February 17, 2012
A “like”, “follow” or “re-tweet” is not necessarily a brand endorsement.
As healthcare marketers begin to experiment and utilize social media, questions arise about how to measure its effectiveness. Some would argue that a “likes” and “followers” are an indication of brand endorsement. Well politics may be teaching us that’s not necessarily true.
Micah Sifry reporting for CNN, examines the impact of social media on the current GOP presidential campaign. What he discovered is there really is no valid correlation between twitter buzz and Facebook followers to a candidate’s success at the polls.
There is a lot of monitoring of each of the candidate’s social media activity. It is natural to assume a growth in the number of followers and a high occurrence of re-tweets are both indicative of support and success. But actually, the actual votes at the polls show that social media activity appears to be more an indication of notoriety and celebrity.
Herman Cain had a great following on Facebook and created a tremendous amount of social network activity (although admittedly some of it was negative) but he is no longer in the race. Newt Gingrich’s 1.4 million followers on Twitter would indicate strong grassroots popularity and support. But a closer view shows half of those accounts are outside the US and half the accounts are inactive. His number of accounts is a function of longevity and notoriety. Rick Santorun’s early success came from social activity but not the online kind. His support came from social activity even more local and personal than online social networks. It was the work of the evangelical church. And his surprise showing overloaded his website and he was not ready to fully take advantage of his success.
Clay Johnson seems to be prophetic by stating in his book The Information Diet, there are empty information calories and to eat them is to do so at your own risk, for they can make you really dumb. In other words a link, or a follow, or a retweet is about as meaningful as a glance or a nod and certainly not an endorsement.
As healthcare marketers we are tempted to believe the notion that social media activity or likes or links are indications of brand endorsement and loyalty. We often tout our social media success by citing such numbers. But if the current political campaigns teach us any thing, it’s that these conclusions are not necessarily true.
We shouldn’t ignore social media. We should embrace it as a legitimate marketing tool. But the numbers for number sake shouldn’t fool us. The effectiveness of social media is difficult to measure. We are still learning how to interpret the data and how viable the data actually is.
“Likes”, “followers” and “re-tweets” may just simply indicate a fairly low level of interest. The real challenge is converting those glances or nods into something useful.
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Branding, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agency Huntsville, Advertising Agency Tuscaloosa, Brand Endorsement, Clay Johnson, CNN, Effectiveness of Brand Endoresement, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Marketing Firm Alabama, Marketing Firm in the South, Micah Sfry, Nancy Siniardi, The Information Diet, value in "Followers", Value in "Likes", Value in "retweets", Value in Likes and Followers | 
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Posted by Jimmy Warren
February 16, 2012
Broadcast news has shown a resurgence of viewership within the last two years. 
Some prognosticators have predicted the death of broadcast news. And in fact, those predictions are based on declining viewership over the past decade. NBC Nightly news is down 12% over the past ten years, ABC 18% and CBS a staggering 31%. However that trend has begun to reverse itself.
NBC Nightly News enjoyed its biggest year since 2006 averaging 8.76 viewers in 2011, according to Nielsen. That is an increase of 3% over 2010 with Adults 25-54 accounting for 29% of the audience. ABC World News with Diane Sawyer had a 12% increase over 2010 and CBS Evening News had an increase of 6%.
These numbers are contrary to what many people have been predicting. The thought just a few years ago was that broadcast news would soon be a dinosaur, a thing of the past. But the current trend indicates otherwise. True, the nightly news broadcast is still off the enormous numbers from 20 years ago but the trend is changing.
As result, healthcare marketers should not buy all the doomsday talk about television’s evening news. The nightly time slot still delivers large numbers and is even increasing again. Against the backdrop of the decline of practically all traditional media, broadcast news is bucking the trend and therefore should not be ignored. It remains a viable alternative for our media considerations.
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Leave a Comment » | Hospital Advertising | Tagged: Ad Agency Tuscaloosa, Advertising Agency Huntsville, advertising in news, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Marketing Agency Alabama, Marketing Firm South, Nancy Siniard, Nielsen, value in broadcast news advertising, Viewership of broadcast news | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
January 31, 2012
Every hospital has unhappy customers. The question is not if you have them but what will you do with them?
Every hospital will have disgruntled customers from time to time. But instead of letting the situation create bad ill and tarnish the brand, the situation can be used to show how your hospital cares and even build brand loyalty.
Based on consumer satisfaction research, an article in The Financial Brand listed the expectations of customers once they have issued a complaint. The list is important for hospitals to understand and use as a guideline for dealing with angry customers.
Customers who have issued complaints expect to:
- Receive an explanation of how a problem happened
- Be told how long it will take to resolve a problem
- Be given progress reports if a problem cannot be solved immediately.
