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Rule Of 7: Integrated Marketing Programs That Inspire Action

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As an agency that works exclusively with healthcare, health IT and life sciences companies, this is a startling stat: U.S. hospitals waste over $12 billion annually as a result of communication inefficiency among care providers. Helping our clients succeed with clear, consistent communication is in our DNA for good reason.

Working with our clients as they seek to communicate clearly with their target audiences across the healthcare industry, the old marketing “Rule of Seven” still applies. Basically, this rule states that it takes an average of seven interactions with your brand before a prospect will take action, which in the B2B world may be to commit to a meeting. That’s why integrated marketing programs designed to communicate across multiple channels are so important in today’s noisy, cluttered media landscape. Here are several considerations to develop effective campaigns that deliver on the Rule of Seven.

Set clear, measurable campaign objectives

Always start with a clear understanding of who you want to target, what action you want them to take, and what information they need to understand how you can meet their immediate need. A common mistake is not segmenting the target audience into personas with specific needs that are met by your solution or service. Rather, it’s most effective to develop a strong value proposition for each persona and deliver your message through focused campaigns.

In addition, identify key performance metrics right up front for every campaign. With an eye to the objectives, how will you measure success – webpage visits, landing page conversions, meetings scheduled? Be sure to set a baseline and target results. As the campaign progresses, use the metrics to guide adjustments to continuously improve performance.

Create compelling content

In today’s content-rich environment, it’s vital to tell a coherent story about how you meet the needs of your target personas across all your channels, from your website to social media to thought leadership to campaign content and sales enablement assets. By first understanding the type and depth of information each persona needs at each step in the buying process, you can identify what content will be most effective for each campaign.  

Offering a mix of content is an important aspect of the Rule of Seven. Different people within your target audience will respond best to different types of content. Some focus on short-form content such as social media posts, infographics and videos. Others prefer long-form content, such as articles, eBooks and white papers. Long-form content can always be repurposed into short-form content, which more effectively uses resources while delivering consistent messaging. Overall, it’s important to deliver a mix that consistently drives them toward the final call to action.

Extend reach across multiple channels

Every integrated marketing campaign should leverage as many channels as possible to meet target audiences where they are – your website, social media, outbound email, digital advertising, search, events and tradeshows. And as highlighted above, use a mix of short-form and long-form, written and video to reach your audience. Pay particular attention to how to make content pop visually for each channel – over 50% of marketers agree that visual content is essential to their marketing strategy, leading to more engagement from audiences.

Align media relations and thought leadership efforts

It’s also important to create crossover between focused campaigns and proactive media relations and thought leadership programs. Published articles make valuable assets to incorporate in campaigns. By creating pitches that address the needs of journalists while connecting with the key messages for your target personas, you leverage another important channel for reaching your audience.

Integrated marketing programs that communicate across multiple channels using compelling content help rise above the noise and connect with your audience in ways that deliver results. With the Rule of Seven in mind, marketers can create meaningful brand interactions that show how your solutions meet the needs of your prospects, making them more apt to take the next step toward purchasing your solution.

Amendola Brings Home 3 Awards for Outstanding Health Tech PR & Marketing Programs

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Leading Healthcare, health tech-focused agency also a finalist for Ragan PR Daily Agency of the Year

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 14, 2023 – Amendola Communications (Amendola), a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare technology and life sciences public relations and marketing firm, has won three MarCom awards and is a finalist for Agency of the Year in another top awards program.

Amendola won two Platinums and one Gold in the Public Relations category of the MarCom Awards, one of the largest global creative competitions in the world. The first Platinum was for work the agency did on behalf of KeyCare, the nation’s first virtual care platform built with Epic’s EHR platform. Amendola designed and executed a strategic PR plan that successfully launched the startup in a crowded marketplace, including creating sales material, an e-book, news release, and securing multiple interviews and article placements.

“We chose to work with Amendola because their people are great and they have a long track record of success in healthcare,” said Lyle Berkowitz, MD, CEO of KeyCare. “As a new company in a crowded space, we needed to make sure every one of our potential clients knew who we were and how we were different. Amendola came through amazingly well by navigating us through strategy, helping us create fantastic content and ensuring a huge array of placements. As a result, our message is getting across, clients know who we are, and our company is growing tremendously.” 

