number of traditional publications managing to keep the lights on, the competition for coverage among the dailies is becoming downright cutthroat. The days of guaranteeing that a successful company in a hot market will be covered by The New York Times or Wall Street Journal are over.
So what’s the answer? How can companies in search of media coverage adjust to this fast-evolving environment?
You can read the answer in Part Two of this post. In the meantime, a few hints: Traditional PR is dead. The press release as many people think of it is a goner. Thought leadership will be a key PR budget priority. Content is (roll your eyes if you must) king.
But in the end, it’s still all about relationships.
A few years back, I made a minor ripple on the internet okay, make that a very minor ripple when I dashed off a plaintive lament about the use of the word “content” in content marketing. As I noted at the time, the industry couldn’t have picked a more lifeless word to describe using interesting, informative, persuasive information to educate prospects and turn them into buyers.
Three years later, I feel exactly the same as I did in my original rant, reprinted below:
If there is one profession that should understand above all others that messaging matters, it’s the field of marketing. So why on earth have we all collectively agreed to label our messaging as “content” which brings to mind nothing more than inert filler, largely there just to take up space?
If you don’t think buying into this phrase won’t have an actual effect on your messaging, just look at some of the advice out there from the “content marketing” experts.
Over and over I see the suggestion that marketers repurpose older web copy and blog posts to use for other “content marketing” pieces like brochures and white papers. Never does this recommendation remind marketers to heed the target audience’s current stage in the buying process, the audience’s level of technical understanding, or for that matter, any other qualifiers.
No, this is standalone advice, often among the first offered, which is giving marketers the impression that as long as they put something out there for prospects to read on a regular basis, the qualified leads will follow.
That’s a perception that just cheapens the value of your marketing message. And if you don’t value your own message, do you honestly think prospects will?
Incidentally, it also makes the deadly mistake of over-estimating the ease of capturing your prospects interest.
Here’s another irony: one of the key jobs of a marketing communications professional is to bring clarity to a subject, yet confusion reigns in the field as to what “content” marketing actually means. Really, ask a number of marketers to define the phrase. I assure you, you’re going to get a number of different answers.
The term is just a vague and vapid generality; nothing more. And as a writer, that especially makes me shudder.
My complaint was hardly an original one; as Ryan Skinner from Forrester noted at the time, I wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last to have a gripe with a term. Still, it caught some attention, and even some hearty applause from people like Jeff Molander, who emphatically agreed the term doesn’t do us marketers any favors.
So imagine my dismay when four years later, we’re still using it! Well, like I said, my ripple was just that, a ripple.
But I still hold that “content” marketing is a completely inadequate term. It implies quantity over quality, which is a serious misrepresentation of how this form of marketing works. Yes, the typical B2b prospect intensively researches before buying, and yes, having a widely-distributed library of information to satisfy that research is important.
But it’s not going to get widely read if it’s not actually readable. Quality matters. I don’t just say that as a writer, but as a buyer. I do plenty of research online before I make certain purchases, too .we all do now, for small and big ticket items alike. I’m not too likely to buy from a company that puts out badly explained “content.”
What does content marketing even mean?
It’s also worth noting that confusion still reigns on the right definition of “content” marketing. My colleague Tim Boivin does a nice job explaining it and clearing up some common misconceptions.
However, for a relatively mainstream method, it’s amazing to me that there is still a level of confusion surrounding it all these years later. I lay a good part of the blame on the meaningless name. Think about it. Is there the same widespread confusion about what public relations is? Or branding? Or even social media marketing? No because their names are insightfully specific.
It’s a shame because content marketing really is an effective means for nurturing interest and trust in a company’s offerings – and generating good leads. It’s also one of our specialties here at Amendola. I love the strategy; it gives me a chance to write meaningful information that helps guide people to making an informed buying decision. But I think that it deserves a better name.
Some proposed replacements for the term “content marketing”
So what should we call this method of marketing instead? After making such a fuss about changing the name, I admit I understand why the word “content” was settled on it’s a catch-all expression for the articles, infographics, guides, videos and more that are used to catch a prospect’s interest and hold this interest throughout the buying cycle.
