What Did You Learn?

What did the co-founders of Tidal Health Group learn the most throughout 2020? How important messaging consistency is across all digital (and non-digital) channels.“There’s probably 15 different digital touchpoint a patient makes before making that final call to action or that final outreach,” says Brian Dragich. “You want to make sure that every touchpoint is congruent with the experience that you’re selling, or it’s not authentic.”See what else Bryan Cush and Brian Dragich shared with Ahava in this week’s What Did You Learn?

“[The COVID-19 pandemic] reinforced that our staff and our healthcare organizations are our heart," says Donna Teach, chief marketing and communications officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. "How amazingly resilient is the human spirit, to see these frontline workers who did not have a choice? They were the most resilient of our team.”Just as important as it is to take care of your patient audience, you must take care of your internal audience. That’s one of the major lessons Donna learned over the past year.Donna shares tons of additional insights with Ahava, including how Nationwide responded to the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, and how those learnings continue to shape the organization today.

What did healthcare marketer Chris Bevelo tell his clients at Revive Health when Black Lives Matter happened?“You’re sending a message when you don’t send a message in this moment in time. You may not be expected at some level to stand out in this way, but people notice when you don’t.”Hear more marketing wisdom from Chris in the first episode of our second season of What Did You Learn, out now!

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 was like a fork in the road for many businesses. They had to choose between the path they were already on, and the path of going above and beyond for customers in a time of need.SiteStaff Chat chose the latter.“We just need to make sure that we’re doing everything we genuinely can to be there for everybody,” said Jonathan Bryant, Director of Product Development for SiteStaff Chat. “It’s not about what we gain, it’s about being a part of the solution.”Which path did you choose in 2020? Listen to this episode of What Did You Learn? to hear more of Jonathan’s SiteStaff insights

"Keep the message simple," says Jen O'Meara, director of digital strategy at Eruptr. "Now isn't the time to be verbose and write these long-winded messages or long-winded social content. Get direct to the point. Speak to what people are thinking about."With the COVID-19 vaccine rolling out soon, don't underestimate your audience. People are smart. Make it easy for them to know what they need to do, trust where they need to go, find details to make an appointment, and get it done.In this episode of What Did You Learn, Jen O'Meara and Ahava discuss what healthcare marketers should be thinking about, especially when it comes to communications.

“Once you think you’ve changed enough, you still need to change and adapt.”The healthcare marketers who’ve given up the idea of “this is how we’ve always done it” and the people who’ve been flexible are the ones who’ve been most successful during COVID-19.They do not suffer from paralysis by analysis. They listen and adapt.This is one of many learnings from Courtney Doyle, Director of Customer Development & Marketing at Sentara Healthcare, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen to the What Did You Learn podcast to hear more insights.

Leaders: Make sure you take care of your team members. This is more important than ever as we make our way through the second wave of COVID-19.“Make sure you’re working with them to keep their tanks full, and as you’re building teams, think about bringing in talent that’s more MarCom,” says Mike McCauley, VP of Marketing & Communications at Hackensack Meridian Health. “In the end, it’s going to help the bench strength of your team, because you’ll know you can reach out to them and rely on them.”This is one of the many lessons Mike learned throughout 2020 as he navigated the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movements.Hear other healthcare marketing insights from Mike in this week’s podcast episode of What Did You Learn?

In the middle of a pandemic, how does a hospital or physician office establish authority and trust?According to John Marzano, Principal at Jam3 Strategic Marketing & PR, “if I’m trusting you, if you’re my local provider already, give me the information that’s going to help me make informed decisions.”Hear other healthcare marketing insights from John in this week’s podcast episode of What Did You Learn?

