Eat More Pie – Tips for Healthy Brands and Healthy Living

Regular readers know that I am doing 50 healthy things this year in honor of my 50^th birthday. Here’s number 18 – Eat more pie.

As mentioned in previous posts, I recently returned from a two-week road trip. This post is the third in a series about lessons learned from the road.

With all of my recent rants about healthy eating, one might find it curious that I am recommending eating more pie as a health tip. I might be skeptical myself if I hadn’t experienced a magical place in Greensboro, AL, called the Pie Lab.

Welcome to Pie Lab.

Pie Lab is much more than a typical restaurant. It’s a shop meant to build community. It’s founded on the idea that simple things, like delicious pie and good conversation, can bring people together and spread joy. Pie + Conversation = Ideas. Ideas + Design = Positive Change.

Pie Lab’s home, the small town of Greensboro in Hale County, AL, is a special community. A group of committed citizens, including Hale County native Chef Seaborn Whatley and his wife, Chef Kelley Whatley, owners of Pie Lab, are working tirelessly as catalysts for community development. Greensboro is also home to HERO, a group that runs several businesses focused on job training, affordable housing and economic development in a quest to end poverty in the Alabama Black Belt.

Chefs Kelley and Seaborn Whatley, owners of the Pie Lab.

Our daughter, Lyndall, works at HERO Bike in Greensboro. A stop to visit her was one of the highlights of our road trip. Kelley and Seaborn have essentially adopted Lyndall as a part of their family – which includes five adorable children and a menagerie of pets. I think Lyndall eats the majority of her meals courtesy of the Pie Lab duo. Their home has also become her go-to spot for laundry and just hanging out. Randy and I are so appreciative of the love and kindness they have shown our girl, as she is so far away from home.

In addition to pie, Pie Lab serves breakfast and lunch Tuesday – Sunday. Each day, it has a hot lunch entrée. We were fortunate to experience incredible homemade meatloaf and Cajun tetrazzini. It also features an array of homemade soups, salads and sandwiches. In addition, Pie Lab caters special events and hosts a monthly dinner with a different international theme each time. Check out Pie Lab on Facebook if you want to drool over the daily specials.

Chef Kelley hard at work.

Pie Lab’s food rivals that of any fine dining restaurant in the world. But its mission of building community through conversation puts it far ahead of any restaurant I’ve experienced. And in terms of health, that philosophy trumps any amount of sugar and calories in my book. Global brands would be well advised to study the Pie Lab model. Its brand essence is as well defined as any I’ve seen. Pie Lab also has an exciting new line extension opening soon – the Pie Lab Creamery, which will feature Chef Kelley’s homemade ice cream. I may have to make a special trip back for that.

Coconut Cream

 

Six Tips for Building a Great Cardiovascular Marketing Landing Page

Top-performing landing pages convert from three to 20 times more visitors than a generic Contact Us page on your website.

If you’re like our clients, you’re constantly trying to generate better returns with e-mail, direct mail and online ads. We spend a lot of time developing compelling offers that will generate leads. But it seems we’ve been having a lot of discussions lately about just what constitutes a great landing page that will drive more conversions.

This post from Target Marketing has some good tips:

Simplicity — In general, experts agree that less is more when it comes to landing pages. Keep it simple and eliminate details, e.g., links to other pages and extra content that is not directly related to the campaign at hand.

Headline — When visitors arrive on your landing page, you’ve got at most 15 seconds (and probably less) to grab their attention. Headlines should be customer-focused with an emphasis on benefits.

Call-to-action — Make sure your landing page contains a clear, concise and effective call-to-action that encourages the prospect to follow through and close the loop.

Form — Prospect information gathered on Web forms can be a key campaign performance measurement. Shorter is better. Use technology such as Personalized URLs (PURLs) that pre-fills as many of the form fields as possible. The less there is to do, the greater the chance it gets filled out in the first place.

Security — If your page is secure and encrypted (SSL), make sure the security certificate is displayed prominently on the landing page. People are increasingly worried about online security. Make sure it’s not an issue that will decrease your campaign performance

Credibility— Prospects only fill out forms on landing pages of organizations they trust. It’s imperative to tell your brand’s story in a clear, concise and compelling manner. But, remember you can’t devote too much space to this part of your content because you don’t want to distract from your offer.

