Enjoy Your Leftovers

We hope you had a great holiday feast.

Chances are, you will be enjoying leftovers as well. Remember, don't eat too much at a single sitting.

Of course there are also some rules about another kind of leftover you may have right now. These are the leftover marketing dollars you have that you lose if you don't spend them by year-end. Here are some rules about how to best use these "leftovers."

1. Don't do anything until you know you have authority to spend those dollars, even if you have budget. Organizational profitability requirements may prevent you from spending those dollars.

2. Don't spend just for the sake of spending. Figure out strategically how your money can be best spent. If you can't think of anything, don't spend the money.

3. Here are just a few things you can do:

a. Get all your online efforts for next year in line. Finalize your Website. Optimize it. Get your social media programs going. Get any videos done.

b. Instead of mailing your direct mail campaign just after Jan. 1, mail it just before Jan. 1 to expense the postage. But don't mail it too soon - you'll want it to hit after the first of the year.

c. Have any miscellaneous writing projects initiated in December.

d. Begin the process of initiating a market research project in December, and see how much of it you can pay for up front.

e. Prepay planned 2011 advertising expenditures. You might even be able to get a discount.

f. Talk to other providers about paying them in December with 2010 money, even if your schedule doesn't permit them to start working on a project until after the first of the year.

4. If you are a B2B company, try using this strategy with your clients. Have them commit to spend IT money, buy office supplies, whatever. It works.

What other ideas do you have? Leave them here.

Social Media and Healthcare Providers - Getting Started

Last time, we discussed how healthcare organizations should manage employee use of social media sites. Interestingly, my daughter just started working for a hospital, and I asked her if they talked about what she could and could not say on Facebook related to her job. She said they told her she can’t do anything. Good for them.

This time, let’s focus on a few things healthcare organizations should do before posting their first item on a social media site. This is not rocket science, but doing the right things up front can maximize the effectiveness of your efforts, and probably save you some headaches too.

1. Social media should be part of the overall online marketing strategy, which should be part of the overall marketing strategy. Don’t get so enamored with the buzz around social media that you lose sight of the big picture.

2. Do your homework.
1. Identify the social media sites your target market visits.
2. Research what the competition is doing in social media.
3. Use Google Alerts or another tool to see what your target market is saying about you.

3. Don’t be afraid. Many organizations are paranoid that if they have a Facebook page, or tweet, or put a video on YouTube, it will invite negative comments. The fact is, if somebody has something negative to say about you, they are going to find a way to say it on Yelp or a similar site (that’s why you use Google Alerts or some other tool). Using social media, you can become aware of these criticisms, and you can take important steps to address them and/or regain control of the conversation.
1. Specifically for Facebook, if someone posts something negative about you on your page, it takes about one second to delete the post.

4. Have a social media plan. That may be part of or separate from your overall marketing plan. But include things like objectives and target markets. Also put together a calendar of what you are going to do, when you are going to do it, and who is going to do it. Then stick to it (yes, obviously, there should be some flexibility to leverage the spontaneity afforded by social media). Part of this plan should also include how you are going to use other social media and other marketing channels to support your social media efforts.

5. Do it right the first time. For example, while it is easy to set up a Facebook page, it is also easy to set it up wrong. What is not so easy is to fix it. While Facebook has different types of pages you can set up, it is pretty inflexible once you have decided what type of page to set up. So hire somebody that knows what they are doing to initially set up the page. The minimal investment will be well worth it.

6. Use technology to help you leverage your time. For example, LinkedIn posts can automatically be tweeted. And tweets can be posted to Facebook pages, etc. Get the technology right up front, and you will be able to spend more time on content, and less time on the mechanics of distributing the content.

Social Media and Healthcare Providers

An employee at a hospital in Michigan posts negative comments about a patient on Facebook. An ER nurse in a Los Angeles hospital posts pictures of a stabbing victim on Facebook.

How healthcare providers should leverage social media is a hot topic these days. This is my first Marketing Musing on this topic, and it discusses the issue of what healthcare provider employees should and should not do. My solution is simple. Employees of healthcare organizations, with few exceptions, should not use social media to communicate anything about their jobs, including their patients or their employers. Period. Break the rule; lose your job.

The attorneys can determine if the actions cited above constituted HIPAA violations. But common sense needs to rule here. You don’t post negative comments about your customers or your employer online. You have to assume the entire world will see your posts. I would not say any negative thing about my clients online; I can’t understand why employees of healthcare providers would post negative comments about patients or their employers.

So here are my thoughts on governing your employees’ social media behavior.

