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EmpowHER Insights: Marketing to Women

EmpowHER Insights: Marketing to Women

Crowdsourcing: Empowering Patients To Shape Your Marketing Campaigns

Posted on: April 24th, 2012 - No Comments

The reason that healthcare is so alive in the social media space is simple — human beings have a strong, possibly innate, need to connect, interact and share information about their health.  That goes for patients and caregivers alike.  It’s no accident that Facebook and Twitter have numerous online forums devoted to specific conditions and their treatment. Consider:

Marketing to consumers today is about reaching out to their online spaces with meaningful information they can incorporate into their everyday lives. In the highly-regulated, social space-restrictive environment created by the FDA and FTC, engaging patients and caregivers through social media to help solve your marketing problems may sound adventurous, or even downright scary to your med/legal team.

That’s where crowdsourcing comes in.

Crowdsourcing is a way to quickly obtain feedback and direction from relevant online audiences about your campaign/communications challenge—think of crowdsourcing as a cross between a focus group and a quantitative survey. It’s a very effective tool for listening to the needs of female audiences.  To better determine the role crowdsourcing could play in pharma, we decided to conduct a social experiment.

THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT
We kept the exercise simple and designed a crowdsourcing experiment that enlisted caregivers of cancer patients.  According to estimates by the Family Caregiver Alliance, 66% of caregivers are female. One-third (34%), takes care of two or more people, and the average age of a female caregiver is 48. We asked caregivers to better define their needs and perceived duties around the task of caregiving.  Then we asked them what they needed from a support program. What we learned opened our eyes to the power and passion of individuals.

ENGAGING THE CROWD
A short survey consisting of just three questions was designed and pushed out to 37 different online groups across several social media channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and forums—all  cancer-related social networks. I used my real name, my actual Gmail account (or forum-specific identity for transparency), and clearly stated that I was interested in creating better caregiver/patient support programs.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Social Health, Social Media | No Comments »

5 Tips on Being Your Own Best Healthcare Provider

Posted on: April 19th, 2012 - No Comments

At EmpowHER, we share tips and references to women to be better health advocates. Here are my five tips for dealing more effectively with your own healthcare.

Tip No. 1 - If you’re not happy with your doctor, fire him or her. Ask your girlfriends, family and other doctors for recommendations because “good” doctors know the other “good” doctors. They are your best resource. Don’t forget to check the doctor’s credentials and research possible violations.

Tip No. 2 - Stop lying. Did you know that studies suggest 70 percent of patients lie to their doctors? For example, we do not mention that we take aspirin, that we are not taking our medication consistently or at all. We take health supplements and vitamins but don’t consider them medications. It is important to mention because some vitamins and supplements can interfere with medications or make hormone replacement therapy less effective. Make a list of all the things you take and bring it with you to all your medical appointments.

Tip No. 3 - Be prepared. First, women need to do their own research. For example, understand treatments and alternatives for a potential diagnosis. Second, send a list of questions to your doctor ahead of your visit. It is estimated that patients are interrupted 18 seconds into their appointments. Few patients can say everything they want to in that time, so be prepared.

Tip No. 4 - Take charge of you. The World Health Organization says 40 percent of women are currently battling one of the Big 6 health conditions: cancer, heart disease, hormone disorders, diabetes, bone and joint conditions, and mental health issues. Remember, if you don’t take care of you, you can’t take care of anyone else.

Tip No. 5 - Find a health advocate. Identify a trusted friend or patient advocate, not a family member, that can go with you to appointments. This person needs to listen well, speak up and not be afraid to ask questions of specialists. The last thing you are able to do when you are sick is advocate on your behalf. Put your advocate in your Living Will and Medical Power of Attorney and let them know ahead of time that they are in charge.

Michelle King Robson
Founder, Chairperson, CEO
EmpowHER
@mkingrobson

 

Originally published in NAFE’s (National Association of Female Executives) newsletter.

 

Posted in The Female Healthcare Consumer | No Comments »

Women – Do You Understand Them?