"We were so fast and furious with getting the facts out and responding to all of the change, that it took us a little time to say, hey, we need to provide inspiration, appreciation, and recognition every day. "That's one of the major lessons Rose Glenn, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at Michigan Medicine, learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement. In this podcast episode, Rose shares her marketing insights from 2020, as well as what she plans to continue moving forward.Browse more COVID-19 marketing resources from Aha Media Group: https://ahamediagroup.com/resources/resources-covid19-marketing/

Beebe Healthcare's marketing communicators were in a unique situation when the pandemic began. The health system is located in a large tourist destination in Delaware. Christina Deidesheimer, VP of Communications Outreach and Chief Communications Officer, and her team had to navigate COVID-19 messaging for a diverse audience, of people living, working, or visiting their area.Christina shares how she and Beebe’s CEO Dr. David Tam use a top-down method of communicating clearly and supporting both staff and patients. She says, “We make sure that our caregivers are taken care of because we need them to be there for our community.”We talk about issues facing most hospitals today such as connecting with patients and ramping up safety procedures all while managing budget shortfalls during this episode of “What Did You Learn?”

"In March and April, my rhythm was all out of whack because everything changed. How do I go ahead and set these new guidelines and parameters so I can create and be at that optimum level, even when it seems the world is in chaos?" That's the question Joe Pulizzi, known as "The Godfather of Content Marketing" used to devise a new creative process for himself when the pandemic changed his fine-tuned content creation strategy.During this episode of "What Did You Learn?" we talk about the importance of an audience- or content-first business model, how "Moneyball" inspired Joe to create The Content Marketing Institute, and how to develop a creative rhythm when the world feels upside down.

It’s our 20th episode of “What Did You Learn?” and I couldn’t imagine having a better guest for this special occasion. In this episode, Jay Baer, the founder of Convince & Convert and one of the premier content marketing thought leaders join me.We discuss why emotion needs to be a central part of your marketing strategy, how thinking of your mom can help you make marketing decisions and why customer experience is more important than ever before.“Customer experience has always been important. But it's more important now than it's ever been because people are making decisions based on perceived safety, on speed, on lack of confusion on these kinds of things, which is a huge opportunity. That's why if you can get it right now, over the next few months, it will create a moat around your business that will be very hard for your competitors to breach for quite some time,” says Jay.

“When you can promote content, when that's one of your skills, you need to be deliberate about who you work with, how you apply that, what you're driving traffic to and if you're honoring the attention to the visitor. You have to determine if you are responsibly using your ability to win the click,” says Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Orbit Media Studios.During this episode of “What Did You Learn?”, Andy drops tons of tactical tidbits to help you up your marketing game. But he’s always reminding marketers to channel the power of marketing for the greater good. We also talk about the surprising quality of digital interaction during the pandemic (and why we both expect it to last long-term), the importance of fighting disinformation and why our lives and jobs are more fulfilling when we believe in the brands we’re lifting up.

These past 7 months have accelerated consumerism in healthcare in a shorter period than ever before. People expect more out of what they can do online, from making appointments, accessing health records and continuing with the telehealth they experienced during the pandemic.“Once we get over mental or attitudinal barriers to adopting something, the floodgates open up, and then the whole market starts to pivot that way,” says Matt Hummel, Chief Experience Officer of Paragon Consulting. “Healthcare has to look at that and realize people see value in being able to manage their health, see their providers and find trusted content all through digital channels.”He explains why people are demanding more of their healthcare experiences, why e-commerce giants like Amazon, Walmart and Apple will help accelerate the change, and why the health systems that lean into technology and consumerism will prevail during this episode of “What Did You Learn?”

Healthcare marketers have a crucial role in communicating the information people need to know throughout the pandemic. Between educating the public, sharing knowledge with frontline workers, and providing health and safety protocol information to all staff members, hospital marketers have never been stretched as thin or have a more important role.“For the first time, maybe, the C-suite is understanding this strategy behind marketing and communications, which perhaps they didn't in the past,” says Kathy Divis, President of Greystone.Net.During this episode of “What Did You Learn?” Mike Schneider, Executive Vice President and Principal of Greystone.Net and Kathy Divis share why the C-Suite’s appreciation for marketing has grown because of the pandemic and why that respect is likely to last long-term.

Weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, Nemours Children’s Health System treated kids with some of the first cases of multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children or MIS-C, a pediatric disease believed to be linked to COVID-19.Sarah Sanders, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Nemours explains how they handled sharing information with their pediatric families and the public at large about both COVID-19 and MIS-C. The health system also developed innovative approaches to giving children well checks and vaccinations during a time when parents didn’t feel comfortable taking them to receive care.During this episode of “What Did You Learn?” Sarah shares how they built upon the trust they already had with their audience to build upon those relationships during the pandemic, how they approached a second pandemic of social injustice during Black Lives Matter, and why their messaging will forever be changed because of what they experienced.