“Demand generation” and “inbound marketing” are sometimes used interchangeably for content marketing. But they shouldn’t be – they’re not the same thing. With that, here are some substitute terms I like but am not in love with:
Brand journalism
Editorial marketing
Company journalism
Informational marketing
Guided buying/Guide marketing
Knowledge marketing
If you have a great idea for a replacement, let me know I will personally make it my mission to make it stick!
Scottsdale, Ariz. March 15, 2017 Amendola Communications, an award-winning healthcare marketing and public relations agency, announced today that Zynx Health, a market leader in providing evidence- and experience-based clinical improvement solutions and part of the Hearst Network, has selected Amendola Communications as its agency of record. Amendola will provide a broad range of public relations and content services that promote Zynx Health as a pioneer and innovator in the delivery of clinical solutions that improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare.
“The Amendola team has impressed us with their in-depth knowledge of the healthcare IT space, as well as their commitment to going that extra mile to meet our needs, such as helping to secure a recent interview with the industry-leading blog, HIStalk,” said Kevin Daly, president of Zynx Health. “Not only has Amendola represented Zynx Health before but one of our executive management team members has worked with Amendola at two companies with stellar results. We are confident that they are the right partner to help us create excellent content and achieve our PR goals as we launch new solutions into the marketplace.”
Amendola Communications will provide broad public relations and marketing services, including media research, media and analyst relations, and the generation of top-tier awards and speaking opportunities. The agency will also be responsible for delivering a range of content demonstrating the thought leadership and expertise of Zynx Health’s subject matter experts, including bylined articles, blog posts, press releases and other materials.
“Zynx is a KLAS-recognized leader in healthcare IT based on their long history of delivering evidence-based clinical decision support solutions that improve patient safety and the delivery of quality care,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “We’ve worked with Zynx in the past and we look forward to promoting its new leadership team as thought leaders/visionaries as the company continues to enhance and expand its portfolio of solutions that help reduce variations in clinical care, financial performance, and clinician documentation.”
Zynx Health was founded around a mission to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare. For more than 20 years, Zynx Health has empowered thousands of healthcare organizations and clinicians to align their clinical decision support, strategies, and workflows around the standardization and infusion of evidence-based vital information and experience-based best practices. Over the years, Zynx Health has earned numerous awards for its products and was recently named the 2017 KLAS Category Leader for Clinical Decision Support Order Sets.
About Zynx Health
Zynx Health, part of the Hearst Health network, provides healthcare professionals with vital information and processes that guide care decisions and reduce complexity across the entire patient journey in a way that leads to healthier lives for all. Zynx is a pioneer and market leader in evidence- and experience-based clinical solutions that help health systems improve patient outcomes, financial outcomes, clinical engagement and technology performance. With Zynx Health, healthcare organizations exceed industry demands for delivering high-quality care at lower costs under value-based reimbursement models. To learn more, visit zynxhealth.com or call 855.367.ZYNX.
About Hearst Health
The Hearst Health network includes FDB (First Databank), Zynx Health, MCG, Homecare Homebase, MedHOK, Hearst Health International, Hearst Health Ventures and the Hearst Health Innovation Lab (www.hearsthealth.com). The mission of Hearst Health is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person’s health journey. Each year in the U.S., care guidance from the Hearst Health network reaches 84 percent of discharged patients, 177 million insured individuals, 60 million home health visits, and 3.1 billion dispensed prescriptions.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation four times by PRSourceCode, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and HIT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter and LinkedIn.
One of the most important questions a content marketing team can ask when charged with developing a new press release/blog post/case study/white paper/video/etc. doesn’t come from a marketing textbook or TED talk. It actually comes from the lowbrow movie “Dude, Where’s My Car?”
At one point the two not-so-bright main characters (played to perfection by Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott) pull up to the drive-through speaker at a Chinese restaurant to place an order. Each time Ashton Kutcher says what they want, the voice on the other end asks a simple question: “And then?” Even after he tells her they’re done ordering, which leads to a very funny scene.
