We Are, Marketing Happy - A Healthcare Marketing Podcast (Jenny Bristow, CEO at Hedy and Hopp)

Telehealth: Finding the Human-Automation Balance

On today’s episode Jenny has invited the perfect guest to discuss the past few years of telehealth and automation development, along with looking at the current and future evolution of these technologies. Lauren Howard, Telehealth Expert, Digital Health Strategist, Startup Operations and Success Executive, and CEO of ElleTwo joins the show.

Both healthcare and non-healthcare companies were shifting slowly to digital and automated/tele-solutions for their customers, but when Covid arrived, the timeframe went from years to days as they scrambled to adjust. Now that there is some time to take a breath and reflect, these same organizations are now working to determine what is really needed and most effective. In the health sector, they are looking to put the ‘human back in healthcare.’ Lauren points out that now is the time to find the balance. The tools are there, but the tools without engagement with clinicians, support staff and providers leave patients lacking full quality care and follow up. Telehealth can be a supplement to care, and can provide more access, but is not a replacement for human-centered care.

The discussion goes more in depth on the flood of startup telehealth companies and how their initial success soon flamed out and how that impacts patient care. They discuss the appropriateness and limitations of telehealth in places like nursing homes, and inpatient vs. outpatient needs among all providers. Engagement, privacy, integration, training and turnover, the list is long when it comes to challenges that face health systems over the coming years. Lauren ends the show with invaluable advice on how organizations can build a groundwork to navigate these hurdles, along with her take on what is coming next!

Connect with Lauren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elletwo/

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

When it comes to payor marketing, or marketing for insurance companies, planning for the year falls into two primary periods of the year: your open enrollment/AEP period and the off-season.

In this week’s podcast, our CEO Jenny Bristow breaks down how to plan your marketing efforts for these two stages of the year to maximize marketing success:

Always On

During your slow time of year

1. Focus on brand awareness efforts for paid media, some acquisition (don’t go dark!)
2. Now is a great time to do website updates/redo
3. Ensure measurement plans and dashboards are in a good place (including patient privacy clean-up work)
4. Integrate new tools, like CRM, email marketing, etc.
5. Put some time toward persona development and user journey optimization
6. Roll out and test content marketing strategies

Open Enrollment & AEP

During your busiest season

1. Ramp up your conversion-oriented media programs
2. Limit website changes, testing and tracking programs only
3. Test persona-based messaging and optimize, optimize, optimize!

Implement the right marketing tactics at the appropriate time of year to leverage both stages of the payor marketing year.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

https://calendly.com/jennybristow 

It’s hard to find a more perfect person to be on our healthcare marketing podcast than today’s guest, Noah Locke, Director of Marketing, Technology, and Analytics at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin.

Jenny and Noah begin the show talking about marketing budgeting. Noah discusses how budgeting at the beginning of Covid was not as difficult as it is now that the overall economy is finally feeling the effects of two years of Covid disruption. One thing that he recommends that is easy and significant help in the budget is to review the cost for things large and small to see if they are needed, or if they could be doing the same job with a lower cost or even a free alternative. Jenny talks about how organizations can get stuck in old ways and not look for more affordable, more efficient choices.

The conversation then turns to measuring results and Noah explains how UW Health they are dedicated to tracking results that support their strategic plan, which has the goal of providing the best patient care possible. In order to do this, you can’t just track the areas that connect directly to patient care, but all the other supporting areas.  And as many of our listeners know, in healthcare it can take a lot of time and effort to make a change and get the tools you need. Noah expresses the importance of creating relationships with as many people and departments as you can and how to craft proposals in a way to speed up the process.

They also dive into analytics and how using both business and marketing analytics in tandem can help make the best decisions possible. Noah also gives some insight on what’s new that he and the team at UW Health are working on and plans for the future, and how he decides on the prioritization of these initiatives.

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Noah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahlocke/

Today Jenny welcomes Sunny Yarrish, Director of Marketing, Digital, and Omnichannel at Myriad Genetics. On this episode, Sunny's journey into personal branding on LinkedIn takes center stage. Although Sunny humbly claims not to be an expert, she gets results and emphasizes the power of consistency over perfection. She began a challenge in February, posting daily on LinkedIn to share her insights on marketing, healthcare, personal growth, and optimism. Her content's positive impact is evident through messages from old friends, demonstrating the significance of meaningful one-on-one conversations. Sunny's experience highlights that a life worth sharing yields valuable content, prompting listeners to rethink their LinkedIn presence and approach.

Connect with Sunny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunnyyarrish/ 

Connect with Jenny:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

On this week’s episode of "We Are, Marketing Happy," our CEO & Founder, Jenny Bristow, speaks on a topic that's been brought to light on a lot of our calls with clients and prospects recently - competitive insights.

With the new fiscal year approaching for many, it's crunch time to deep dive into competitive intelligence. We're talking about more than just keeping pace; understanding your competitors' approach to marketing helps you fine tune yours.

Tune in for actionable insights on how to tackle this item on your to-do list!

As marketers, we know the patient journey to book an appointment isn’t linear. So, how do we optimize tactics to ensure you show up at the right place, at the right time? 

Lindsey Brown, the Director of Digital Activation at Hedy and Hopp joins us today to share her insights about the steps, activities, and thought processes that the target audience goes through to decide on choosing a product, signing up for a service, or booking an appointment.

She discusses the importance of partnering with strategy to understand the emotions and thought processes that go into getting someone through each stage of the journey so that marketing initiatives, messaging, and tactics meet the audience where they are.

Finally, we dive into how a solid measurement plan (yes, even with all of the recent HIPAA changes) allows an activation team to optimize each step of the journey.

In this week’s episode, we're joined by Jeremy Rogers, Executive Director of Digital Marketing and Experience at Indiana University Health, who brings nearly nine years of experience at the organization and a deep understanding of the evolving healthcare marketing landscape. We dive into a critical challenge many marketers face today: demand for healthcare services now far exceeds supply, requiring a strategic shift.

Key Discussion Points:

●       Evolving Marketing Priorities: Marketing’s traditional focus on acquiring new patients has evolved due to longer wait times for patients. Marketers now need to manage patient expectations and maintain strong relationships throughout the patient journey.

●       Redefining the Marketer’s Role: Today, marketers must continuously reassess their role and be the voice of the patient within their organizations. This means advocating for patient needs and adjusting messaging and tactics to align with new realities.

●       Building Internal Relationships: Successful marketers work closely with operations, scheduling, and other internal teams to optimize every touchpoint along the patient journey—from appointment scheduling to post-care follow-up.

●       Navigating Hybrid Work: Balancing in-person and remote work is essential for building strong internal relationships, especially with leaders and operational teams who are often on-site.

●       Data-Driven Strategies for High Demand: Understanding access metrics and focusing on areas where patient care can be optimized is key to navigating the current challenges.

Connect with Jeremy:

●  LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyrogers/              

Connect with Jenny:

●   Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In this week’s episode, Jenny chats with Hedy & Hopp’s own Director of Activation, Lindsey Brown to talk about rural marketing. They discuss the unique challenges and opportunities that working with regional hospital systems or payors in rural communities present:
Challenge 1: Channel
Lindsey states that access to channels may differ from marketing in urban areas. Rural areas may have more limited or no access to things like fiber internet, cable TV, and even billboards and signage. However, that doesn’t mean rural areas are disconnected, the opportunities to connect are just through different channels:

• Traditional channels are critical, but don’t forget streaming services, video platforms like YouTube, and social media.
• Beyond digital, in rural areas, you’ll find that partnerships with local entities like high schools and local businesses play a powerful role in building reputation for your brand.

• Social Media – in rural areas social can drive higher conversion rates as people tend to be more connected on social media than urban areas
• Programmatic – in rural areas, a tight, conversion-focused message may go further than general brand awareness for programmatic
• Key Events – partnerships with companies, events, and even signage can all be great opportunities to build brand awareness and reputation
• Paid Search – don’t underestimate the power of conversion-focused, bottom of funnel paid search tactics

Challenge 2: Content
The second challenge Lindsey brings up is that the framing of content looks a little bit different in rural areas. Rather than focusing on messaging like “24/7” or “Get Seen Today,” which may not be feasible in rural areas, rural audiences may respond better to practical messaging that promotes convenience, scheduling ahead, or social determinant of health topics like transportation or cost.
Finally, Jenny and Lindsey offer a few areas to research if you are marketing in a rural community:
Connect with Jenny:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

At-home medical equipment isn’t something new, but there is fresh innovation of remote monitoring tech that is changing the face of patient/doctor interactions. On today’s episode, Jenny welcomes one of the top innovators in this field, Bryan Potter, Head of Remote Patient Monitoring Solutions at Greater Goods, one of the leading providers of smart medical devices for remote patient monitoring. Their company was recently recognized by Forbes, for having the two top blood pressure monitoring devices on the market. Their products are a far cry from the older, confusing and cumbersome home devices. It’s a new frontier in the way that patients interact with their healthcare providers remotely.

Bryan gives a brief history of in-home monitoring devices and also what he sees as their future. He lays out the issues and hurdles that some more well-known tech companies face in being able to scale their products, and how his organization’s focus on patient needs and financial realities shape their products.

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Bryan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanpotter/

https://www.me.health

Forbes:

https://www.forbes.com/health/healthy-aging/best-blood-pressure-monitors/

Wirecutter April Top 100 picks:

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/lists/100-most-popular-picks-april-2022/

Wirecutter Top BPMs:

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-blood-pressure-monitors-for-home-use/

Sports Illustrated - Best Bathroom Scale for Body Composition:

https://www.si.com/showcase/health/best-bathroom-scales

In this episode, Jenny Bristow, CEO of Hedy & Hopp, speaks with Drew Hardesty, CEO of Wonder Boy Media, about how AI is transforming video and image editing in healthcare marketing. They explore the innovative ways AI is helping marketers save time, enhance creativity, and improve efficiency in editing tasks.

Episode Highlights:

●        AI in Art Generation vs. Editing: A distinction between AI art creation and AI-powered editing that enhances existing content.

●        Photo Editing: AI tools in platforms like Canva and Adobe simplify tasks like background removal and denoising.

●        AI’s Role in Video Editing: AI accelerates multi-camera edits and streamlines podcast production.

●        The Human Touch: Creativity remains human-driven, with AI handling repetitive tasks.

●        Privacy Considerations: A reminder to avoid uploading sensitive data into AI platforms.

