bionews | medical marketing

Social media is an excellent tool for healthcare companies and physicians to communicate with their audiences (and practices to communicate with their patients!). It's free (ish), and the people following you are usually well disposed toward you and your services.

Until they’re not.

If a follower/customer raises a concern, let them know you'll address it and then reach out on a private channel. If it's a legitimate beef, fix it and move on. Be kind, be respectful. With luck, you'll make a dissatisfied customer satisfied, and everyone lives happily ever after.

But sometimes you'll find someone who wants to be a troll. They don't have a legitimate concern and are only aching to feel empowered by raking some unsuspecting victims over the coals. And they chose you. They're making nasty and rude comments on your page, chiming in on every post with a bunch of garbage that's not relevant to you, your practice, or reality.

Once you’ve determined there’s no legitimacy to their complaint, here are a few steps you can take:

Turn off comments. You can control whether followers can comment on your posts, so if you see the conversation taking a turn for the worse, flip the off switch. Flip it back on once the hubbub dies down.

Block them or ignore them. There’s no sense getting into a knock-down, drag-out on your page. You’ll spook the innocent bystanders.

Report them to a higher power. There are people out there creating fake accounts by the thousands, so let Zuckerberg and company do the work of seeing if they’re legit.

To head off any problems, have a policy in place that guides your social media managers and lets your followers know what the expectations are. And of course, social media can be even trickier in the medical field, considering HIPAA and other regulations' demands. If you want help developing guidelines customized for your business or managing your social media, email Ben Singleton, Social Media Director.

Besides showering less, architecting our hair, and gobbling down therapeutic treats, we are going wild on email. According to Hubspot marketers, overall email usage has bumped up 49 percent. That's huge! And digital analytics firm Glance digital has tracked a boost in business email engagement (clicking) of over 190 percent. More traffic, more clicking, it's inbound marketing nirvana.

Inken Kuhlmann-Rhinow, EMEA Marketing Director at HubSpot, has sage advice: "With 44% more emails being sent than before the COVID outbreak, getting an email strategy right is essential. And, marketers need to be targeted, educational, and empathetic. This is a difficult time, and simply being noisier to maintain consumer attention won't work in the long run – it's about growing better, not growing at all costs."

The healthcare sector has joined the party, too, with a 37% increase in business to consumer email.

While email response is soaring, most websites are taking a hit on traffic; anywhere from 14 percent and more, and Pageviews (the number of pages seen per visit) have declined 27%. Pageviews by returning visitors are up 15%.

As external pressures mount and there are fewer buyers in the market, there aren't as many people exploring healthcare service options. In the hospital arena, there's another epidemic, the patients who need treatment but who are avoiding hospitals due to COVID. Core audiences remain intact, so focus your energy on your core products and services.

Consider the alternatives

Are you looking for other media opportunities? Paid search ads (SEM) and social media advertising provide a bright spot for digital marketers. Explore online communities relevant to your mission, too. They're on a roll, also, with a 31 percent traffic increase. The marketing landscape is changing quickly. Stay close to your patients and customers, and focus on the core.

Does it make you throw up in your mouth a little bit when you hear someone talking about their “personal brand?” It just sounds so plastic and fake. Tide is a brand. Or Charmin. But not us, we’re human beings, damn it!

But guess what. You already have a personal brand, whether you've actively engaged in building it or not. The people you work with already know if you're the quiet one with the excellent work ethic or the fun one with the unfortunate traits of running late and missing deadlines. In healthcare, your brand (also known as your reputation) can carry even more weight.

And now that we're in the age of COVID-19, massive layoffs, and business upheaval, you better believe that your personal brand is mighty valuable. If you're not actively waxing and buffing it, you might not like what it says about you.

Take a little time for self reflection

Ask yourself: For what values do I want to be known? What do I consistently deliver in the workplace? How do my co-workers describe me?

Talk to a trusted colleague or mentor and figure out your strengths. Those are your building blocks. Now decide what you need to add to that toolbox to round you out, and make a plan to get them, whether by taking a class, reading a stack of books, or just good ol’ fashioned elbow grease.

Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn but do it without being egotistical. (No one likes that brand.) Tell your story, not in terms of how great you are, but rather how you solved problems, overcame obstacles, and successfully managed projects. And be specific: "Developed HIPAA protocols for office communications" or, "Wrote product review for Ophthalmology Management magazine.”

Your LinkedIn feed is a great place to showcase the good things you’ve done (and are doing.) And make sure you track your feats of derring-do and add them to your resume, CV, cover letters, etc., as appropriate.

Garrison Keillor writes your emails, and a tony graphics firm designs them. But nobody is opening them. Do we fire Garrison and frou-frou designers? No, we get busy tweaking from addresses. You know, the one that shows where the email originated.

Our advice on the from address is simple. It might be a well-known person in the organization, a title relevant to your patients or buyers, or someone highly relevant to it. Johndixson@thePartyCzar, is tons better than John Dixson Marketing, assuming that your email is about a party!

Unless you send a high volume of email, it's best to stick with one person who has high visibility and the trust of your audience. Common titles for marketing emails include CMO, VP of marketing, or Director of Marketing.

What's in a domain name?

Recipients look to your domain to confirm that it's actually from your organization. The temptation is to create a bunch of new domains. Please resist! Your domain name is your brand and the center of trust in your marketing. One solution we like is to create a subdomain, which is a subset of your main domain, for example, foundation.cityclinic.org, or ortho.AImedicalScanners.com. The email address would then be Joan@ortho.aimedicalscan.com

Your domain is a touchstone for your brand's credibility, so leave it alone!

Avoid role addresses when sending marketing emails

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A role email address is a generic that serves a specific purpose, like support@ai-medical.com, or billing@ai-medical.com It's a great way to organize your incoming email, but don't send marketing email campaigns from them. An exception might be a sub-brand that's more well-known than the parent brand. That's why you'll find information and receive emails about Johnson and Johnson bandages at band-aid.com.

And, of course, don't forget to A/B test everything.

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Yeah, it’s hot. So, here’s a little sumpin’- sumpin’ that’ll chill you out, in both body and mind. You’ll need:

• Grapefruit juice-if you want to take it to the next level, use freshly squeezed
• Gin (or vodka, if you prefer)
• Lime juice-freshly squeezed, don’t compromise here
• Grapefruit sparkling water
• Coarse sea salt

Rub the rim of your highball glasses, roll in the salt, and add crushed ice.

Grab a cocktail shaker and add the grapefruit juice, gin, and lime juice. Shake it, baby, shake it.

Pour into the glasses.

Top with sparkling water and give a light stir.

Garnish with a lime wedge and a mint leaf, if you want to be fancy.

Take a drink. Appreciate the fact that below freezing temps are still a few months away.