When you think about it, though, there’s a lot of beauty and wisdom in that simple question for marketers. Often when there’s a new development or new idea to convey we get caught up in thinking about what’s needed immediately.
We say “we need a press release on such-and-such a topic” and we spring into action. A message is developed, subject matter experts interviewed, the release is written and revised, the pitching plan is developed and so forth until finally the release sees the light of day and maybe generates some interviews.
Yet considerably less time is spent answering the question “and then?” As in “what happens after the target audience reads the press release?”
Is there a landing page to refer them to? If so, what’s on it? If they’re really interested in the new product or service is there a way for them to gather more information about it, such as a data sheet, video, blog post, white paper or other piece of additional content to keep them interested and moving toward the narrower end of the sale funnel?
The thing to consider is that the period of active promotion around a press release, or any new piece of content for that matter, tends to last for just a few days. Then you’re on to something else. But the period after the initial release is infinite. If there isn’t somewhere else for your target audience to go, or something else for them to do after consuming the content, you’re losing opportunities.
Here are some of the content marketing best practices for ensuring you’re maximizing the value of everything you’ve worked so hard to produce.
Provide a destination
Think from the prospect’s point of view. I’ve consumed whatever content was produced. I’m intrigued by what you’re saying, although I still have questions. But I’m not quite ready to speak to a salesperson. How do I get my answers? This concept is particularly important given studies that show that 60 percent of the purchasing decision is already made before any conversations with a supplier take place.
For general topics you may just want to point prospects to the appropriate page on your website. You can do that through links embedded in the text, or with a more obvious call to action such as “For more details on”
For more significant topics such as a new product/service, you may want to create a specific landing page that offers more detailed information.
And then?
Create content in different forms
Often landing pages offer up content in one form usually more text, either on the page or offered as a download. If that’s what you’re doing you’re again limiting your own effectiveness.
Keep in mind that some people prefer to read more formal presentations of information while others like the easy accessibility of a blog post. Then there are those who like FAQs, or prefer video over any sort of reading. Having options that present the same information in different ways helps you avoid losing any part of your audience.
And then?
Use gated content
Most healthcare and health IT products/services aren’t purchased directly from a website like a retail transaction. They require interaction between the prospect and someone on your team. A good way to move that along a little faster is to use high-value, gated content such as a white paper or executive summary to entice the prospect to let you know they’re interested by giving you their contact information.
When you get to this point, of course, determining whether to provide the information is a big decision. The best thing you can do is keep the amount of information you’re asking for to a minimum. If you can limit it to the person’s name, job title, company and email address you’ll find you capture far more prospects than you will with a lengthy qualifying questionnaire.
As long as prospects believe what they’ll be getting from you is of greater value than what they’ll be giving to you, they’ll be willing to make the trade.
And then?
Incorporate lead nurturing
If you’re lucky, once they go through the gated content they’ll have a high level of interest and are ready to buy. More often than not in the real world, however, there’s still work to be done.
That’s where an email-based lead nurturing campaign comes in. (Also the reason you want to capture that email address in the first place.) Think through the sales process what messages people need to see at which points in the sales cycle in order to nudge them forward. Then develop a series of emails to provide that nudge.
One thing to keep in mind is don’t automatically start the program at communication #1. Determine as best you can, either by their messages to you or their interactions with your content, where they are and pick up from there.
It’s kind of like calling plays in football. You don’t want to try to score the touchdown on the first play every time. Work the ball down the field in increments and you’ll find it’s easier to score more consistently.
And then?
Look for holes
You may think you’ve thought of everything. But if the program is consistently breaking down at some point (meaning you’re losing prospects or sales) it’s time to determine why and fill in any gaps that lead to disengagement. There’s always something to tweak.
And then?
There really isn’t much of an “and then?” after that. You will have done all you can do.
Clearly, not every announcement or piece of content will require all these steps. But use this as a guide to determine which steps it needs.
The most important thing is to cover all the bases that need it. Otherwise you may find yourself wandering around in daze, wondering “Dude, where’s my sales?”