If you're a marketer looking to make the most of AI in your editing process, this episode offers information on how to use these tools effectively—without compromising creativity or privacy.

Connect with Drew:

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-hardesty-wboy/ 

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Picture this:

●       You lack helpful reporting or real-time insights

●       Your website has a clunky patient interface

●       You don’t utilize personas or data driven media targeting

●       You find yourself reacting rather than proactively planning

If you can relate to any of these statements, your organization is in need of digital glow-up. In this week’s episode, Jenny outlines a realistic three-year roadmap to become digitally sophisticated within your marketing organization.

Year 1 - Build the Foundation

1. Create or revisit your organization’s messaging and personas.
2. Make a measurement plan. Figure out what metrics your need to see to know if your plan is working.
3. Build a conversion-oriented media plan that’s HIPAA compliant.
4. Invest in local marketing optimizations.
5. Set up user journey tracking on your website to better understand user flow
6. Measure, measure, measure!

Year 2 - Get a Bit More Sophisticated

1. Begin to make website updates based on insights from user journey mapping.
2. Pick a CRM to implement and begin website integration.
3. Continue to push conversion-oriented media, but add in some brand-building media.

Year 3 - Fine-Tune with More Data!

1. Get even more sophisticated, now that your new website and CRM are rocking and rolling.
2. Focus on user journey nurturing (including current patients) within CRM
3. Execute a broader media play, with awareness through conversion tactics

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Today’s episode is so timely and so important to listen to. Jenny is joined by Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, Vice President of Strategy and Communications at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. They have a wide-ranging discussion on the dynamics in the country, and in individual states, post-Roe.

Bonyen breaks down the current deluge of misinformation, and the many challenges that women are facing in a state like Missouri. From an almost total ban, the fear that even many types of contraception will soon be on the chopping block, the pushback on those seeking sterilization services, to fake pregnancy centers staffed by anti-abortion activists. She also talks about Illinois being a critical access state, how they keep up with all the changing rules and regulations, and some troubling trends in digital media platforms whose overreaching algorithms block critical information.

Listen ‘til the end to find out about Planned Parenthood’s Brands Against Bans, teaming with businesses to use their brands to support sexual and reproductive healthcare.

Other links and resources mentioned:

Abortionfinder.org - Online tool that allows individuals across the country to understand what is accessible in their own states and neighboring states:
www.abortionfinder.org

Regional Logistics Center - Resource for individuals traveling to access abortion to receive transportation and housing assistance:
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-st-louis-region-southwest-missouri/patients/regional-logistics-center

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Bonyen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonyenlee/

Today Jenny welcomes Deb Nevins, EVP of Customer Strategy at Point of Care Network (POCN). POCN is a platform whose goal is to help NPs and PAs practice at the top of their medical license. They help connect them to education, mentoring, and career opportunities.

This episode discusses:

• How NPs and PAs now make up almost one-third of all prescribing clinicians in the U.S.
• Preferences of communication and education for NP/PAs, compared to MDs and why it matters
• Tips to recruit NP/PAs, including what matters to many of them right now (tip - it’s not hiring bonuses!)

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Deb: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debnevins/

It is vital to have a strong digital team to grow your organization and reach patient acquisition goals. But is your team performing as effectively as it could?

Today Jenny welcomes Hedy & Hopp’s Director of Digital Activation, Lindsey Brown. Lindsey coordinates five different groups – Analytics, Paid Media, Development, Design/UX, and Digital Production. She talks about one of the most complex pieces of the job - determining when and who to bring in at any point during projects. She discusses tactics to avoid an overly-siloed approach and recommends always beginning with an analytics perspective to ensure measurement does not become an afterthought.

They discuss the decision on if and when to bring in outside agency partners by taking many different things into consideration, especially in the often complex and quickly changing healthcare landscape. Lindsey ends the show by explaining the planning process and the key ingredients to successfully working with an outside partner.

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Lindsey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseycbrown/

In today’s episode, Jenny is joined by Hedy & Hopp Senior Vice President and long-time friend Maggie Piasecki. Harkening back to their early days working at a healthcare recruiting firm, together they discuss the growing demand for healthcare workers and how viewing recruiting as a marketing function can help fulfill that demand. They discuss the different approaches needed to engage active job seekers versus more passive groups and how organizations can benefit from taking a full-funnel approach to their recruitment, including focusing on upstream objectives like brand awareness. Maggie shares how a focus on the emotional drivers of the audience can help recruiters make their organization and roles standout, and the benefits of small tests and ongoing optimization in driving results. Jenny also discusses how many healthcare organizations are budgeting dollars and headcount for recruitment marketing and gives tips on how marketing and HR colleagues can best collaborate in 2024.

Connect with Jenny:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/⁠

Connect with Maggie 

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiepiasecki/

Today’s episode is all about the important role of building a health care system’s image. No one knows this better than today’s guest, Cindy Graham, Director of Digital Strategy at St. Luke’s Health System in Boise, Idaho. Cindy has worked in healthcare almost 25 years, and has been in her current role for almost a decade, which gives her a unique position to be able to share the changes that have happened during that time and the areas that she and her team are focusing on now going into the new year. The discussion begins with one of those areas - reviews and online reputation management. Cindy gives insights on how she turned an overall poor rating into an overwhelmingly positive one over the last year, while boosting the number of reviews by nearly 20 times!

They also discuss the delicate balance of budgeting with the need for additional healthcare space and constructing the hospital system’s image and reputation in the community both in need of important funding. Jenny and Cindy end by talking about continuing education, mentorship, and other ways that you can help your organization now as you continue along your career path.

Connect with Cindy on LinkedIn

Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn

One thing we enjoy covering on this podcast is up and coming tactics and terminology you need to know as a healthcare marketer. Though you may or may not choose to prioritize new tactics, knowing about them and not being surprised during a hallway conversation is key.

Today, we will cover the basics around SEO for generative AI platforms, specifically discussing:

1. What is SEO for AI

Essentially, how do you get your organization to show up in AI results, alongside relevant studies and data?

2. Acronyms you need to know

○        LLMO - Large Language Model Optimization

○        GEO - Generative Engine Optimization

○        GAIO - Generative AI Optimization

○        AIO - AI Optimization

3. What is LLM, why do you need to know about it, and how does it work?

When it comes to training AI models, there are mathematical models that help understand natural language, LLMs. Understanding even a little about how these LLMs train for relevance can help you optimize for AI.

4. Four cornerstones to thinking about SEO for AI

○        Be robust in your research and keyword identification to understand what real people are asking

○        Get official - include citations, relevant sources, and statistics

○        Make sure you’re technically sound; put keywords in your schema and code to make sure AI platforms can understand what your website is about

○        Traditional marketing and PR helps build your authority and trust - continue these efforts!

As promised, here are the resources we mentioned on the podcast:

●        Princeton University study on Generative Engine Optimization: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.09735

●        Search Engine Land’s breakdown of SEO for AI (and explanation of how LLMs work): LLM optimization: Can you influence generative AI outputs? https://searchengineland.com/large-language-model-optimization-generative-ai-outputs-433148

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Recruiting marketing is gaining attention as organizations slightly shift their focus from patient acquisition to recruitment. In this week’s episode we plan to guide you through the key aspects of developing a successful recruiting marketing strategy.

In a previous podcast episode, we discussed the foundations of recruiting marketing, emphasizing the importance of the internal marketing team partnering with HR to understand marketing and positioning goals. Today, we tackle specific questions and provide advice to help you succeed.

Questions Answered:

1. Do we need a recruiting section on our website?

Yes! It's crucial to communicate your organization’s differentiators. Be sure to create a content strategy around it with a clear call to action.

2. Who should own job descriptions and promotions?

Successful strategies involve collaboration between the marketing department and HR. It’s important to think about all content, including job descriptions, as part of your marketing efforts.

3. How can we improve the application process?

Test the application process, especially on mobile devices, and make necessary modifications to improve the candidate experience.

4. What should be our follow-up timelines?

Measure the time it takes to follow up with applicants and establish desired response timelines from that information. Explore automation options to increase efficiency if needed.

5. Which recruitment channels should we use?

Consider platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google search, and programmatic advertising. Focus on where your target candidates spend their time.

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Give the previous podcast mentioned a listen if you haven’t already!

Unpacking Candidate Recruiting Marketing: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wearemarketinghappy/episodes/Unpacking-Candidate-Recruiting-Marketing-e2f9gf4/a-aatvne0

Fresh off the plane from this year's SHSMD, Jenny and Shelby Auer, account manager at Hedy and Hopp, share their highlights from the conference in Chicago. They discuss various sessions and speakers, including insights on rural healthcare, brand management, internal communications, data-driven decision-making, and improving the patient experience. They also speak about the importance of learning and sharing experiences within the healthcare marketing industry to make a positive impact. 

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Connect with Shelby:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-wanne/

Connect with our favorite SHSMD speakers:

Brad Montague, Keynote Speaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-montague/

Dr. Pauline Hoffman, St. Bonaventure University and Cattaraugus County Health Department: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pwhoffmann/ 

Karen Brodbeck, OSF Healthcare: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenbrodbeck/ 

Pamela Riddell, Lehigh Valley Health Network: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riddell/ 

Jeff Stewart, CHRISTUS Health: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jstewart1759/ 

Ashlie Hilbun, Arkansas Children’s: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashliehilbun/ 

Tracey Bradley-Simmons, Arkansas Children’s: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracey-bradley-simmons-msn-rn-ccm-31760720a/ 

Clay Shuffield, Arkansas Children’s: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clay-shuffield-548581a6/ 

Kelly Jo Golson, Advocate Health: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-jo-golson/ 

Jamey Shiels, Advocate Aurora Health: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameyshiels/ 

Mary Cronin, St. Luke’s Health System: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-cronin-4098a0197/ 

Joel Philippsen, Columbus Regional Health: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-philippsen/ 

Beth Dawson, Columbus Regional Health: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-dawson-3585ba77/ 

Craig Elbert, Children’s Mercy Kansas City: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-e-991aa1b/ 

Today Jenny welcomes her longtime friend and VP of Marketing at TCARE, Julia Pitlyk. They dive into Julia's transition from the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry to healthcare marketing, discussing the similarities, differences, and best practices that have emerged along the way.

Jenny and Julia reminisce about their early days working together and reflect on how their shared love for problem-solving and complexity led them to the healthcare industry. Julia shares her unique experiences in both the CPG and healthcare sectors, highlighting the valuable insights she gained from working on billion-dollar brands and driving consumer-driven campaigns.

