Many healthcare technology companies are choosing to rebrand because of the impact that the novel coronavirus has had on the healthcare ecosphere. Capabilities or focus points which may not have been on the forefront before this year-long industry earthquake are now front and center. Clear company identities and market differentiators have never been more important.
When rebranding, there are 5 strategic public relations best practices that you will want to make sure you are clear on before finalizing your overall rebranding
marketing efforts and plans.
Messaging. The most common misunderstanding I have come up against when working on rebranding a company from a public relations perspective is that many communicators – even long time marketing seniors – are entirely unaware that there is a difference between marketing messaging (often, product messaging) and public relations messaging. They are sisters, not twins, folks!
Some questions that I often ask to get to the bottom of the public relations messaging rebranding efforts include: What is it that you want to convey from a
thought leadership level to the public? How does this back up your business goals and objectives and overarching communications goals and objectives?
Typically, when these questions are answered, it can be a fairly simple process to start development on a “moving” public relations messaging document that will grow and evolve as the company grows and evolves.
Audience. Do not forget to think about the people who will be impacted by your rebranding. It is important to get the message into the right hands and ears.
Who are your customers? Who are your customers’ customers? What matters to them? How are they acquiring information? Social media? A certain publication?
Being clear on the answer to these questions can help promote a strategic public relations strategy when rebranding. Showing in-depth knowledge of your
customers and customers’ customers pain points on a public scale can be impactful for building the overall credibility of your rebranded company in the
public’s eye.
Thought Leadership. What can you speak to other than your business offerings that props up the depth and breadth of your company’s position in the market?
In this vein, I often recommend that clients take time to work together to articulate which areas of the market their products impact indirectly that can be a strategic topic of reference for the company to react to on a public scale. It really helps to get specific here. Listing thought leadership topics and corresponding messages that support your company’s overarching messages can be invaluable to being ready and able to pursue high impact reputation building messages in front of the public’s eye. Be willing to tell the story of “why” the rebranding was important given the current state of the industry.
100% Buy-in across company segments. You need to make sure every sector of the company is very clear on the new messaging and branding statements. It is vitally important to get buy-in from each segment on every word and punctuation mark.
Once you do, offering each segment of a company a document or visual on how the new branding impacts how they talk about the company or how they will do their job moving forward can be helpful in getting everyone on the same page.
Buy-in needs to happen on every level from the CEO to the janitor. Each employee needs to be clear on what the company does and the best way to explain that to
whoever they need to explain it to.
Pipeline tactic development: Once you have rebranded, you also need to take good look at current tactics and pipelines to determine if they are supporting the new look and/or descriptors that you have chosen for your company.
Old communication, marketing, public relations tactics may have worked for your old way of thinking about what you did, but there may be pivots you need to take to
support the updated messaging and overall look of the company. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard about rebranding where major sales documents were
not updated, yet still used, mostly due to confusion on the branding, how it effects the company, and why it matters.
Each sector of the company needs to look at the way they are doing their jobs in light of the rebranding efforts and determine if old ways of thinking need some
updating. Keep these recommendations in mind when developing your public relations strategy during a company rebranding effort. All healthcare
technology companies should take a good look at their company identity in this season.
Whether or not your company is taking on a full-on rebranding effort, it’s helpful to keep these best practices in mind.
When news came down the Thursday before HIMSS20 was set to begin that the conference had been cancelled due to Covid-19 concerns, it was tough to tell whether that loud sigh that rippled across America was relief or exasperation.
On the one hand, everyone who was on pins and needles waiting to see if their projects and presentations would be done on time were likely relieved to dodge a deadline bullet. Managers who weren’t sure whether it was prudent to send key staff to a potential covid-19 incubator (including me, quite frankly) were happy to have that responsibility taken off their shoulders.
Still, a lot of time, money and effort went into preparing for HIMSS20, and many health IT companies were counting on it to help them boost sales. They had to feel like Bluto Blutarsky (the late, great John Belushi) in Animal House after discovering Delta House had been expelled from campus, who famously said “Seven years of college down the drain.”
(I was going to share a video clip of that statement, but the only one I could find is definitely not safe for work. So you’ll just have to see it in your mind.)
Yet now that the initial shock has passed, it’s time to remember an even more famous Bluto quote: “Nothing is over until we decide it is!”