- Be given useful alternatives if a problem cannot be resolved.
- Be allowed to talk to someone in authority.
- Be contacted promptly once the problem is resolved.
- Be called back when promised.
- Know whom to contact in the future.
- Be told about ways the customer’s situation might be used to prevent future problems.
It’s important hospitals address customer issues and fulfill the expectations listed above. Unsolved problems have a particularly negative impact on both continued loyalty and word-of-mouth recommendations to others. Dissatisfied customers tell far more people about their experience than do satisfied customers.
So it’s imperative to deal with customer complaints and use the opportunity to turn a negative situation into a positive one. One that can actually build customer loyalty.
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Leave a Comment » | Patient Experience, Uncategorized | Tagged: Dealing with Unhappy Customers, Huntsville Advertising Firm, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Nancy Siniard, Patient Experience, The FInancial Brand, TotalCom Marketing, tuscaloosa ad agency, Unhappy Patients | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
January 31, 2012
Every hospital has unhappy customers. The question is not if you have them but what will you do with them?
Every hospital makes mistakes. With as many patients that come through our doors and with as many varied points of contact, it‘s inevitable there will be unhappy customers. Plus, many customers are not in the best frame of mind to begin with, which means they are often easily agitated. No matter how much customer service is stressed, there will be screw-ups. There will be disgruntled customers.
Instead of looking at such occurrences as a disaster, it can become a positive branding experience if handled properly. Instead of an upset customer who becomes a noisy distracter, the goal is to convert him into a brand loyalist who sings the hospital’s praises. The unhappy customer should not be viewed as the enemy but as an opportunity to characterize the brand as responsive and caring.
So what do you do when you make a mistake? Four simple steps:
1. Apologize. Disarm the angry customer by apologizing upfront.
2. Listen and empathize. Listen and don’t try to defend the hospital. Let the customer know your hospital cares.
3. Address the problem. Try to fix the problem and satisfy the customer as much as possible.
4. Offer to correct the problem. The customer wants to know the hospital will do everything possible to prevent the problem from happening again.
5. Follow up. Contact the customer and let them know what has been done to fix the problem. This is essential for customer satisfaction.
Research indicates it costs five times more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. So it’s important to keep customers, even the ones that have bad experiences. Solving customer problems not only keeps customers, it also helps build brand loyalty.
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Leave a Comment » | Patient Experience, Uncategorized | Tagged: Ad Agency Tuscaloosa, Advertising Agency Huntsville, healthcare marketing, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Marketing Firm Alabama, marketing in southeast, Nancy Siniard, Unhappy customers, Unhappy Patients | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
December 29, 2011
Traditional married couple households are no longer the norm.
The typical family, a man married with kids, now represents only 20% of households in America. The 2010 US Census indicates that households with married couples make up only 48% of households and married with children are only one in five. In contrast 45 million women are heads of households, which is double the number in 1980.
Women are more in control in American households than ever before. Women are heads of households and women earn much more money than just a few years ago. In 37% of married households, the woman makes more money than the man. In the last 30 years female’s income has risen 59% while men’s income has increased only 4%. One reason for this increase is only 14% of women had a college degree in 1980 compared to over 30% today.
And also contributing to these numbers of women who are heads of household is that as the population ages, women who live longer than men, will become an even larger majority of all adults.
To hospital marketers, women have always been the primary targeted audience. With these rapidly changing numbers the importance of targeting women is even greater. Women are heads of more households, they make more money than ever before and they make healthcare decisions. Therefore it’s imperative we understand women, what motivates them and how they make healthcare decisions.
It’s also important that as women take on a more active and stronger role in American households we must tailor our healthcare services to meet their needs. We must deliver healthcare in ways, places and times that fit their needs. And we must market in mediums that effectively reach this influential market.
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Leave a Comment » | Hospital Marketing | Tagged: Ad Agency in Alabama, Ad Agency in Hunstville, Ad Agency in the south, Ad Agency Specializing in Healthcare Marketing, Advertising Firm in Tuscaloosa, Demographics in Healthcare, healthcare marketing, Hospital Marketing, Influence of women in healthcare, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Nancy Siniard, Target Audience for Healthcare | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
December 28, 2011
Social media snafus happen. It’s what you do when they happen that matters.
You read about them almost everyday. Somebody makes a mistake and posts something that’s inappropriate or is potentially damaging to the brand. From the Red Cross, Chrysler and Southwest Airlines companies face uncomfortable situations. Some handle it well and some don’t. More damaging than the original blunder is when a company doesn’t address the issue or doesn’t handle it well.