She also emphasizes the need to consider the holistic manifestation of a brand throughout the patient journey, extending beyond visual elements to encompass every interaction. They also discuss the complexities of the healthcare industry, and developing a strong brand presence throughout the patient journey.

Connect with Julia:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpitlyk/

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

In today’s episode, Jenny welcomes iHealthSpot Director of Practice Marketing, Bill Riley, to share some very exciting news that will advance the offerings of our agency—Hedy & Hopp has acquired iHealthSpot. iHealthSpot is a healthcare marketing agency that specializes in helping local providers establish and grow their marketing footprint to increase brand awareness and drive patient engagement. At Hedy & Hopp, we work with more regional providers and payors, so this acquisition gives us the capabilities, processes, and technologies to serve smaller groups, expanding our impact to improve how patients find and access care through smarter marketing campaigns.

During the episode, Jenny and Bill discuss:

1. 3 Ways an Agency Grows - This includes new business sales, organic growth and client retention, and what we are covering today—agency acquisition.

2. Working with Large Clients vs. Small - We often see the size of a client’s organization play a role in the audience type, their competitors, and the education opportunities pertaining to different marketing levers.

3. Our Transition Strategy - Over the next couple of months we will be determining how to combine the H&H and iHealthSpot teams and make the transition seamless and simple for our clients.

4. The Acquisition - When choosing the right company for an acquisition, a few key factors are looked at such as industry vertical, segment of clients, and synergy between services and the team members.

Connect with Bill:

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-riley-15212a2b/

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Today Jenny welcomes Jeff Stewart, VP of Strategic Marketing at CHRISTUS Health. Jeff discusses CHRISTUS Health’s strategic journey to grow brand equity through streamlining each of CHRISTUS Health’s twelve distinct health systems under one united strategic vision.

Jeff offers advice for striking the right balance between consolidating marketing initiatives and finding the right partners who perform specific functions really well, as there is no single agency that can do it all really well, each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Finally, Jeff shares his advice for marketing leaders who are tasked with consolidating teams, agencies, and initiatives. Jeff shares a “both and” strategic approach to marketing that enables CHRISTUS Health to drive a unified brand message at a large scale, while also offering unique, localized selling points for each health system within CHRISTUS Health.

Connect with Jeff:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jstewart1759/

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

After Jenny’s two-part series on the new HHS bulletin and movement from the FTC from two experts, she is recapping and giving a broad overview emphasizing the most essential parts you need to know.

She discusses what compliance used to mean, what you could be doing unknowingly that is considered sharing data, and the reasoning around the fines levied at GoodRx and Better Health.

She digs into what shifts organizations can make to their analytics and marketing to become compliant but continue marketing campaigns to service prospective patients.

Finally, the episode wraps up by explaining the three-part program that Hedy & Hopp is using to help healthcare companies across the United States become more confident in their marketing and technical work with these shifting rules.

Interested in working with Hedy & Hopp on a privacy compliance program?

Book time with Jenny today: https://calendly.com/jennybristow/30-minute-compliance-consultation

Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn

Explore what Hedy and Hopp can do for you

As internet users, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is something that we interact with everyday whether we realize it or not. For healthcare providers, it’s a low-cost way to help reach more people, and ensure you show up in Google searches when they are trying to find care. No one knows this better than today’s guest, Suzie Schmitt, a Senior Digital Producer at Hedy and Hopp.

Suzie discusses how important it is to use terms that patients would use when searching, which may often not be the same terms doctors would use. She talks about the differences between desktop and mobile optimization, the advantages of using Google My Business, and how to best set it up to get zero-click conversions coming directly to you. For healthcare providers Suzie explains just how granular to get with your listing so that patients can have enough information at a first glance, and just how important ratings and reviews can be. Finally, Suzie explains which areas of SEO to focus on for providers that are just getting started with their search engine visibility.

If you’re ready to reach more patients, today’s episode is a must listen!

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Suzie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzie-schmitt/

On this episode, Jenny is again joined by Shelby Auer, Account Manager at Hedy & Hopp as they bring even more insights from their time at SHSMD 2023.  Today she and Shelby discuss the evolving landscape of healthcare marketing regulations, pointing out changes in marketing practices driven by HIPAA, FTC, and state laws. Jenny highlights the importance of understanding GDPR, even for U.S.-based businesses, as opt-in policies and the "right to be forgotten" become more relevant. They also break down the growing complexity of state laws and emphasizes the need for collaboration between marketing, legal, and compliance teams to navigate these challenges.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Connect with Shelby:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-wanne/

Three weeks ago, I had a stroke and in April, I will have heart surgery. Turns out, I have had multiple strokes and the recent one is the only one I have known about. That is the craziest sentence to say and I’m still a little in shock that it’s real! But don’t worry - I’m fine! This episode is to tell my story.

Today, I was honored to be named a Top Women Business Owner in St. Louis and I used my acceptance speech to talk about my stroke and diagnosis and encourage attendees to find and foster a relationship with a primary care doctor so if a severe health crisis happens to them, they will receive the same expedited and organized care that I have (and still do). It’s made a world of a difference.

Tune in to hear all of the details and please - find and schedule an appointment with a primary care doctor today!

In part two of this series on paid media, Jenny welcomes back Hedy & Hopp’s own Director of Activation, Lindsey Brown, and Director of Marketing, Julia Pitlyk. This time, the group covers paid media strategies for healthcare marketers targeting physicians and other healthcare marketers. The group discusses the importance of providing a clinical yet compelling message in any marketing channel to capture the attention of these audiences, and also cover the specific channels that tend to reach more providers than others. Jenny, Lindsey and Julia also talk about the importance of sales and marketing teams working together to create the right provider messages and campaigns, and also provide suggestions for how both teams can map out patient journeys and provider workflows to identify the right areas to reach target audiences. 

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Connect with Julia:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpitlyk/ 

Connect with Lindsey:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseycbrown/

The team at Hedy & Hopp has been busy the last six months, flying around the country to meet with prospects in-person, as they choose a new agency partner. In a recent RFP meeting, an executive leader questioned whether a boutique-size agency could actually bring full-service to the table. It was a fair question, and they were surprised by our answer.

Being a large size agency doesn’t necessarily mean you are getting full-service. More people doesn’t necessarily mean better work, more innovative work, or better serviced work. There are benefits to working with large agencies, like cost-efficiencies, scaled locations, etc., but there’s more clients should think about when considering full-service and how a boutique size agency can deliver.

Tune in to today’s episode to hear from Maggie Piasecki, H&H’s SVP, about what being a boutique agency means, including:

●        One-size Fits Not All

●        Extension Over Production

●        Autonomy Equals Forward Movement

●        Culture that the Client Experiences

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Maggie:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiepiasecki/

Back from SHSMD Connections 2024 in Denver, CO, Jenny Bristow, Shelby Auer, Mark Brandes, and Taylor Fedderke from Hedy & Hopp share their key takeaways. They discuss the latest trends in AI and privacy, the strong audience engagement in Q&As, and why using data effectively remains a top priority in healthcare marketing.

They also highlight sessions on recruitment-focused marketing strategies, a basketball-themed initiative that improved KPIs like reducing harm events and patient stay times, and a creative healthcare heroes social media program.

From first-time attendees to catching up with old friends—and handing out fan favorite friendship bracelets and art prints at H&H’s booth—the team shares their favorite moments and insights from a successful conference!

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Mark:

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbrandes/               

Connect with Shelby:

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-wanne/              

Connect with Taylor:

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorfedderke/            

SHSMD24 Speakers Mentioned

●        Maria Belli, Sheppard Pratt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-belli-773389143/            

●        Kristina Schiller Chaki, Sheppart Pratt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristina-schiller/       

●        Allison Vance, Regional One Health: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonvance/                

●        Jani Radhakrishhnan, Regional One Health: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janirad/             

●        Carley Cori (Weinstein), Stony Brook Medicine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carleypweinstein/    

●        Breanne Taylor, The Kids Mental Health Foundation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/breanne-taylor-932403b/            

●        Donna Teach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnawteach/      

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

When you hear “reputation management,” what comes to mind? For some, it’s online review management, which is indeed a vital component. However, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. In today’s episode, Jenny dives into the second crucial piece: shaping the online narrative about your organization. This is often intertwined with PR as it dictates how people perceive your organization. To effectively manage this narrative, follow these steps:

●        Craft and distribute surveys to gauge current perceptions.

●        Develop a four-step strategy to manage your online narrative: 

1.       Identify the core messages.

2.       Determine who the brand’s personality will be.

3.       Choose the best channels for content distribution.

4.       Plan your promotion strategy.

●        Allow sufficient time to push and monitor your content to accurately gauge its impact and audience perception.

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Today Jenny welcomes Courtney Mahlandt, Senior Director of Segment Marketing at Evernorth Health Services. Courtney discusses their journey into segmentation, driven by the expansion of their healthcare services beyond pharmacy benefits. They aim to understand their broader audience and their needs and emphasize the importance of involving multiple internal teams. This meant including sales and product right from the start to make segmentation an organizational effort.

Courtney explains how they used a combination of first-party data and external quantitative data analysis, surveying over a thousand existing and potential buyers. Courtney and Jenny discuss the benefits of segmentation in working smarter across teams and enabling product customization, targeted sales efforts, and more engaging marketing campaigns. Courtney also emphasizes the need for continuous data refresh and adapting to market changes. 

Connect with Courtney:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneymahlandt/ 

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

When you find out you have a budget that must be spent by end of your fiscal year, how should you spend it? We outline Foundation vs. Acquisition activities and the framework we use to help our clients spend the funds in a way that can help the entire fiscal budget of next year perform better.

In this week’s podcast, Jenny talks about utilizing end-of-year budget surpluses. One way is through Foundation activities, or one time projects that have a defined start and end time that set your organization up for success next year. The other are Acquisition initiatives, which help your organization finish out the current year in a strong way. Jenny offers advice on how to choose where to put that extra budget and how to choose the projects that will have the biggest payoff in the long term.

Connect with Jenny

In healthcare marketing, leaders often face the challenge of helping their teams become more efficient in a field full of regulations and diverse patient needs. Balancing the demands of technology with the personal touch of healthcare requires finding smart ways to streamline processes and maximize productivity. In this week's episode, discover how to amp up your healthcare marketing team with Jenny Bristow, CEO and founder at Hedy & Hopp. 