1. You need a comprehensive social media policy which all employees should sign. There are several examples you can access online simply by googling “social media policies for healthcare organizations.”
2. Any “official” organization pages on Facebook and any LinkedIn groups need to be controlled through the Marketing Department. I really do not see the need for nurses, residents, etc. to have their own official pages or groups (i.e., Sisters Hospital Nurses or Sisters Hospital ER). If a department has a party and wants to post photos, that can be coordinated through the Marketing Department. If a patient wants to have a photo (or video) taken with a member of the staff and permits the photo (or video) to be posted, that can also be run through the Marketing Department.
3. As mentioned before, no information about the organization or patients should be permitted on personal pages. There should be no tweets about the organization. This should be zero tolerance, with loss of job resulting from violations. Even if it is something as simple as saying you had a great day at work today. The problem is once you start, it is hard to determine where to draw the line.
4. There are some exceptions. One deals with LinkedIn. Employees should be allowed and even encouraged to have LinkedIn pages. They should be allowed to have profiles, post updates, join groups and join group discussions. They should be allowed to communicate job openings. There are a few exceptions.
1. No patient information
2. Nothing critical about the organization
3. Postings regarding organization sponsored research should be approved by the organization
5. One other exception is employees should be allowed and encouraged to share postings from the organization, including posts on the organization’s Facebook page, tweets, and information communicated through a LinkedIn page. This, of course, will leverage your organization’s ability to use social media and reach an exponentially greater number of people. However, these items should be shared without comment.

Interested in your thoughts, experiences

So You Think You Can Write?

Are you in the market for a “full service solutions provider?” How about some “cost-effective end to end solutions?” Or a “provider of value-added services?”

Well, somebody must think you are. Because those three phrases show up on Google searches between 47,000 and 600,000 times, according to Jason Fried in a recent issue of Inc. http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100501/why-is-business-writing-so-awful.html. And you know that if these phrases are showing up on the Web, they are showing up in brochures, print ads, direct mail pieces, etc.

Who writes this stuff? People who often want to save the company money, and think they are qualified to write. These, of course, are the same people who rightfully think nothing about investing in information technology, paying a professional to do their taxes, or hiring graphic designers to make the drivel they write show up on a great looking Website, or in attractive printed materials.

Here are a few of the things these people believe qualify them as a writer:

• They have a great deal of subject matter knowledge, and do not believe anybody without that knowledge is qualified to write about the subject.
• They have frequent interaction with customers, and may be able to “talk the talk” with them.
• They may be smart.
• They think writing is easy. They’ve written their entire lives. And it’s not like you need a degree or have to pass a special test to be a writer.

What are the results of poor writing? Well let’s ignore for a second the obvious poor grammar, incorrect sentence structure, typos, etc. What you also get are the following:

• A monotonous recitation of features, technical details and processes that demonstrates how great the product or service is, but that completely ignores the customer benefit.
• Infatuation with flowery words and phrases that sound cool and cutting edge and oh so businesslike, but which nobody understands (i.e., end to end solution).

Best case, you end up with writing that is so poor that you do bring in a professional to fix it. This ends up costing you time, money and opportunity, but at least you now have something cogent and engaging. Worst case, nobody fixes the writing, and you end up with a Website or printed materials that do not resonate with anybody, and reflect negatively on your brand.

Some of you actually may be reading this and thinking, OK, give me some tips so that I can become a better writer.

Sorry. Good writing is not about tips. It is about years of experience honing the craft.

Want a tip? Hire a professional.

How’s that for a full service solution?

Healthcare Providers Need to Market

Last week, there was a segment on NPR on hospital marketing. (http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=126537953&m=126899947). In this segment, James Unland, editor of the Journal of Health Care Finance, speaks out against most hospital advertising. As much as I disagree with much of what he said, the good news is this is a wake up call for hospital marketers to make sure they can justify their marketing investment.

Mr. Unland spends most of his time criticizing “huge expenditures on TV and broad-based media advertising (which also includes radio and billboards) that’s very, very expensive.” He actually goes on to suggest that regulators say to hospitals: “You have a charitable mission. Don’t throw this money down the drain on expensive TV ads.”

Mr. Unland especially has problems with hospitals doing this type of advertising in large metropolitan areas because “the problem in metro areas is each hospital only serves a tiny percentage” of that market.

While it is true that television advertising is not for everybody, there are several problems with Mr. Unland’s argument.

