The Differential | #5
David McCarthy
In this edition:
B2B healthcare marketing, in the feed: What content stood out in late 2022, and how did one beloved startup rebrand?
Data point: Does your brand plan as far in advance as most brands do?
Differential diagnosis: Briefs need to get more granular with and better distinguish objectives.
Napkin draft: Yeah, “narrative altitude” is jargon (that I created). But, like an editorial angle, it can play a big role in the success of content.
Marketing tactics: So search might be different this year…
B2B healthcare marketing, in the feed
In what may be one of the first major rebrands among startup darlings from the pandemic, Hinge Health has a new look (and a new product — house calls). Hinge Health dropped its famous orange and adopted green as its primary color, a la Landmark Health and Garner Health. → See the rebrand
One Medical published a (gated) white paper recently on a common theme in healthcare marketing these days: the integration of behavioral health with primary care. According to the newly acquired company, the white paper “explores how integrated behavioral health rooted in primary care is key to supporting employees’ mental and physical well-being.” → Read the paper
Brand agency Prophet touted on LinkedIn how it helped a surgical tech brand clarify its value proposition. The brand promise Prophet recommended is “Transforming surgery.” Working on value propositions, creating a new brand identity, crafting content, these are all difficult tasks, and usually more complex than what most non-marketers expect. However, the number of healthcare brands relying on value propositions around “transformation” and “reimagining” may be leading to parity and diluting the actual value that these brands can deliver. I also don’t know if clients understand the meaning of “reimagining” and “transforming” healthcare. I don’t sometimes. (Full disclosure: I’ve used “transformation,” “reimagine,” “rethink,” and countless others these last couple of years.) → See the case study
Digital cancer care management startup Jasper Health’s content engine is running on all cylinders, it seems. The brand, which has partnered with Walgreen’s and Evernorth, recently launched a member testimonial and, interestingly, a “custom savings and ROI report.” The latter is an interesting lower-funnel piece that has the potential to deliver helpful insights and move the prospect along the sales journey (even better, it does not seem to require setting up a meeting to share the findings, which may be a deterrent) . There’s also a calculator that teases the report’s insights, a brilliant play to reduce form abandonment. But I wonder, how long does it take to turn around and publish? → See the landing page
Employer-focused navigation company Quantum Health continues its marketing push, most recently launching a campaign for its new solution, Quantum Health Access. The campaign has included a video and an announcement/editorial in Med City News. → See the post
Healthcare platform startup League, who has also announced partnerships with Google and Highmark, has hired an editor-in-chief. To me, this signals that they’re pushing their chips into audience building, which I love. Lots of B2B brands talk about audience building; few seem to invest in it the way that League seems to be doing. The new hire comes from Health Evolution and Healthcare IT News. This will be a brand to watch, I think. → See the post
SDOH-focused and apparent Rob Dyrdek fan Unite Us published a report on how “ACOs can meet new health equity requirements” that CMS will effect in January 2023. (Hats off to the team for optimizing the report’s landing page for search, both in the slug and the H1.) → Visit the landing page
Lyra recently penned an editorial or missive, based on recent WHO and US Surgeon General reports, arguing that the employers provide behavioral health screening, coaching, and care as well as cultural changes. Titled “The New Employee Contract,” it’s a bold narrative, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been giving more prominence on Lyra’s digital properties. → Read the article
Several weeks ago, Rock Health created a “pocket guide to value-based care.” The brand routinely publishes solid, educational content, often with a memorable hook (usually in the title). To me, what’s effective with this piece is Rock Health’s categorization of the content. “Value-based care” is a highly prevalent, highly searched topic (Moz reports up to 500 searches a month), and the topic is represented in numerous books already. Few existing pieces on the topic out there seem digestible or memorable, at least to a non-operator, like me. → Read the article
Morgan Health-backed health insurance company Centivo launched a LinkedIn newsletter, Centiments. In several months, the newsletter, whose focus is “advancing the conversation around health plan innovation, has acquired more than 5,000 subscribers. And thus far, it’s not mincing words or shying away from competition. Its newsletter titles thus far: “The Health Plan Innovation Conversation,” “Risk and Reward: Challenging the Health Plan Status Quo,” and “Impacts of the Affordability Crisis.” → Visit the newsletter home
Nothing new here: Health Tech Nerds has published a string of deep-dives over the last couple of months for its community, including a bookmark-worthy exploration of Medicaid’s “functions and structures” (with editorial support from Casey Langwith, Dr. Lindsey Leininger, and Duncan Reece). → Read the article (available to community members)
And now, some data on content marketing
Digital may have made year-long planning a relic of the past. (I can’t even imagine that.)