Jenny explores innovative approaches to streamline workflows, maximize collaboration, and ultimately amplify success. She hits on project briefs, scorecards, case studies, and in-house knowledge-sharing to revolutionize your approach. Tune in to learn how to utilize these actionable steps and empower your team toward greater efficiency. 

Connect with Jenny

With updated HHS guidance rocking the healthcare marketing landscape, our analytics operations team conducted an audit to see what marketing tools folks are still using in 2024.

Our team analyzed 118 websites from payers and providers nationwide to see how people have responded to HIPAA guidelines. In this week’s podcast, Jenny provides a snapshot of the current state of healthcare marketing tools:

Overall

●       11.9% of healthcare websites have removed every tag and marketing pixel from their website

Google Analytics

●       70% still have GA4 installed on their website

●       45% still have UA installed on their website

●       25% are using GA4 exclusively, without UA

●       0.9% are using UA exclusively

Media Tracking and Tags

●       Over 55% are still using media or conversion tracking tags Forms

●       6.8% are using a form that isn’t HIPAA compliant

●       6.8% are using Gravity Forms, but may not be using the HIPAA-compliant version

Privacy-Forward Solutions

●       1.7% have Freshpaint on their website

●       2.5% use Piwik Pro

●       2.5% use sGTM

While these numbers illustrate that many providers and payers have taken the first steps toward privacy-forward, compliant analytics and tracking solutions, there is still so much room for improvement. As we begin to see more enforcements related to HIPAA compliance,

HHS’s restructuring to focus on enforcement: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/02/27/hhs-announces-new-divisions-within-office-civil-rights-better-address-growing-need-enforcement-recent-years.html

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

In this episode, Miranda Ochsner, Director of Paid Media at Hedy & Hopp, joins Jenny to discuss how to determine the optimal media mix for your organization. At H&H, we frequently work with clients across a wide range of budgets—from under $10,000 to over $1,000,000. Our recommendations for media channels vary depending on several factors, and Miranda breaks down the key considerations and decision-making processes involved.

Key Topics Discussed:

●        Budget Considerations: Budget size directly influences the choice of media channels. Smaller budgets may limit traditional media opportunities, while larger budgets allow for a more comprehensive digital and traditional mix. We also consider whether the focus is on brand awareness or deeper funnel goals, like consumer acquisition.

●        Traditional vs. Digital Media: Traditional media options, such as billboards or TV, can be costly and vary based on market and timing. We evaluate whether these channels are suitable based on the client's goals and market conditions.

●        Hybrid Channels: Options such as Connected TV and digital radio can offer a blend of traditional and digital media, providing flexibility and precise targeting while staying HIPAA compliant.

●        Audience Targeting: We rely on data and research to ensure we reach the right audience, challenging assumptions about where and who they are. This approach is especially important when clients assume that traditional media is the only option for reaching rural audiences.

Connect with Miranda:

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandamochsner/      

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Healthcare marketers were thrown for a loop again a couple of weeks ago when the final ruling was released for the lawsuit by the American Hospital Association (AHA) against the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The ruling threw out a key part of the 2022 bulletin but left marketers confused about what, if anything, they should do to modify their marketing analytics setups.

Listen in to learn:

●        The details of the AHA and OCR lawsuit and specifics of the ruling

●        How state privacy laws may change based on this ruling

●        FTC and civil lawsuit implications

●        Future privacy considerations, such as AI

●        Our POV of a brand’s privacy promise

If you’re struggling to answer questions to your leadership about how and what should change with your analytics setup, this is a must-listen-to podcast!

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Mark:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbrandes/

In this week’s episode, Jenny discusses conversion rate optimization (CRO) for paid media. CRO may benefit you if you are running a paid media campaign where results have stalled, you aren’t getting the conversions you expected, or you have campaigns that are underperforming.

Jenny brings up her time at Amazon and details the CRO Amazon employed to increase purchases. She then describes the 5 different types of CRO tests you can run to test the efficacy of your paid media.

Five Types of CRO tests:

1. Credibility/Authority

●        Address trust and credibility issues of the business and site

2. User Experience

●        Alter layout, design, or other user interface and user experience issues

3. Social Proof

●        Build trust by showing others’ experiences

4. Value Proposition

●     Overall messaging and value proposition (pricing, shipping, business experience)

5. Risk Reversal

●        Warranties, guarantees, and other assurances of safety

It’s important to run CRO tests to figure out what’s working and what isn’t when it comes to paid media performance. You never know what types of optimizations will have the greatest impact on your campaigns until you put it to the test.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

In this episode, Jenny welcomes Hedy & Hopp’s own Director of Marketing, Julia Pitlyk. Reflecting on their latest discussions around changes to patient data privacy, Jenny and Julia discuss what healthcare marketers should expect from their marketing tactics and analytics. They focus on two main areas of change: marketing activation and analytics, and specifically discuss how those two areas will be impacted by implementing server-side Google Tag Manager to address new privacy guidelines. They also discuss how other solutions, like new analytics tools and CDPs (Customer Data Platforms), differ in terms of how they impact these areas. Jenny and Julia also recommend ways to reset the benchmark of marketing performance and emphasize the importance of making sure marketing and legal/compliance leadership develop a shared point-of-view on how to move forward with new guidelines. 

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Connect with Julia:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpitlyk/ 

Follow Hedy & Hopp on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hedyandhoppagency/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@HedyHopp Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/hedyandhopp Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hedyandhopp/ 

Listen to our other episodes on healthcare privacy: https://hedyandhopp.com/healthcare-marketing-services/healthcare-privacy-compliance/ 

In this week’s episode of “We Are Marketing Happy,” we explore the dynamic world of healthcare marketing and the impact of COVID-19 on physician referrals. Our host Jenny Bristow, CEO and founder of Hedy & Hopp, discusses the shifts and trends in healthcare systems' marketing strategies with Lindsey Brown, our esteemed Director of Digital Activation. Together, they delve into the nuances of referral marketing in a post-pandemic landscape, offering invaluable insights for healthcare marketers looking to enhance their referral processes and improve patient care through strategic marketing.

Connect with Jenny

Connect with Lindsey

In this episode, Jenny Bristow, CEO of Hedy & Hopp, is joined by Suzie Schmitt, Senior Digital Producer, to chat about creative solutions for data integration in marketing dashboards. Building on recent discussions about privacy and analytics at industry conferences, they discuss a workaround that enhances the reporting capabilities of data—while staying HIPAA compliant.

Additional Episode Highlights:

●       Call Tracking Challenges: Using CallRail’s HIPAA-compliant product and the difficulties in accessing comprehensive reporting data.

●       Identifying Essential Data: Determining which data fields are necessary for analysis while avoiding sensitive information.

●     Secure Data Management: Managing API keys and maintaining compliance by operating within a secure environment.

●     Enhancing Reporting Dashboards: Creative data integration can lead to more robust and informative marketing dashboards.

Connect with Suzie:

●       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzie-schmitt/               

Connect with Jenny:

●       Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

You order your food on an app, you order your furniture on an app, you plan your travel on an app… So why shouldn’t there be something similar for your healthcare? Jenny welcomes Sal Braico, CEO and Co-Founder of Pivotal Health, to the show to explain how he has pulled it off. Sal has worked in healthcare for 20 years, and still realizes just how difficult it can be to navigate the confusing and changing world of health insurance and care. On top of that, realizing the barriers to access for many people to even get the care they need. He discovered some organizations doing clinician house calls, which was great, but Sal knew that this could be something much more by leveraging tech and automation. So he and his friend, who happens to be a tech entrepreneur, started their own company and did just that. With their combined experience, they were able to choose the right tools, and the right designs to streamline processes in a remarkable way.

They began marketing and outreach, and they’ve expanded to other cities around Wisconsin. The response has been overwhelming and in fact, many people think it’s too good to be true. Using methods from online shopping and bringing it into the healthcare realm is reshaping the way that people can control their medical needs with more ease and convenience.

Connect with Sal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sal-braico

Find out more about Pivotal Health: https://pivotalhealth.care/

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Epic is one of the leading electronic health record platforms, but did you know it can also help healthcare marketers gain deeper insights into their marketing efforts? In this episode, Jenny chats with Sam Seering, Product Manager of Cheers at Epic, about how healthcare organizations can use Epic’s CRM solution, Cheers, to better understand marketing impact and improve key performance indicators (KPIs).

What’s Discussed:

●        An overview of marketing measurement possibilities within Cheers, including the tools available for healthcare marketers.

●        Integration of scheduling features to track appointments from a variety of marketing channels such as search engine marketing.

●        Utilization of Cheers for advanced analytics, allowing for a comprehensive view of patient engagement and the conversions from marketing efforts.

●        Tracking patient outcomes throughout the marketing journey, enabling marketers to demonstrate the impact of their efforts.

●        Different methods of attribution and how to merge Epic data with other marketing analytics.

●        Compliance considerations, emphasizing the safety of using Epic’s data under existing Business Associate Agreements (BAAs).

●        Future developments in the Cheers’ platform, including capacity-based marketing to specify appointment types and revenue tracking.

This conversation highlights the potential for healthcare systems to move beyond basic marketing metrics and understand the full ROI of their services through advanced technology.

Connect with Sam:

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-seering-19172a52/       

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In this episode, we dive into the digital patient journey, focusing on mapping success. Over the past few weeks, we've had numerous conversations with systems and providers across the country who are looking to rebuild their websites and make their digital front door easier to access. Many face budget or approval constraints, so we're here to bridge that gap by focusing on interim action items such as content and technology adjustments.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to redo your website entirely. However, if a full redesign isn’t feasible right now, here are some steps to improve the patient journey in the meantime:

Activity:

●        Outline Key Service Lines:

1.       In your office, write down your primary service lines that you are looking to drive patient volume.

2.       Take your cell phone, get in your car, and try to find and book an appointment for a specific service line. Identify where it was difficult.

Key Discussion Points:

●        Optimize for Micro-Moments: Be there when patients need you most. Use symptom-specific or other search-friendly terms to go beyond just service-line messaging.

●        Simplify the Path: Remove friction from online scheduling and information gathering. How many clicks does it take to schedule an appointment?

●        Expand Beyond Your Website: What other platforms appear in your search? Explore third-party directories and ensure your presence there.

●        Mobile-First Thinking: Ensure seamless experiences across all devices. For example, implement click-to-call functionality and other development solutions to simplify user interactions.

