Regardless of this change, it still must maintain the highest service quality. And unfortunately the data doesn’t lie.

81% of study participants are unsatisfied with their healthcare experience.

This represents an immense gap. Yet, it also represents an immense opportunity. Patients, like customers, are seeking to connect and find value. For decades, physicians and healthcare workers have been perceived as cold, calculated and insensitive. They rush from one appointment to the next, not taking the time to truly understand how patients feel. Both in the physical and emotional sense.

“There is a misperception among providers about how well they are truly meeting consumer expectations,” said Jeff Gourdji, co-lead of Prophet’s health care practice. “Although they acknowledge its importance, providers are finding it challenging to focus on patient experience in the face of so many competing priorities.” (source: Loyalty-360)

How many of us assume we are adding value at each step of the customer journey? Organizations and healthcare providers alike can track and close this gap. A well developed marketing strategy and effective automation solutions can monitor activity and create a more aligned patient experience.

Patient Experience

But it begins with a clear picture of where the patient experience begins and where it ends. Each physician, practice or provider must see the journey from the patients perspective. And it starts long before the doctor opens the exam room door.

When this journey has been mapped out, there are clear intersections where the “brand” connects with the patient. Consider what value you are providing at each step. Where do patients go for more information? What pages of your website are getting the most traction? The most bounces? “But you don’t understand, I’m measured on how quickly I can get patients in and out and there are other priorities I’m responsible for.” Yes, this is true of every business. It may seem too simplistic, but patients don’t care about the competing priorities. They are seeking value, or in this case, the appropriate amount of compassionate care.

“It seems important, then, for physicians to have neither too much nor too little compassion. Aristotle put this succinctly when he wrote that, as a virtue, compassion should be shown ‘to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time.’ He didn’t define how much compassion is right: We have to decide that for ourselves.” (source: New York Times)

The concept of marketing is making it’s way into the healthcare lexicon. Recently I received an email from my primary care office. It was unexpected, so I opened it. It was a gentle reminder to get my flu shot. Wow, that was a well timed email campaign as we enter the cold and flu season. A few months later, I receive another email. Again, not expected. What kind gentle healthcare reminder might I receive today? An announcement that my primary care office is now providing “cosmetic injections”.

Talk about not knowing your audience. Epic fail. Simple patient segmentation would have revealed who would likely desire this service, making the content relevant.

Compassion

So it seems that the healthcare industry has their work cut out for them. They are responsible for ensuring all these important metrics are tracked and improved. And while doing so, exhibit the appropriate amount of compassion (or value) at the right time.

As marketers, what can we learn from this challenge? We are in a service-based industry. We track and manage many marketing priorities as well. But there is one thing we can not miss. We must connect our product or service and add value at each step of the customer journey. How?

Gavin Francis sums it up quite well;

Compassion means “together-suffering” or “fellow-feeling” — a sense of identification we feel when imagining another’s pain. The word “patient” means “sufferer,” and at its most basic level the practice of medicine could be described as the attempt to ease mental and physical pain.

We must seek to understand and connect value to our audience. When we make this connection, we identify with the challenges they face. This is what marketing is all about.

Many businesses use the word free as a lure. They will offer their solution to us without initial cost, then convince us to pay after seeing the value of their solution. But is that truly free? We would argue these are trials, not free solutions.

“Free” Marketing Automation

Lately, we’ve seen many businesses offer “free marketing automation software”. But are they? Mautic is free and will be forever. But this is not a marketing concept. This is a philosophy.

When we set out to produce marketing software, we were compelled by our mission. To empower organizations by providing powerful communication tools to anyone who needed them. Free speech is a freedom we often take for granted. To provide a solution that empowers free speech is an incredibly powerful concept.

GNU Free Software Definition says:

We campaign for these freedoms because everyone deserves them. With these freedoms, the users (both individually and collectively) control the program and what it does for them. When users don’t control the program, we call it a “nonfree” or “proprietary” program. The nonfree program controls the users, and the developer controls the program; this makes the program an instrument of unjust power.

So while others offer “free” marketing automation tools, read the fine print. Because free for a month isn’t free. It’s bad marketing.

Authentic Marketing

We believe in the concept of authentic marketing. Authentic marketing is about value and values, it’s not about trickery. When we have something of value, we don’t need shady marketing to communicate it. Marketing should be the artful way we convey and connect individuals to that value. So for our marketing efforts to be effective, we must consider trust as a key element for connection. If we continue to use trickery, we diminish not only our brand, but our value proposition.

As marketers, let’s strive to be authentic in the way we communicate with buyers. We can’t be lured into traditional marketing schemas. Our values AND value must shine at every step of the customer journey. The Young Entrepreneur Council encourages us:

Don’t get trapped by marketing dogma. Think outside the box and be willing to take risks, so long as it’s in line with your philosophy. For instance, blog openly about the problems your company seeks to solve in the world and how you’re working to overcome them by fulfilling your mission.

Honesty, truth and conviction. When we communicate our values using these principles, it is authentic marketing. And the data shows it’s what customers are seeking. Let’s not disappoint them. It’s time we start using our creative voice to engage buyers in authentic conversations and communicate with our vision, not archaic marketing tricks that convey false promises.

