Consolidation and Merger & Acquisition Mania
From 2005 until 2008, the proportion of hospital-owned medical practices surged from 25.6 percent to 49.5 percent, according to the Medical Group Management Association. Last year, nearly half of new doctors became salaried employees of hospital-owned practices, surpassing for the first time the number who joined medical groups owned by physicians.

Hospitals are not the only ones consolidating their talent. Large health systems are gobbling up previously independent hospitals at astonishing rates. What does this mean for you as a marketer? In 2012, you’ll need to communicate how these larger healthcare organizations will provide value to patients. Make your value proposition very clear to the community.

Growth in Consumer Driven Health Plans
Employers large and small are moving towards defined contribution plans such as HSAs and HRAs. As more consumers enroll in these programs, they will be more selective in their healthcare spending.  Also of interest, we’re seeing insurers and medical practices work with businesses to create wellness programs for employees.

Physician Referrals. Still a Driving Force.
While consumers are gaining more share of voice, physicians are still a major driving force behind healthcare decisions. Continue honing your focus on physician marketing using email and consider implementing a Physician Relationship Management (PRM) system for a more proactive marketing approach.

Greater Focus, Targeting and Segmentation.
If you don’t have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in place, this is the year to get your data in order. You can target without compromising HIPAA compliance – and many healthcare organizations are already embracing that mantra. Many of our financial services clients have found success with targeting and segmenting their emails. We’ve recently begun implementing similar techniques for healthcare clients.

Power to the People!
Social media is empowering consumers with their healthcare decisions. For good or bad. Yes, people are sharing health experiences with friends (and complete strangers) via Facebook, Twitter and other heavily used social channels. Often overlooked are the smaller online sites that focus directly on the provider. Sites such as Angie’s List, Healthgrades, Yelp!, and Vitals.com are either directly focused on healthcare providers or are expanding to accommodate them.

Forward-thinking healthcare marketers will embrace this change and actively manage their listings on these sites to generate positive online communication (just as you likely utilize LinkedIn to manage your reputation). Social media is just one avenue of an increased focus on emerging digital media.

What trends are you seeing? Please share below!

Or worse … are others in your organization worried a world of accountable marketing will cause various slush funds to be redirected to marketing?  I am going to demonstrate what you can gain by spending just 30 minutes analyzing your data.

The Marketing Analytics Test

With the cooperation of one of our clients, I embarked on a challenge to take a deep dive into data. As marketers, we all have very little time, so I am going to spend no more than 30 minutes in the data.

The Resources

• Access to Google Analytics for the client’s website
• Access to two years of focus group test results (from another partner)
• Access to two years of email marketing reports (from another partner)
• Resources freely available on the Internet: Alexa, Quantcast, Compete and other consumer data aggreators
• 5 minutes of time on the phone with the client
• Access to 8 years of historical email usage data from clients in the same industry

The Findings (in 30 minutes)

• Mobile users interacting with company are primarily using Apple products with the iPad coming in as the #2 source for the website.
  • Studies show that mobile users will continue to grow as tablet usage increases in 2012. The site should be optimized for phones and tablets.
• 49%+ of the 54,853 unique visitors during the time period came from a search engine.
  • This has steadily been rising since the site launched with a minimal investment in an organic SEO test pilot.
  • Further investment in organic SEO should continue to increase traffic. Traffic from organic SEO is an extremely affordable method of increasing usage of the website. Especially when a site currently has momentum and good conversion points.
• Facebook.com is the #3 referring traffic source for the website in the past 3 months. With email being the #2 source.
  • We can conclude that people are sharing the site with their friends via the Facebook platform and people are following those links back to the website. An investment in the use of social channels to promote the website could reap big dividends in terms of more exposure and traffic. Development of a Facebook page and a targeted ad campaign are highly encouraged.
• CNN featured one of their financial calculators in an article a few months ago which drove 1,400+ visitors to the site in a few days. Blogger outreach should be considered as part of the organic SEO program to leverage their good content.
• Several local associations are beginning to link to and drive traffic to the website as well. Reaching out to other associations and encouraging the behavior could help more. These links will prove invaluable for the organic SEO campaign.
• The email reports and our own historical data suggested that there were clear trends in the type of content email subscribers clicked on. The client should consider segmenting the email newsletter based on life stage and popularity of content as measured by unique visitors to the website from Google Analytics data.
• The attendees of their latest conference loved the a custom animation the client shared. Posting videos like these on the site and creating a few additional ones is a great way to engage website visitors.
  • The focus group data and high % of unique visitors to the video pages further suggested the videos on the website were a hit.
• Data from the focus groups, the website and third-party sites suggested that while the site was rich in content, it was not always easy to find content relevant to life stage/situation.
  • Implementing custom views based on life stage would effectively allow for personalized experiences.

