Transcription:

The following SHSMD podcast is a production of DoctorPodcasting.com.

Bill Klaproth: On this edition of the SHSMD podcast, let's talk about demand generation, what that is and how that coupled with value-based branding is an unrecognized powerhouse when it comes to building long-term business success. So, how do you build a roadmap for an integrated strategy incorporating values-based brand building coupled with demand generation that will drive that business growth? Well, keep listening, because you're going to find out. With us is Paula Serios from BVK and Josh Derouin from Foxtrot Digital, and we're going to get into it right now.

This is the SHSMD Podcast, rapid insights for healthcare strategy professionals and planning, business development, marketing communications and public relations. I'm your host, Bill Klaproth. And in this episode, we talk about the new powerhouse combination, driving measurable demand with a meaningful brand with Paula Serios, SVP of Healthcare at BVK, and Josh Derouin, Vice President of Digital Strategy at Foxtrot Digital, and this episode sponsored by BVK, an independent business marketing and advertising agency with expertise in delivering purpose-driven healthcare experiences that impact the lives, build healthy communities and shifts societal health behaviors. Visit BVK.com/rapidinsights to schedule a private session with one of their health experts today.

Paula and Josh, so great to have you here. Welcome to the SHSMD podcast. And as you know, we start every episode of the SHSMD podcast with Rapid Insights. One quick tip someone can use to make their marketing communications better today. Paula, you're up first. Give us your rapid insight.

Paula Serios: Sure. Strategically and purposely linking your brand-building to your volume-driving will actually create results for both.

Bill Klaproth: Ooh. I like it. That's a good rapid insight. Okay, Josh, you're up next. Give us your rapid insight.

Josh Derouin: Sure thing. A lot of people don't know this, but 5% of all Google searches are health-related. They also don't realize that patients who book an appointment actually search three times more than those who don't. So our partners really need to make sure their websites are ready to book appointments online.

Bill Klaproth: And that is your rapid insight. Paula and Josh, great job. Really interesting stats about Google. I did not know that. So there you go. That's what the rapid insights are all about. Paula and Josh, thank you for your time. I've been very much looking forward to talking to you about this. This is really an interesting topic, and I really want to jump into this. So just so we're on the same page, Paula, let me start with this. Could you just briefly explain to us what is demand generation and then what is demand plus brand and why is that important for healthcare?

Paula Serios: Absolutely, Bill. A few years ago, we recognized that many healthcare organizations are really great at building strong strategic brands. And at the same time, they're very good at driving patient volume. But without connecting the two, they're basically siloed. And the way we think about this, that demand generation or creating that pace and volume is one plus one equals three. It's a bit of a multiplier effect.

So if you actually create a strong, emotional connection, and we think about this as brand craving and create that by reaching customers at the right time, the right place with the right message, which is essentially volume driving, you bring those two together and create bit of a crosswalk with the customer journey and actually engaging people all along with experiences that drive both loyalty and advocacy, the results are exponentially larger for both your brand-building and your volume-driving.

And so when you think about brand-building awareness, preference, engagement, or volume-driving outcomes, reaching those patients, both symptomatic and asymptomatic at the right time, in the right place, this is really the best of both worlds.

Bill Klaproth: I love that term, Paula, brand craving. And let's face it, people aren't craving our brands. They don't want to come see us. They don't want to come to the hospital. And most of the time, we market ourselves with these things that aren't unique and are so passe. It's the stuff everyone says. "We offer the best care." "We treat you like family." "We're the number one spot for healthcare." You know, we're just talking about ourselves and how great we are instead of talking about them and what they care about. So if there's a way to help them crave our brand, I'm in. So tell us, how do we create this brand craving?

Paula Serios: Well, you are spot on. The idea of what we do and these features and benefits marketing. And it's like talking about our awards, our quality scores, our new service offerings. And this is, in our estimation, a zero sum-game for marketers. The next hospital down the street can say the same thing if not more.

And so, now you think about COVID and what that has done to healthcare and the need for trust in healthcare providers is more important than ever. And when you begin to look at creating a distinction of how we do what we do and why we do what we do, this is the essence of brand craving.