Posted on: April 12th, 2012 - No Comments

Women are complex, taking time and effort to understand. Despite their lucrative spending power and increased influence in buying decisions, women consistently feel misunderstood by marketers. In fact, 91% of women feel advertisers do not understand them. As a health and wellness marketer, you should pay attention to, and take the initiative and effort to better understand women and how to market to them. Here are 4 reasons why:

1. Women are on the Web and They’re Looking for Health Information.

  • 9 out of 10 women seek health information on the web.
  • 64% of women online research information regarding prescription drugs.
  • 72% of women use the Internet for gathering health information.

2. Ladies Love to Share.

  • 33% of women with a health condition go online to find other women like them for advice.
  • 64% of moms ask other mothers for advice before they purchase a new product and 63% of all mothers surveyed consider other moms the most credible experts when they have questions.
  • 92% of women pass along information about deals or finds to others.

3. Women Take Action.

  • Women are responsible for 90% of health care decisions.
  • 75% of women identified themselves as the primary shoppers for their households.
  • Women control 85% of all purchasing decisions, and purchase over 50% of traditional male products, including cars, home improvement products and electronics.

4. Now Let’s Talk Money – Women are the Buyers in Today’s Market.

  • Women control $7 trillion in consumer and business spending in the United States.
  • 51% of U.S. private wealth is controlled by women.
  • Women account for 58% of all total online spending.
  • Over the next decade women will control two-thirds of consumer wealth.
  • Women account for over 50% of all stock ownership in the United States.
  • 22% of women shop online at least once a day.

Learn more ways to reach HER.

Shana O’Connor
Marketing Manager
EmpowHER
@shanaoconnor

Posted in The Female Healthcare Consumer | No Comments »

Pin Worthy

Posted on: April 9th, 2012 - No Comments

Pinterest is revolutionizing the way users categorize and visually represent information. It is taking the social media world by storm, and marketers are scrambling to not only understand but successfully engage in this site! Here are few stats about Pinterest that will leave you – as healthcare marketers – eager to learn more.

  • Pinterest hit 10 million unique monthly views faster than any site in U.S. history
  • On average each time a person visits the site they spend 58.8 minutes “pinning” while Facebook has an average visit time of 12.1 minutes.
  • Nearly 1/3 of of all Pinterest users have an annual household income of $100K+
  • Almost 70% are female (keep in mind, females control 90% of all household healthcare decisions)
  • The largest demographic on the site are between 25-34
  • 50% of Pinterest users have children

Whether you’d like to simply have a Pinterest page for your brand like EmpowHER, or you are creating full-blown marketing campaigns like Kotex – the stats speak for themselves and warrant marketers to take a closer look at this visually captivating site.

Posted in Social Health, The Female Healthcare Consumer | No Comments »

Does Your Brand Have a Pulse?

Posted on: April 6th, 2012 - No Comments

Brands that win in social media are not those that constantly advertise in the same marketing-speak, robotic, corporate tone of voice, but those that engage with their customers like a real human being; building trust and loyalty amongst their audience.

Brand-building has traditionally been an exercise in pushing the most flattering, corporate-approved messaging possible. However, today, brand-building has evolved into so much more – now it’s about still being able to provide information, but also being able to engage and interact with customers in a real, non-corporate kind of way. So, how do you help your brand develop a strong pulse in the social media world? Here are 5 suggestions:

  1. Enable your employees. Enabling doesn’t mean giving social media managers a book of “acceptable” responses or social media posts, it means trusting them enough to represent your brand honestly. Your employees are the front lines of any brand, and therefore should be enabled to represent your brand to customers in a way that portrays the “real” side of your brand. One in which customers can interact with.
  2. Keep the marketing lingo at-bay. No one wants to read a press release boilerplate, or a portion of your latest marketing brochure about a product or service, and if they did, they would certainly seek out that information. When interacting in the social media world, try and limit the marketing speak and talk to your customers that way you would have a normal conversation.
  3. Mobilize the troops. Put key, outspoken customers or stakeholders to work! Often times, they will be excited that you are entrusting them with your brand! They will be excited to help spread the word, and even better, other customers are more likely to trust the words of non-employees about your brand then actual employees. It’s a win-win!
  4. Ditch the old “your way or the high way approach”. Your brand is no longer what YOU say it is, but rather what THEY (your customers) say it is. So don’t stand up there with a megaphone and dictate, be open to debate and LISTEN to your customers when they have opinion. After all, customers can help architect better messaging and marketing campaigns for your brand if you truly listen.
  5. Simply being there is not enough. Just because you have a twitter account of Facebook page doesn’t mean you are interacting with customers. Be timely, relevant, and regularly engage with your stakeholders. The results will be surprisingly. You might just learn something.
Posted in Social Health | No Comments »

