Healthcare messaging lessons learned from NESCHo 2024

This spring, we returned to the NESHCo Annual Conference in Newport, Rhode Island! The conference covered a wide range of digital marketing, storytelling, and branding topics. Let’s examine some of the top takeaways for healthcare marketers.

To understand your brand truth, you must first understand your audience

Whether rebranding or refining your brand, the key to all communications is your brand truth (aka, positioning statement). The folks at Argus shared about their rebranding project with NeighborHealth. They explained how a rebrand doesn’t just mean changing how people see the brand but also how they think and feel about it. And that’s the real challenge. Challenging preconceived notions is not easy.

So, how can you do this? First, you must deeply understand your audience. Understand their current beliefs about your brand and how they came to be. Talk to them to understand what they need to hear to cut through the clutter and build trust. Then, bring them into the creative process including name and creative testing. Create a continuous feedback loop to understand what’s working and what’s not. Finally, make sure your internal audiences are a priority, not an afterthought. These are your best brand ambassadors, after all, so make sure the brand resonates and accurately reflects them as well.

We must balance expectations around AI

We know that AI has so much potential to help the healthcare industry. For example, Catholic Health and Actium Health worked together to identify people in their database who have a higher propensity for having a heart attack or heart issue in the future. They were able to segment these people and then email them a quiz to learn their risk and encourage them to schedule an appointment. This led to an increase in email opens, conversion rates, and booked appointments. If we can harness AI to look at our data, there’s no limit to the insights we can glean to help people be healthier.

However, we must also recognize AI’s shortcomings. Lacey Reichwald of Aha Media Group explained that while AI can analyze data, it can’t tell the human, emotional stories behind that data. It cannot foster relationships and build trust. That’s why we must use AI as a tool to help us understand vast amounts of data, but it should never be a replacement for telling real, human stories.

To have your messages heard, you need to consider the audience

Mike Schiano and Jovanny Rosado from Denterlein presented on crafting compelling narratives. Healthcare has many different audiences. (Leadership, staff, patients, peers, businesses, elected officials… the list goes on.) You must consider the audience and modify every message as needed, including who is delivering that message. With our wonderful 24-hour news cycle and constant stimulation from social media, how can healthcare marketers or PR professionals have their voices heard? Here are some quick tips:

• Educate in simple terms. Less is more. Show, don’t tell.
• Use images and infographics to explain data.
• Share human stories(!)
• Cultivate brand ambassadors for each audience that they trust and relate to.
• Share positive solutions (good news!)

They emphasized that your media relations, marketing/social team, and digital team should work together to reach your goals. And don’t forget to set goals–outlining the problem you’re trying to solve or the mission you’re trying to achieve.

When it comes to messaging, we have so many options for getting our information out there. But we should always go back to basics: The right message, at the right time, to the right person. Understand your audience, what they need to hear, and how to reach them. Then, use the right tool to help deliver that message.

Need help with healthcare messaging strategy? Don’t hesitate to reach out by booking a call with our CEO.