by admin | May 25, 2016 | News
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare technology public relations and marketing agency, announced that Tara Stultz has joined the agency in the role of senior content and account director. Stultz will develop and create PR and marketing content and manage accounts for multiple healthcare technology-focused clients to drive brand awareness and introduce new programs, products, and services.
Stultz has more than 20 years of healthcare content, marketing and PR experience, including technology, business of medicine and numerous clinical specialty areas. She has worked closely with healthcare IT, managed care, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, major health systems, medical societies and others.
Before joining the Amendola team, Tara ran a healthcare communications firm. Previously, as executive editorial director of the Healthcare Group at Advanstar Communications, she co-launched a content marketing division focused on integrated multimedia programs. She also served as editor/editorial director of several national healthcare publications and websites. Under Tara’s leadership, these titles consistently earned top readership rankings and won numerous national editorial awards.
Stultz is a recipient of the Healthcare Businesswomen Association’s “Rising Star” award. Her writing has earned the American Business Media’s Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honor in the field of specialized journalism.
“I was familiar with Tara’s work at Medical Economics and Managed Healthcare Executive and knew she would make an immediate impact to our PR and marketing programs,” said agency CEO Jodi Amendola. “I could not have imagined how truly talented she is. From day one, our clients have been raving. She knows the industry and provides superior strategic guidance and content. She is a welcomed addition.”
Stultz first connected with members of the Amendola Communications team when she served in editorial leadership roles at well-known trade publications such as Medical Economics and Managed Healthcare Executive. “I soon grew to know them as the very best in the marketing and PR business when it comes to positioning clients as thought leaders and increasing awareness of their brands,” she said. “Later, when I transitioned to a career in marketing and PR, I continued to admire Amendola’s work “and now I’m lucky enough to be a part of this talented team.”
Stultz received her bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
To download Tara’s photo, click here.
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 by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT 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, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Jodi Amendola | 480.664-8412 | jamendola@ACmarketingPR.com
by admin | Feb 26, 2016 | Blog
Our own Matt Schlossberg was quoted in the article below, which originally ran on www.acefitness.org.
Written by Carrie Myers
“Everyone is doing it,” says Jimmy Craig, M.A., video marketing and viral expert and co-founder of MethodLoft, LCC, based in Boston, Mass.
What is Craig referring to? Put simply: video marketing.
“Video isn’t only great at connecting to and converting visitors,” Craig adds, “it can significantly boost your visibility online. Google displays blended search results, too, making it easier for businesses with video to get the coveted spots on the front page.”
Shawne Duperon, Ph.D., six-time EMMY-award winner and founder of Project: Forgive, agrees. “Video is the fastest and easiest way to create relationships in business. People do business with people they trust and like. Video is a medium that builds trust and likeability.”
Not quite convinced video is for you? According to James McQuivey of Forrester Research, the value of a one-minute video is equivalent to 1.8 million words. Here are a few more convincing facts compiled by Adelie Studios and Syndacast:
- 70 percent of marketing professionals report that video converts leads into customers better than any other medium.
- The average Internet user spends 88 percent more time on a website that include videos than on websites that do not contain videos.
- Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it.
- Featuring video on landing pages has been shown to increase conversions by 80 percent.
- If a video lasts one minute or less, 59 percent of viewers will watch it all the way to completion.
- Only 24 percent of brands are using online video to market to consumers.
- Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19 percent and click-through rates by 65 percent and reduces unsubscribe rates by 26 percent.
- Business-to-business and business-to-consumers marketers both say video is among the top three most effective social media marketing tactics.
- 52 percent of marketers believe that video is the content format with the highestreturn on investment.
- By 2017, 74 percent of all Internet traffic is predicted to be video.
- 69 percent of smartphone users say videos are a perfect solution for smartphone viewing, as it offers a quick way for consumers to grasp an overview of a product.
- Three out of four brand marketers and ad agency executives expect original digital programming to become just as important as television programming within the next 3 to 5 years.
