We Are, Marketing Happy - A Healthcare Marketing Podcast

Healthcare marketing is leaving the glossy, corporate-ad era behind. What patients actually respond to now is real faces, real stories, and real expertise — and that's reshaping who gets a microphone in your marketing strategy.

This week, we're breaking down a framework for healthcare influencer marketing built around three distinct buckets, each serving a different purpose: reach, trust, and content fuel.

1. External Social Media Influencers (Buying the Audience): This is about borrowing an existing audience. You partner with established creators (lifestyle, parenting, wellness, or condition-specific) to break into demographics you haven't reached yet. The healthcare wrinkle: the FTC and FDA don't play around with disclosure, so #Ad labeling is mandatory, and you'll want to vet a creator's history to make sure nothing in their past content conflicts with your brand. CreatorIQ or Sprout Social both help with exactly this kind of audience and brand-safety vetting before you sign anything.

2. Internal Brand Experts (The "OG Medfluencers"): Your own doctors, nurses, researchers, and therapists who are already building an audience bring something no outside partnership can buy: built-in clinical credibility and hyper-local trust. Because they're still employees, they need clear boundaries between personal opinion and your organization's official position, along with genuine support like studio time and compliance help. Tools like EveryoneSocial or DSMN8 make it easy to push pre-approved, legally cleared content straight to your internal team so they can share with confidence.

3. User-Generated Content (UGC): Rather than paying for someone's following, UGC means sourcing the raw, unscripted content patients are already creating (recovery journeys, clinic walkthroughs, unboxings) and putting it to work across your owned and paid channels. The one rule you can't skip: a HIPAA-compliant release form before any patient face or story touches paid media. Archive.com automatically captures organic content your brand gets tagged in, while Bounty and Skeepers help you run micro-campaigns for content that's pre-licensed and ready for ads from the start.

The takeaway: external influencers expand your reach, internal experts close the trust gap, and UGC delivers the content that actually performs!

For more on this topic, check out episode 107: Influencer Marketing in Healthcare.

Connect with Jenny:Email: [email protected]LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

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Many healthcare organizations face the challenge of centralizing marketing initiatives across local offices or different departments. In this week’s episode, our CEO Jenny shares a model for successfully implementing shared marketing services that’s especially useful for private equity groups, expanding hospital systems, and nationwide organizations that offer local autonomy. By collaborating with individual teams, rather than forcing mandates, organizations can minimize teams “going rogue” and producing off-brand materials.

The Four-Pillar Shared Marketing Model

Self-Serve Brand Toolkit: Provide an easy-to-use digital asset management (DAM) system or use tools like Canva Enterprise, to allow teams to customize approved templates with relevant information, making it easier for them to stay on-brand than to create their own materials from scratch.

Network Effect and Knowledge Sharing: Treat the organization like a marketing laboratory by testing strategies in one market and productizing successful results to roll out to other locations. This ensures offices benefit from collective intelligence rather than just purchasing individual services.

Centralized Strategy with Local Execution: Have the headquarters handle time-consuming, expensive tasks like strategy development and creative asset production. This offers a financial incentive for local offices to opt in, while still allowing them to manage their own local media buys.

Shared Reporting Dashboard: Develop a performance dashboard that provides leadership with a macro view of the total marketing ecosystem while allowing teams to drill down into their specific micro performance. This provides value for local offices by solving complex infrastructure and analytical challenges.

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In the healthcare marketing industry, just when you think you have everything under control, a new change comes along. And, honestly, it's a heavy responsibility for leaders to build a team structure that can withstand the pressures of the ever-evolving healthcare marketing space, but it also keeps things exciting! 

In this week’s episode, our CEO, Jenny Bristow, shares two key concepts from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) framework that have helped Hedy & Hopp build a solid marketing team that has withstood many industry changes: the accountability chart & the “Right Person, Right Seat” framework.

The Accountability Chart: The accountability chart is distinctly different from traditional job titles and organizational charts in that it focuses on the essential functions a team needs to operate efficiently. Start by mapping out core functions, such as content strategy, paid media, analytics, etc., and assigning responsibilities to each “seat.” When developing an accountability chart, it’s critical to ignore current personnel to design an ideal structure from scratch, ensuring zero ambiguity regarding who owns each function.

The "Right Person, Right Seat" (RPRS) Framework: Once the ideal structure is developed, evaluate current staff through two lenses: Right Person & Right Seat. Right Person assesses whether the individual shares the organization’s core values. Right Seat utilizes the “GWC” framework (Get It, Want It, Capacity to Do It) to determine if a person is suited for a particular role. In other words does the person understand the requirements of the role? Are they genuinely excited and motivated to perform the responsibilities of the seat? And do they possess the mental, emotional, and technical capacity to succeed in the position?

Separating the person from the problem is vital when restructuring. If a team member lacks the capacity for a specific modern technical role, it does not necessarily mean they must leave the organization; they may simply belong in a different seat.