I think this is good checklist. What else is working for you?

Five Steps for Improving Your Cardiovascular Marketing Landing Pages

Landing page design is critical in maximizing conversions

Matt Bartlett, Kuhn & Wittenborn Account Coordinator, contributed this guest post.

I recently attended a webinar presented by Target Marketing and hosted by Closed Loop Marketing on website landing pages and came away with five good tips to ensure the design of a landing page delivers great results:

1. Make a good first impression. A Stanford University study in 2003 discovered that 75 percent of web users admit to judging the credibility of an organization based on the design of its website.* Additional studies have shown an individual can judge a website in around 1/20^th of a second. If you don’t make a good first impression, potential clients are going to move on – really quickly.

This judging can occur before someone actually visits the site. For example, search for something on Google and hover over one of the results. You’ll see two arrows at the right side of the link. When you hover over these arrows, Google shows a screenshot of the page. If you make a bad impression here, it’s possible an individual will never visit your page.

2. Be clear and obvious. Someone visiting a site should be able to identify the subject of the page in two seconds or less. Immediate concept clarity can be achieved through multiple visual clues.

Relevant images are extremely important, as the brain comprehends images faster than words. It’s also important to have a clear “next step” for the visitor. If you have to, outline steps with numbers and walk the visitor through the process.

3. Get relevant. People like to feel unique and be treated with a personal touch.  Good landing page design uses this as an advantage. Landing pages can be customized to know a person’s location and how they came to access the page. If a person feels like the page is customized, he or she is more likely to convert. It’s also okay to ask visitors to designate what they are interested in or what industry they are from.

Another key element is to have more than one landing page. It’s a mistake to have one generic landing page for everyone. Have multiple landing pages that make the visitor think your page is a perfect match for what he or she is looking for. Have different page titles paired with different search terms so that your page looks like the most relevant result on the search page.

4. Make small changes. Not everyone has the budget or time to completely redesign a landing page. For those individuals, there are some simple changes that can really make a big difference. The presenters use a process called R.A.R.E.

Remove extraneous text, decorative images and unnecessary form fields.

Add credibility support, special offers, sectional headings and progress     indicators.

Replace old/small buttons, form styles, low-quality images and links that leave the page.

Enlarge page titles, sectional headings and buttons.

5. Persevere. If you redesign a landing page and it starts performing better, great.  But don’t stop there. There are always ways to improve performance and what the visitor wants is constantly changing. Keep evaluating the page’s design and keep striving for even better results.

This is by no means a complete list of everything that goes into a well-designed landing page, but it’s a good place to start. Though most of these steps are very simple, it always amazes me how often they are overlooked, and how big an impact they can have on a campaign’s success.

*Fogg, B.J., Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility, Persuasive Technology Lab. Stanford University, 2002 (revised November 2003)

Six Tips for Making Your Cardiovascular Marketing Website More Boomer Friendly

Making the user experience on your website more efficient and convenient in the eyes of Baby Boomers could pay big dividends.

Aging Boomers spending more time on the Internet is hardly a newsworthy headline.  We all know that older people, along with the rest of the population, spend a ton of time online.

However, it is somewhat startling to me, at least, that marketing to Boomers and marketing to “Seniors” is becoming somewhat synonymous.  I started my career working on a senior living account.  At 22, I was pretty sure I would never be as old as the people in my client’s target audience.

Somehow that’s changed over the years.  I was born in the last year possible to make me an “official” Boomer, so I’m starting to identify with some of the philosophies that guided our senior living client all those years ago.  Oh, well….  I recently came across this post with advice for making your website more Boomer friendly.

Here are some highlights from the post:

1.   Increase credibility.

• Make the welcome page readable and uncluttered.
• Use high-quality graphics and clear writing that reflects empathy with visitors’ needs.

2.   Recognize that images are powerful.

• Increasing the number and size of images on the site can add to its emotional appeal.

3.   Avoid large sections of reverse type when possible.

• As we age, reverse type becomes more difficult to read

4.   Avoid hyperbole.

• Talk with consumers, not to them.
• Make better connections with site visitors by using conversational language and avoiding technical, industry jargon.