It's rooted in our values, our core human values and our values drive cravings and human values as we all know are the foundation of our identity. They shape who we are, what we do, what we want to be. And like our inner compass, they actually direct our decisions that we make and what matters most to us. We create brands that reflect our values and become an antidote for what we desire.

So the craving actually drives business results. The way we look at this is values-based branding becomes the soul of the brand and ultimately enables data-driven and human-forward approach to bridging strategy and bridging connection planning and breakthrough creative. All in all, when you look at the essence of who your brand is, your audience's values and cravings and the competitive white space based on cultural trends and what your competitors are doing, and you look at the intersection of that, that is where the brand craving lies and it needs to be delivered. And I'm excited to share a core human value is incredibly important and how it reaches the customer is equally as important.

Bill Klaproth: I love what you said there, human-forward approach. I think if we all did that, any business would do that, I think they would be more successful. And you mentioned connection planning, so I want to dig into that a little bit, Josh. So can you explain to us what is a connection strategy then to dovetail on what Paula was talking about?

Josh Derouin: Really it's kind of the lifeline to take that strategy and make it real, right from a tactics perspective. So just taking a step back, a demand plus brand campaign is really just an effective use of that age-old marketing funnel I think that we're all probably pretty familiar with.

So all of us as consumers behave in a similar fashion, regardless of the business or organization that we're interacting with. So we're not always in market for a product or service, but when we are, it's important that you have a level of awareness of the options that you have, so you can make a decision.

So really what a connection strategy is, is in order to understand those behaviors that people take as they make decisions, we study and research how messaging and creative can be placed carefully along that process that a consumer is taking or a potential patient is taking to show them right messages at the right time, is really the simplest way to put it.

The right messages at the right time is dependent on setting goals for how much money you want to spend to reach a certain audience at the top of the funnel that you're trying to make aware versus the people who are ready to make a decision. And so that approach ensures we don't waste ads on those who are ready and show ads to people who are going to engage and buy anyway.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that's a really targeted approach and very efficient. So you said the right message at the right time, so you really need to know the people you're trying to reach. So is that where analytics factor into a demand plus brand strategy?

Josh Derouin: Analytics are really the cornerstone of generating demand. You have to have access to that information in order to serve that right message at the right time. So it's really broken down into a couple of different ways. We have to have those audience profiles that isolate the opportunity areas related to those cravings and habits that Paula had referred to a second ago.

That enables us to go and buy data about those people and serve those ads up in a very personalized way. In order to personalize, you have to have that messaging strategy, which is a part of it. Again, based on research and data collected, it allows us to differentiate based on where a person is at in their process.

So, you know, using Paula's analogy from earlier, the strongest offer is created at kind of that intersection of the business strategy, that's competitive white space and that audience brand craving that we come up with when we do all that research. All that research puts off data and analytics, and we have access to so much around campaigns that actually can be kind of daunting.

But technology now has enabled us to be able to access, arrange and visualize data at a speed that makes it possible to understand what's happening on a campaign as it's happening. So gone are the days that you need to wait for a report every 90 days and see which half of your marketing budget you burned and which half generated a result. And so analytics are really important to understanding where people are at in that process so that we can either increase efficiency or increase conversion.

Bill Klaproth: Well, Josh and Paula, you have put together a great road map for us and on the SHSMD podcast, we really try to be how to, so someone listening to this right now really walks away with kind of an action plan on how to put this into place or understand this more as they think about utilizing a demand plus brand strategy. So, Paula, can you give us an example of what this looks like in the real world?

Paula Serios: Sure. In the real world, we've seen this work well for both providers and health plans. And the example I have for you today is a health plan, because this is exactly where the strategy originated and it originated with Priority Health. They're number two health plan in the state of Michigan, and they compete against Blue Cross Blue Shield.

And as we know, national competitor, deep brand equity, brought awareness in deep pockets in order to drive membership to the plan. So the challenge that we had at the time, this was several years ago, was health insurance is steeped so deeply in this features and benefits type of marketing, driving costs, networks, and products, but they actually have a trust problem.

A lot of people look at healthcare brands as villains, right? And so how do we expand beyond that to create an emotional connection in a category that is not known for that and create volume to drive members. And we call that the demand plus brand, right?