●        Competitor Deep Dive: Analyze the digital patient journeys of your competitors. Review their strategies for each service line. Make a list of improvements needed for each of your organization’s service lines.

While a new website might be the best move eventually, these steps can help enhance the patient journey and improve your digital front door experience even without a complete overhaul.

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Is your team scrambling trying to figure out how to make your marketing analytics setup HIPAA-compliant with the new bulletin? Yep, everyone else is too.

Today, attorney Drew Westbrook joins the show to discuss the bulletin released by OCR in December 2022. In the bulletin, OCR expanded the definition of what information is protected under HIPAA beyond what most people have read in the law and completely changes the understanding of how marketers can and can’t use analytics tools as part of our toolset, including web analytics and call tracking.

Drew explains the biggest points of concern with the new bulletin, including IP addresses being identified as PHI under HIPAA.

We then shift the conversation to what healthcare marketers need to do to understand if their organization is at risk. Auditing data to understand the information being collected, where it is being collected from, and where it is going is a good first step. They also touch on state-specific legislation and if there is any real difference in data handling of covered and non-covered entities.

This (episode 16) is part one of a two-part series (episode 17)

Find out more about Drew here

Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn

Explore what Hedy and Hopp can do for you

In this week’s episode, Jenny compares the two primary types of marketing agencies: brand agencies and performance agencies. Brand agencies are focused on big-picture, brand awareness efforts to make sure your brand is well known. Performance agencies, like Hedy & Hopp, focus on the finer details to make sure campaigns are driving strong results.

There are three aspects to consider when considering working with a brand or performance agency:

Campaign Strategy

A brand agency will focus on awareness tactics, like TV and programmatic, to make sure your brand is well known. On the other hand, campaigns from a brand agency will be specific and conversion-focused. Performance agencies may work to develop specific personas to make sure your brand’s message is effectively reaching the right audience.
 

Reporting Specificity

With a brand agency, don’t expect a lot of detail when it comes to reporting. Brand agencies aren’t necessarily results-focused, whereas performance agencies are. Performance agencies produce robust reporting, measured all the way to conversion, with a heavy focus on ROI. Performance agency reporting can get very granular to let you know what’s working and how campaign performance can be optimized for even better results.
Technical Ability

Simply put, brand agencies may have gaps when it comes to technical knowledge. Since brand agency campaigns emphasize brand awareness, they aren’t built to know everything about website conversion tracking or how a website tool works, whereas a performance agency is.

Both brand and performance agencies have specific strengths to consider before working with them. While H&H primarily operates as a performance agency, we do have team members from brand agency backgrounds to fulfill your organization’s brand awareness needs, too.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

https://calendly.com/jennybristow

Today, Jenny welcomes Hedy and Hopp’s own Director of Analytics and Decision Science, Mark Brandes to talk about the difference between GTM (Google Tag Manager) and sGTM (Server-Side Google Tag Manager).

Mark states that, while many healthcare marketers utilize traditional web GTM as an essential analytics tool, the tool is really focused on adding information to send between platforms. GTM doesn’t offer a ton of options for removing information, which is a critical consideration when it comes to sensitive PHI/PII that might get shared.

With Server-Side Google Tag Manager, the container lives on your server that you control, making it a safer place where you can make changes in a compliant environment. SGTM is a solution that allows you to continue using platforms like GA4 in a compliant and safe way.

This episode does include a visual presentation, so if you’re just listening in, you can download that presentation here to follow along.

Connect with Mark:

https://www/linkedin.com/in/markbrandes/

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

In part one of a two-part series on paid media, Jenny welcomes Hedy & Hopp’s own Director of Activation, Lindsey Brown, and Director of Marketing, Julia Pitlyk. Together the group discusses what healthcare marketers should consider when planning their paid media strategies from 2024. They focus on how to balance awareness building and lead generation objectives in a media plan, the merits of paid social and exploring creative formats to tell a compelling brand story, considerations around patient data privacy in paid media tactics, and how to develop robust measurement plans for paid campaigns. Jenny, Julia and Lindsey also provide recommendations on how teams can conserve some of their 2024 media budget for experimental channels and tactics.

Connect with Jenny:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/⁠

Connect with Julia:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpitlyk/⁠

Connect with Lindsey:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseycbrown/⁠

In today’s episode, Jenny breaks down the fundamentals of building a successful content marketing strategy, using the example of the multi-pronged content marketing strategy Hedy and Hopp built for St. Louis Children’s Hospital with two key components:

• A separate website to aggregate the content became an “owned” platform that offered a huge SEO boost, and allowed for creative flexibility compared to the main property. It was important to have a platform to aggregate content, too, because actual social channels shift over time.

• A dedicated YouTube channel the brand to drive more organic traffic, and the SEO value for the YouTube channel is also tremendous. As new social channels pop up, the brand has flexibility to try them without putting all of their eggs in one basket.

Jenny shares a few things to keep in mind when building a content marketing strategy from the ground up, which include the following:

1. Content Strategy. Understand what topics are trending in the healthcare space you’re in by reviewing monthly search trends. Create a big picture plan quarterly or biannually to stay relevant.

2. Optimization. Make sure content is personalized by platform, as different platforms require different optimizations when it comes to content length, style, and strategy. 

3. Goals. Align your content structure with your goals. The original goal for St. Louis Children’s was to improve brand perception by the community (which surveys showed we accomplished), but we have very clear new patient goals also. For example, if a new doc comes on board and needs their schedule filled, you can feature them with a clear “Book Dr. Sally now” CTA and their schedule will fill up if you do it right.

4. Paid Support. Bolster organic optimizations with paid promotions to ensure new content and topics reach your target audience.

5. Video Production. Don’t let video resources stop you from creating content. Your videos don’t have to have super high production! While you may want to earmark certain topics and content for higher production value, sometimes lower quality video can be seen as more trustworthy by consumers. One of St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s most popular series for MomDocs came from a Facebook Live that was filmed on an iPhone!

6. Patient Privacy. Keep patient privacy top of mind. Even if your content is on a separate property, it’s still a part of your organization. Make sure that the analytics and privacy solutions you use for your main property carry over.

Welcome to the first episode of the We Are Marketing Happy - a healthcare marketing podcast, hosted by Jenny Bristow. 

Jenny is the Founder and CEO of Hedy and Hopp, a healthcare marketing agency based in the Midwest. Today Jenny welcomes Annie Haarmann, Head of Consumer Experience, North America at Reputation.

On this episode, Annie breaks down how different health systems are responding to technology advancements in order to improve patient’s access to care. She outlines technology that is changing patient’s journey such as Google’s knowledge panel and local three-pack to natural language processing and artificial intelligence to determine emotions such as fear, optimism and anger.

We also talk about how health systems have been regrouping after many marketing budgets were slashed during Covid and the long-term impact to the growth of virtual care.

Annie discusses the importance of real relationship building with vendors, being brutally honest about your own weaknesses, talking about things that are broken, and using metrics that matter.

Connect with Annie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniehaarmann/

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Jenny is joined by Hedy & Hopp's Director of Paid Media, Miranda Ochsner, to break down the top paid media trends for 2025. They discuss insights from the 2024 Nielsen Annual Marketing Report, including why 72% of marketers plan to boost their ad budgets despite economic uncertainty and the importance of balancing performance marketing with long-term brand building. TikTok’s growing role in healthcare marketing and its impact on cross-platform ad strategies also takes center stage.

They also share some reminders when it comes to remarketing and retargeting strategies including the shift away from website pixel-based retargeting, as well as Meta’s restrictions on healthcare advertising and Google’s new AI-driven bidding tools.

Connect with Jenny:

•Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

•LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In this episode, Jenny is joined by Hedy & Hopp’s Account Manager, Shelby Auer, and Marketing Manager, Taylor Fedderke, to recap their time at HCIC24 in Austin. With its walkable venue downtown and amazing food, the conference provided a great setting to reconnect with peers and explore the latest industry trends.

They dive into key themes from the event, including the growing role of AI, how SEO continues to be a game-changer, and fresh approaches to reputation management. They also discuss how organizations are using data to improve provider finders, enhance consumer engagement, and streamline digital strategies, as well as the importance of building authentic brands and maximizing social media with AI tools.

Connect with Shelby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-wanne/        

Connect with Taylor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorfedderke/      

Connect with Jenny:

•Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

•LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Today Jenny welcomes Megan Cornish, a licensed clinical social worker turned healthcare marketer. Megan shares her unique perspective on marketing and copywriting in the mental health space, emphasizing the importance of positive messaging and careful language choices. 

They discuss the intersection of marketing and clinicians in driving demand and the need for clinician involvement in marketing strategies. They also touch on the challenges posed by large companies entering the mental health space and the importance of viewing traditional therapists as allies, not competitors. 

Connect with Megan Cornish:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-cornish/ 

Connect with Jenny Bristow:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

As technology and marketing tools advance, changes continue to come to hospitals, patients, and the people that connect them. Today Jenny welcomes Dustin Horn, Associate Director of Digital Marketing and Communications at Siteman Cancer Center.

Dustin discusses different tools and platforms that he has found to be helpful in connecting and caring for clients. Having been at Siteman for over twelve years, he has seen the large shift and impacts that technology has brought to the health sector. Social media has allowed them to discover patients who have serious medical issues that they may be able to help, and it has made it easier for patients to find them. Automated chat and live chat have also been a successful tool in gaining new patients.

He also looks ahead and talks about the adoption of wearables to really make an impact in the patient-doctor relationship. This of course hinges on certain factors like accessibility, affordability and trust of data sharing. Jenny reminds us that with change and innovation, can often come with frustration. Dustin believes it isn’t so much the technology but how it’s utilized and how it functions will ultimately decide which technologies thrive.

Later in the episode listen as Dustin describes some of the most rewarding accomplishments of his career, some of the more frustrating ones, and his advice on the most important characteristic you can have if you want to succeed in marketing.

Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Dustin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/horndustin/

At Hedy & Hopp, pediatrics is one of our passions, and in this week’s episode, Jenny talks about developing a pediatric content strategy. One thing that makes pediatric content so different from other types of healthcare content is that, instead of talking directly to a patient, often pediatric content is aimed at the parents of a patient.