PUTTING YOUR FEARS TO REST
I know what you’re thinking. You don’t have the budget to produce videos. Or you can’t stand the way you look on video or the sound of your voice. Or perhaps you feel you’re not enough of an expert to be on video.
Let me put your fears to rest. First, you do not need a Hollywood budget to create videos that will market and promote your business, skills or products. In fact, says Duperon, “your phone is perfect, especially if you’re doing little one-minute video blogs with tips.”
“The bottom line for health and fitness clients are client results,” explains Scott Sobel, president of Media and Communications Strategies, based in Washington, D.C. “You don’t necessarily need to dress up those kinds of videos. As a matter of fact, demonstration and testimonial videos that appear to have been shot by a home user demonstrate honesty and simplicity of method. You see what you get.”
“High-quality equipment is surprisingly affordable today,” adds Craig. “Even smartphones have incredible video cameras now, too. I think that the most overlooked piece of equipment is a reliable audio recorder. If you’re working with little-to-no budget, at least pick up a cheap wired lavalier (lav) microphone, because most on-device audio recording capabilities are severely lacking. You might be surprised how much quality audio will improve a video.”
Don’t have a website to upload video to? Our experts overwhelmingly suggested YouTube as one of the best platforms for video marketing. Matt Schossberg, senior account and content director for Amendola Communications in Scottsdale, Ariz, recommends integrating your YouTube account with your other social media channels to get the biggest bang from your video time and buck.
As an example of this big bang, Duperone says, “You can start a channel on YouTube and repurpose your videos to share on your social media. When I post a video on our Facebook page, it’s getting shared up to 15,000 times. It’s deeply impacting my business.”
According to YouTube’s own statistics:
- YouTube has more than a billion users, which is almost a third of all people on the Internet. Every day, people watch hundreds of millions of hours of YouTube videos and generate billions of views.
- Each year for the past two years, the number of people watching YouTube each day has increased by 40 percent and the number of hours people spend watching videos on YouTube has increased by 60 percent.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS
As far as lighting and make-up go, keep it as natural as possible, suggests Schlossberg. “Unless you have a budget and expertise, try to use natural lighting. Avoid fluorescent lights or spotlights that shine directly down over your head.”
If you’re a man with a shiny face, Schlossberg recommends splashing some water on your face and drying it off or do a light dusting of translucent powder. “For women, their normal amount of make-up usually works fine.”
Try to make sure there are no shadows on your face, points out Duperon. “If your face is hard to see, it actually has the opposite impact of trust. You literally appear shady and untrustworthy!”
Duperon also suggests keeping your eyes steady and your chin down some. “People have a tendency to raise their chin and it will come across as arrogant,” she says. “People tend not to buy from a person who feels arrogant. It’s actually an act of vulnerability to keep your chin down, similar to how TV news anchors are trained.”
Keep it short and simple. “Keep the topic high level and the message succinct,” recommends Schlossberg.
“Ideally, keep your video under a minute,” Duperon advises. “Research shows more than 50 percent of the audience leaves after 10 seconds. When someone starts watching your 60-second [or shorter] video, they tend to stay with you and the video, because the time investment is so little. Think about how many times you dropped out of a video that says it’s three minutes or longer.”
Lastly, make it personal and speak directly to your audience. “When talking on-camera, talk to one person, just as though you were at [a coffee shop], says Duperon, and use the word you.
If you still feel a little skittish at the idea of going on video, here are a few final words of wisdom from Duperon:
“Dance in the discomfort! For newbies, it takes some getting used to [performing on video]. That’s normal. The more conversational you are and the more authentic, the better. Perfection is overrated. You don’t have to do it perfectly. My motto is that 80 percent is good enough.”
by Matt Schlossberg | Feb 11, 2016 | Blog
In 2010, the PR Director of the health IT association I worked for asked me to shoot video of staff and members. I did a double-take. I was a managing editor. Magazine articles, case studies, blog posts, Newsletters, books if you needed prose, I was your guy.