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Why healthcare marketing? For many people in the industry, healthcare marketing is a deeply purposeful career path that allows them to positively impact others’ lives and improve access to healthcare. In this week’s episode, our CEO Jenny offers guidance for new grads and professionals on rising industry trends and important skills for success in healthcare marketing. 

Major Industry Trends

Shifting Search Journeys: The percentage of patients using Google for traditional searches is shrinking, as people turn toward generative AI for pre-diagnostic research.

Authenticity Beats High-Production Value: With the rise of deepfakes and AI-generated media, there is a growing demand for transparent, unpolished video content.

Privacy and Measurement Challenges: Marketers need to get creative in order to prove ROI while maintaining compliance, as HIPAA and state-level privacy laws have made it more difficult to track campaign performance.

Essential Skills for Success

Keep a Human in the Loop: Use AI as a productivity tool, rather than a replacement for critical thinking. Be sure humans are in charge of the storytelling.

Engage Audiences with Microlearning: Work on translating complex clinical topics into engaging, short, mobile-first videos that can quickly educate and build trust.

Adopt a Privacy-First Analytics Mindset: Focus on downstream business outcomes, like patient appointments, while ensuring patient information remains secure and compliant.

Proceed with Empathy and Health Literacy: Focus on writing copy that is easy to understand and empathetic, that AI cannot easily replicate.

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

With the recent introduction of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) seven-priniciple framework designed to protect physicians from unauthorized use of their likeness, AI-generated deepfakes are having a clear impact on the healthcare landscape. In this week’s episode, our CEO, Jenny, presents strategies for marketers to maintain undeniable authenticity amid the current “crisis of trust.” 

Episode Notes:

Marketing Strategies for Authenticity

Keep It Raw: Move away from high-production value toward raw, behind-the-scenes, unedited content that is easily authenticated.

Put Physicians at the Forefront: Focus on content that explicitly highlights real doctors and clinicians. Use interactive features like live Q&As that are difficult for AI to replicate.

Multi-Channel Footprint: Social media videos are easy to fake. Create a cohesive ecosystem where a patient can verify a physician’s profile and likeness across multiple channels, including your official website.

Localize Content: Orient content on local issues and regional health trends to anchor a physician’s authenticity to the community they serve.

Organizational Compliance Tips for Marketers

Audit Your Consent Forms: Review and update media release forms to ensure they meet the new standards for explicit, revocable consent.

Create a Rapid Response Plan: Develop a plan to execute fast takedowns of unauthorized content on major social media platforms.

Communicate Internally: Use this as an opportunity to build trust with physicians by proactively communicating the steps being taken to protect them and ensure the dissemination of reputable information.

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

The summer months bring an uptick in travel and an increase in “unplanned” care needs, with travelers searching locally for urgent care, sports physicals, and pharmacies. In this week’s episode, our CEO, Jenny Bristow, provides strategies for optimizing during the summer months to capture “near me” searches from individuals and build trust with those who may not be familiar with your organization.

Episode Notes:

Strategies for building a strong foundation of organic SEO: 

Start with the basics, ensuring your Google Business is up to date with accurate hours for the summer months. Then optimize your organic presence for local searches, by creating local hyper-local landing pages and optimizing them for the conversational, long-tail searches that people are likely to type into their phones.

How to leverage paid search for a precision strike: 

If your area allows, increase bids around airports, train stations, or popular resort clusters to capture travelers through those areas. Utilize local inventory ads to show the real-time availability of common summer needs, like EpiPens. Consider call-only ads to capture people with minor crises who want to talk to a real person rather than spending time browsing a website.

Tips for optimizing for AI (GEO & AI Agents): 

AI models now summarize the “best” local options, using website’s structured schema.org data, that clearly defines location, services, and credentials. Be sure to maintain a positive online reputation, as AI models increasingly pull from sentiment in reviews. Clearly state insurance acceptant, wait times, and out-of-state policies to assist potential patients and feed accurate data to AI platforms. 

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Our CEO, Jenny Bristow, and Director of Growth, Marissa Gurrister, have just returned from Salt Lake City where they were attending the recent HMPS conference (Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit). In this week’s episode, they recap their experience, describing the event as energizing and collaborative, an environment that fostered meaningful connections and professional growth.

Key highlights from the conference included:

CEO Communications Playbook: This session was notable for its "no-recording" policy, which encouraged vulnerability and candid discussion regarding professional leadership.

AI in Action: This session outlined a shift in the AI conversation toward sophisticated, strategic implementation and process efficiency rather than fear of job replacement.

Promise to Practice: This session focused on aligning brand strategy with patient experience through real-world case studies.

Governing Patient-Facing AI: This session explored how health systems can effectively meet patients where they are regarding AI interaction.

Brand Frankenstein: This discussion covered the emotional and strategic complexities of navigating joint ventures, affiliations, and rebrands.

Epic Marketing Implementation: H&H presented a case study with Bayhealth, outlining a roadmap for improving patient experience and volume through technical audits and leveraging existing infrastructure.