Michelle Ponto with News10 in Sacramento wrote a story quoting Josh Morgan of Edelman Digital and Lori Bertelli of Augustine Ideas about steps to take to help minimize the damage if you are faced with a social media nightmare. The steps are very applicable to healthcare marketers who face such critical issues.
1. Before you say anything on social media, take into account everyone who could be in your audience, not just the people you know for sure are in your audience. Remember, not everybody thinks exactly the same way you do.
2. Before you open up any type of social media forum, have a policy in place that lets people know that certain types of speech aren’t going to be tolerated and that the platform is being moderated.
3. If you find yourself getting emotionally involved in something online, take a step back. Don’t let commentators get you riled up as you could end up saying something that you regret.
4. Think about who is doing your social media postings. An intern may be comfortable using Facebook and Twitter, but are they the right person to be representing your brand online? It is easier to teach someone who knows your brand/business about social media than it is to teach someone who only knows social media about your company.
5. Set up multiple administrators on all social media accounts just in case you can’t get in touch with someone when you need to – or they leave the company.
6. Make it easy to do the right thing when you are setting up your policies.
7. Own a mistake and do it quickly. Don’t try to hide from it. It’s not going away.
8. Have a friend or an editor check things out. It might seem funny to you, but it may not be to everyone.
9. Understand that you can’t control social media. Instead, be ready to react and take ownership when something does happen.
10. Don’t be insulting or come off defensive. All it takes is one bad post to create a social media nightmare.
Very sound advice. Advice that could be very helpful if your hospital or healthcare organization faces social media missteps.
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Leave a Comment » | Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agency in Alabama, Ad firm in Huntsville, Advertising Agency in South, Advertising Agency in Tuscaloosa, Augustine Ideas, Edelman Digital, healthcare marketing, Hospital Marketing, how to handle social media mistakes, Jimmy Warren, Josh Morgan, Lori Bertelli, Lori Moore, Michelle Ponto, Nancy Siniard, News10, social media mistakes, social media policy | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
December 27, 2011
Moms use social media more than average internet users
Are moms important to healthcare marketers? If so, then you better get social. Moms use social media to communicate, stay in touch with family and friends, exchange information, be entertained and a host of other reasons. eMarketer estimates that 23 million US moms are on Facebook…moms with children under the age of 18 use the site at least once a month. That’s well over two-thirds of all online moms in the country compared to just over 50% of all online users.
Overall 26.5 million moms use some sort of social media. That’s almost 20% of all social media users.
Females are the primary decision makers when it comes to healthcare decisions, and moms are usually the chief decision maker for their family’s healthcare needs. That being true, healthcare marketers need to get social. Moms are on social media sites interacting and gathering information. And of course they are extremely interested in health information for themselves and their families.
So we need to be engaging those moms where they are. On social media sites. It certainly requires work. And it requires more than just setting up sites to post ads or promotions for the hospital. It requires engagement. It’s not easy. It requires quality content. It requires responsiveness. And it requires the efforts and cooperation of more than just the marketing department.
Moms are definitely social. They are proving it everyday online. And it provides great opportunities to connect and build brand loyalty. Healthcare marketers should take notice.
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Leave a Comment » | Social Media | Tagged: Ad Agency in Alabama, Ad Agency in South, advertising firm in Huntsville, advertitising firm in tuscaloosa, eMarketer, healthcare marketing, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, moms on facebook, moms use of social media, Nancy Siniard, specialize in healthcare marketing, specialize in hospital marketing | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
November 21, 2011
Online advertising has proven to be effective as a direct response medium but not so much for brand building. 
More eyeballs are turning to the web. No one can argue that. And they are spending more time looking at the web. So does it make sense to follow those numbers and try to build a brand with internet advertising? Probably not. Online advertising is great at direct response. We all look at the web to find where to buy something or where a business is located or how to contact a business. That’s why the yellow pages are now on the web and is replacing the printed book. But is it effective building a brand?
Alan Pearlstein, president of Cross Pixel Media wrote in Ad Age that the “internet sucks as a branding medium.” And he makes some compelling arguments. He argues that brand building is an emotional endeavor. The desire for every brand is to build an emotional connection with the consumer. Television does that very effectively. Print can do it. But not internet advertising. Because online advertising is limited in size and format, it’s not effective at brand building. He argues that no advertising medium has proven to be effective at both direct response and branding. And online is no exception.
It’s important as healthcare marketers, to understand that each advertising medium has their own strengths. TV creates an emotional impact, magazines provide the environment for stunning images and print provide the opportunity for long copy and storytelling. Direct mail is great at direct response.
