Introducing: Healthcare Idea Email from Hammock | Like Hammock Inc.’s popular Idea Email, the new Healthcare Idea Email briefly explores one topic, every other week. Learn more about the new Healthcare Idea Email at the bottom of the page.
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Idea: Don’t Bury the Lede When Telling Your Product’s Story
By John Lavey | Hammock President and COO
Back in the olden days, I wrote for a newspaper. For many of us cub reporters, newspaper writing was great training in how to communicate clearly and effectively. I remember bracing myself for my editor’s red pen after racing to turn in an article on deadline.
The most common error for new reporters is “burying the lede,” or beginning the story with secondary details and not revealing essential elements until far into the story. A young reporter learns quickly (after more than one tongue-lashing from his seasoned, sometimes scary editor) that if you don’t put the most important details in that first paragraph, you risk losing the reader.
Like good journalists, good healthcare marketers have the ability to assimilate a lot of complicated information, synthesize it, then identify those things most critical for the audience to know.
And nearly always, that lede is the same message: How does this product or service solve the customer’s problem?
This truth applies, no matter the medium. In healthcare marketing, the lede always answers, “How does this product or service help consumers?” Everything else is secondary.
It’s normal to feel compelled to share your company’s story—all those killer features and competitive advantages your product possesses. But the lede must address the needs of your customer first, which will set the stage to discuss how your company can help meet those needs.
Think about the reality faced by healthcare providers: The focus of their industry is shifting from being fee-for-service to delivering quality outcomes across an episode of care. The job of healthcare marketers should be similarly aligned.
Bottom line for healthcare marketers: Lead with your customers in mind. A “good lede” for healthcare marketers is simple to craft.
- Start with a precise understanding of the needs of your customers.
- Communicate solutions, not just spec sheets of your products or services.
- Consider “outcomes” and how you contribute positively to them.
Photo: Thinkstock
About the new Healthcare Idea Email | As our popular Idea Email has a large number of healthcare marketers who subscribe, it did not surprise us that the No. 1 request we’ve received is to “offer more ideas about healthcare.” So we have. In addition to Idea Email, on other weeks you can receive the Healthcare Idea Email that is focused exclusively on healthcare-related marketing, media and content trends and topics. You can visit the Healthcare Idea Email archive and subscribe for your own copy here.