• While I am a huge proponent of CRM activities to engage patients, I firmly believe that people need to know and trust a healthcare brand before they engage. Television when used appropriately can play an important and powerful role in the branding process, since the visual and audio impact of a TV ad can be quite powerful and memorable in generating awareness and creating positive perceptions. This is the first step toward brand selection.
• While it is true that broadcast TV advertising may not make sense for a community hospital because it can only realistically draw patients from a small percentage of a large metropolitan area, that is not true for systems (in Chicago, think Advocate) or brands that are so powerful that they draw from the entire metropolitan area (think Northwestern). The entire metro area is their service area, and for them TV can make abundant sense.
• Additionally, issues such as declining populations to enhancements in services may dictate that traditional “community” hospitals redefine their service areas beyond traditional geographic boundaries
• Finally, you don’t have to buy the whole market. That is what cable advertising is all about. Cable allows you to focus on a specific geographic segment of a larger metropolitan market, not to mention its ability to target a very specific demographic.

As mentioned, Mr. Unland also lumped billboards into the mass media tactics he thinks are wasteful. Billboard advertising generally is local. Interestingly, a recent article in the Journal of Healthcare Management discussed the impact of billboard advertising on visitors to an urgent care center (http://www.ache.org/pubs/jhm552.cfm). Not only did the billboards increase awareness, but a majority of the respondents said the billboards either moderately or highly influenced their visit. So billboard advertising certainly can work.

Mr. Unland suggests using Public Service Announcements (PSAs) as a way to market screening and events, and that “the media is almost always receptive.” While that is nice in theory, as one person noted in a LinkedIn comment I saw: Mr. Unland apparently hasn't tried to place one lately as media tries to sell every second and column inch.” It is just not realistic to expect PSAs to get your message across.

Mr. Unland strongly recommends using the Internet as a way to market services. He says: “The unit cost of telling the story of the hospital and what services it has is minute.” No argument there. But the Internet should be part of an integrated program. And I would not necessarily say the cost of developing a compelling Website, driving people to it through online marketing and social media, and then monitoring it, is necessarily “minute.”

Finally, Mr. Unland says direct mail is an appropriate way of marketing to the service area. True again, but direct mail is but one element of a comprehensive CRM strategy. And indeed, an effective CRM program must be an integral part of a hospital’s marketing efforts. But that CRM strategy will work much better if it is implemented by a healthy brand.

Unfortunately, many hospital executives and their Boards of Trustees will have heard this segment and may question their organization’s marketing expenditures. So hospital marketers will need to be even more adept at marketing the need to do marketing to their management. So your marketing program needs to be well thought out. Here are some thoughts on how to do that.

• A good plan starts with insight. Do your homework. Conduct research and analyze data to determine:
• What your brand stands for in the eyes of your target market
• How to best communicate your brand promise (messaging and media)
• What you should promote (and why) to attract and retain patients, as well as to maximize physician referrals, through your CRM program
• Who you should be promoting it to (and why)
• What your positioning and messaging should be in your promotional messages
• How to best deliver those messages
• Include reasons to believe. Describe your own successes. If you are just starting, ask your agency and/or CRM partner to provide success stories from similar organizations
• Discuss how you are going to demonstrate value
• For your branding initiatives, this can be challenging, as branding initiatives in and of themselves will not directly lead to quantifiable revenues.
• For your CRM initiatives, it is much easier. You can demonstrate ROI from CRM activities (like Mr. Unland’s direct mail)

In conclusion, a well executed marketing program can:

• Strengthen your brand by creating awareness and enhancing perception so physicians will want to refer to you and patients will want to utilize your services
• Increase revenues through promotion of the appropriate services to the appropriate target markets via the appropriate delivery mechanisms
• Increase marketing efficiencies, since you will not be wasting marketing resources on programs that do not have appeal to your target market
• Improve the healthcare of the community you serve, helping you achieve your healing mission. After all, your efficient marketing program will educate people to engage in programs to improve their health

Marketing (including advertising) is an essential part of the business of running a hospital. I know it. You know it. Don’t be shy about letting your peers know it.

Marketing: Art of Science?

A LinkedIn group I am in recently had a relatively lengthy discussion on whether marketing is an art, a science, or both.

I did not start the conversation, but I thought it was an interesting one because, when I talk about marketing, I define it as “the art and science of making sure you have what your customers want, and then making sure your customers want what you have.”

So where does the art come in? Where does the science come in?

To me, “making sure you have what your customers want” is primarily science. It involves doing research to determine:

Who your target market segments are

1. What product/service attributes are important in their purchasing decision
2. How you rate on those attributes
3. If they will buy from you
4. If they will be willing to pay a price that allows you to achieve an acceptable return on investment
5. What messages will resonate most with them
6. The best places to deliver those messages

The science of marketing can be used to answer all these questions. But applying this science is also an art. You need to know what research tools to use to obtain the answers. And you must know how to properly construct research documents to obtain actionable information.