5.   Think about colors used on the site.

• Aging eyes can mean a reduced field of vision, loss of focus and difficulty in resolving images or distinguishing colors.
• Some experts say it’s easier to see reds, oranges and yellows and harder to see blues, greens and violets.

6.   Use outbound hypertext links to other interesting sites.

•  Linking to other sites can build a sense of community and show category leadership.

I’d say these are actually pretty good tips to boost site effectiveness with all of our audiences, not just the (aging) Boomers.

When it Makes Sense to Exclude Social Media From Cardiovascular Marketing Strategy

Most patients don’t want to consult with their doctors via social media.

I’ve written extensively about the growth in consumer reliance on social media for health information.  I’ve also talked about vast opportunities for building engaged peer communities.  In addition, online channels are increasingly popular for administrative tasks like appointment setting and billing.  However, a new study shows patients vastly prefer traditional communications when consulting with physicians. From the study:

• 84 percent of respondents said they would not use social media or instant messaging channels for medical communication if their doctors offered it.

However, they would be open to email and website interactions for specific heath consultations.

The Capstrat Public Policy poll surveyed 843 registered voters and found the following:

• Even among younger people, 18 to 29 years of age, only 21 percent said they would take advantage of an online forum if offered.
• Respondents were more favorable toward email and online channels when used for appointment setting, medical record access, and nurse consultation.

Another recent poll, Intuit Health’s second-annual Health Care Check-Up Survey, showed similar results. From the poll:

• 73 percent of respondents said they would use a secure online communication solution to make it easier to get lab results, request appointments, pay medical bills, and communicate with their doctor’s office.

The Capstrat survey also found differing attitudes among different demographic groups:

• Hispanic respondents said they were more comfortable interacting with their doctors online.
  • 89 percent would take advantage of email if their doctors offered it
  • 89 percent would set appointments online
  • 78 percent would participate in online bill payment
  • 89 percent would call a nurse-help line.

The nurse-help line was actually the preferred form of communication across all demographic and age groups, with 72 percent of respondents saying they would take advantage of a nurse-help line if it was offered by their doctor.

To me, this information is not surprising.  On one hand, we have more tools at our disposal than ever before when it comes to communicating with patients.  However, these results offer a good reminder that choosing appropriate channels for varying types of communication is more important than ever.  In many ways, traditional media planners have always heeded this advice.  In building a media mix, they would recommend using different vehicles, e.g., print, radio, television, etc. for various types of messages.

The results of these surveys remind us online channels are no different. Social media, websites, email, online forums and all of our great online choices each have a place in the communications mix.  However, they’re not interchangeable.

Facebook Importance Continues to Grow for Cardiovascular Marketers

Almost all of the people using social media as a health care resource say they turn to Facebook.

A new survey shows that 41 percent of people now look for health information via social media.   And 94 percent of those people said they look to Facebook for content such as diet and exercise tips and health education videos.

Wow.  That is fertile ground for cardiovascular marketers, especially considering that some respondents said the information was likely to impact their future health care decisions.

In addition to looking for diet and exercise tips and health education videos, people said they also look to Facebook to:

• Learn about upcoming health events
• Study disease awareness
• Find health statistics

Users say they like social media pages more than traditional websites because they provide more ways to quickly interact with staff and other patients — from watching videos featuring doctors giving health advice to commenting on a Facebook wall about the treatment they received at a specific facility.

Everyone, from big players like the CDC and WebMD to local community hospitals, is answering patient demand for easily accessible health information by stepping up their Facebook presence.

It’s time to take another look at your Facebook strategy to ensure it’s serving as a meaningful forum for health care discussions among both patients and health care professionals.  If you’re not giving patients the opportunity to link with others who have similar illnesses, ask health provider questions and give feedback on your facilities, you should be.

What Facebook ideas are you implementing that are working for you?

Five Ways to Make Your Cardiovascular Marketing Facebook Page More Interactive

It’s not hard to make your Facebook page more engaging.

According to Harvard Business Review, only 12 percent of companies engaged in social media believe their programs are effective.   That seems crazy.  Since I read that statistic, I’ve been on a mission to make sure readers of this blog are not among the ineffective.

I recently saw a great post from Jennifer Ware from Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview, Texas, that can help the cause.

Here are her five tips:

1. Avoid posts that are self-promotional. Avoid one-way streams of information that are just an extension of your marketing collateral.  Offering high-value content from credible, external sources can increase engagement.
2. Post up to 2-3 times a day. Personally, I think 3 times a day is pushing it a little for a business page.  However, I completely agree that old news turns visitors off and a regularly updated page welcomes more active engagement.
3. Regularly post between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. This study has some great information about Facebook user behavior.
4. Try to post five days a week, Monday through Friday. Saturdays are a great day to post as well, but don’t post on the weekends if you’re not willing to respond during that time.
5. Mine outside sources for content/information. It’s helpful to have a source you can count on to provide credible, actionable and relevant content.  Ware likes a tool called UbiCare. There are several others.  If you work with an agency, this is a service they should also be able to provide for a reasonable monthly fee.

Please share additional tips that are working for you.

5 Ways to Integrate QR Codes into Your Cardiovascular Marketing

QR Codes can offer a seamless way to engage patients and prospective patients in a meaningful experience with your brand.

QR codes, or “Quick Response” codes are generating a lot of buzz right now. These matrix barcodes can be read by QR scanners, which can be downloaded as an app on most smartphones. A phone’s camera can scan the code and then direct an Internet browser to the webpage the code is linked to.

Are QR codes just a passing fad or are they an important extension of your marketing efforts?

Consider these possible uses and form your own opinion:

1. Put QR codes on literature in clinic waiting rooms. QR codes allow access to a mobile site even when a patient is already at one of your locations.  Imagine the possibilities for pre- and post-procedure education or serving content on chronic disease management that could then be discussed during a physician appointment.
2. Add QR codes to business cards for physicians, therapists and patient educators. Scanning the code might take a patient to a microsite that has bio and contact information for the person whose card he/she has.  From there, the viewer could easily access more information about that person’s specialty area or go to the mobile-optimized site for your entire organization.
3. Include QR codes for seminars, classes and patient education events on print ads, direct mail pieces, posters, table tents, etc. Including QR-coded hard links to online schedules can eliminate costly printing and provide prospects with updated event information.
4. Imbed a QR code at the top of the homepage on your website. Visitors can use the code to bookmark the page into their mobile phone so that they can easily visit your site later from their mobile phone when they have time on their hands – standing in a line or waiting for an appointment.  You can also use QR hard links to PDF brochures about specific procedures or specialties.
5. Include QR codes in variable data applications on direct-mail pieces. QR codes can direct recipients to more information about topics that are relevant to their particular situation.  They can also link to maps to show facilities that are close to the recipient’s home.

As health care becomes increasingly consumer driven and patients are clamoring for personalized information, it seems like a great time to take advantage of this emerging technology.  Please share your ideas and examples.

Should Your Next Cardiovascular Marketing Hire Be a Robot or Avatar?

Harnessing technology to develop new patient education programs may be critical in the move toward Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).

With nearly three-fourths of health systems reporting that creating an ACO is a top priority, we marketers are scrambling to unravel what this means for us.  While not everyone is a fan, there seems to be a lot of discussion about what ACOs will look like if they are truly patient-centered.

It’s no secret that Medicare is pushing the ACO concept through pilot projects and encouraging the shift from fee-for-service payments to global payments for reimbursement. Because many cardiovascular patients fall into the Medicare category, I found this post about the head of Medicare, Don Berwick, interesting.

In an article last year, Berwick defined patient-centered care as “They give me exactly the help I need and want exactly when and how I need and want it.”

He talked about patient-centered care focusing on operational changes like:

• no restrictions on hospital visiting hours;
• inpatients choosing the food and clothes they wanted;
• patients participating in rounds and the design of medical services;
• patients really owning their medical records;
• and patients and doctors universally using shared decision-making aids so patients could make wise choices knowing the inevitable trade-offs involved in picking a treatment.

In order to make these practices work, patient education and self-management programs would have to go far beyond traditional wellness curriculums.  That’s where technology comes in.

Patients could harness their smart phones’ computing power, audio, video, motion sensors, and GPS modules to explore new ways to self-manage their health and wellness. There are currently smart phone applications for fitness and weight control, diabetes management, sleep hygiene, stress reduction, and heart health, with more showing up all the time.