What’s in a Name? [VIDEO]

Posted on: April 3rd, 2012 - 4 Comments

Over the years many people have struggled pronouncing our company name. I mean how hard is it? Well apparently, no matter how hard we try people just can’t seem to get it right! EmpowHER Founder and CEO, Michelle King Robson thought a few of us here should take time out of our busy day and help everyone out.

 

Now you try!

Posted in Corporate | 4 Comments »

Measuring Beyond the Click – Part II

Posted on: March 29th, 2012 - No Comments

Measuring Beyond the Click – Part II: HER Health Meter initially was created simply, to validate EmpowHER’s impact on users.

What we didn’t anticipate was that brands who work with us would want this too. Health and wellness marketers, practitioners and providers who pay EmpowHER to either sponsor one of our 700+ health condition centers, or 40+ advertorial-like health and wellness Resource Centers, or create custom social-meets-digital publishing solutions to reach, influence and engage our large and growing female health consumer audience also wanted to see how their brands resonated with this audience.

They wanted to measure “impact” and they wanted to measure it beyond a ‘fill out this form and a representative will call you’ kind of way. They wanted to find a way to use our HER Health Meter to gauge whether and how their educational content, messaging and promotional activities were ‘connecting’ with the female health consumers they value.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Corporate, Social Health | No Comments »

Measuring Beyond the Click – Part I

Posted on: March 27th, 2012 - 1 Comment

There’s an old business management adage…”if it can’t be measured it can’t be managed.” This has applied to lean manufacturing, agile software development, six sigma operational excellence programs, and of course marketing. For decades.

The question has moved from “what to measure?” to “can it be measured?” to “why are we measuring it?” to “how should we measure it?” And what really is measurement? The ‘counting’ of things? The ‘interpretation’ of things? The ‘impact’ of things?

Like many of my colleagues and peers, I’ve long believed that measurement has been an amorphous-if-not-entirely-elusive idea. The question isn’t whether or not marketing programs or campaigns can be measured. Sure they can. If there is data, actions or activities to ‘count’, measurement can happen. If there is tone to ‘interpret,’ it can be measured. But, what happens when your brand is one that has a material impact on its users that requires more than ‘counting’ or ‘interpreting?’

Continue Reading »

Posted in Corporate, Social Health | 1 Comment »

Is Authenticity Healthy for Your Brand?

Posted on: March 21st, 2012 - No Comments

For years, marketers and consultants have all but emblazoned this concept onto the computers of such talented social media practitioners tasked with the arduous task of maintaining a brands presence in the digital world. In fact, to be authentic, is usually one of the first or second “rules” printed in social media handbooks for employees to understand and follow. But this concept begs the questions, can brands truly be authentic, and if they were, is it healthy for their image?

In an article on socialmediatoday, one marketer dares to prove why authenticity is simply a concept that will continue to elude brands. To be “authentic” is to be transparent, genuine, and of unquestionable origin. When was the last time you signed into your favorite website and saw a deal promoting a discount on a yoga class, workout gear or even a supplements, with the supporting material around the promotion offering visitors a chance to “get healthy,” or “workout in style.”  The truth of the matter is, most corporations give away items at a discounted rate to either make room for newer, more expensive merchandise aimed to bring in a larger profit, or, to “hook” customers with an enticing offer to get them coming back to buy more. So, to be truly authentic, according to the genuine definition of the word, would require marketers to ditch the special offer talk and tell their customers why they are REALLY giving away discounted items or services. More over, to be truly authentic requires marketers to bare ALL the elements of their brands – imperfections and all. This is something that would keep the brand manager up at night with heartburn, having spent years crafting the perfect “image” to their customers. Continue Reading »

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Follow EmpowHER Media on Pinterest!

Posted on: March 12th, 2012 - No Comments

We invite you to like and repin our content on Pinterest! Subscribe to EmpowHER Media’s Pinterest RSS feed.

Posted in Corporate, Social Media | No Comments »