So now that you know what your customers want (and whether you can make money giving them what they want), it is time to make sure they “want what you have.”

This traditionally has been the “art” part. Crafting the right messages. Appealing visuals. Being clever. Making the audience say “wow.”

And art still plays an important role at this stage...the leading role. Still, the role of science in this endeavor is expanding as technology has provided more tools to utilize science to make the art even more effective. Just a few of the many examples:

1. Web-assisted technology can play a vital role in making sure the right messaging is implemented. This ranges from logos and taglines to testing newspaper ads, television commercials, Web pages, e-mail messages, etc.
2. Once your target market is defined, data can be used to make sure you are using media most effectively and efficiently.
3. Search engine optimization techniques can be used to drive people to your Website.
4. Keyword analysis can be used to optimize your social media efforts.

Then, of course, comes the science of measuring results. Data can be used to measure the effectiveness of marketing, whether it is awareness/perception research to measure changes in awareness and perception, to ROI analysis to determine if your efforts are adding to profitability. This is true in both the offline and online worlds.

So I guess my bottom line answer is that marketing is still an art and a science. But technology has enabled us to expand the role of science, which in turn will make the art that much more effective.

Your thoughts?

The Tiger Woods Apology: Great, Bad or Ugly?

Let me start this out by stating that I have always been a “Tiger guy” (as opposed to a “Phil guy”). I am amazed at what he can do with a golf club. But what I have admired even more is his incredible work ethic. One of my favorite quotes is from Samuel Goldwyn, who said “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” I have heard Tiger say the same thing.

So while I don’t think athletes should be role models (that is what parents are for), I always thought Tiger’s work ethic was a character trait that could serve as a great example.

A few months ago, in the infancy of the Tiger Woods developments (notice I did not say “affair”), I was at a marketing presentation. At the time, the only “facts” that were out were that Tiger had crashed his car, that Elin broke the window of the car with a golf club, and that there were rumors of affairs with one or two women.

Marketers being marketers, the discussion evolved to: “What should Tiger do?” “What would happen to his endorsements?” we also wondered. “What happens to the Tiger brand?”

A lot of people opined that Tiger needed to just come out, tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Tackle the issue head on and get it over with, because in 15 minutes we would be engrossed in some other tawdry development. The situations were much different, but the precedent cited was how Johnson & Johnson handled the Tylenol deaths back in 1982,

The sponsorship debate sparked some diverse thoughts. At the time we thought that a lot depended on the target audience. For example, how marketers at a general consumer product like Gatorade might react could be different from how marketers at Accenture might react.

My thought at the time, frankly, was all the conversation was great in theory, but it was really too early to speculate because all the facts were not out.

Fast forward not quite three months. Many facts (we will never know if all of them) have come out. Obviously, this Tiger tale (sorry about that) exploded far beyond what any of us could have imagined. And Friday, Tiger spoke publicly for the first time. A lot of people have analyzed and overanalyzed what he had to say, and what will likely happen next.

My thoughts on how Tiger handled his “apology” for his deplorable actions.

1. I think what Tiger said was right on target. He accepted responsibility for his actions. He expressed remorse. He did not make excuses; he did not minimize his transgressions.
2. There are those who question his sincerity. My opinion is he came across as sincere.
3. Compare what Tiger said to how others have handled crises. Check out some of the remarks of Pete Rose, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Michael Vick, Mark McGwire, Mark Sanford and even Bill Clinton. I think of that group, Tiger is the only one who got it right.
4. Now compare what Tiger said to how Alex Rodriguez handled the disclosure of his steroid use. Alex responded immediately. He was honest and apologetic. He did not blame others. And as a result, his image did not take the hit that Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens or Mark McGwire suffered.
5. There are those who said: “Well, he was scripted.” Of course he was. That is what crisis management and PR are all about. I am sure there were discussions about the overall message, of the specific words, and the tone. One of the reasons Tiger has enjoyed success from a business standpoint is that he has surrounded himself with smart people. This includes people who can take his thoughts and then craft the right words. Perhaps if some of the people mentioned above had similar counsel, they would have handled things better.
6. The matter of limiting who can attend and that no questions could be asked. As a former reporter, the issue of journalistic access is important to me. In this situation, however, I understand what Team Tiger did. It was critical that the key messages be delivered, and that delivery was not sidetracked by endless questions that would probably be voyeuristic and frankly, private. Having said this, I understand why reporters boycotted the session.

What’s next?

