There’s a new set of rules for connecting your brand to your employees, caregivers, communities and patients. And it requires you to let go of what you think you know. Continuing to try to persuade audiences about the superiority of your organization through traditional campaigning (in the absence of other efforts), with the use of rational information and comparative data, is just not that important to those you’re trying to connect with.
The future of healthcare marketing is not about saying things to caregivers, communities and patients. It is about saying and doing things with them. It is about Attraction Marketing, compelling audiences to become socially involved with your brand, while letting you (the healthcare marketer) actually spread your commercial message more effectively.
A Manifesto For Change
Based on the new laws of Attraction, here are twelve guiding principles for creating a connecting versus campaigning organization. I refer to these principles as an Attraction Manifesto because of what the term implies – passion, game-changing, an appropriately public (social) declaration of your intentions and how you’ll set out to achieve them. And because it’s a manifesto, it asks others (employees, caregivers, patients, communities) to join together to make it a reality. Clearly, you’ll put your own spin on this doctrine to make it actionable for your organization and your audiences.
1. Coherence – our brand idea will serve as the nucleus for all of our actions and communications.
2. Authenticity – our social media conversations should be similar to our daily interactions with friends, colleagues and family, in that they are open and honest, informal and in a personal voice.
3. Transparency – we’ll represent ourselves as people rather than an organization, because people connect with people, not organizations. We’ll also be honest about who we are, as trust is a huge barometer of engagement.
4. Collaborative – we’ll embrace the fact that true conversations are two-way, question and answer, give and take; where all participants strive for mutual respect and gain.
5. Customized – we’ll create specific interest content and communities (because the web allows us to do this) by collecting, categorizing, listening and responding.
6. Facilitating – we’ll allow conversations to go on around us without trying to control them, empowering people to connect through our brand, with content as the enabler.
7. Contagious – we’ll create “life-impacting†content and conversations that generate word-of-mouth and that people want to share with others.
8. Co-Creation – by working together, we all learn, grow and become stronger.
9. Evangelists – as feasible, we’ll create passionate and active advocates who will want to spread our message (for little expense).
10. Paced – we’ll start small, do what we can, when we can.
11. Context – we’ll recognize that social media is not a single solution in itself, but one element of an integrated marketing communications plan.
12. Bottom Line – we’ll leverage the tools available to measure our success both qualitatively and quantitatively.
What Are You Waiting For
Integral to the future of healthcare brand building will be shared, “real-time†interactions and conversations between providers, caregivers, patients and communities. You have the opportunity now to benefit your healthcare organization by involving and empowering these audiences in conversations by being where they are and making it easier for them to connect, get informed and take action. It’s not a matter of “ifâ€, but “when.†So what are you waiting for?
Eric Brody is President of Trajectory branding, marketing, innovation (www.trajectory4brands.com) – a firm that is expert in re-energizing health + healthy lifestyle brands to create new value for customers, companies and shareholders. His Healthy Conversations blog can be found at www.ericbrodysblog.com.
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