With that in mind, Jenny offers five pillars for pediatric content marketing:

1. Understanding a Diagnosis
   Develop content that helps parents understand their child’s diagnosis through describing symptoms, treatments, and what to expect. This type of content should help parents who may be in research mode and should offer an avenue for them to seek care.
2. Preparing for a Child’s Surgery
   Content like this can help ease parents’ worries about having their child undergo a surgery. It could be a step-by-step guide on the surgical process and should address what parents and their children can expect throughout the surgery process and how best to prepare.
3. Hospital and Facilities Tour

It is so simple, yet so effective. Walking through your space and showing parents where to park, where to check in, and where the exam rooms can help calm anxious parents and children. Plus, it is an opportunity to show off the accommodations and benefits of your space.

1. Emotional Support and Counseling
   Create content that offers support to parents who may be going through a very challenging and overwhelming time. This type of content can highlight resources, communities, and support networks for a variety of situations and diagnoses.
2. Care and Follow-Up Post Procedure

Develop content that highlights what to expect after a child’s procedure. Discuss the recovery process, what’s normal, and when should parents seek additional help.

1. Interactive Q&As

This could be a live Q&A on a particular topic, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Make sure to brainstorm a few questions beforehand in case interaction is low, and remember to save any live videos to post later!

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

In this week’s episode, Jenny discusses candidate recruiting and how marketing teams can lean in to help build a full and successful candidate pipeline.

Healthcare marketing is a pendulum. On one end, marketing efforts are focused on new patient acquisition. On the other end, HR and recruiting teams need to invest time and resources into finding quality providers to deliver the care you are promising new patients.

Jenny outlines three key steps for recruiting marketing:

1. Strategy

Jenny states that in today’s hiring landscape, it’s essential to do research to figure out the competitive landscape for recruiting. You can’t just rely on throwing up a job posting and expecting a full pipeline of qualified candidates.

Do research to figure out the pay range for similar positions in your area, key differentiators, and value propositions. Create a variety of postings to test what positioning works best and figure out ways to stand out.

2. User Journey

Jenny explains that the next step is putting yourself in a candidate’s shoes to figure out what journey they have to take to apply for your position. Do they have to add their information multiple times? Is there a way to easily add a phone number or email to get a file started? Document the steps a candidate takes, and optimize to improve.

In today’s world, there are two ways people find you: they could either be actively looking for a new position, or they could be the right person for the job but not actively looking. In order to catch the latter, you may have to spend a little to promote your posting and make sure it’s seen by the right people.

3. Optimization

Finally, Jenny recommends treating your candidate recruiting efforts like patient acquisition. Every dollar counts. Figure out how much you’re spending for each stage of your recruiting process - interviews, applicants, hires, and employee retention - and optimize.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

In this podcast episode, we cover the essentials for dashboards. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the terminology, technologies, and the need to demonstrate ROI when developing your first dashboard for your healthcare organization, you’re not alone. Our goal is to set a baseline of understanding so that when you tackle yours, you’ll know what to look out for and the right questions to ask.

What We Cover:

1. Terminology Matters: Dashboards and reports are often used interchangeably, but they serve different purposes. Dashboards provide real-time data, while reports offer a snapshot in time.
2. Don’t Forget about Patient Privacy: Before diving into developing a dashboard, make sure your data tools are cleaned up to protect patient privacy. This includes removing any potential protected health information (PHI) or personally identifiable information.
3. Start with a Measurement Plan: Begin by understanding your organization’s business objectives, strategic plan, and the key metrics needed to report success to leadership or the board. We’ll give specific examples of things to track and how to measure ROI.
4. Data Visualization: The fun part comes after your measurement plan is in place. We discuss the difference between Domo, Looker and Tableau.
5. Understanding Data Feeds: Be aware of how your data is being pulled—whether it’s through a straight data feed or a more sophisticated data lake. Understand which you should focus on.

Questions to Consider:

●        What is the timeliness or refresh rate of your data?

●        Are you working with a straight data feed, or does your data involve backend calculations?

●        What are your data sources?

●        Have you established a solid measurement plan?

This episode is designed for those just starting to dip their toes into dashboards. Whether you’re working with an in-house team or an agency, these insights will help with the development of your dashboard.

Related Patient Privacy Podcast Episodes:

●        Marketing Performance After Privacy Changes: What to Expect

●        OCR and AHA Ruling – Patient Privacy Update for 2024

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

One of the things we love to do at Hedy & Hopp is getting time in front of our clients’ boards or leadership teams to present our marketing successes. It’s an exciting opportunity for us to share the story of how we’ve collaborated with our clients to support their organization’s business goals. In this podcast, Jenny outlines six tips for presenting to your board or leadership team.

1. Understand your audience

• What is their background—are they clinical, finance, or operations?
• What is their tenure at the organization
• Identify key areas of interest

2. Understand why you are there

• Understand why you were invited and key outcomes/information they expect
• Ask how long you have (5 minutes or 20)
• Get clarity on the depth of content expected

3. Link to organizational goals

• Ladder ideas up to overall organizational goals

4. Key themes/Specific output:

• Focus on the story you are telling first, then get into specifics.
• Boards and leaderships focus on the picture and don’t want to know every tactical detail. 

5. Simplify language

• Remove all jargon and acronyms, even something as simple as KPI.
• Give your presentation as though the audience knows nothing about what you do on a daily basis.

6. Presentation style

• Show up with energy and confidence!

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Today Jenny is bringing you the inside scoop from the Becker’s HIT + DH + RCM Conference with a little help from Hedy and Hopp’s own Shelby Auer. Shelby discusses her experience at the conference, where they explored a wide range of healthcare topics, from digital health to IT, revenue cycle, and the patient experience. The conference featured diverse perspectives, including providers, highlighting the importance of cross-functional collaboration. She and Jenny dig into the themes of knowing patients as consumers, the role of AI in healthcare, and setting a solid marketing foundation. Speakers at the conference emphasized the need for convenience in healthcare and shared innovative approaches to patient care and referrals. Shelby rates her experience based on the thought-provoking content and valuable insights that were presented.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Upcoming Healthcare Marketing Privacy Events:

HIPAA, FTC & State Laws: What healthcare marketers need to know NOW!

In-Person Event: Tues, 10/24 | 9-11am | St. Louis, MO >> Register Now!

Live Webinar: Wed, 10/25 | 9-11am | Online >> Register Now

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Connect with Shelby:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-wanne/

Connect with our favorite Becker’s HIT + DH + RCM speakers:

Donna Roach, Chief Information Officer, University of Utah Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/donnamroach/ 

Tara Nooteboom, Head of Consumer Digital Strategy, UCI Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tarajnooteboom/ 

Brian Deffa, Chief Marketing Officer, LifeBridge Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-deffaa-3330974/ 

Jason Szczuka, Chief Digital Officer, Bon Secours Mercy Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonszczuka/ 

Bob Poznanovich, Chief Growth Officer, Hazelden Betty Fordhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/poznanovich/ 

Jackie Effenson, Director of Digital Marketing, Houston Methodisthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-effenson-121090a/ 

Ken Chaplin, System Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hopehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kenchaplin/ 

Christina Deidesheimer, Chief Marketing Communications Officer, Beebe Healthcarehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/christinadeidesheimer/ 

James Watson, Senior Director of Marketing, St. Luke’s Health Systemhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/james-watson-885b8a6/ 

Kristina Dover, Chief Marketing Officer, Mercyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kristina-dover/ 

In today’s episode, Jenny shares her top tips for establishing a strong and streamlined content marketing foundation, including audience strategy, production, and distribution. She starts off discussing Hedy & Hopp’s own content marketing approach, including her tips for simplified content production and how to use a “pillar content” strategy to maximize your time and effort. She then shares how a multi-channel distribution strategy can reach the right audiences in the right channels, even for complex organizations with a variety of content topics and personas. Jenny also shares tips for how to tag and organize content within a CRM to enable more automated “right persona, right content” approaches, and helps you think about segmenting your content strategy based on the type of care your audience is seeking. She wraps up with some tips for what to consider as you go into a website redesign or CRM implementation in 2024.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

In this week's episode, we’re giving you a sneak peek of what to expect from Hedy & Hopp at SHSMD Connections 2024, happening October 13-15 in Denver, CO. We're excited to be part of this event again this year and share how you can connect with us and attend our sessions!

What We Cover:

●        H&H at Booth 1015: Come find us! Grab one of our coveted friendship bracelets and check out the art prints from our 2024 Artist in Residence, Katie Mertz. Look for the joy, and let's connect!

●        Pre-Conference Workshop: Jenny Bristow and Mark Brandes will be hosting a hands-on session titled OK, But How Do I USE AI - AI 101. This session is a must for anyone tasked with understanding AI or for marketing professionals looking to stay ahead. (Note: separate ticket required.)

●        HIPAA, FTC, and State Laws – What You Need to Know NOW – 2024 Edition!: Our highly anticipated privacy session, co-presented by Jenny Bristow and our client Jenny Bradley from Quartz Health Benefits, will cover critical updates on state laws, class action lawsuits, and compliance for marketers. This is an evolution of last year's session, diving deeper into the challenges and opportunities in 2024.

Even if you can’t attend SHSMD, the H&H team will be gathering key takeaways from the sessions and sharing them in a post-conference podcast. Stay tuned for that episode!

Connect with Jenny:

●        Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

●        LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Back from their final conference of the year, Jenny Bristow, Shelby Auer and Julia Pitlyk of Hedy & Hopp share their highlights from the 2023 HCIC conference in Los Angeles. They discuss various sessions and speakers, including the patient privacy masterclass with Hedy & Hopp and Cincinnati Children’s, several sessions on new marketing channels for hospitals and health systems (like TikTok!), what they learned about marketing technology stacks to enable personalized patient experiences, and ways healthcare marketers can better collaborate cross-functionally. They also speak to the importance for healthcare marketers to lean into each others’ experiences, share their learnings, and work together to help healthcare marketing advance and innovate as an industry.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Connect with Shelby:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-wanne/

Connect with Julia:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpitlyk 

Connect with our favorite HCIC 2023 speakers and resources:

Houston Methodist “Find A Doctor” Toolhttps://www.houstonmethodist.org/find-a-doctor/ 

Aaron Williams, Cincinnati Children’s Hospitalhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-williams-969a4b11/

Steve Coates, Hartford HealthCarehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-coates-9565449/ 

Jody Ganschinietz, Nationwide Children’shttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ganschinietzj/ 

Callista Dammann, Nationwide Children’shttps://www.linkedin.com/in/callistaconzett/ 

Matthew Mader, Broward Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-mader-4092423/ 

Carla Rivera, Broward Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-rivera/ 

Val Lopez, Baptist Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/vallopez/ 

Kier Bradshaw, MERGEhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/keirbradshaw/ 

Linda Ho, UCLA Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lindavho/ 

Priya Sreedharan, UCLA Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/psreedharan/ 

Cristal Herrera Woodley, Renown Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/cristalherrera/ 

Alex Nason, Frederick Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-nason-b47b462/ 

Alec Endara, Baptist Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alecendara/ 

Mary Kay Boitani-Nelson, Houston Methodisthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/marykayboitanonelson/ 

Tom Price, Houston Methodisthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tmprice/ 

David Feinberg, Mount Sinai Health Systemhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/david-a-feinberg-57746a5/ 

Chloe Politis, Mount Sinai Health Systemhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/chloepolitis/ 

Tara Nooteboom, UCI Healthhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tarajnooteboom/ 

Welcome to this episode of "We Are, Marketing Happy," the podcast that brings joy to healthcare marketing. Today, our host, CEO, and founder Jenny Bristow, dissects a topic that's stirring up the digital marketing world alongside Mark Brandes, Hedy & Hopp’s head of all things analytics and decision science. 