1. As Tiger’s buddy Michael said, “never say never.” But I think the Tiger brand has been irreparably damaged. I would be very surprised if Tiger becomes the commercial icon he once was.
2. I am sure Tiger will return to the golf course at some point. But I doubt I will be the Tiger fan I once was.

Political marketing - ugly or not really?

I better write this one now because the elections are today. So today everybody hates political ads, but tomorrow they will all be forgotten. So here are my thoughts.

1. I think political ads in general are terrible. They fall into one of two categories.

a. Attack the opposition. The worst I saw this year was an ad from Andy McKenna, a Republican seeking the nod to run for Governor of Illinois. I had the "pleasure" of seeing one of his ads today about six times while on the elliptical. All the ad did was blast one of his opponents for being a "backer" of Barack Obama. Not one constructive thought. This, by the way, does not necessarily reflect my political leanings. Just my marketing leanings.

b. Utter platitudes, like "cut spending" or "no new taxes" or "clean up government." Please - what do you take us for? Idiots?

2. To answer that last question, I think politicians do take us for idiots (or, at best, apathetic). And maybe they are right. My sense is, at least for higher offices, politicians do their research and understand what messages will resonate with voters. They believe that what attracts voters are simplicity, feel-good buzzwords and knocking the opposition. Rational arguments and facts just are not relevant.

So maybe the ads are not bad marketing. Maybe the problem is not the politician/brand, it is the target market. And as long as we as the customers of the brand are willing to accept the messages we are being fed, the brands have no reason to change the messaging.

So here are my thoughts on how to change this. And, yes, I realize there is no chance of this happening.

1. Ban political ads and direct mail.

2. Really put the onus on the media to educate on the issues, not just report on the latest bashing.

3. As part of the reporting process, report on how the candidates do on focusing on issues, as opposed to criticizing their opponents.

The problem with this, of course, is that it will only work if the public really will embrace this. People say they are disgusted with politicians and the political process, and they want change. But do they really?

What do you think?

Great Marketing? Porter

Yesterday (Jan. 31), I booked a flight online with Porter Airlines. The offer allowed me to save 20% if I booked by Feb. 1 Today (Feb. 1), I was looking up an article on a Website and was served an ad for Porter, telling me I could take 20% off if I booked a flight by Feb. 1 (same offer I used the day before).

My thought process:

1. Great marketing because, knowing my behavior, they are serving up an ad that may be of interest to me with a very compelling offer.
2. Maybe not so great. I just booked a flight yesterday; why are they hitting me again so fast?
3. Yeah, it is great. The "book today" offer creates urgency. And since they know I use Porter, the urgency can prompt some action.

I know there are people out there that think it is "creepy" that "they" can monitor our Internet behavior. Frankly, we should be past that by now. I would rather have "them" send me compelling offers I am interested in than waste my time on something I am not interested in.

Thoughts?

Bad Marketing

The other day I received the following e-mail.

“Good afternoon Les,

Our corporate office recently sent a mailer invite regarding our (product omitted) Promotion to your attention at the Northbrook office. Your business was among 50 local businesses selected. It's very simple: If you allow us to provide a quote on your (service omitted)service for your Northbrook location, we will give you a (product omitted) regardless of whether or not we do business. It would only require 10-15 minutes of your time so that I can gather information needed to run a quote.”

Nothing wrong with the content. Personalized. Nice offer. The only problem is that I have been a customer of this company for years. I responded to the salesperson who sent the e-mail, and told him I considered it poor marketing. I asked him if he knew why. He did not, so I told him I was an existing customer and had been for years. His response:

“(Company) has thousands of customer’s in this area and occasionally we fail to recognize the name of the company and our marketing group that sends out the mailers for us to follow up does not efficiently “scrub” the database for existing customers. For that I apologize.”

Ok. Nice that he apologized. And I can forgive the typo. But come on.

Point #1. “Occasionally we fail to recognize the name of the company.” Do you look at the names manually? For a program like this, which is only sent to 50 customers, maybe you do. But if you only sent this to 50 customers, it would seem a trivial exercise to make sure none of them were customers.

Point #2. “Our marketing group … does not efficiently ‘scrub' the database for existing customers.” This should be automated and there is no excuse for this. There is no other business named L. Stern & Associates in this area. And my e-mail address is unique, and it is the one this company has on file.

So the problems: First this annoyed me (although they are a good service provider so I will not leave them). Second, since this solicitation obviously did not originate from a customer list, they had to pay for my name, so they wasted money sending this to me. Third, and most importantly, it made them look really unprofessional.

Scrubbing technology has been around forever. There was no excuse for this. Bad marketing.