The second Platinum win in MarCom’s PR category was for helping DrFirst launch an awards program to recognize healthcare organizations using technology in innovative ways to improve patient care. Gaining recognition for a new awards program in a field crowded with them required Amendola to call upon its years of experience and solid relationships throughout the industry.

“Our collaboration with Amendola has spanned several years, and their expertise ensured a strong launch for our Healthiverse Heroes Awards, as well as well-deserved attention for the honorees,” said G. Cameron Deemer, CEO of DrFirst.

Amendola won Gold in the PR category for helping Equality Health showcase its value-based care model by writing compelling thought leadership articles and placing them in leading healthcare industry publications.

Amendola also has been named one of four finalists for Ragan PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards’ prestigious Agency of the Year. This competition honors the most effective and productive teams in public relations and marketing. The winner will be announced at the end of November.  

“What a wonderful way to celebrate our 20th anniversary,” said agency CEO Jodi Amendola. “Winning the three MarCom awards and being named a finalist for Agency of the Year is the result of two decades of refining our practices and honing our skills to produce the best possible results for our clients. We’re proud and excited to be recognized for our hard work and dedication and look forward to continued success.”

About Amendola

Amendola is an award-winning, insights-driven public relations and marketing firm that integrates media relations, social media, content and lead gen programs to move healthcare, life sciences/pharma and healthcare IT decision-makers to action. The agency represents some of the industry’s best-known brands as well as groundbreaking startups that are disrupting the status quo. Nearly 90% of its client base represents multi-year clients and/or repeat client executives. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros understand the ongoing complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and provide strategic guidance and creative direction to drive positive ROI, boost reputation and increase market share. Making an impact since 2003, Amendola combines traditional and digital media to fuel meaningful and measurable growth. For more information about the industry’s “A-Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Marcia G. Rhodes, mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

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Writing For Humans And Search Engines Like Google Is Not Mutually Exclusive

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When I served as Content Marketing Director for a telehealth startup, I learned a lot. Mostly, I discovered it’s possible to write great content for people’s enjoyment, education, and readability, while also writing for search engines like Google. This was during the pandemic, and telehealth was taking off in a big way as a crucial and safe solution for patients to connect with their providers. 

At the time, everybody was searching for answers about telehealth – office managers at independent physician practices, IT leaders at the largest health systems in America, and consumers of all ages, from teens to seniors. It was this big telehealth pivot that provided new insights about creating readable-yet-searchable content.

I recognized it’s possible to address human readability while ensuring high-ranking content. In fact, it’s not only doable, but also necessary so that people searching for answers can find helpful, readable content.

Earlier in my career, I was told you couldn’t do both — that writing for humans and Google were mutually exclusive. That’s not true, and content creators can deliver engaging and easy-to-understand content for readers that is optimized for search engines to drive traffic to your website and raise awareness for your brand. The trick is generating high-value information that answers the top-of-mind questions from your target audience and provides easy-to-understand content incorporating relevant keywords in the storytelling. To achieve this content “holy grail,” writers should have a basic understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices, especially for on-page SEO must-dos.

When you balance SEO with the reader experience, you can generate powerful results. All this is truer with thought leadership communications, in which content strategies aim to establish a company or brand as an expert – and “trusted authority.”  

Here are some tips to help writers create content for both humans and Google:

  • Survey Your Target Audience: If you can, conduct a quick survey of your target audience to ascertain their most urgent, burning questions. If you can’t, get with those closest to your customer/prospect organizations – such as sales leaders or customer success experts — and interview them to learn what they believe the top-of-mind questions might be.  Answering these questions can drive your content plan.
  • Create a Working Title: Draft a working headline that strategically differentiates your company or brand and succinctly articulates the storyline you believe is essential to tell your target audience. Headlines are powerful as they deliver — in a short bit of copy — the strategic intent of the story. As you write working titles, know they can and usually will improve, especially with feedback from content reviewers and experts included along the way in your collaborative review process.
  • Conduct Keyword Research: Good writers conduct thorough keyword research using tools like MozPro, SEMRush, and others to identify the keywords and phrases readers most frequently use to search for answers online. Doing keyword research for content is different than for paid ads, where you may look at the competition and identify costs for purchasing those keywords. For organic content, SEO research is inspiring because you can see which keywords are popular and used most often for searches, as well as which may hold “white space” and could be ownable.  This should be conducted for each strategic piece of content. This research helps ensure the content you are creating is relevant and of value — optimized for search engines people use every second of every day. It’s essential to limit to 1-2 keywords or phrases that make the most sense per each content piece, given the strategic intent of your storyline and your working title. This research phase also can change your working title and probably should!
  • Naturally, Incorporate Keywords. Use keywords in the content, but use them strategically and sparingly. Keywords should fit naturally in the heading, subheadings, and the first 100 words of the piece. Make sure you incorporate the keywords in a way that helps both the human reader and the search engine. After all, when we are all Googling, we want to be served up the most trusted and easy-to-review content that answers our questions. Remember to use keywords in the file names of images you post with the copy, in the alt text, and the meta tag. 
  • Think About the Reader’s Experience. As you pull your content together, focus on creating an engaging, informative, and easy-to-understand story. Use visuals like photos, infographics, and even videos embedded within the content for a superior reader experience. Keep it tight, though, as nobody has time to read 2,500 words. Go for the sweet spot of 800-1200 words, if you can.
  • Optimize for Search. Google rewards those who do this best! Your content should have internal and external links to trusted sites. Ensure that the content is well-structured and easy to navigate.
  • Deliver High Value. Make sure your content is valuable and informative for readers. You will  know when you read it and when you write it. And if you are creating Thought Leadership content, infuse a bold point of view with authenticity. As you read your first draft, ask yourself, is this insightful and useful information? Will a reader enjoy reading this? Does this content make an impact?

As content creators today, we should think about humans and about the search engines like Google that can ultimately deliver your content to a broader readership (of humans). Addressing both forces will result in online content best worthy of answering questions from top searches and telling an engaging story.

Avalon Healthcare Solutions Selects Amendola for Strategic PR Services 

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Award-winning healthcare PR agency partners with world’s first and only lab insights company to amplify thought leadership and company achievements

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., June 6, 2023 – Amendola, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare technology and life sciences public relations and marketing firm, announced today that Avalon Healthcare Solutions, a leading provider of technology-enabled laboratory benefit management and lab insights solutions, has chosen the firm to amplify client successes, thought leadership, and industry best practices.

“The importance of lab insights to the transition to value-driven care, cost control and improved disease management has been long overlooked,” said Bill Kerr, MD, CEO of Avalon. “We’re teaming with Amendola to raise awareness of our solutions and how they help health plans, clinicians and patients ensure the right test is performed, for the right care at the right cost. We chose Amendola for its deep industry knowledge and media connections and we look forward to collaborating with its experts to further our business.”

Amendola is implementing a comprehensive content marketing, communications, and media relations plan for Avalon aimed at showcasing the company’s value proposition, technology and services, new offerings, accomplishments, customer wins, and industry partnerships.

“This will be my fifth time working with Amendola over the past 20 years,” said Michele Norton, MS, RN, Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Avalon. “I hire them wherever I go because they are simply the best at what they do. They’re part of my formula for success.”

Welcoming Avalon to the agency roster, Amendola CEO Jodi Amendola said, “It’s so gratifying when former clients bring you on board to help their new companies. Avalon is an exciting partner to work with, not just for its innovative offerings, but because the company has repeatedly been singled out for its exemplary workplace culture and leadership. It is an honor to work with such a thoughtful and forward-looking business.”

Avalon provides healthcare plans with lab benefit management solutions and analytics to better manage lab testing in order to control costs, ensure appropriate treatment protocols, and provide actionable insights for earlier disease detection.