Yes, HIMSS is putting together virtual conference, which may be helpful. (I say “may be” because they’ve never tried it before so it will be a learning experience for all.) Regardless, however, there’s no need to wait for or count on the virtual conference to fulfill your HIT marketing needs. Because there is plenty you can do on your own to turn those frowns upside down. Here are a few examples:
Turn announcements and presentations into your own virtual events. Even if you’ve never done them before there is plenty of technology that makes creating webinars, podcasts and virtual roundtables even than ever. Especially if you have a great HIT-focused agency like Amendola to help.
Reschedule in-person demos and meetings as phone calls/online meet-ups. That time was set aside anyway. See if you can keep the appointment virtually.
Convert your HIMSS messaging into content pieces such as data sheets, infographics, white papers, case studies, videos, etc. Don’t forget customer presentations too. They can easily be converted into case studies, byline articles and sometimes even journal articles.
Take the effort you would have put into follow-up calls and emails after the conference and do them now.
Share everything you’ve created on social media. It’s probably the ideal time, because with more people working from home, or staying in rather than going out, social media is getting more attention than ever. Use all the channels available to you LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and wherever else you think your customers and prospects will be.
Yes, the cancelling of the live, in-person HIMSS20 conference may have seemed like a disaster. But it doesn’t have to be.
With a little creativity, and perhaps a little help from your friendly neighborhood PR and marketing agency, your final take will echo Delta House’s Flounder:
We work in a niche part of PR healthcare with a heavy focus on technology so as you can imagine we have extremely nuanced discussions about the work that our clients do. This includes how their technology, service or offering impacts the world, what differentiates it from competitors and why providers, payers or employers need this technology.
We spend hours meticulously parsing through the language that accurately, yet simply, conveys what the technology or service our client provides so that our target audience can understand.
Recently though, I have realized that we in marketing and comms tend to turn around and play back the results of our work in the exact same manner but in our own jargon impressions, hits, tonality.
Just a few weeks ago, I was discussing messaging with a client for a new product, and they relayed a point to me that struck a chord for the work we do on both sides of the business. The team said that the clinicians do not want another report that they have to weed through. They want technology, partners and leaders who don’t just shove another report down their throats. They want digestible information that helps them in their day-to-day workflows.
That, of course got me to thinking. I write reports regularly. Reports of media coverage garnered, work done that month or quarter or year, reports on what we anticipate the outcome will be. But am I oversaturating my main audience like healthcare technology vendors are oversaturating clinical teams?
The answer is simple yes.
PR is perceived as the silver bullet that can fix all of a company’s issues. But there are two issues:
1. It is not a silver bullet and there is a lot of work that is needed operationally to turn around an organization, and
What do we as PR professionals do? We flood our market with reports we show how many impressions we may have secured, how one tool shows how the tone of the discussion changed and more.
But what we are not consistently giving is digestible advice on what this means for their day-to-day workflows how should they implement changes, what changes need to be implemented, where can we improve?
While I don’t have all the answers, I am working to improve my reports to provide that quick advice on what needs to be changed or considered to make all our activities more impactful.
How have you altered reporting to make sure your clients get the most of your partnership?
The competition for consumers’ time is more critical than ever as they continue to be bombarded with the “noise” of messaging and advertisements in nearly every facet of life. According to Forbes, the average person is exposed to 4,000 10,000 advertisements each day. Without a strong, compelling message your brand is likely to get overlooked regardless of how life-changing it may be.
Think of your typical day and the amount of noise you encounter whether that be from emails, online ads, social media, commercials, and so on. Likely you along with many of your buyers have started to block much of the unnecessary noise. Many now use DVRs to avoid commercials or have tightened privacy on their social media pages to avoid unwanted ads.
Due to the overwhelming number of messages each day, it is critical that brands start becoming more personalized in their approach. Personalized marketing is not going away any time soon in fact, it is one of the top marketing trends for 2020. Research shows that more than 63% of consumers are highly annoyed with the way brands interact with them and blast irrelevant information.
What’s a personalized message?
The idea of what makes something personalized has changed. A recent survey by Pure360 suggests brands still rely only on basic personalization. Many companies continue to take the lazy approach by simply substituting the consumer’s name into the salutation of an email, while others get overzealous and appear creepy.
We’ve all received those emails that address us by name but have no idea who we are or what we care about. Take, for instance, a male who receives an email, addressing them by name, that then continues to discuss problems during menstruation and how a new sanitary product could change their life. This not only makes the company appear lazy and uneducated but could also damage the brand while wasting both resources and money.
Research shows that 81% of consumers want brands to get to know them and know when to approach them and how. This goes beyond dropping in names, cities or titles to truly engaging with consumers. While this may seem daunting, many marketers have large databases that contain numerous data points across all consumer segments. Unfortunately, many do not take advantage of this data.