This episode sheds light on the mixed feelings surrounding GA4, digging into its challenges and revealing how to harness its full potential. Jenny and Mark go beyond critique, offering practical advice for organizations deeply invested in GA4. Whether you're grappling with catch-all tracking, seeking clarity on website performance, or looking to beautify your data analysis with Looker Studio dashboards, this episode is packed with actionable solutions. Join us as we transform technical hurdles into opportunities for joy and insight, ensuring your marketing efforts are both happy and effective.

Episode Highlights:

[0:45] - Introduction to GA4's Mixed Reception: Insights into the digital marketing community's varied reactions to Google Analytics 4.

[1:20] - The Challenge with GA4: Mark and Jenny discuss the steep learning curve and common frustrations with the new platform.

[2:55] - Embracing Measurement Planning: Highlighting the importance of a well-crafted measurement plan for accurate data analysis in healthcare marketing.

[4:10] - Implementing Dashboards for Better Analytics: How custom dashboards can make data from GA4 more accessible and actionable.

[6:00] - The Future of Healthcare Marketing with GA4: Optimizing Google Analytics 4 for enhanced decision-making in healthcare marketing.

[7:30] - Practical Tips for GA4 Transition: Jenny and Mark offer advice for organizations adapting to Google Analytics 4, focusing on setup and tracking strategies.

Connect with Jenny

Connect with Mark

Check out more about how Hedy & Hopp can help you do more with your data!

On today’s show Jenny is pleased to welcome William (Skip) Hidlay, Vice President and Chief Communications and Marketing Officer for the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, to talk about the exciting things he's been doing in the world of content marketing.

Skip has been in his role for over two years and in that short time, he's already accomplished some truly impressive things. When he arrived, the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center was dealing with the winter surge of the pandemic, and as part of their outreach and branding strategy, Skip positioned the physicians and scientists of the center at the forefront to help counteract the misinformation that was spreading.

As he got to work, Skip realized that there were 11 different websites with no unified storytelling strategy. He envisioned a new website that would bring together the brand, storytelling and messaging into one cohesive platform. In just 9 months, Skip and his team built and launched Ohio State Health and Discovery which launched in January 2022 and is a true labor of love for everyone involved.

Skip's team strategy was to create an integrated organizational design that blended traditional disciplines to create a brand marketing and content strategy to create a hybrid of a content marketing agency and a traditional newsroom.

His passion for marketing and his ability to bring people together to achieve great things are truly inspiring. His work at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is a testament to his expertise and passion for content marketing.

Find more about Skip on LinkedIn

Find more about Skip and his work at Wexner Medical Center

Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn

Explore what Hedy and Hopp can do for you

We are pleased to be back to weekly episodes! Today, we introduce you to Hedy and Hopp’s 2023 Artist In Residence, Lauren Younge. As AIR, Lauren’s art will be featured on our website, podcast, social media, and more!

Jenny and Lauren discuss her beginnings as a young artist, what inspires her work, how Covid changed her approach to creating, and steps that she took to take her art from a hobby to the professional level. Lauren also talks about creating an effective social media presence, including her fantastic IG content, and details on her next solo show coming up just days from now!

Come see Lauren’s work in person, January 20th – March 20th 2023 at Center of Creative Arts (COCA)

Follow Lauren Younge on Instagram

Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

You can’t fully understand the evolution of something without knowing the history. This is where Jenny and her guest, Michele Szczypka, Interim VP of Marketing and Communications SSM, begin today’s episode. Michele expresses the importance of understanding the industry's past to comprehend the impact of changes in the present. She emphasizes the value of this perspective for new graduates and early-career professionals.

Jenny and Michele discuss how healthcare marketing Initially started as PR and image-building for hospitals, but has gradually transitioned into true marketing and branding, aided by the emergence of marketing technology (MarTech) in the past decade. They highlight the challenges faced by early adopters of MarTech in developing models for ROI to convince hospital executives of the need for increased budgets.

Michele also notes the evolution of CRM in healthcare marketing which from their inception grew to allow more sophisticated tracking and measurement of marketing efforts. The implementation of CRM systems necessitated collaboration with finance teams and the establishment of goals and ROI models for different service lines.

The conversation shifts to the current concerns regarding tracking methodologies in

healthcare marketing due to HIPAA and FTC regulations. Michele identifies two

camps and how they are reacting and/or pivoting. She and Jenny know that it boils

down to the importance of respecting privacy and finding solutions that balance progress and compliance with guidelines.

Connect with Michele on LinkedIn Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn

Explore what Hedy and Hopp can do for you

Tips to maximize conference attendance. Topic our team is knee deep in. Conference prep. Thought it could be useful for those attending this fall or spring. How you can better prepare for the conference and maximize your attendance. For providers and payors. Hopefully it will give you 5 really solid tips to help you get everything you need out of the event.

1. Develop your goals. Make sure you know why are you are going and what success will look like. Networking? Maybe you are wanting to learn to walk away with some key insights? Maybe your goal is to speak next year and you want to see how folks do it and some key ways you want to show up as a speaker next year. Or to find a new vendor. Spend a moment and actually write down your goals. To revisit afterwards to hold yourself accountable.

2. Create personal brand strategy. This is why H&H’s events are so successful. Visuals are one of the key things. But also the way you show up or the way you make people feel. Strongly recommend a visual brand is part of that formula. Our brand is very bright blazers, cool shoes, handmade bright earrings. Some people remember and recognize.

3. Pre-Event Prep. Please don’t show up to an event without knowing which sessions you want to go to and speakers you want to listen to. Block out an afternoon and knock it out. Sessions are published in advance. Sometimes you can even preselect events. Or create your own separated document lining it out. Are there other organizatons like yours presenting? Vendor you are working with is speaking? Key tip - any speakers you plan to see speak connect with them on LinkedIn and reach out saying how excited you are. Do your homework and network.

4 - Never eat (or sit) alone. If you created and crafted a list of the kinds of organizations and people at the organizations you want to meet. Scan the conference to catch them. Even if you are drained, still sit by someone. Can result in a fun and delightful experience that may energize you.

5. Post-event Follow-up. What we do if always have a pen. Write on business cards. Some people don’t want to write on them but others do. Write what we talked about and follow up. Whether it is a podcast or a connection opportunity for them. Follow up with your promises. Give people a  couple of days or a week before sending follow up since there is alot to catch up on.

Connect with Jenny: Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

      LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

On today’s episode, Jenny is coming to you solo to discuss the recently released Experian State of Patient Access Report. The report is based on surveys of both patients and healthcare providers across the country, exploring their views on access to care over a three-year period. The report identifies five key aspects of patient access and reveals that both patients and providers agree that access to care has either remained the same or worsened in the past year but for different reasons. Patients desire a streamlined scheduling experience, while providers grapple with staffing shortages and care cost challenges. Jenny emphasizes the need for well-integrated digital solutions throughout the patient journey and encourages marketers to collaborate with operations teams to optimize the patient experience. She also highlights the importance of compliance in the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape and the critical role marketing plays in enhancing patient and provider experiences.

Access the State of Patient Access Report here

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Today on We Are, Marketing Happy, Jenny welcomes back SVP Maggie Piasecki to discuss implementing an effective project management tool at Hedy & Hopp.

They dig into the challenges they faced, the selection process, and the benefits that came from it. They also talk about key features, the importance of organizational efficiency, and tips for a smooth rollout. Key Highlights:

1. Identifying the Need for Change:

   • The team recognized the limitations of their previous project management tool, which hindered productivity and communication.
   • Through EOS quarterly meetings feedback, it was clear they needed a more efficient tool.

2. Efficient Selection Process:

   • The team initiated a 90-day process to swiftly identify, evaluate, and implement a new tool.
   • A designated an owner to lead the assessment, ensuring alignment with organizational needs.
   • Rigorous evaluation criteria, including feature assessments and user experience testing, enabled objective decision-making.

3. Operational Efficiency Benefits:

   • The chosen tool offered customizable workflows tailored to client needs, enhancing productivity and clarity.
   • Individualized dashboards empowered team members to manage tasks efficiently according to personal preferences.
   • Long-term resourcing capabilities provided proactive insights, minimizing resource gaps and ensuring timely project delivery.

4. Successful Rollout Strategies:

   • Maintaining a central owner and internal champions facilitated a smooth rollout process.
   • Simplified training sessions and ongoing feedback loops ensured user adoption and satisfaction.
   • The PM team remained responsive to user feedback, continuously optimizing tool implementation for enhanced effectiveness.

Connect with Jenny:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/⁠

Connect with Maggie:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiepiasecki/

If you a marketing leader or a member of a marketing team that is beginning the process of tackling a website rebuild, this episode is for you! Jenny shares five essential steps to focus on before you dig into the desired design of the website:

1. Centering your “why”: Understand why your website exists. Identify your primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences (e.g., patients, HR/recruiting, foundation) and define your calls to action.
2. Get tech savvy: Explore how current technologies can help streamline processes. Brainstorm new opportunities, like embedding a scheduling tool into service pages.
3. Design site architecture: Create a sitemap. Review current analytics to see what content works, what doesn’t, and identify content gaps.
4. Layer on SEO strategy: Ensure your website is easy for search engines to index. Pay attention to technical requirements and make sure the content flows well to rank better.
5. Develop a measurement plan: Decide how you will measure success, ensure compliance (e.g., patient privacy for analytics), and streamline reporting.

