From branding refresh to sales qualified leads: a healthcare company case study

If you like complex puzzles, the healthcare industry is a problem-solver’s dream.

Selling into this space requires a deep knowledge of the problems faced by patients, doctors, nurses, technologists, insurers, government entities and more.

It also requires a strategy heavy on education, data, and building consensus across these audiences.

If you can do all of that, you just might break through the noise.

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Meet Pharos Innovations

Like many start-ups, Pharos Innovations had a visionary idea: engage chronically ill patients on a daily basis to anticipate and avert unnecessary hospital admissions. As an innovator in the healthcare tech space, Pharos was ahead of the curve. New payment incentives were coming into play and the Pharos patient engagement program was perfectly positioned to deliver results aligned with those incentives.

However, in a sea of prospective clients, few were ready to tackle the Triple Aim of healthcare. As a marketer, I faced a dual challenge:

• find prospects who were also innovators and ready to embrace Pharos’ vision for improved patient care and outcomes

• educate those who weren’t innovators in order to help them cross the chasm and convert them into early adopters

My strategy was simple: build brand awareness, create an educational journey, and promote the success of our “lighthouse” clients (no pun intended!)

Branding

In a world driven by brands, building the Pharos brand was foundational to every marketing and sales activity that followed. We knew we had a special program to engage patients in their own self-care. We knew that patients experienced excellent results by participating in the program. We needed to translate that internal understanding of ourselves into an authentic brand that resonated with our audiences and felt true to us.

Through an audit of existing materials and surveys of our staff and other stakeholders, I developed a brand guide that clearly articulated our vision, mission, and values. Visuals (including logo, typography, and color palette) were overhauled to better represent our brand and aspirations. Similarly, editorial decisions on voice and tone set the stage for all marketing communications going forward.

Messaging

Behavior change. Patient engagement. Population health. Payment incentives. Care management. Social determinants of health. These were just a few of the messages that had to be sorted out and clarified in order to create an educational content journey. Through message mapping sessions, I led my colleagues through a series of questions designed to:

• Identify our audiences

• Articulate our “why”

• Outline how we serve

• Position that which makes us unique

The final map became our source of truth for all communications and was incorporated into the brand guide.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is all about putting your prospect in the driver’s seat. Addressing their pain points. Building a relationship based on solving problems. And ultimately, delighting them with a superb customer experience that builds loyalty and repeat business. In short, it's person-centered marketing.

Given the complex nature of Pharos’ offering and the healthcare landscape in general, I collaborated with Sales to map out the buyer’s journey. Content was crafted to attract, engage, and delight our audiences. Content came in many forms:

• Blog posts

• eBooks

• Webinars

• Case studies

• Video

Similarly, content was promoted in many ways:

• Email marketing

• Social media posts

• Media relations placements

Additionally, content was assigned a point value. Using lead scoring, we were able to determine a prospect's level of interest in our offering. As a start-up with a small staff, this allowed us to effectively allocate our resources and decide which leads were warm enough to follow up with on a personal level. Given the 9-12 month sales cycle, this was a meaningful way to get in front of truly interested prospects and close them more quickly.

Results

There's never an idle moment when you work for a start-up. Through the steady grind of building the brand and educating the marketplace, Pharos landed new clients and increased revenue from $1 million to approximately $5 million. Most importantly, thousands of patients experienced better health and well-being through daily engagement with their care team!

Interested in learning more? Drop me a note and let’s talk about how a similar strategy can work for your business.