So what are the strengths of online advertising? It is great at building name recognition. It has a low cost for exposure. It reaches a very wide audience. It’s great for supplementing a campaign with reach and frequency within a target audience. But branding is not one of its strengths. Online advertising, limited in size, not very engaging and usually within a cluttered environment is not strong for brand building. It is complimentary to more emotional and engaging mediums.
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Leave a Comment » | Branding | Tagged: Ad Age, Ad Agency Huntsville, Ad Agency South, Ad Agency Tuscaloosa, Advertising Firm Alabama, Alan Pearlstein, Branding, Cross Pixel Media, hospital branding, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Nancy Siniard | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
November 19, 2011
QR Codes are becoming more and more popular but they aren’t appropriate for every use. 
QR codes are everywhere. And aren’t they cool? They are great at providing additional information and for engaging consumers. Brands like Starbucks and Lady Gaga are using QR codes very effectively to build loyalty and many retail brands are using QR codes to provide additional product information.
In fact, worldwide usage of QR codes is growing at more than 20% annually and barcode usage in North America is growing at a 42% clip.
But despite this rapid growth and the usefulness of QR codes there are some uses, which make no sense at all. B.L. Ochman writing for Ad Age gave some examples of some poor uses of QR codes.
1. QR codes on billboards, too high ad too far away to get a clear scan.
2. QR codes in subways and places where there is no cellphone reception.
3. Barcodes in TV spots when by the time you can grab your phone and find the scanner the spot is over.
4. QR codes with no instructions. Not everyone knows how to use a QR code.
5. Using a proprietary code so you need a specific type of QR reader. Most people will not bother to download a scanner just to read one particular scan.
There are many other bad uses of QR codes. Some that don’t make sense at all. You probably have seen some yourself.
So the point for hospital marketers is that QR codes can be very useful. But it is not something to use just because everyone’s doing it. Not just because it’s a new fad. Its use should be strategic and it should be easy and useful. Clear instructions and the benefits of accessing the scan are imperative.
QR codes is a technology that should be used and can be extremely useful in healthcare advertising. Perhaps in more than any other industry, within the healthcare arena, QR codes can be the mechanism to deliver very valuable information that can’t be delivered in an ad or flyer or poster.
Do we use QR codes in hospital advertising? Of course! But make sure it makes sense and delivers a true benefit to the user. Not just because it’s cool.
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Leave a Comment » | Hospital Advertising, Social Media | Tagged: 2D Barcodes, 2D barcodes for hospitals, Ad Age, Ad Agency Alabama, Advertising Agency Hunstville, Advertising Agency Tuscaloosa, B.L. Ochman, healthcare marketing, Hospital Marketing, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Nancy Siniard, QR Codes, QR codes for hospitals, Succesful use of QR codes, Successful use of Barcodes | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
November 18, 2011
Jobs was an innovator but when it came to advertising he was extremely traditional.
As we mourn the death of Steve Jobs, there is much being written about him. He was a visionary. He was brilliant. He was a genius. He understood people. And he had a keen understanding and sense of marketing.
Steve Jobs taught us about digital and how it can effect, impact and change our lives. Jobs was on the forefront of technology. He was always one step ahead. Maybe more.
So isn’t it ironic that this visionary who understood how to communicate and connect with people was a huge traditionalist when it came to his approach to advertising? Look at Apple’s media buying. With a budget of $420 million in 2010, over 90% was spent in traditional advertising. Television, newspaper, magazines, circulars and outdoor made up the majority of Apple’s media expenditures. Apple in fact, was in the top 10 in the nation for expenditures in outdoor. Less than 10% of their advertising was digital. And what little digital advertising Apple utilized, the majority of it was an extension of their television campaigns.
And equally as ironic, is the man who understood and connected with the consumer had almost no presence on Twitter and Facebook. Apple only recently established a YouTube channel but has comments turned off.
So what does this say to healthcare marketers? The principle thing is obvious, traditional media is not dead. In fact, to build a strong brand traditional can be extremely effective. This is not to say digital advertising or social media efforts are useless. But it is to say traditional advertising methods are still workhorses.
Steve Jobs taught us that success consists of simplicity, clarity and a big idea. Sounds old school doesn’t it? But the genius of our generation used old school to change our lives and our culture. When it came to advertising, the man who taught is to go digital went very traditional.
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4 Comments | Hospital Marketing | Tagged: advertising agency in alabama, Advertising Agency in South, Apple, Huntsville Advertising Agency, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Nancy Siniard, Steve Jobs, Traditional Advertising, tuscaloosa ad agency | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
As healthcare marketers begin to experiment and utilize social media, questions arise about how to measure its effectiveness. Some would argue that a “likes” and “followers” are an indication of brand endorsement. Well politics may be teaching us that’s not necessarily true.