What’s Next?

In a few months, I will report back on what changes the client has implemented and we will take another deep dive into the data.

When it comes to content marketing, the marketing teams at Coca Cola have realized that they need to participate in and facilitate conversations around their brand. Lately soft drink companies have been criticized for promoting the sugar-filled drinks that lead to obesity. Coca Cola wants its brand to go viral and become “liquid” (interesting choice of words) by linking to other conversations online – showing how its products has a positive impact on the world. We used to call this “spin” in the PR game. Today it’s just another side of the conversation.

Here’s a the video from Coca Cola that explains their commitment to Content Marketing. (I recommend expanding to full screen.)

Is your marketing team finding natural ways to include your brand in conversations? Consider a “Content Audit” where your team studies the messaging across your chosen offline and online media. A content audit can help you answer questions, such as:

• How does your messaging rate against your competitors?
• How often are consumers engaging and interacting with your messages?
• Where are the conversations that relate to your brand happening?

Just like Coca Cola, your marketing team should take a proactive and ongoing approach to content marketing. Small changes can make a big difference over time. Need assistance with a Content Audit? Contact our team here at Priority.

While the total number might be a bit high, read on to see how you compare in spending your content marketing budget.

“This spending study shows growth points across a number of major factors – from outsourcing to higher budget allocations,” said Lori Rosen of the Custom Content Council regarding the study, released in November 2011.

These are just a few excerpts from the study. I recommend reading the news release for more information.

• Publication budgets increased by 68%. Study sites this as the biggest driver of growth from 2010 to 2011.
• “26% of the overall marketing spend was allocated to branded content.”
• “16% of marketers reported that their companies are shifting aggressively from traditional marketing into branded content.”
• Reasons for using branded content remain the same:
  • Number 1 reason was to educate customers.
  • Number 2 reason was retention.
  • “Though it made some modest gains, up-selling customers was ranked as a low priority, indicating that in the minds of marketers branded content is viewed as a long-term investment rather than transactional.”

• “72% of marketers think branded content is more effective than advertising in a magazine.
  • 62% say it is more effective than advertising on TV; 69% say it is superior to both direct mail and public relations.”
• The average total branded content spend on outsourcing was 17% of the total branded content budget for companies that did and did not outsource. For companies that did outsource, it accounted for almost 41% of the total branded content spend.
• “The use of services of external agencies (such as custom publishers, PR/marketing firms, design firms, video production companies or interactive agencies) to handle some aspect of branded content initiatives remains consistent at around 50%.”

That’s it for now. I’ll leave you with this interesting infographic I recently enjoyed: A Brief History of Content Marketing.

Recently, I read a post discussing things you may be doing that could get your Facebook page shut down. The post made some good points and highlights many of the Facebook Promotions Guidelines. But the message seemed to be that it’s impossible to have any type of giveaway or promotion. That is not the case. You simply need to understand the guidelines and how to work within them. Let’s walk through them now.

