Categories
healthcare marketing-triage podcast Uncategorized

Can You Nudge a Consumer Toward Better Health? 

Communicating with healthcare consumers to improve outcomes and save money 

Communicating with your audience is challenging even on the best day. Consumers either drink from a fire hose of media or filter it down to a tiny drip. When the goal of communication is to change healthcare behaviors to improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs, finding a way through those barriers becomes mission critical. It can be done, but you have to employ practical communication and a laser focused, data based strategy. 

There’s a lot on the line. Americans spend $4.3 trillion dollars on healthcare annually. That’s $12,914 per U.S. resident, the majority of it spent on hospital care*. It’s an unsustainable, skyrocketing situation that is driving healthcare providers and insurance plans to motivate patients to wellness in order to reduce consumption and costs. That means engaging them in education and that means reaching them somehow, with effective communication.

Engagys is at the center of trying to solve that Rubik’s cube. They are a national healthcare consumer engagement consulting and advisory services firm that helps corporations engage their consumer base and nudge them toward healthier behaviors. Holdcom Marketing Triage interviewed Kathleen Ellmore, Cofounder and Managing Partner of Engagys and asked her how communications can drive consumer behavior for better outcomes. 

“It takes an evidence based approach that assesses data and uses it to figure out how to get the consumer’s attention as the first step in the strategy”, she said. “You need to engage the individual before you can even begin to communicate with them, and that communication has to be relevant and resonate in the context of their everyday lives.”

First, the nuts and bolts

To achieve this, Kathleen and her firm approach the complicated communications equation with an “above and below the waterline” assessment. It’s a discovery of whether the nuts and bolts are in place to effectively communicate with engaged and disengaged consumers, and drive behavior change.

Above the waterline: 

  • Do you have the behavioral science data to determine what your consumers are doing, reading, and how they are living now? 
  • Have you identified the social determinants of health that impact their ability to change healthcare behaviors, like transportation, food scarcity, access to healthcare, etc.? 
  • Do you have messaging in place that can be used for AB testing? 
  • Do you know your channel mix? Where are you going to place the messaging and is that based on the data you have? 

Below the waterline: 

  • Do you have the people you need to craft and place messages effectively? 
  • Do you have the right process in place to create and maintain the messaging? 
  • Do you have the technology to make all this happen? 

Is your communication practical? 

You don’t hear the word “practical” very much, but it’s the lynch pin of reaching the consumer. In other words, are you taking a practical approach to any given communication campaign? According to Kathleen, practicality requires asking questions that provide essential insights: 

  • Do I understand where my audience is – figuratively and literally speaking? 
  • What is their social-demographic profile? 
  • Do I know where they live and work? 
  • Can I estimate their level of health literacy? 
  • Do I know if they can be compliant, even if they read the communication?
    • What are the barriers to that compliance? 
    • It’s one thing to try to educate a consumer about diabetes control, but it’s not going to be effective if s/he doesn’t have access to healthy food. 

Reaching consumers will always be challenging. Now it’s essential. As you review the how and what to communicate to engage your customers and patients, consider what content you have accessed and what remains to be optimized for various channels. We know there is always more content than you can get to. We can help. We triage content – mining it from inside your organization, organizing, and producing it. are part of that solution. We offer content generation, written by healthcare insiders, that expands your bandwidth and gets work done.

Categories
customer experience music podcast

Podcast: Does Background Music Improve Customer Experience?

The customer experience begins with the first interaction of your brand or organization. If your customers are engaging with your company in a physical space, like a store, restaurant or waiting area their experience will be positively or negatively impacted by the quality of the environment.  Is the presentation of your setting favorable?  Is it clean and inviting?  Does it have visual interest that’s engaging like digital signage or decor reflective of your image? Are you using sound to elevate the customer experience? 

By evaluating your venue from all aspects and making positive adjustments, you will improve the customer experience.  An often overlooked element of customer experience is background music and the role it plays in how well a customer finds their interaction to be.  Choosing appropriate overhead music can have an effect on customer behavior.  Volume, tempo and genre are key factors which have an effect on behavior as found in a study done regarding “Effects of background music on Concentration of workers”.  Be sure to choose a business music service which has the music content to suit your target audience. When done correctly the right overhead music can boost your business.

Categories
customer experience greetings podcast

Podcast: How do eGreeting Cards Increase Customer Engagement?


As video marketing continues to take top priority on marketers agendas, companies and brands are scrambling to find the resources and funds for this highly engaging and sought after digital content.  

An easy way to get started using video content as part of your marketing strategy is to turn to existing content which can easily be repurposed as video.  Breathe new life into your PowerPoint Presentations and convert them to videos.  Add professional audio and voilà you’ve got yourself a quality piece of video content suited for top-of-the-funnel customer experience.

Audio eGreeting cards are another low cost entry into video marketing.  These timely videos are an effective way to let customers know how much you care. Combine licensed images and music with a carefully crafted message, add your logo and an appropriate call to action and you’re ready to go. Check out the podcast below to learn more about using eGreeting cards to engage your customers.

Categories
podcast resources tips

Ten Tips Tuesday: Considerations For Your Next Podcast

Headphones for listening to a podcast with tips 126437307Are you an avid podcaster? Just starting out? Not sure what podcasting is to begin with? Don’t worry – these tips will help podcasters at any level create great-sounding episodes that are informative, interesting, and engaging. The major areas to consider are your content, delivery, editing, and distribution skills. Here are some tips and ideas for all of these areas: