#PhillyHealth Digital Marketing Summit
I’ve noticed a trend when I’m out and about these days shopping. There is a definite move toward engaging customers a la Trader Joe’s style. If you’ve ever shopped at Trader Joe’s you most likely know what I mean. Employees are trained and expected to make customers feel welcome, speak to them when passing by, ask how they’re doing and just generally try to connect in some way. Corporations want to give customers that small business type feel and are doing whatever they can to get personal with customers.
Recently I attended the Philadelphia Digital Marketing in Healthcare Summit and noticed similar messages being shared during each session. There is a definite effort to connect with patients or customers on a personal level. If I had to come up with an overarching theme that seemed to be woven throughout all of the sessions at #PhillyHealth, I would say it was all about building personal connections through your online presence. The goal is to really get to know your followers and connect in a genuine way that makes them feel heard and understood.
User-centered is not Human-centered: Finding the Person Behind the Click
A good example of the importance of human connection through a digital platform was found in a session I attended given by Jeffrey Stewart, MBA, MS-IS, assistant vice president of digital communications for VITAS Healthcare (@VITAS). Stewart spoke passionately about “a new approach to designing campaigns, websites and apps for healthcare professionals (B2B) built on a radical, deep understanding of the individuals behind and beyond the screen as well as remaining focused on specific, actionable organizational goals.” He offered real life examples and strategies to truly get to know your users and find out what they really want.
Important to take the time to learn what matters to your users. Go out and ask. Find out what their needs are. Jeffrey Stewart, MBA, MS-IS, @VITAS Healthcare at #PhillyHealth Digital Marketing Summit pic.twitter.com/JLiPUq8Rr5
— HealthcareNOWradio (@HCNowRadio) May 22, 2018
Content Generation for Emotional Connection
President and CEO of Griswold Homecare, Matt Murphy was ready to shake things up in his organization in order to breath some new life into it. However, upon reflection Murphy realized that maybe connecting with the past and the roots of the company was all he really needed to do to build a bright future. At one point Murphy even considered changing the name of the company but rather than throw out the old, he and his company chose to embrace their “Griswoldness” as he put it. Doing so has proven to be a wise choice. During his session Murphy shared strategies for creating content that will generate an emotional response. Griswold is one of the nation’s oldest non-medical home care franchises and sharing its history is something that helps build connection with people. Murphy also creates an emotional connection by sharing true stories of the company’s caregivers. One of these caregivers, Allegra Chaney, has become a face of the organization and even writes a regular online column called “Ask Allegra” which gives advice to other professionals and family caregivers.
Embracing our “Griswoldness” Matt Murphy @GriswoldCares #PhillyHealth Digital Marketing Summit pic.twitter.com/xfB43Mnbdd
— HealthcareNOWradio (@HCNowRadio) May 23, 2018
The bottom line seems to be that in this digital world of marketing people still want to connect and feel as though their individual needs are being met. They don’t want to “talk to a recording” and hit numbers on a menu. They don’t want to be a number, they want to be a person and if you pay attention to the details, your company or organization can meet these needs.