1. All promotions must be administered through a third party application. This is the most common mistake that companies on Facebook make in running contests. Examples such as ‘like this post to win’ or ‘comment on our status with your top health tip’ are not compliant. Numerous authorized third party applications exist, are affordable and easy to use. Top ones include Wildfire, Offerpop and FreePromos.
2. Having someone like your page or comment on a status does not count as an automatic entry in a contest or as a voting mechanism. Contests are compliant when someone opts in through a form and the winner is determined by a random drawing.
3. People cannot vote for winners using the like button. One common type of contest is to submit a photo and have current fans like their favorite photo. This is not allowed. The trick is to drive people off of Facebook to a landing page on your website, where people can then vote on their favorite photo.
4. People do not have to mention your Facebook page. You can ask fans to mention your page or share the promotion, but it cannot be a requirement to enter a contest.
5. You cannot ask people to upload a photo entry to your wall. Refer to #1. The third party applications allow contest participants to submit photos, avoiding the wall altogether.
6. You cannot contact winners through Facebook. You can state who won a contest on Facebook, but that is your only (legal) obligation. Winners will have to see the post and contact you in some form. You can recommend how winners are to contact you (email, call, etc.) but you cannot chat, private message, post on a timeline of the winner.
7. There must be official rules for each contest. This is something that your legal team can help create. Each state may have different regulations on contests or giveaways which will need to be outlined in the official rules.

These guidelines apply to financial institutions, healthcare organizations and to companies across industries. When creating a strategy for a giveaway or promotion, be mindful of the above guidelines. It will help ensure that you and your compliance and legal teams will be able to sleep better at night.

Email Remains an Effective Communication Channel

“As more customers rely on online banking as their primary channel for managing accounts, e-mail remains a low-cost, effective way to reach customers. Consumer recall is quite strong, with 48 percent of consumers reporting they’ve received some form of e-mail communication from their primary FI in the last six months.”

This probably is not a surprise to most of you. What I did find surprising was the low amount of consumers reporting they had received cross-sale product offers. According to the report, “… while the response rate on offers to open a new account is still modest at 6 percent, it represents a doubling of last year’s rate. In fact, these e-mails are highly effective in increasing customer awareness and engagement in other offerings, with 17 percent of recipients visiting the site to get information on other products.”

Email Driving More Awareness and Engagement

Email marketing certainly appears to remain an effective channel to drive a certain level of awareness and engagement. The below chart looks at year-over-year growth in consumer response.

Download the Full Report

The comScore State of Online & Mobile Banking report provides a comprehensive review of digital bank marketing and online banking and includes other emerging channels like mobile. Results are based on a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users. You can get your free copy after completing a simple contact form on ComScore’s website.

Jason and I focused the webinar on three main areas:

• Relationship Between PPC and Organic SEO
  Marketers often worry about how to balance these two tactics. We highly suggest a phased approach where you ramp up with PPC for quick wins and to gather intelligence for a long-term play with organic SEO.
• Various Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Challenges Faced by Hospital Marketers
  The biggest challenge? The disconnect between what consumers search for and what medical jargon legal requires.
• Concrete Recommendations for Implementation
  The most simple, but most overlooked recommendation? Simply sharing the keyword strategy you have developed with your PR and other corporate marketing teams.

SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) for Hospital Service Line Marketers

If you’re interested in having this program or best practices on another interactive topic presented to your own team, contact Brian. I know he would enjoy presenting and handling any questions you and your colleagues may have.

However, if you’re like many communications pros working on print pubs, one of your challenges is balancing time. By the time you get input from subject matter experts, senior managers and legal and compliance reviewers, your carefully crafted content may be old news. Here are a few tips that may help.

1. Focus on insight, analysis and education as much as possible. Save the truly timely stuff for e-mail or social media, channels that are better suited for up-to-the-minute changes.
2. Triage your timeline. If you know there will be timely info coming, save a slot in your publication schedule for last-minute content. Get the rest of the content approved ahead of time and notify your reviewers when the fast-turn content will be coming and how quickly you’ll need it. They may be able to review faster if it’s just one piece rather than an entire publication.
3. Keep vendors notified. If they know in advance that a quick-turn project is coming, they can plan for it.
4. Take advantage of technology. If you want to include last-minute updates – perhaps seminar or webinar information or financial news – leave some dedicated space on your publication. We find the mailing panel is a great place to laser timely information – it can be included when the piece is being addressed.
5. Accept the inevitable. Stuff happens. Your publication hailing an upturn for investors or the latest health screening schedules gets mailed, and the next day the stock market drops or the American Cancer Society issues new guidelines. Instead of worrying about it, consider it an opportunity to reconnect with your audience and give them an update, whether through print or electronic messaging.