But video? My “qualifications” included being a classic movie buff and serving as director of shaky, out-of-focus snippets of my kids taking their first steps.
However, there was no budget, no oversight, and no expectations of success, so I agreed to do it. I was given a cheap handle-held camera, a tripod with a bum leg, and best wishes in finding my own editing software. I figured I would muscle through a couple of videos before this nascent program was quietly smothered in the crib.
Six years, 230+ videos, and one association award later, I’m a video evangelist. Here’s why video could be one of the most versatile tools in your marketing/PR arsenal:
Video is a powerful tactic on its own. I can quickly shoot and edit testimonials, as well as impactful messages and perspectives from thought leaders. For example, I shot 20 minutes of video for an Amendola client, and was able to edit a half-dozen distinct videos for them to use over the course of months. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Internet, after Google. In addition, 70% of the top 100 search listings on Google are videos. More than 92% of B2B customers watch video online, and 75% of executives watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly, according to Forbes.
Video seamlessly integrates with other tactics. Video can make your other PR/marketing tactics press releases, social media, and media pitching stand out from the crowd. For example, video increases email open-rates by 96%.
Video is cheap, easy and fun. With a one-time $300 investment and a bit of experimentation, I had portable film studio and am able to create professional-looking video clips very quickly and on the fly.
Forget big budgets. With minimal investment and technical know-how you can create a robust, creative video program that will give the rest of your PR/Marketing tactics a much-needed shot in the arm.
Check out some of the client testimonial videos I’ve created, using footage captured at HIMSS.
by admin | Jan 5, 2016 | News
Amendola selected for broad HIE experience and expertise
Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized and award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing communications firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), has added two health information exchanges to its client roster. Amendola recently developed and implemented a new website for the Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange (GNOHIE), an organization dedicated to improving care and reducing costs by facilitating the secure exchange of patient data. In addition, Amendola signed a PR agreement with the California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal INDEX), an independent, nonprofit organization that is developing a statewide health information exchange (HIE) with clinical data from healthcare providers and health insurers combined into a single longitudinal patient record.
“This is the fourth opportunity I had to select and work with the team at Amendola. Their focus and knowledge in the healthcare vertical has exceeded my needs at each company I’ve worked,” said Doug Hart, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Cal INDEX. “That’s why I was eager to work with them again. I know they will succeed in differentiating our combination of clinical and claims data to provide a more comprehensive patient view.”
“We are very pleased with our new website and its ability to effectively communicate our mission,” stated Clayton Williams, executive director of The Partnership for Achieving Total Health (PATH), the supporting organization that manages the services and operations of the GNOHIE. “From the beginning, Amendola understood the need for creating a highly efficient and user-friendly site that would continue to meet our needs in the future. We couldn’t have chosen a more knowledgeable partner to work with and are very pleased with the outcome.”
“It is a pleasure to team with organizations like Cal INDEX and the GNOHIE that are working hard to improve the health of their communities,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “We are immensely proud that our experience and strategic guidance can be leveraged by organizations focused on addressing interoperability challenges to enable better outcomes.”
Amendola designs and develops websites and other capabilities for HIEs of all sizes such as the statewide Arizona Health-e Connection where Amendola led full-scale branding, PR and integrated consumer marketing campaigns that included website development, messaging, targeted advertising, media relations, marketing collateral, leveraging social media, e-mail outreach and videos. According to Tom Reavis, director of marketing and communications, “Amendola Communications generated 10 million impressions for our consumer campaign in just over one month and exceeded all our expectations for educating and persuading consumers to take advantage of the benefits of enabling their health information to be shared in a secure environment. Plus their overall knowledge of the healthcare delivery system and health information technology (HIT) were a significant bonus.”