So in this case, we created a strategy for Priority Health. It was steeped in this idea of feeling smart, helping people feel smart about healthcare. It's amazing to me that only 4% of US adults even understand basic terms like copay and deductible. And so we wanted our customers to feel smart. And that's exactly what we did from a brand craving standpoint, from a demand generation standpoint, developed a connection plan that led them to the right place and right time and right message for their specific needs, whether it's for an individual or family plan or whether it was for Medicare advantage.

In the period of just 12 months, we were able to increase top of mind awareness by 3% and individual and family plans 52% increase in enrollment year over year and Medicare advantage 28%.

For healthcare providers, starting point is creating a strong emotional connection that represents your brand and represents a core human value so that you're distinct and ownable and valuable in your marketplace. And you couple that with the right kind of connection planning and the right kind of analytics, you can reach people right time, right place, right message. And you build those together for that one plus one equals three exponential results.

Bill Klaproth: That is so good. So that really helps out. So we're talking about building a brand that people crave. So in that example, people were craving, one, a brand they could trust. People were craving a brand that would make them feel smart, as you said. So understanding that through your connections strategy, then you were able to utilize the right messaging to make sure that they felt like they were smart and that you were a brand that they could trust.

And then obviously, the messaging and the analytics helped that campaign out. And then you said the results were clear over the course of a year. And something like this, Paula and/or Josh, this isn't an overnight. The thing, this demand generation, this really takes time to plan this and stick to the plan to see the results. Is that right?

Paula Serios: Yeah, absolutely. Josh feel free to jump in here, but I think defining your brand is usually the very first step that we experienced with everyone that we work with and that we've seen the most success. And once you have that defined and really articulated in a meaningful way, then building that demand structure and that demand plan that can help bring it to life.

Josh Derouin: Yeah, I'm just going to piggyback on what Paula is saying there. And to directly answer your question, it's about optimization, right? So anyone who tells you that they have the recipe for success and that it's completely repeatable, doesn't understand audiences and how they behave. And running a campaign like this, it's completely honest that we let the data advise us as to how campaigns are running and creates a level of transparency with marketers that hasn't really previously existed. So it's a very fresh approach to just making sure that your brand is in front of the people that you want it to be, because that's the value that you can bring to them.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that's a great way to put it, make sure your brand continues to be in front of people and make sure you're bringing that value. And that's why, if you really look at this as a longterm campaign, you can really see where this does bring long term results, right? This isn't a quick fix. This really is a great successful longterm strategy.

Paula Serios: You're absolutely right. It's not a quick fix, but the investment that you make in building your brand and defining that demand generation strategy will deliver for you year after year after year. So it takes a little bit of sell in to the organization and helping them understand. But as you do that, you will be able to demonstrate unbelievable results for the effort and the investment.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, this is a plan that can turn an organization around and if you continue to create that brand craving, if you will, and Josh, we're talking about optimization and you know, people's attitudes and perceptions change over time, so you just have to change with them. Is that right?

Josh Derouin: Yes, that's exactly right. And that's by looking at the information that these campaigns are feeding off and optimizing it from there.

Bill Klaproth: Well, Paula and Josh, this has really been fascinating. Thank you for your time. What a great topic, talking about driving measurable demand with a meaningful brand. This is so important. We all need to pay attention to what you two were telling us today, because it really is the roadmap for success. So thank you again so much for sharing your time with us today, Paula and Josh. We really appreciate it. Thanks again.

Paula Serios: Oh, you bet. Thank you.

Josh Derouin: It was an absolute pleasure. Appreciate it.

Bill Klaproth: And once again, that's Paula Serios from BVK and Josh Derouin from Foxtrot Digital and this episode sponsored by BVK and independent business marketing and advertising agency with expertise in delivering purpose-driven healthcare experiences that impact the lives, build healthy communities and shifts societal health behaviors.

Visit them at bvk.com/rapidinsights to schedule a private session with one of their healthcare experts today. And to learn more about SHSMD, please visit SHSMD.org and visit our education page to learn about our upcoming programs at SHSMD.org/education. And if you found this podcast helpful, and how could you not, please share it on all of your social channels and please hit the subscribe or follow button to get every episode. This has been a production of DoctorPodcasting. I'm Bill Klaproth. See you!