Deadlines happen, but if you stay flexible you can help avoid painting yourself (and your organization) into a corner.

Step 1: Segment Out Your Inactive Subscribers

First, find your inactive subscribers. Depending on the type of emails and your frequency of sends, you might pull out people who haven’t engaged with your emails in the last 3-6 months, or perhaps you’ll want to go back a little further to 9-12 months.

Once you have your list, you’ll want to work on ways to encourage them to take action. Taking action could mean opening your email and clicking on an offer, clicking a link to confirm they’re still interested or even … unsubscribing.  What?  Encourage them to unsubscribe?  Yes. If they’re really not interested, but just haven’t opted out, why keep sending to them?

Step 2: Identify Ways to Re-Engage

One idea for a win-back campaign would be to send them a special offer. Make sure to let them know this is an offer just for them. You want them back and are willing to give them a discount, special deal or gift.

Or you could send them a survey. It could be a survey to learn more about what they’d like to see in future communications or it could be a survey masquerading as a preference center where they can choose the type of communications or the frequency they’d like to receive.  With this strategy it’s always a good idea to incentivize their interaction.

Finally there’s the good old “Please come back,” “We miss you” or “Where have you been” email.  Just letting them know you want to communicate with them just may do the trick. People like to believe they’re actually communicating with a real person, so an well-presented plea could make them take another look.

Step 3: Test Your Results

Now that you’ve sent some re-engagement campaigns, take a look at your pre-strategy results, your re-engagement results and then the results of your next few normal sends. Did you improve your overall engagement? Did your inactive subscribers re-engage just during the re-engagement campaign or have they continued to engage? Or did you lose a lot of your subscribers.

Final Step: Fix The Underlying Problem

Now that you’ve spent time encouraging your existing subscribers to re-engage with your emails, you should try taking a look at why subscribers become inactive. Are your emails not interesting enough? Perhaps you’re selling too hard, sending too often or not sending the right kind of content.

I also frequently see marketers collect emails, but not take advantage of the honeymoon period. The first few months of a subscription are very important. A strong onboarding campaign can prove to your new subscribers your emails are worth reading. The saying “it takes 21 days to form a habit” loosely applies to this theory. It’s actually more than 21 days in email, but the concept is the same. I’d say “it takes 3 months to form a habit.”  So create a strong onboarding program. Send them your best offers and your best articles during this period. If they stay engage during this period odds are they’ll make looking for your emails a habit.

Now put those pencils down and get moving on re-engaging the disengaged. Good luck.

Download audio file (Jim_Brian_December_2010_Webinar_Interview1.mp3)

Brian explained to me that he covered a lot of ground, but focused on:

• Examples and case studies showing how credit unions and banks are using social media on channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and Foursquare
• Various social media tactics that could be employed depending on your bank or credit union’s social maturity level
• Recommendations for addressing compliance, ROI and budget questions from your C-suite or board of directors

He also highlighted a question about problems with examiners’ concerns of social media. One tip he provided attendees was to “write down all of the scenarios you believe could occur, then list who is responsible, what is a standard response and how long it should take to respond. If you can present that plan, you can show how you’re in control.” Consider preparing a table, such as what is provided in Brian’s post Example Social Media Engagement Model for Banks and Credit Unions.

If you’re interested in reviewing the slides, you can see them by viewing the presentation on Slideshare below.

If you’re interested in having this program or best practices on another interactive topic presented to your own team, contact Brian. I know he would enjoy presenting and handling any questions you and your colleagues may have.

We would love to hear your social media success stories and tips. Please feel free to leave your comments below.