Johns Hopkins Medicine has been at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19. Their coronavirus resource center and dashboard have helped countless organizations and individuals track the status of COVID-19 in real-time.Aaron Watkins, Senior Director of Internet Strategy at Johns Hopkins, explains the thoughtful decision-making behind one of the world’s best academic medical centers throughout the pandemic.During this week’s episode of “What Did You Learn?” he shares how Johns Hopkins got out in front of the rest of the country with their COVID-19 coverage to secure top SEO positioning and how the organization reckoned with Black Lives Matter outside of the hospital system — and within.

This spring, when the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic was in New York City, Mount Sinai Health System treated thousands upon thousands of COVID-19 patients and returned more than 10,000 of those patients back to health. During that time, Mount Sinai’s healthcare marketing team created content to support patients, the general public and frontline healthcare workers.“Our doctors and nurses saved New York City — and we had our part in helping with that,” says John Davey, Vice President of Marketing and Technology at Mount Sinai Health System.During this week’s episode of “What Did You Learn?” John shares how he kept his team motivated during the grueling early months of the pandemic, how they embraced the Black Lives Matter Movement while they were still in the midst of the pandemic and the factors that drove the more than 14 million views of their COVID-19 Facebook Live social media campaign.

"If [healthcare organizations] would have looked at their data, there would be a realization that they need to name things differently. They need to provide content differently... People are asking questions that are not highly-medicalized or in a clinical way," says Carrie Liken, Head of Industry, Healthcare at Yext.She would know. Carrie's team at Yext powered the highly-visited COVID-19 page on the World Health Organization's website throughout the pandemic.Listen to this episode of "What Did You Learn?" to hear Carrie talk about helping consumers find what they're searching for, how to deliver value to clients during uncertain times, and why collaboration and communication are key during this time.

"We're in this together." You've probably heard that phrase a lot over the past 6 months. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, many brands fell back on "safe" messaging instead of adding their unique voice and perspective to the issues.Brandon Scott, VP of Digital for the healthcare marketing firm, Ten Adams, tells us why so many brands had a hard time rising above what he calls, "the sea of sameness." During this episode of "What Did You Learn?" he shares why healthcare organizations need to join the conversation and how they can do it effectively. He also gives his tips on leading your team during times of uncertainty.

The Knot's popular Instagram account, "How They Asked" showcases couples' proposal stories. Because of its uplifting content, the channel has continued to thrive during the pandemic. Whitney Little, Director of Social Media at The Knot Worldwide shared how user-generated content powers the account and how engagement and community helped The Knot deepen relationships with their audience during COVID-19. Her insights are relevant to healthcare communicators, too.Listen to this episode of “What Did You Learn?” to hear about the engagement changes Whitney’s team made to support their community — and why they’ll continue those practices long-term.

Marketing teams can accomplish amazing things when they remain focused and feel a sense of purpose. It also helps having leadership that gives the green light to share the right messaging.That’s one of the learnings from Chief Marketing Officer Tanya Andreadis, of UCLA Health, during the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement. “Learning how to be nimble is a strategy in itself,” said Tanya. “We’re really working as a team to hardwire those abilities…how do we make sure we have a culture of people who are…willing to say I do whatever it takes?” Listen to this episode of What Did You Learn? to hear more about Tanya’s marketing insights from the coronavirus pandemic — as well as what she hopes will last for years to come.

Clear lines of communication and swim-lanes within an organization are more important than ever right now. This is not the time to have muddy waters.And that's where empathetic leadership steps in. With remote work (and for many the addition of kids at home), it's the "perfect storm" right now. Leaders need to step up and promote organization, efficiency, and clear communication among their teams.These are some of the learnings from Andy Gradel, Director of Digital Marketing at Wolters Kluwer Health, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen to this episode of What Did You Learn? to hear more about Andy's marketing insights from the coronavirus pandemic — as well as what he hopes will last for years to come.

