Unlock Health

Here’s the problem with averages. You can average seven hours of sleep by getting three 11-hour nights and four 4-hour nights. On paper, you look fine. In practice, your eyes are barely staying open. What does that have to do with marketing strategy? Enterprise averages can make performance look more stable than it really is. A lower CTR, higher CPC, or rising conversion rate can mean very different things in urgent care, cardiology, oncology, weight loss, primary care, or HRAs. The better question is what job does each service line need marketing to do? Read our latest article from Steven Plimmer: https://hubs.li/Q04xxxwc0

CONFERENCE SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT: Even the best-intentioned healthcare marketers fall into traps that undermine trust, confuse audiences and stall results. Blending agency perspective and client-side truth Christian Barnett group lead, strategy and creative at Unlock Health, will unpack the 7 Deadly Sins of Healthcare Marketing and challenge attendees to reimagine what effective, human-centered marketing looks like in a post-truth, high-pressure landscape. Expect uncomfortable truths, actionable strategies and a call to move from performance to purpose! Our annual conference is approaching fast. We hope to see you Nov. 11-13 in Charleston! Learn more and register today: chprms.org.

We’re taking a slightly irreverent look at the seven deadly sins as they apply to healthcare marketing, starting with Pride. If you're at #SHSMD26, perhaps you caught Christian Barnett and Dan Lavelle delivering the live presentation that inspired this series. Pride has excellent credentials. And would very much like to tell you about all of them. Its corresponding virtue, Humility, asks us to start somewhere else: with the people we serve and what matters to them. We hope you enjoy Christian playing both a marketer with truly terrible habits and his conscientious colleague and then head over to read more about the virtue of Humility. https://hubs.li/Q04yrdC20 Bonus points for anyone who remembers the show our opening credits throw back to. Feel free to share your favorite memories.

My sincere gratitude to the Chattanooga Times Free Press and Edge Magazine for inviting me to contribute a column to the annual Champions of Health Care edition — and congratulations to all the regional healthcare professionals recognized at this year’s event. I’m enthusiastic about AI’s potential to improve so many aspects of healthcare, from diagnosis and treatment to clinicians’ workloads and the patient journey. But I also believe it’s the human element — not the technology — that uniquely defines healthcare. As we seek to understand, manage and apply AI’s powerful new capabilities in healthcare and beyond, keeping humanity at the center isn’t just important. It’s the only path forward. AI can transform healthcare, but it can also amplify what humans contribute most.

Just a couple of photos from "The seven deadly sins of healthcare marketing (and how to repent before your audience leaves you behind). We had so much fun with this session. Thanks to Dan Lavelle and Christian Barnett for being such good sports and even going all in with costumes. If you were at the session, we'd love to hear from you! #SHSMD26

Your campaign worked, and people responded. So why aren’t you seeing an uptick in appointments or revenue? The answer may be hiding somewhere between marketing conversion and care — in scheduling, capacity, insurance, referrals, or another barrier your campaign metrics can’t see. Christine Blanchette and Lisa Bevere explain why working backward from the business outcome can show you where demand is getting lost. Read their new article in eHealthcare Strategy & Trends — available without a form for three more days: https://hubs.li/Q04ysGJz0 #healthcaremarketing #UnlockHealth #CampaignOptimization

#SHSMD26 is off and running. If you're in Baltimore, check out Christian Barnett and Geisinger’s Dan Lavelle as they discuss The Seven Deadly Sins of Healthcare Marketing (and How to Repent Before Your Audience Leaves You Behind) today at 11:25 a.m. And then be sure to catch, Daniel Fell as he moderates The Authenticity Line: Deciding Where AI Belongs in Health Care Marketing today at 3:20 p.m. Don't forget to make some time to come by and see us in Booth 304. We're serving up great conversations and Poe-themed mocktails. We hope to see you soon!

What are you crushing at #SHSMD26? And, perhaps more importantly, what’s crushing you? Budget pressure? AI? Your MarTech stack? Proving ROI? A dashboard containing numbers no mortal was meant to understand? Bring it to Unlock Health's booth 304. We’ll be serving Poe-inspired mocktails and talking about the challenges healthcare marketers are wrestling with right now. Tell us what’s going well. Tell us what’s making you weak and weary. Or just come debate whether building an entire booth around a 19th-century writer qualifies as commitment to a theme or a cry for help. Either way, we’ll have drinks. Come find us in Baltimore. #SHSMD26 #HealthcareMarketing

Your campaign generated leads, but did anyone actually get care? If 800 people respond and only 40 make it to an appointment, don’t just study the 40. The other 760 may tell you exactly where your growth opportunity is getting lost. Christine Blanchette and Lisa Bevere explain why healthcare marketers should follow demand all the way through to care. Read their new article in eHealthcare Strategy & Trends — available without a form for 7 days: https://hubs.li/Q04y7Lnn0 #healthcare #HealthcareStrategy #UnlockHealth