Making it personal
The best personalization efforts are when consumers see a brand’s content or messaging in a natural and timely manner. Using the buyer’s or consumer’s past history engagements paired with current activities is one of the best ways to engage an audience. Fortunately, marketers have tools and technology that make delivering dynamic content a reality.
Take for example the future purchasing recommendations that Amazon makes based on what the consumer has previously purchased or viewed. These personalizations are typically more helpful and appreciated. In addition, grocery stores will often send coupons based upon your recent purchases. Lastly, we’ve all been victim of perusing one site and then looking at our Facebook page and seeing ads invade our feed. Brands must be careful with retargeting ads and these type of personalizations, which is why having a clear understanding of the consumer’s history and current activities is critical.
On a good note, it doesn’t even have to be this hard. In 2014, as soda consumption was steadily declining, Coca-Cola came out with its “Share a Coke” campaign. This simple, but extremely effective campaign personalized bottles by printing first names on them Share a Coke with Bethany, Share a Coke with Jeremy, etc. The campaign appealed to consumers because they saw their own name on a big brand. The campaign helped the company grow sales for the first time in 10 years.
Time to get personal
So if you haven’t yet, you better start getting more personal with your buyers or your competitors will. Below are some key considerations for diving into personalized messaging.
Segment your audience. Hopefully you have already done this but as you know not all of your consumers have the same needs nor do they have them at the same time. This is really step 1 before you can begin personalization.
Create content that matters. Not all content is created equal. Consider implementing dynamic content where your buyer can see the right content at the right time.
Give your business a face. Your company should have a human identity is it fun, professional, goofy? Your company must have an identity that buyers can connect with whether you’re selling B2C or B2B.
Make better recommendations. Don’t recommend a vacuum cleaner to someone who just purchased hardwood floors. Know your audience and tell them about products or solutions that they actually could use and need.
Test and measure. You won’t always guess right. Some campaigns will have double-digit conversions while others will fall flat. The good news is most technologies allow you to do A/B testing and will even determine the winner for you before you blast an entire segment with a poorly designed campaign.
There’s no better way to get started than to get started, monitor your results, repeat what works and ditch the rest. Trust me if you don’t do it, your consumers will start identifying and connecting with your competitors, who may already be delivering personalized marketing.
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and the flowers and trees are blooming. It’s that time of the year when I think about Spring cleaning, especially living in Atlanta where everything inside and out is covered in pollen. As I was dusting my entire house last weekend trying to rid it of the fine yellow dust covering EVERYTHING (the struggle is real y’all); I started thinking about how to spring clean your PR strategy and what would benefit the most from a little extra attention.
Media Lists
The media landscape is constantly in transition. Journalists change positions, beats, contact information, etc. They might have altered their interest in specific topics. Throughout the year, we try to keep our press lists up-to-date, but spending some extra time going over your media list, updating the notes based on feedback from pitches and researching new media outlets can be a great use of time.
Messaging
This is a great opportunity to review your business’ messaging and assess if it needs updating. Perhaps you’ve announced new products in the last six months, or perhaps the industry has developed a new acronym for your niche, or maybe there is a new piece of healthcare legislation that is key to what your business does that should be mentioned in your messaging. Maybe you’ve learned more throughout the year about what your key audiences want to hear. Now is a great opportunity to take another look at your key messages to make sure they are conveying what you want them to and effectively reaching your target audiences.
PR Coverage
With a fresh look at your media lists and messaging, it would also be timely to review your coverage. Where have you received the most placements? Are any angles played out at this point? What outlets have you not gotten coverage in that you want to be in? What angles do you need to push harder? Are you actually reaching your target audiences with these outlets? A review of all of this will help you spring forward to make your coverage blossom even more.
Events
We PR people like to develop our annual plans generally at the beginning of each year. But so many details for events such as conferences and tradeshows are updated throughout the year. Determining which conferences you plan to attend, submit a speaker application to or want to include in your content strategy is a key component to any PR campaign. Take this time to update your events list with deadlines for speaking and any other promotional activities.
Review and Set New Goals
With a fresh perspective on where you’ve been and what you have to work with, it is also a great time to review the progress you’ve made in achieving your goals and updating them or maybe upgrading them. Utilize the S.M.A.R.T. goal format as a best practice.
Some of these recommendations take some ongoing maintenance but think of this time as a chance to really dust off what you are doing with your PR campaign and apply a fresh strategic approach to it. So, before you grab a vacuum, go grab a pen and review your PR strategy to help your business make the most of its PR activities.
