The Way We ThinkBy engaging each other, we all perform better. Tune in to the HTK blog, podcast and weekly round up for insights that can make a tangible difference in the way you think and do business. See below for the most recent thinking, or click the appropriate page for the whole archive. Sign up for The Performance Marketing Report, HTK’s free healthcare marketing newsletter. You’ll get ideas for refining your marketing, creative and operational strategies. You’ll get in-depth analysis of trends, challenges and successes in the healthcare industry. To start getting it, just sign up. . It’s not just what we say. It’s how we say it.September 2, 2010By Alison Schiek A research study in the journal Neuron revealed the brains of infants as young as seven months old demonstrate sensitivity to emotions communicated through voice. While the study provides important insight into neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, healthcare marketers also garner an important takeaway: Human beings begin to recognize the “feeling” of the voice before we can walk.
Today, healthcare leaders vying for the attention of bombarded consumers must cue into this most organic expression of identity: tone of voice. Tone of voice is an overlooked communication element that has the power to speak to the heart. It is how your integrated health system, clinic or hospital would express itself if it were a real, living, feeling person. MORE Three Steps to Being an Effective Healthcare Social CommunicatorSeptember 1, 2010By Mike Seyfer To communicate effectively in the social media space, we simply have to evolve some our traditional behaviors as marketers—and not that much, really—to account for these important changes in our consumers’ points of view. Whether your hospital or healthcare organization is new to social media or has been practicing it for a while, the following three insights will help you become a better online social communicator. MOREAlways tell the truth. And don’t stretch it.August 26, 2010By Marsha Hystead When you are marketing a service, such as health care or higher education, and you stake your claim in the marketplace, it is imperative that your strategy is based on sound facts. This is especially true if you are competing against one of the major healthcare brands.
You are probably saying, so this is news? Believe me, I see these claims all the time. “We’re the best” or “The region’s only” all sound good, until the giant down the street asks you to verify your claim. MOREFind your sweet spot. Then make their palms sweat.August 10, 2010By Marsha Hystead If you find yourself in a market competing against one of the famous national healthcare brands, find what makes your organization unique, say it in a compelling (you could say risky) way and you can claim your position in the marketplace. MOREThe Patient Experience is the DifferenceAugust 5, 2010By Laurie O'Melia O'Neill Remember the good old days--when a happy customer would tell a handful of friends about the experience and an unhappy customer would tell, maybe, twenty friends? So the saying used to go, anyway. Today, as Joseph Jaffe said in his “Customer Service Manifesto,” the unhappy customer tells “a million of his closest strangers.” The stakes are higher now, and they’re getting higher all the time. There’s more than one way to tell a story.August 3, 2010By Mike Scholtz Our partners at Sacred Heart Hospital asked us to find a new way to
promote their Smart OR. None of the traditional approaches seemed right for an
all-new operating suite that combines cutting-edge technologies in all-new
ways. Keeping Digital StraightJuly 1, 2010By Jeff Ruprecht Facebook. Twitter. Foursquare. Trends in online ads. Search Engine Optimization. The Medical Home Care Model: A progress updateJune 30, 2010By In October 2009 I wrote a primer of sorts on the Medical Home care model, The Medical Home Model: Is it real or an idea that only a policy geek can love? Well it’s been eight months and since then a health reform bill has been passed by congress and a Harvard study has been recently published that reports on 26 of the nearly 100 ongoing medical home demonstration projects. It seems like the right time for an update. MORENew HealthSeeker™ Facebook Game Taps Into Social Networking PowerJune 29, 2010By A game called HealthSeeker™ launched on Facebook eight days ago hoping to gain a social networking audience among Facebook’s 400 million active users. MOREIs Your Agency Asking the Best Questions?June 21, 2010By Mike Scholtz Creativity can’t exist in a vacuum. We need the best information to build the best campaigns. To get there, your agency should be asking you the following questions: MOREUnderstanding Behaviors and Perceptions Can Help Shape Patient CareJune 7, 2010By Laurie O'Melia O'Neill Laurie O'Melia O'Neill (LOO) looks at three research "nuggets" and shows how they provide clues to reaching people who can be helped to improve their health. MOREGet your creative juices boingingJune 3, 2010By Jake Kapsner Boing boing. Is it the sound of your latest brainstorm? Your commute to work via pogo stick? Or just a blog you can’t afford to miss? What's capturing the e-patient's attention?May 26, 2010By Denise Burgess What’s capturing the e-patient’s attention? Going online for health and medical information has become a habit for many people. What's more, according to a Pew Internet Project, it's not just a convenience but rather the result of positive experiences that most people are having with online research. MORE ANOTHER QUALITY AWARD? There are many ways to tell the world.May 24, 2010By Marsha Hystead We’re
