touch point podcast

This week, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer share, via a series of interviews, experiences and ideas from this year’s SXSW. From the history of how the health track was formed, to thoughtful insights on data privacy, AI, ethics, healthcare equality and data, this episode features interviews with other Touchpoint Media co-hosts and friends of the show: Aaron Clifford, Dr. Byan Vartabedian, John Berndt, Zac Jiwa, Steven Cutbirth and Greg Matthews. In addition, Reed shares how to plan to participate in next year’s conference.

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Email marketing is one of the oldest tactics in a digital marketer’s toolkit - but is it still relevant and effective? In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss the state of email marketing and illustrate some important statistics that highlight how important emails are to a health systems’ communications and marketing efforts. They are joined by Jessica Troccoli, former email strategist from HCA Healthcare, in which she shares ways in which hospitals can embrace emails to support marketing, branding and overall patient experience. Don’t unsubscribe!

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It’s commonly understood that online reviews are an important component of hospitals’ and health systems’ online reputation management efforts. But are all online reviews the same? In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer explore the various elements of an online review - from open vs. closed review systems, the benefits of a five star rating system to how organizations can benchmark their efforts against others. They are joined by Chrissy Daniels of Press Ganey, in which she shares her experience helping physicians and hospitals embrace transparency through online ratings.

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In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer dive into the the latest study from Greystone/Klein Partners:”The 4th Annual State of Digital Marketing for Hospitals,” an annual survey or more than 200 healthcare marketers and digital professionals from various healthcare organizations. From websites, social media and CRM, the hosts discuss their perspective on how digital has evolved over the years and their analysis on why certain digital strategies are gaining momentum and others might be failing. They are joined by Mike Schneider, partner at Greystone in which he shares the history behind this annual study and how organizations can participate in the future.

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Hospital and health system digital marketers focus much of their attention on ensuring their website is the authoritative source of information about their organization. However in the new digital environment, the information on third-party websites often has a bigger impact on the online customer journey. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith discuss how organizations can begin considering “non-owned” digital channels - from directory sites to Wikipedia - in the digital strategies. They joined by Andrei Zimiles, CEO of Doctor.com, in which he discusses a recent study that shows how patients use third-party channels to help support their care decisions.

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Building trust with customers online is difficult, particularly when customer expectations are continually changing and competition for trust is growing. But for hospitals and health systems, gaining trust is critical to branding and patient loyalty. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss methods in which health systems can use digital to build brand trust. They are joined by guest expert Jeff Sofka, CEO of Bendigo, who shares how organizations can leverage sports partnerships to help with brand building and patient loyalty.

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User experience (UX) refers to a person's emotions and attitudes when they interact with and experiences a product, service or solution. As UX continues to grow in importance for healthcare digital marketers, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss the four U’s of online experience: User Experience, Usability, Utility and Usefulness. In addition, they discuss how these factors (along with Desirability) lead to good user-centered design. They are joined by Jillian Penrod, CEO of Infotistas, in which she shares best practice in Information Architecture (IA) that are important for marketers and communicators to consider in their strategies.

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Whether you are creating your content calendar or planning your content production, it’s important to determine if you have all the elements of a robust content strategy. In this episode, Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss the concepts of front-end and back-end content strategy and share their experiences working with hospitals and health systems on their content development efforts. They are joined by Joe Stradinger, Founder of Edge Theory, where he shares his experience working with organizations on conversation strategies.

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With the increasing impact consumerism is having on health systems, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith weigh in on the potential influence “digital natives” can have on new online strategies - both from a consumer and employment perspective. From virtual care offerings to social media training, they even attempt to bust myths about digital natives. They are joined by Dr. Farris Timimi, the Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network, in which he describes their formalized training program to ensure physicians in training are prepared to embrace the benefits of social media in their practice.

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For hospital and healthcare marketers, the challenge of determining the right balance of online advertising spend is challenging. Paid search, display ads, social media advertising, native and video advertising - the options are numerous and confusing. In this episode, hosts Reed Smith and Chris Boyer discuss various techniques they have found to help budget and plan SEM efforts to effectively support marketing and communication efforts. They are joined by David Pace, SEO/SEM Lead for the Gray Digital Group, in which he shares his perspectives on how health systems can determine the right digital ad mix.

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