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The Differential | #6

Notes

The Differential | #6

David McCarthy

In this edition:

  • B2B healthcare marketing, in the feed: Prealize nails titles for its long-form lead-generation content. Unite Us gives us hope that B2B healthcare marketing can be educational and entertaining. And Modern Health launches two new lead offers.

  • Data point: Will marketers’ go-to channels in 2023 be the same ones they used the most in 2022?

  • Differential diagnosis: Creative reviews can go off course quickly. Protecting their agenda can keep them productive and relevant.

  • What if a consumer brand designed a B2B healthcare ad: There’s lots of space to play creatively with provider enablement as a topic. For example, is there a way to tie it to matches and wheels?

  • Marketing tactics: Search continues to change, and amid stalling growth, TikTok wants to help its organic content creators.

B2B healthcare marketing, in the feed

  • Predictive analytics company Prealize Health has a knack for sticky, suspenseful titles for their lead-generation offers. I’m into it. Their state of health report for 2023 is titled “In the Aftermath,” and last year’s is titled “The Domino Effect.” These are a good reminder that in technical fields like healthcare analytics, consumer-oriented voices and angles help content stand out. → Read more

  • The marketing team at Unite Us is doing some progressive podcasts for a brand that focuses on social determinants of health. When was the last time a healthcare brand interviewed Rob Dyrdek, aka Bobby Light? → Read more

  • Particle Health published its 2023 State of US Healthcare’s National Network Data Exchanges. → Read more

  • Benefits navigation startup HealthJoy published an infographic preview of its first insights report, detailing “the difference between the type of benefits that members want versus what employers know is needed to drive long-term health outcomes.” → Read more

  • Urgent-care-marketplace Solv announced new brand illustration to “visualize an aspiration of healthcare as being convenient and easy.” → Read more

  • Lyra Health is promoting its “Workforce Mental Health Trends for 2023.” It’s a powerful offer, I imagine, and I wonder how a landing page with more conversion-focused copy, such as social proof from early readers or a slideshow illustrating several pages, would affect the conversion rate. → Read more

  • Ribbon Health launched a consumer survey report on how health plans can use data to unlock better care. → Read more

  • Reflecting its focus on “whole-person virtual care,” Teladoc is sharing a two-page case study on its multi-condition program for the American Foreign Service Protective Association. → Read more

  • Rachel Woods, who hosts The Advisory Board’s podcast “Radio Advisory,” launched part 2 of the “What CEOS need to know in 2023” series. To me, the Advisory Board creates compelling content, and it’s nice to see a traditionally conservative brand invest in a podcast with a relatively progressive style like this. → Read more

  • Modern Health has launched a couple of new lead-generation offers as of late. “Table Talks” is an “exclusive” series geared for leaders at employers to discuss well-being trends in the workplace. And their consumer-facing Daily Pause gives consumers tips and tools to build mental health. → Read more

  • Jasper Health has started a community for its members with cancer to share their experiences and provide support to one another. This topic has been covered in the past, but I expect to see more brands turn to communities this year. → Read more

  • On the heels of its rebrand, Hinge Health has hired its first chief marketing officer, who has past experience at Included Health (Ground Rounds). → Read more

And now, some data on content marketing

The healthcare marketplace isn’t the only place that’s likely to shift dramatically in 2023.

Marketers’ favorite channels are likely to fluctuate as well, especially with the meteoric rise of ChatGPT and the financial pinch that may limit use of paid channels.

So which top channels from 2022 will remain at the top of marketers’ go-to list? Which will fall?

A differential diagnosis

Creating purposeful agendas for creative reviews

TL;DR: Be ruthless in what’s in scope during reviews, and encourage team members to align content that they share with your buyer and your current business scenarios or goals.

Creative reviews or workshops, where your team reviews content or plays together, can be a productive setting for brainstorming and learning. They can spur better work in the future, align the team on the brand’s essence, and tacitly signal your risk or experimentation tolerance.

The reviews I’ve found to be most valuable do something different than most. They’re ruthlessly purposeful in the agenda and in the work that’s shared. For example, they discourage sessions from becoming a political show-and-tell (e.g., “Look at this beautiful campaign we launched”), or they tactfully encourage to share what hasn’t worked. In other words, they keep learning front and center.

Protecting the purpose of these sessions can involve some work and consistent, clear communication within the team. Here are some ground rules or expectations that can help keep that purpose in tact:

  • Focus on your own brand’s own work if there’s a clear lesson to learn. Spend more time on your competitors' work, trade publications (or content competitors), and especially those outside of your market

  • Beware the “anxiety of influence” when reviewing competitors’ work.

  • Anchor each session to a specific business scenario your team encounters or will encounter soon (e.g., if you’re about to launch a new feature to your existing customers, spend a session reviewing product or feature launch campaigns)

  • Treat the session less like an MFA fiction workshop and more like an engineering workshop—work or think backwards to understand why something works or doesn’t

  • Tie in KPIs, when possible, to determine whether the work is actually successful (We can all learn about new design and content trends, but it may be more beneficial to learn why certain on-trend assets didn't convert)

  • Apply the lens of your ideal buyer, rather than yourself, when providing feedback on work already in market or when brainstorming new ways to reach your buyer (This is a tough one.)

What if a consumer brand designed a b2B healthcare ad?

Provider enablement has been having a moment for some time now.

As Blake Madden wrote in his January 2023 update of “Breaking Down Physician Enablement Care Platforms, ”Aledade is performing quite well…Pearl Health announced a $75M raise led by a16z and Viking Global Investors. Companies like Lumeris are flying under the radar while producing stellar results in health system and physician enablement. Other firms like Emergence, Third Way Health, and Ease are working in more focused areas of enablement…There’s a ton of positive momentum here, and the future of the physician practice is nigh as robust turnkey solutions grow in prevalence.”

In other words, the space seems competitive, which makes differentiated marketing and brand awareness likely a growing need.

So how would a consumer brand concept the category in a print-like ad to gain the attention of buyers flipping through their preferred trade magazine?

The paths to communicate provider enablement’s value seem unlimited. (I don’t think yet another ad of executives talking in a heavily windowed room is one of them, though.) Here’s a rough concept I played with.

Content, Illustrated

Content can get easily misconstrued outside of marketing teams.

“It’s just blogs, right?” many say. “And ebooks. And maybe some TikTok videos.”

Those are types of content, for sure.

But really, isn’t content, when done right, something much bigger?

On marketing tactics

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A brief disclaimer

I reference and link to many healthcare brands in the newsletter. Including them does not signify an endorsement of their business.