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Marissa:

Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissa-gurrister/
If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

This video features a discussion on the evolving role of Epic’s marketing and patient engagement tools within healthcare systems. The host, Jenny Bristow of Hedy & Hopp, introduces the company's new Director of Epic Services, Brandon Hallman, to discuss the intersection of marketing strategy and IT infrastructure.

Episode Notes:

The Epic Ecosystem Shift: Leveraging Epic’s functionality for marketing is a relatively new development. Historically, patient engagement was fragmented across various third-party tools, but Epic is increasingly providing a unified platform—acting as a "single source of truth"—to help organizations manage patient experiences.

The Evolution of Cheers: Cheers has moved beyond simple patient communication to become a more comprehensive client relationship platform that includes CRM and CallHub functionality. While some in the industry have questioned the tool's sophistication, it is maturing into a powerful solution that integrates with other tools like Hello World.

Consolidating Tech Stacks: Many health systems are moving away from third-party vendors like Salesforce and WebMD Ignite toward a strictly "Epic-first" mentality. This transition aims to reduce costs and complexity, allowing for more autonomous, synergistic communication between marketing and IT.

Bridging the Gap Between Marketing and IT: Bringing marketing and IT to the table together during the planning phase to align on goals, security, and compliance is key to combatting the siloed nature of these departments. Hedy & Hopp facilitates workshops to help these teams prioritize campaigns, align on measurement strategies, and define roles.

Strategy and Services: The agency approaches this space through three primary lenses: audit, strategy, and implementation. They also highlight the "UTM Connect" tool, which helps bridge the gap between digital marketing efforts and patient records in Epic to enable ROI reporting.

Some advice for marketers struggling to navigate the Epic landscape: communicate early and often with IT, and treat the relationship as a translation process between technical requirements and marketing goals.

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Brandon:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-hallman-03074742/
If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Jenny Bristow, CEO & Founder of Hedy & Hopp, is joined by Miranda Ochsner, Director of Paid Media to discuss the significant impact of the 2026 midterm elections on healthcare marketing. Political ad spend is expected to exceed $10 billion ahead of this year’s midterms, presenting significant challenges for marketers, particularly when it comes to traditional channels, like TV and radio. They discuss these challenges and offer strategic advice for navigating the volatility of marketing during a political season.

Episode Notes

Since political campaigns typically have first-right access to advertising inventory across local TV and radio stations, other advertisers risk being “bumped.” No matter how far in advance you planned and purchased placements, getting bumped means your spots may be moved to less effective times of the day, like overnights, or removed entirely. This forces marketers to pivot quickly to deal with credits and reallocate budget.

The following strategies can help marketers plan ahead, as the political season is scaling up quickly:

Have a Plan B: Even the best laid plans need contingencies during political seasons, as inventory and political noise is largely out of your control. Think about scaling back or pausing tactics during the busiest weeks to ensure your message isn’t getting lost.

Capitalize on Alternative Placements: Be flexible and consider adjusting daypart mixes. Shifting from highly competitive times to alternative slots can maintain reach even during a busy season.

Diversify Media Channels: Beyond traditional local TV and radio placements, digital channels like online video and Connected TV offer additional control. Just be aware that additional control comes with additional costs, which are projected to increase by 20-50% in competitive markets.

Prioritize High-Intent Tactics: Channels like paid search remain stable and effective drivers of qualified traffic, even despite potential increases in bid costs.

Since political seasons are guaranteed to be unpredictable, focus on early, proactive planning to ensure a consistent, high quality presence.

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Miranda:

Email: [email protected] 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandamochsner/ 

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Jenny Bristow, CEO & Founder of Hedy & Hopp, is joined by Miranda Ochsner, Director of Paid Media to discuss the evolving landscape of YouTube as a critical platform for healthcare paid media. They highlight YouTube’s significant reach and unique advantages compared to other streaming and social platforms. With over 75% of the US population consuming YouTube content, it is the most-watched streaming platform on TV (surpassing even Netflix!) — making it a powerful platform for healthcare marketers.

Episode Notes

Strategic Advantages for Healthcare Marketers

Patient Education & Discovery: Patients often use YouTube to research symptoms and self-diagnose before consulting a professional. Video content helps simplify complex medical topics and introduces expertise earlier in the patient journey.

Targeting and Measurement: The platform combines the broad reach of traditional TV with the granular targeting and measurement capabilities of digital media. 

Content Versatility: YouTube can effectively host various video formats, including repurposed Facebook ads or traditional 30-second TV spots.

Retargeting Capabilities: YouTube allows for "in-platform" retargeting that enables healthcare marketers to deliver content, such as a multi-part educational series, to the target audience. 

Paid and Organic Synergy: Paid media on YouTube can expand an organization's reach to new audiences, while organic content builds long-term engagement.

Connect with Jenny:

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/

Connect with Miranda:

Email: [email protected] 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandamochsner/ 

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.