“… human nature dictates that people have a hard time genuinely connecting with, being close to, or really trusting other humans who (pretend to) have no weaknesses, flaws, or mistakes.’ This is not only true of human connections; it’s true of our relationships with brands.

We encourage you to join our community. Because free is free. Forever.

We start this week with a reminder that honest and transparent marketing is always the best way to build a strong brand and consumer loyalty. Recently Ubisoft failed to do this and as a result are struggling with a bit of a PR nightmare.

Ubisoft accused of ‘deceptive marketing’ for Heroes of Might and Magic 7

“The CE Edition is advertised as coming with a PC DVD,” writes melchior1090 on Imgur. “But no game is even provided with the package. Buyers have to issue tickets to Ubisoft to have the game activated on their account. And are refused refunds.”

Read the full story: http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/10/12/ubisoft-accused-of-deceptive-marketing-for-heroes-of-might-and-magic-7

The Get-Rich-Quick Schemers Who Love the GOP

Donald Trump and Ben Carson, lack any experience in elected office. Much less attention has gone to something else the two men share: a history of entanglements with companies that have been rightly criticized for hawking get-rich-quick schemes to the broke and desperate. The business model, which is perfectly legal, is called multilevel marketing.

Read the full story: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_bills/2015/10/trump_carson_bush_all_benefited_from_multilevel_marketing_schemes.html

Square says its super-simple email marketing tools are paying off for small businesses

Six months after introducing square marketing, the company has data that shows its digital coupons increase sales. If you pay attention to news coming from Square, you know that it’s been a long time since all it did was process credit-card payments using its itty-bitty swiper. The expansion of its small-business services began in earnest back in 2012, with an app that transformed an iPad into a cash register. In May 2014, it turned receipts into miniature customer surveys and started fronting money to small businesses that they could repay a little bit at a time from their Square transactions. In April of this year, it launched Square Marketing, a service that lets businesses send digital offers such as discounts to their customers. And in August, it started to help businesses schedule appointments.

Read the full story: http://www.fastcompany.com/3052058/square-says-its-super-simple-email-marketing-tools-are-paying-off-for-small-businesses

Startups: Why Giving Stuff Away For Free Is The Best Marketing Tool

Startups – giving stuff away for free is the best marketing tool. This story demonstrates why. Austin has been named the best American city for startups, according to a report by the Kauffman Foundation and the surprising second is Miami. The data is part of an infographic exploring Factors that Influence Startup Success. It reveals interesting facts and statistics relating to age, professional background and sectors as influences on the success or failure of a startup.

Read the full story: http://www.forbes.com/sites/amyguttman/2015/10/11/startups-why-giving-stuff-away-for-free-is-the-best-marketing-tool/

Your time is limited, we find interesting and useful articles for you to quickly review the highlights of and how they affect marketers. Today’s stories covered everything form deceptive marketing, questionable multi-level marketing, the power of simple email marketing, and the best marketing tool ever: giving stuff away for free. We hope these articles help you as you plan and execute your marketing strategy.

Mautic, free marketing automation software, is a fantastic tool to help you build a transparent and simple email marketing system and help you give things away to your target audience. You’ll love all that marketing automation can do for you and do well.

There is a multitude of evidence pointing to the increased effectiveness of sending personal emails versus a corporate newsletter type of email. But just because you’re sending a personal email does not mean that you have to personally write the email each time. There are plenty of times when you find yourself sending almost the identical email multiple times to different individuals. When you find yourself in one of these situations you should stop and think – is there a better way. The answer is yes. Mautic gives you the power of sending automated (and personal) email messages.

So what does a personal email look like? We’re glad you asked. There used to be the idea that just using a name in the salutation line would be enough to consider your email “personal”. But we believe it’s much more than just how you address someone. Being personal is a number of things and a “Dear John” is only the beginning, in more ways than one.

Personal emails mean they come from you and not your business. This means you should send email not from a generic corporate or organization email address but from a personal address. This is important for several reasons. First, if you send from a personal email address your recipients are far more likely to open your email because it feels like a personal message from you to them. Second, many times your personal address will have an avatar associated with it that will cause your leads to recognize your face in their inbox.

Personal emails are more unique than just the beginning. This means customizations and personalizations should occur throughout the email. Lead fields, product specific information and other unique aspects of each lead should be used throughout the email. Admittedly this is a bit of a fine line as you don’t want to pretend there is a strong relationship with a potential lead when they don’t believe there is. And you certainly don’t want to compromise a potentially good relationship by appearing to impersonal. This takes time and practice.

Personal emails look personal and not like a corporate newsletter. Don’t send emails meant to engage users that look like they are a standard HTML newsletter meant to simply share the latest sales and special offers. You know exactly the type of email we’re talking about. There is certainly a time and a place to send newsletters to your users. Mautic can easily handle sending these types of emails, but when we’re talking about personal emails we are specifically focusing on sending emails to engage leads and lead to further conversations.

This is how Mautic helps you. Mautic lets you create personal emails and have them sent automatically. All the benefits of the personal touches mentioned above but without the significant amount of time it takes for you to send them individually. You can read more about this process on our blog. We hope you found some value in this post and if anything it causes you to think about how you send emails to your leads. Engage your leads and increase your potential sales.