As much as you can plan for a pandemic or any communications crisis, living through it is a different story. But pre-planning and having fluid relationships between departments does help — at least it did for marketers Jennifer Balanky and Jennifer Price of Sharp Healthcare. Their team band together with PR, internal communications and other departments to create content and self-assessment tools overnight, making the marketing approach to COVID-19 look easy. Listen to this episode of What Did You Learn? to hear more about Sharp Healthcare’s digital marketing approach to the coronavirus pandemic — as well as what the two Jennifers hope will last for years to come.

The coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter movements shone a spotlight on a wide spectrum of brand responses: Some nailed it, while others dropped the ball. Marketing expert Katie Martell talked with Ahava about which organizations showed real allyship — including Microsoft and Rent the Runway — and how exactly they succeeded.Listen to this episode of What Did You Learn to hear more about Katie’s marketing learnings and observations during the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement — as well as what she hopes will last for years to come.

There’s a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic. As healthcare communicators, we were given an opportunity to come together to solve a huge problem. And we did. We integrated once siloed departments. We used clear language to give audiences the information they needed. Leadership began to appreciate the value of healthcare marketing. But are we keeping that momentum? And even bigger — how are we improving the way we, as a society, live outside of the health system as a community?Those are the big questions on the mind of digital marketer and consultant Chris Boyer. Browse more COVID-19 marketing resources from Aha Media Group: https://ahamediagroup.com/resources/resources-covid19-marketing/

The ability to shift gears in a moment’s notice is crucial for successful healthcare communicators. That’s one lesson Lauren Smith, manager of marketing communications at UT Health San Antonio, MD Anderson Cancer Center, learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.She also learned the importance of teamwork across a massive health system, open-mindedness to new marketing channels like video and webinars, and much more.Browse more COVID-19 marketing resources from Aha Media Group: https://ahamediagroup.com/resources/resources-covid19-marketing/

Only a small handful of brands handled the COVID-19 pandemic well from a marketing perspective, says Gini Dietrich of Spin Sucks. But the Black Lives Matter movement? That’s a different story. More brands stepped up their game, including North Face, who Gini has been following closely during the Facebook boycott in July.Watch this episode of "What Did You Learn?" to hear more about Gini’s insights from the coronavirus pandemic — as well as what she thinks will last long-term for marketers.Stay tuned for new episodes of What Did You Learn every Monday! Join Ahava Leibtag as she explores how marketers are handling the challenges of the pandemic.Explore more COVID-19 marketing resources from Aha Media Group.

Modern day hospital marketing is more than just earned media, content, and digital strategy. It’s intertwined with hospital operations by helping to fuel the customer experience. That’s one of the biggest learnings to come from the COVID-19 pandemic for Aaron Johnson, Senior Director of Digital Strategy at Penn Medicine.On this episode of “What Did You Learn?”, Aaron and I discuss the uphill battle Penn Medicine faced as it used content to dispel false fear created by media outlets, the need for urgency in marketing initiatives, and much more.Stay tuned for new episodes of What Did You Learn every Monday! Join Ahava Leibtag as she explores how marketers are handling the challenges of the pandemic.Explore more COVID-19 marketing resources from Aha Media Group.

"I think one very important thing that is going to last long-term is the notion of authenticity. I think it's shown that brands don't have to be polished and perfect, that it's much better to just be in your home environment, which we all are, and sharing from the heart."In Episode 2 of this series, Ahava talks with Ann Handley. Ann is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and also the best-selling author of Everybody Writes.Stay tuned for new episodes of What Did You Learn every Monday! Join Ahava Leibtag as she explores how marketers are handling the challenges of the pandemic. Explore more COVID-19 marketing resources from Aha Media Group.

"I think the biggest take away for me is how critical content is under duress," says Amanda. "You can use content to calm fears, to really educate people on brand new things that they know nothing about, that they're hungry for information about. You build trust in a way with content that is impossible with any other marketing tactic."In Episode 1 of this new series, Ahava talks with Amanda Todorovich, Senior Director of Enterprise Digital Content at Cleveland Clinic. They discuss Amanda's marketing learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic.Stay tuned for new episodes of What Did You Learn every Monday! Join Ahava Leibtag as she explores how marketers are handling the challenges of the pandemic.Explore more COVID-19 marketing resources from Aha Media Group.