Your Regular Marketing Plan Is Out the Window Right Now. Do This Instead.
Alan Shoebridge, SHSMD board member and director of marketing for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced healthcare organizations to develop and execute crisis marketing plans. A crisis marketing plan addresses brand management with the goal of avoiding disconnects and establishes processes for rapidly redirecting messaging from service line campaigns to patient safety and health.
Alan Shoebridge, director of marketing at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System and a board member of the Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD), recently spoke with us about how his team is putting their crisis marketing plan to work while responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.
eHST: How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your health system’s digital priorities?
AS: On the communications side, keeping everyone updated with information is a challenge because things change from the CDC all the time. We’re providing daily messages for our internal audience to keep them updated, reassure them, help them feel safe, and make sure they have everything they need for patients to have a good experience when they come in.
eHST: How can healthcare brands be impacted based on their response to the outbreak?
AS: We’re looking at how we shift our advertising and brand messaging to be more about keeping safe and staying healthy. If you’re still running your same ads with the same messages that were running before the pandemic, there’s going to be a real disconnect. Don’t be insulting, dismissive, or tone deaf. We need to shut off any messages that don’t feel reflective of what’s going on right now. Every message needs to reflect what’s happening, or it feels so inauthentic. That’s never a good idea, but right now it’s a total waste.
Read the full interview and learn what your communications should be focusing on right now:
Why You Need a Crisis Marketing Plan During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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