After these steps, you can move on to wireframing and designing, either with your internal team or a third-party vendor.

Connect with Jenny: Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In today’s episode, Jenny shares her top four tips for marketing on a budget. The vast majority of folks in the healthcare space operate on a smaller budget, and Jenny shares the following tips for maximizing marketing performance when budgets are tight:

Know your audience. Who are you marketing to? Develop and understand personas around your target audience, so that you know you’re effectively reaching them.

Create an annual plan. Rather than playing catch up or trying to squeeze a lot of results into a smaller time frame, create an annual plan that maximizes your budget throughout the year to drive consistent results and growth.

You are a bottom funnel marketer! Be sure to target people who are actively looking for the services you offer and are actively seeking a solution to their problem. Be sure to leverage Google Grants if you are a nonprofit.

Build a measurement plan and dashboard. Make sure you understand your marketing performance and results. Track all key actions on your website, so that you can effectively optimize performance for prospective customers.

This episode is worth the listen, as Jenny shares all the details marketers need to know when marketing on a budget.

*** NOTE - Google Grants has updated its eligibility requirements, and hospitals/healthcare providers are no longer eligible! Your foundation/charitable arm can likely still be eligible. ***

Connect with Jenny: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

In the final episode of our “AI for Healthcare Marketers” series, we’re getting hands-on with AI platforms. While understanding how AI platforms function is important, it’s when you start using them in your workflows that the real value shines through. This interactive episode walks you through five practical exercises designed to make your daily tasks smoother and more efficient.

The exercises covered:

•Using ChatGPT for quick note transcriptions

•Brainstorming content ideas with Claude

•Conducting market research with Copilot

•Navigating privacy concerns with Perplexity

•How AI can improve communication

Connect with Jenny:

•Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

•LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

You’ve seen the beautiful artwork on Hedy & Hopp’s website, social media and podcast, but did you know who created it? Today you get to meet her. Jessica Hitchcock is the company’s 2022 Artist In Residence and has graciously joined the show to talk with Jenny.

Jessica didn’t travel down the most traditional path in becoming an artist. She started out going to business school and had a strong interest in accounting, but her love for art was still calling. She started doing bookkeeping for an arts organization, while still creating her own pieces. Her art side-hustle grew over the years, and she was able to quit the 9 to 5 and become a full-time artist.

Jenny talks about the Artist in Residency program they have at Hedy & Hopp, and why it is an important part of their values as a company. Jessica discusses why it is so refreshing to collaborate with a company that places such importance on the arts and local community. She also gives advice to other artists who haven’t yet taken the step to put their work out into the world. Jessica even has coaching classes for artists looking to take that leap! Listen to end when Jenny gives information about how you can help Hedy & Hopp chose the Artist In Residence for 2023. 

Connect with Jessica on IG

Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn

Submit an Artist for consideration for 2023: https://forms.gle/yxdcUBYAcRzvWkJZ6 

Welcome back! Jenny is here today to present the impact of OCR's December 2022 Bulletin on healthcare marketing. She starts off discussing how the bulletin categorized IP addresses as PHI, causing panic among many marketers, and why she disagrees with the American Hospital Association's stance to fully withdraw the guidance. She advocates for patient privacy and supports OCR's guidance. Jenny welcomes the opportunity to be a leader and example to other industries in the safety of personal information. She emphasizes the importance of technology companies’ understanding and protecting patient data, highlights affordable and effective solutions to do so, and calls for a standardized approach to protect patient privacy, even if it means reallocating some marketing budget.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Listen to our other episodes on healthcare privacy:

https://hedyandhopp.com/healthcare-marketing-services/healthcare-privacy-complianc

In the second episode of our three-part AI series, Jenny builds on our understanding of AI by covering the six tenets for using AI effectively in marketing. While AI offers exciting opportunities, it also comes with challenges that require caution and strategy.

Key takeaways include:

●  Approach AI with skepticism: Even tools like ChatGPT can provide inaccurate information, with hallucinations still occurring about 30% of the time.

●  Never use AI output as-is: AI-generated content should always be reviewed and refined to avoid sounding impersonal or inaccurate.

●  Avoid having AI create deliverables: Relying on AI for final marketing assets can be a liability due to inaccuracies, bias, and potential harm to your brand.

●   Be clear in your ask: Use structured prompting techniques to get the best results.

●   Ask for sources: Always ask AI tools for sources and confidence levels to verify their output.

●   Prioritize privacy: Treat any shared information as though it could appear on a public billboard to ensure confidentiality and compliance.

Connect with Jenny:

•Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

•LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In this week’s episode, Jenny welcomes Brian Deffaa, Chief Marketing Officer of Maryland-based LifeBridge Health. Brian shares his background in consumer and retail marketing and his journey into healthcare, where he is now on a mission to bring real emotion into delivering healthcare marketing. Brian discusses his “inside-out” approach to rallying LifeBridge teammates around a clear, compelling mission based on the organization’s history. Brian also discusses how he has translated that mission into a unique, authentic, and defensible brand proposition for LifeBridge Health that can be felt across every marketing touchpoint. Brian also discusses how he navigates measurement and ROI around more brand and awareness-driving marketing efforts.

Connect with Brian:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-deffaa-3330974/⁠

Connect with Jenny:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/⁠

LifeBridge Creative:

“I’m Fine” Campaign: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMpLzPVj-6c⁠

“Care Bravely” Movement: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdEWlixvHO4

In the first episode of our three-part AI for health marketers series, we break down the basics of AI and how healthcare marketers can use it effectively. Jenny discusses how AI has rapidly evolved - ChatGPT is just two years old, with 56% of adults having used it and explains the types of AI, including Narrow AI (used today), General AI, and Superintelligent AI. Jenny also covers how AI learns through methods like supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning, and highlights its key capabilities, such as natural language processing and computer vision.

The episode introduces top platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, and Claude, breaking down what makes each unique. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of the leading AI tools and how they can be utilized.

Connect with Jenny:

•Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

•LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In today’s episode, Jenny shares her top three reasons to spend energy and resources toward submitting for awards: for recruitment, for credibility, and for ego.

●     For recruitment. Recognition of your workplace culture can definitely help with recruiting language, both for your marketing team and for other positions that you might be helping recruitment fill, such as nursing.

●     For credibility. Winning awards that recognize your facility or a specific service line can help with patient acquisition for that facility/service line AND can sometimes help with recruitment for that facility/service line also, as folks love to work in highly ranked places.

●     For ego. These include any award that gives a pat on the back but patients and staff don’t necessarily care. You can use these awards strategically to get that grouchy Doc, who is awesome on camera, to participate more often (he may be grouchy but will love winning an award for a podcast/video he was in and will definitely say yes more often after winning).

Mentally categorizing award submissions into these three buckets each year helps her understand where her energy is going, and if it matches her goals.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

In today’s episode Jenny talks about the six core tenets of using AI in healthcare marketing, including

1. Approach AI results with healthy skepticism.

“Hallucinations” are common with AI and it can be easy to assume the information you are getting is factual.

2. Do not use AI outputs as-is without reviewing and adjusting.

For example, if you have it generate an internal email, do not just copy, paste, and send.  Make sure to read it and confirm it’s formatted (and reads) correctly.

3. Do not have AI create client deliverables.

You can have it assist with ideas or some content thoughts but the deliverable should still be yours. Use AI to help with a first draft, but then edit, edit, edit!

4. Be very clear in your ask.

Give AI clear directions, ask it to play a role, use specific language, ask for multiple versions, etc. The more information you give in the prompt, the better the result will likely be.

5. Ask for sources!

Remember to ask it to give you a confidence level along with its response. You can also ask it to provide sources and citations for the information in its result.

6. Keep privacy a priority!

Be careful sharing ANY data or information with these tools.  Until we have a private space using one of these tools, anything you supply it with could be used for training its model.

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

In this special episode of We Are, Marketing Happy, Jenny dives into a critical update for healthcare marketers. Google is requiring advertisers to opt into call recording for its Click-to-Call feature, creating potential HIPAA compliance risks. Jenny explains the changes, why they’re a concern, and what steps you need to take to protect your organization.

Key Points:

• Google’s new terms for Click-to-Call could result in PHI or PII being recorded, violating HIPAA.

• The rollout is inconsistent, so accounts must be monitored closely.

• You can contact Google support to opt out of call recording.

Action Items:

• Check if the terms were accepted for your account.

• Share this episode with your team or agency to ensure awareness.

More Information

•Search Engine Land Article

•Search Engine Journal Article

Connect with Jenny:

• Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

On today’s episode, Jenny welcomes Ben Camp, CEO, and co-founder of RehabPath, a platform focused on improving the patient, caregiver, and family member experience in addiction treatment. Ben discusses the origins of RehabPath, which began in 2017, stemming from his prior work in marketing for addiction treatment centers and tech startups. He emphasizes the importance of the user and patient experience and the challenges people face when seeking addiction treatment information online.

RehabPath aims to provide independent and user-centric resources to help individuals navigate the complex process of finding treatment centers. They prioritize high-quality content, including photos and videos of treatment facilities, to assist potential patients in making informed decisions. Ben also touches on the evolving trends in digital marketing and the impact of insurance coverage on the addiction treatment industry.

RehabPath is playing a critical role in helping people find treatment options and reduce the barriers to seeking help. They are committed to providing free listings for treatment centers while offering an advertising program to expand reach and create a positive impact on individuals' lives.

Learn More About RehabPath:

https://rehabpath.com/ 

Connect with Ben:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamincamp/ 

Connect with Jenny:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ 

Is your team scrambling trying to figure out how to make your marketing analytics setup HIPAA-compliant with the new bulletin? Yep, everyone else is too.

Today, Mark Brandes, Hedy & Hopp’s Director of Analytics and Decision Science joins the podcast to talk about the huge impact this bulletin from OCR has on healthcare marketers (as well as the FTC's ruling against GoodRX).

Mark talks about tools and processes that were considered best practices prior to the OCR bulletin and how our approach to HIPAA-compliant marketing has changed. He talks about the reason why third-party marketing pixels are causing so much concern and are difficult to control.

Jenny and Mark wrap up the episode by talking about the three-step process Hedy & Hopp are using to help clients become HIPAA-compliant - Audit, Educate, and Recommend. We’re working as a middle ground between marketing and legal teams, making sure both groups get what they need! Listen in to learn more.

This (episode 17) is part two of a two-part series