One physician envisions technology will go even further in the ACO world.  Dr. Joseph Kvedar of Harvard’s Center for Connected Health believes that we will need to use robots and avatars to meet the manpower needs of taking care of all the retiring Baby Boomers.

In his keynote address at the 2010 Health Symposium, he talks about a successful walking program in which participants are guided by a virtual coach, an avatar named Karen.

Dr. Kvedar acknowledges his ideas may make caregivers uncomfortable, but his concept of emotional automation is actually an extension of the “trusting relationships with technology” that people are already forming with smartphones and other devices they count on for advice.

Regular readers of this blog know we’re working with clients every day to explore new apps and mobile engagement strategies.  We’ve even helped one of our clients create a successful online walking program.  (I can’t wait to tell the marketing director that we need to add an avatar coach this year.)

In all seriousness, though, in the real world where physician/staff shortages are colliding with exponential growth in patient-centered needs, Dr. Kvedar, may be onto something.  If anyone is exploring these ideas in earnest or already incorporating virtual strategies into your marketing programs, please chime in.

Tips for Cardiovascular Marketers to Connect with “Social Mom”

Marketing success this year will be more dependent than ever on building online relationships.

We talk a lot with our clients about connecting with “Chief Home Officers,” the women who make the vast majority of health care decisions for their spouses, their children, and increasingly, their aging parents.  For cardiovascular marketers, Chief Home Officers are a critical target because they research and coordinate care decisions for a wide array of family members.

I came across a post from Holly Pavlika on Digiday Daily that offers twelve tips for connecting with this crucial audience:

1. Prepare for a more sophisticated Social Media Mom.

• More moms are concentrating on building their personal online brands.
• Depending on their involvement with you, they may look to be fairly compensated.
• And she wants a long-term relationship – not a one-off program.

2. Social Media Moms are going to start leveraging their expertise.

• Many moms have taken expertise from prior/current careers and are looking to leverage it.
• Combining her Mom expertise with a specialty gives her more currency to negotiate bigger relationships with a brand.

3. More focus on the Latina Mom.

• Latinas are a very important market that is just starting to be tapped into.
• Many Latinas are digital and very family-focused.

4. Rethink your budgets.

• Are your current efforts netting the end result you desire?
• A recent Café Mom study showed Moms spending a lot of time on multiple communities. Are you covering the bases?

5. Evolve your mobile strategies and tactics.

• Moms are mobile and increasing their use of mobile every day because they want information at their fingertips.
• There are 8 million Moms in the U.S., 20 million worldwide and 5 billion mobile phones worldwide, even in developing countries.

6. Create a strategy for branded apps.

• Moms love apps.
• Build her an app that simplifies or enhances her life or saves her time, and your brand will become important to her.

7. Develop a content strategy.

• Moms love entertaining, informative content.
• If you want to take advantage of her incredible sharing and relationships, you need engaging content such as video, games, polls, blogs, forums, etc.

8. Develop new content platforms.

• Studies show Mom watches TV but usually with her children while on her computer multi-tasking.
• That means content needs to be particularly relevant, helpful and engaging. Maybe that’s why so many Mom-directed “TV” sites are popping up and why video content is so popular with Moms.
• Many of the Social Media Moms are adding .tv to the end of their personal URLs. Maybe it’s time to consider a webisode series.

9. Reinvent customer service.

• Good customer service is important to Mom. When it comes to talking to brands, Moms often use Twitter for solving conflict.
• It might be time to rethink the role of Twitter.  Even with HIPAA restrictions, health care organizations can use it to develop a two-way dialogue with patients.

10. Integrate social into your web properties.

• Are you incorporating social sharing features across the content on your website, as well as adding Twitter and Facebook links?
• Moms like to share if the content is relevant and worthy.

11. Think about causes and being eco-friendly.

• Moms are extremely aware of our environmental issues.  And if it isn’t the environment, she is involved in other causes.
• Think local with things that support her community. But make it easy for her to be involved.

12. Develop programs with her.

• Moms will smell insincerity. The best way to understand what she needs and is looking for is to partner with Mom.
• If you don’t currently have a Mom panel on your team, it may be time.

More than anything, I think these tips recognize that this is the year to move beyond static posting and really involve our audience in a truly collaborative manner.