Amendola also developed a community-wide education and awareness campaign to convince consumers to “opt in” to sharing their health information through the San Diego Health Connect HIE. Amendola accomplished this by developing and designing a new website, logo and other elements of a comprehensive brand identity while simultaneously enhancing their social media presence. Executive Director Dan Chavez stated that “Amendola Communications” efforts greatly accelerated awareness about and participation in the organization’s information sharing that is helping to improve the quality and cost of their local healthcare system.”
About the Greater New Orleans Health Information Exchange
As a not-for-profit organization, the sole purpose of the GNOHIE is to advance the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Triple Aim for the New Orleans community. Focused on improving the patient experience, improving the health of populations, and reducing the cost of healthcare, the GNOHIE was developed as part of the Crescent City Beacon Community and is currently managed by The Partnership for Achieving Total Health, a 509(a)(3) supporting organization of the statewide nonprofit organization Louisiana Public Health Institute.
About Cal INDEX
California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal INDEX) is an independent, nonprofit organization that is developing a statewide, next-generation health information exchange (HIE). This unique comprehensive collection of electronic patient records includes clinical data from healthcare providers and health insurers combined into a single longitudinal patient record (LPR). Cal INDEX provides the underlying data and technology platform to provide real-time access. The goal of Cal INDEX is to improve quality of care by providing clinicians with a unified statewide source of integrated patient information, improve efficiencies and coordination of care and reduce the cost of healthcare. Cal INDEX was founded through seed funding from Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross. For more information, visit www.calindex.org.
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 by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT 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, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes, Regional Managing Director Amendola Communications | mrhodes@ACmarketingPR.com
by Administrator | Mar 16, 2015 | News
Agency’s work for client Health Catalyst earns top honors in Best Blog (Company/Organization) category
Amendola Communications (AC), a nationally recognized and award-winning public relations, content creation and marketing firm specializing in healthcare and health information technology (HIT), demonstrated its prowess in social media and content development by taking top honors in Bulldog Reporter’s 2014 Bulldog Digital/Social PR Awards competition.
Titled Content Turns the Curious into Customers AC’s entry for its work on behalf of client Health Catalyst earned the Gold award in the Best Blog (Company/Organization) category. The AC/Health Catalyst submission prevailed over entries from high-profile brands Master Card, which earned Silver, and Bronze winner Verizon Wireless.
“We are tremendously honored to win this prestigious award, especially given the high caliber of the competition, “said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “From its inception, the goal of the Health Catalyst content program has been to educate and inform health IT executives about topics that affect their operations so they can make better decisions. Winning this award provides further validation of the strategic approach we took and the quality of the content we produced together.”
According to a press release from Bulldog Reporter, winners of the 2014 Bulldog Digital/Social PR Awards were chosen from hundreds of entries representing the very best strategic and tactical prowess that PR corporate communications has to offer. Campaigns were judged exclusively by working journalists, who assessed them on the basis of their ability to achieve extraordinary visibility and influence opinion, as well as on creativity, command of media and technology and tenacity.
“The content program is the foundation for all of our success with marketing,” said Paul Horstmeier, senior vice president of marketing for Health Catalyst. “Amendola Communications has been the perfect partner to help build the engine that drives our strategy for educating rather than selling. The content program is paving the way to a new model of marketing that I believe is setting the standard in the healthcare industry, and we couldn’t have done it without them. We congratulate Amendola Communications for a well-deserved award win.”
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 by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT 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, LinkedIn and Facebook.
About Health Catalyst
Health Catalyst is a mission-driven data warehousing, analytics and outcomes improvement company that helps healthcare organizations of all sizes perform the clinical, financial, and operational reporting and analysis needed for population health and accountable care. Our proven enterprise data warehouse (EDW) and analytics platform helps improve quality, add efficiency and lower costs in support of approximately 50 million patients for organizations ranging from the largest US health system to forward-thinking physician practices. For more information, visit www.healthcatalyst.com, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes, Regional Managing Director Amendola Communications, mrhodes@ACmarketingPR.com