fortunate to work with many highly acclaimed health systems in the
Midwest. And lately we’ve been doing a lot of healthcare quality award
ads. Whenever we begin the creative process, we first ask: Who is the
primary target audience for the advertising? Should employees be
featured? Patients? Physicians? The ad must reflect the current climate
of the organization. What would bring the most benefit to the
organization? Is internal morale low? Is there an unfounded perception
that your competitor is higher quality? Are you getting your fair share
of referrals from physician groups? Think carefully before you just put
out an announcement ad. MORE NEED INSPIRATION: ONE WORD IS ALL IT TAKESMay 10, 2010By Denise Burgess Have you ever sat in front of an empty computer screen or stared at a white piece of paper waiting for inspiration? As a writer, this is a daily occurrence for me. The hardest part of any project is getting those first few sentences down on paper. What do I do when I’m stuck, when I’ve got nothing and a deadline is looming? MOREWhen We Are The Patient: Notes From The InsideMay 4, 2010By Laurie O'Melia O'Neill Laurie O'Melia O'Neill talks about healthcare from the patient side and what can be learned as a healthcare marketer. MOREIs Your Website Ready to Innovate?April 29, 2010By Mike Seyfer Is your website ready to deliver on tomorrow’s healthcare possibilities? Consider healthcare’s technological innovations just around the corner, and whether or not your website, or other digital communications platforms, are ready to be on-point for these opportunities. Chances are you’ll start to develop an equal number of questions as answers. MOREHealthcare News Roundup for April 25April 25, 2010By A plea to stop referring to everything as "social media", more about newly appointed leader of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Donald Berwick, a bariatric procedure moves into the mainstream, and additions to Ed Bennett's healthcare organizations social media list. MOREInspirational Blog of the Week - Issue 2April 21, 2010By Deb Salzer Members of the HTK creative staff follow several blogs for inspiration. These blogs are dedicated to the craft of advertising, writing, art direction and television production. Others are devoted to furniture design and architecture. We’d like to share these with you in the hopes that it helps those ideas flow. MOREWho Loves Good Typography? I Do.April 20, 2010By Diane Tobin Good typography most often goes unnoticed because it is exactly that. Good. You may not realize why you liked it. You just know you did. Bad typography, on the other hand, sticks out like a sore thumb. For example, what if book pages were black and the copy was reversed out of it in white? Ouch. My eyes are tired just thinking about it. MOREThe Foundation Review article touts “Speak Your Peace” resultsApril 8, 2010By Howard Klatzky Speak Your Peace, the groundbreaking civility project that HTK created with the Duluth Superior Community Foundation (DSCF), continues to get noticed and put to good use. MORETell More of Your StoryApril 5, 2010By Mike Scholtz The same thing happens every time we edit a TV spot: Some of our favorite shots, moments and sound bites end up on the cutting room floor. MOREWhere Does the Inspiration Come From?April 2, 2010By Marsha Hystead As leaders of creative people we all understand the need to be inspired and motivated in order to do great work week after week. We have to give our attention to feeding this creative spirit. MOREThe Evolution of a TV SpotMarch 29, 2010By Marsha Hystead See what it takes to create a rock video for a group of rockstar neurosurgeons. MOREMaking it click: an online ad primerMarch 24, 2010By Denise Archer By now, just about every healthcare marketer and their assistant’s little brother has experimented with online advertising. Here’s the thing: it’s no longer experimental. Advertisers are planning online as another essential part of the mix, and looking for results. MOREHealthcare News Roundup for March 23, 2010March 23, 2010By This Roundup includes recommendations for an excellent LlnkedIn group AND a social media blog to follow, read about Facebook becoming the most popular Web site in the U.S., and how a for-profit healthcare systme moves into to rescue a non-profit Detroit health system. MOREThanks for the virtual hand on my shoulderMarch 22, 2010By Jake Kapsner Anyone on Facebook knows how easy it's become to know each other's business. And by business, Imean personal life. And by life, I mean health. MOREHTK teams up with Senator Al Franken and Duluth for Google Fiber.March 11, 2010By Marsha Hystead Duluth is one of many cities vying for Google Fiber, the ultra fast
