G2 Communications Inc.-Medical Practice Marketing

We help physicians recruit, retrain & refer

  • WHO we are
  • WHAT we do
    • Healthcare Case Studies
    • Healthcare Clients
  • WHY choose us
  • WHERE we are
  • HOW to learn more
  • Blog

Mar 02 2016

Does Your Message Move the Media?

LorraineLorraine Hamby has 20 plus years of experience in tech PR, journalism and consulting. She has worked with corporate giants like HP and Intuit, disruptive startups, and everyone in between, teaching them how to use messaging to reach and captivate a target audience.

When you’re competing for customers, attention-worthy messaging may be your most powerful ally. I sat down with Lorraine to learn more about messaging with impact.

Why do we need messaging?

Messaging should always support broader business goals. So first, you need to define your objectives—whether it’s to grow the customer base, attract investors, or establish credibility for a new product — or some combination of goals. Then, you can begin developing messaging that will best support the cause.

As far as spending time on message prep itself – it’s worth the effort — because to get your point across, and particularly to secure media coverage, you need to be crystal clear and compelling. Every brand is fighting– not just against competitors– but for the audience’s attention in the first place.

Clear, compelling messaging that gets to the heart of the customer’s decision-making can make the difference between a “ho hum” campaign and strong results, or between an average presentation and an inspiring one.

How is messaging for PR different from other marketing messages?

Messaging should be consistent across all mechanisms, always reinforcing and differentiating your brand. The evolution of social, earned, and paid media has certainly blurred the divide between marketing and PR in many ways, but there are some key differences.

With marketing messaging, you may be able to get more creative — for example, you need to think in terms of taglines, and combining visual and text elements. But your core messaging is still the foundation for developing all of those — whether it’s a video, a newsletter, a tweet or an ad.

For PR, you have to go a step further to make your message newsworthy. Another unique aspect of PR messaging is being prepared for tough Q&A. Once you have a journalist’s attention, it becomes a two-way dialogue and you need to know in advance exactly how you’ll handle the most difficult questions.

How do you help clients create strong messaging?

It’s a collaborative process involving research, analysis, brainstorming and then, good old-fashioned writing and wordsmithing – including several discussions and iterations to get it to the final output.

One of the first steps is to analyze the broader landscape — what’s going on the industry, what are the competitors saying, what are the news trends, etc. I take a broad sampling of primary messages, recent news, and key phrases, and synthesize that into a viewpoint that informs the process. The goal is to identify what compelling stories we might be up against, what customer benefits everyone is hammering on, and where there’s room for a unique perspective.

Perhaps most importantly, I gather information from the client, asking a lot of questions and talking to people across the organization. I’ll identify common threads and priorities, and then help them crystallize those into key messages. Then we stress-test it: Is everyone else saying the same thing? Is our message enough to convince customers? Can we cut down the jargon? Is it newsworthy?

What is the most important take-away for brands that want to improve their messaging?

I’ll follow my own advice, and prioritize! My top three messages about messaging are:

  1. Prioritize: Streamline your message as much as possible. You can’t say it all, so know what’s most important to get across.
  2. Differentiate: Clearly define what makes you stand out, and always emphasize that.
  3. Tell a story: Combine facts with a narrative, and bring the story to life with anecdotes and examples.

 

Written by Shelly · Categorized: Healthcare PR, Journalism, Marketing, Public Relations, Reporters, Uncategorized · Tagged: campaign, coverage, interviews, journalist, journalists, messaging, PR, start up

Nov 30 2012

How Your Healthcare Ad Agency Can Stand Out in a Crowd

While many small companies envision themselves in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, don’t underestimate the power of trade media coverage to improve search, and increase web traffic, product demand and quality sales leads.

One of our clients, a branding/advertising agency called Jocoto Advertising, serving the medical device and life sciences industries was definitely distinctive and edgy in its branding campaigns for lesser known medical device companies, who, being in a highly regulated industry, were inclined to be more conservative. Looking at the campaigns the agency created for its clients, one knew that Jocoto Advertising was different. But when it came to differentiating its own company, Jocoto tended to use the same language as its competitors so it was hard to see what set them apart. G2Comm had to find new words to promote the agency’s uniqueness.

We developed a platform about the conservative notions of branding in the medical device industry coupled with Jocoto’s unique approach. Our strategy focused on articulating branding pitfalls in the industry and how Jocoto’s proven approach helped its clients increase sales leads and revenues, presenting this story via news generation, case studies and ghost-written bylined articles appearing in biotech and other trade publications.

Jocoto saw a surge in new business accompanied the PR campaign which shined a spotlight on the company as a branding expert in its industry.

Written by Laura R. · Categorized: Public Relations, Uncategorized · Tagged: advertising, campaign, medical device, PR

sgordon@g2comm.com
(480) 685-3252 (office)
(650) 248-6975 (mobile)

Copyright © 2021 — G2 Communications Inc.-Medical Practice Marketing • All rights reserved •