Today’s marketers seem to embrace agility (or be forced to adopt it): according to HubSpot, most marketing teams plan their work one to four months in advance.
A differential diagnosis
defining better marketing objectives
TL;DR: In campaign briefs or during project conversations, distinguish between message objectives and business, or performance, objectives.
Campaign briefs and conversations about marketing projects can benefit from a change.
In the “objective” field of many briefs I’ve seen over the years, I see guidance like this: “Educate the market about an upcoming CMS reimbursement mandate.” “Differentiate our product from the others.” “Communicate the value of our product.”
These, and others like it, are not objectives, in my opinion, They don’t tell me what the business or the project must, measurably, accomplish in order to be successful. If achieved, they alone don’t translate into business value. I don’t know why it’s important to the business.
But they still are useful. They can clarify the tone of voice, the structure, and the psychology of the content.
So, add them to briefs, debate them in planning sessions. But don’t forget to add a broader, measurable business objective, too.
Napkin drafts of B2B healthcare marketing plays
On Narrative Altitude
Narrative altitude is the “height” or vertical point of view your story or messaging assumes. (It’s also a term that I’ve completely made up, because that’s what we marketers like to do.)
Ideally, it aligns with your intended audience’s role and their immediate perspective of their business and the market (or the perspective that their desired role assumes).
Whereas point of view often can imply a horizontal angle on a topic (e.g., “organic search is an underrated channel for brand building” or “paid search is the only channel for growth”), narrative altitude is about how much the content zooms in on the trees or conversely, how much the content zooms out on the forest, so to speak.
To me, the altitudes can differ for every company, for every category, and for every industry.
However, some general principles apply across those dimensions.
For example, generally, lower-altitude content is more tactical, specific, and prescriptive because up-and-coming individual contributors or managers, who tend to focus on tactical execution, are the intended audience.
Alternatively, higher-altitude content is more abstract, strategic, and even philosophical. (In its worst form, it’s a victim of Steven Pinker’s concept of “the Curse of Knowledge,” which he defined in his book The Sense of Style as “a difficulty in imagining what it is like for someone else to not know something that you know.”)
Narrative altitude at this height focuses more on the “forest,” enabling senior leaders to see their business, their market, and their industry as a whole in new ways. The usual consulting firms (e.g., McKinsey, ZS, and Willis Towers) excel in this space. The Advisory Board develops content at this altitude frequently, with a prime example being their campaigns and their content on “systemness” in healthcare.
Content, Illustrated
Is there such thing as a linear or even logical sales journey? I’m not so sure. To me, it seems different for every prospect.
But the best content — from the top of the funnel to conversion — helps it move more linearly and more quickly.
On marketing tactics
To me, “small” stories can be hugely effective when they are ruthlessly focused on a job that the intended audience has to do well (but may not know how to yet). Reforge’s summer article on writing an executive summary is exactly that for me. → Read the article
SEO advisor Eli Schwartz makes several intriguing forecasts for 2023, including that Google will deprioritize the value of inbound links and invest in visual results, that TikTok indexes webpages, and that Amazon launches a search engine with organic results. → Read the article
Citing Consumer Trends Survey, Scott Galloway highlights that Gen Z and Millennials choose TikTok over TV and streaming when asked to choose their preference. → Read the article
Sometimes I post on LinkedIn, too
A brief disclaimer
I reference and link to many healthcare brands in the newsletter. Including them does not signify an endorsement of their business.