broadband networks Google plans to build and test in a few select
communities around the U.S. We want it in Duluth. MORE Do Your Patient Stories Celebrate Life?March 8, 2010By Mike Scholtz Healthcare marketing is addicted to the testimonial. It's easy to see why. People love hearing stories about other people. MOREHealth News Roundup for March 1, 2010March 1, 2010By This Roundup features links and information about social media metrics, Microsoft's unveiling of the Health Vault Community Connect, and how to follow the Dalai Lama on Twitter. MOREIs It Time for a Rebranding Campaign?February 5, 2010By Howard Klatzky There are definitely signs to look for in determining if your organization should invest in a new brand strategy. The term rebranding is accurate; your organization already has a brand. MOREWho is Leading Your Hospital to Social Media Success?January 19, 2010By Mike Seyfer Inevitably, our health care clients who plan to implement a social media strategy find themselves asking the same question: Who is going to manage this? MOREThe Weekly Roundup for 01/15/10January 15, 2010By There was a lot of good stuff floating around in the Cloud this week. When I was done choosing what to include in the Roundup, I realized, “They’re all lists!” I don’t know what that says about me but here they are. Let me know which ones you found most valuable. There was a lot of good stuff floating around in the Cloud this week. When I was done choosing what to include the Roundup I realized, “They’re all lists!” I don’t know what that says about me but here they are. Let me know which ones you found most valuable. I’ll begin with a book about lists. The Checklist Manifesto: How to get things right was a Best Book of December on Amazon. Written by Atul Gawande who happens to be a surgeon, the book promises to reveal what it takes to work successfully and with a personal sense of satisfaction. The book includes examples from the medical world but includes examples from all of life’s endeavors. I meant to include this link last week, but it is a short and sweet newsletter story entitled Ten Questions to Ask Before You Start a New Web Project by our friends at Newfangled. Use this as an opportunity to sign up to receive their newsletter regularly. You will learn a lot from this post from Social Media Today’s blog, The Top Ten Twitter Statistics and Analytic Tools. This was heavily circulated out in the Twitter-sphere this week. My last list was written by Edward Boches at Creativity_Unbound, Five Questions Every CMO Should Ask A Prospective Ad Agency. Just to break the pattern I thought I’d include something relating to Super Bowl advertising because every marketer likes to read about that. The Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals posted, Social Media is the New Super Bowl. MORE You Can't Afford to Ignore Facebook AnymoreJanuary 6, 2010By Mike Seyfer Those of us who grew up in the 70s (or before) were very familiar with Leo Burnett’s campaign, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” Too bad Olds no longer exists. A strong brand that just couldn’t adapt to younger consumers. MOREThe Healthcare Brand: Online Reputation ManagementNovember 9, 2009By Mike Seyfer What is Online Reputation Management? The Medical Home Model: Is it real or an idea that only a policy geek can love?October 1, 2009By Policy makers, forward thinking insurance providers and healthcare systems are all talking about the concept of medical homes as a cornerstone of the remodeling of the nation’s healthcare system. While some are already touting medical homes as THE solution to the nation’s healthcare woes, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. MOREFor Healthcare Advertising: TV is Still KingSeptember 23, 2009By Denise Archer The stakes Beyond Market ShareSeptember 12, 2009By Remember when people actually packed a bag to go to the hospital? Though it sounds almost quaint today, we can all remember when the majority of patient care was delivered to patients who had been admitted to an overnight hospital bed. MORETransparency: Putting It All Out ThereAugust 23, 2009By The push for transparency in healthcare quality—and price. Web User Experience and AccessibilityAugust 12, 2009By Jeff Ruprecht Your Web site is arguably the most important marketing tool you've got, 'cause that's where people find information—and it's not just those twentysomethings who've never made a hotel reservation any other way. (Come to think about it, how did we used to do that?) MORE |