About Amendola

Amendola is an award-winning, insights-driven public relations and marketing firm that integrates media relations, social media, content, and lead gen programs to move healthcare, life sciences/pharma and healthcare IT decision-makers to action. The agency represents some of the industry’s best-known brands as well as groundbreaking startups that are disrupting the status quo. Nearly 90% of its client base represents multi-year clients and/or repeat client executives. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros understand the ongoing complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and provide strategic guidance and creative direction to drive positive ROI, boost reputation and increase market share. Making an impact since 2003, Amendola combines traditional and digital media to fuel meaningful and measurable growth. For more information about the industry’s “A-Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Avalon Healthcare Solutions    

Avalon Healthcare Solutions is the world’s first and only Lab Insights company, bringing together our proven Lab Benefit Management solutions, lab science expertise, digitized lab values, and proprietary analytics to help healthcare insurers proactively inform appropriate care, reduce costs, and improve clinical outcomes. Working with health plans across the country, the company covers more than 38 million lives and delivers 8-12% outpatient lab benefit savings. Avalon is pioneering a new era of value-driven care with its Lab Insights Program that captures, digitizes, and analyzes lab results in real-time to provide actionable insights for earlier disease detection, ensuring appropriate treatment protocols, and driving down overall costs.

For more information about Avalon, visit www.avalonhcs.com.

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Media Contact:

Marcia G. Rhodes

Amendola Communications

mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

How To Keep Zombie Sentences From Infecting Your Writing

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I’ve previously warned of the dangers of writing with vampire words – those useless words and phrases that latch on to sentences and bleed them dry of meaning and vitality; bloodsuckers like “focus” and “prioritize” and “process.”

In sticking with the horror theme, this post is about zombie sentences, those lifeless clumps of words that lurch and stagger through memos, emails, white papers and reports. Like zombies, these sentences drag themselves across the page, shuffling along without any real animate spark or personality.

Specifically, I’m talking about passive voice, the default construction for too much business writing. What’s passive voice? It’s when a noun that would be the object of an active sentence instead becomes the subject of the sentence. For example:

Active voice: Michonne cut off the zombie’s head. – The subject is Michonne, who acts on the object (the zombie’s head).

Passive voice: The zombie’s head was cut off by Michonne. – Here the zombie’s head occupies the usual position of grammatical subject and Michonne switches to the spot usually occupied by the object.

Well, so long as the zombie is decapitated, who cares?

You should.

In most cases, passive voice weakens your writing, robbing it of clarity, energy and momentum. It also implies a lack of ownership and responsibility. Consider the usual politician’s copout: Mistakes were made. The implication is that no one made the mistake; it just happened.

Like a solitary zombie, a single passive sentence does not pose much danger. But in large numbers, zombie sentences can overwhelm and devour the brains of any reader. Consider the following:

A meeting was held to discuss Q3 results and to plan initiatives for the coming year. Reports from the relevant committees were delivered and discussed by attendees. It was decided that the reports would be combined and presented to the C-suite in preparation for a companywide strategy. Further deliberations were postponed until the next meeting. Lastly, it was agreed that the Cinnabon order would be doubled for the next meeting.     

Horrible, isn’t it? Sentences barely alive, yet relentless in their tedium.

It’s not uncommon for vampire words and zombie sentences to come together to form some truly ghastly writing: A consensus was reached to strategically leverage the assets in a focused implementation. This sort of writing calls for mobs with torches and pitchforks.  

Passive voice can be sneaky. You know how in every zombie movie someone gets bitten and keeps it a secret and no one knows until the victim turns full zombie and attacks? Passive voice also can go undetected until the damage is done.

How to spot passive voice? Look for a form of “to be” (is, are, am, was, were, has been, have been, had been, will be, will have been, being) followed by a past participle (a form of the verb that typically ends in –ed), and you have passive voice, i.e. We have all been chased and bitten.

If that sounds too much like grade school grammar, here’s a simpler way that uses zombies to detect zombie sentences. If you can tack the phrase “by zombies” to the end of a sentence and it still makes sense, then you have passive voice.

The research was analyzed and a final report was delivered to the client . . . by zombies.

A search for the CEO’s replacement was initiated . . . by zombies.

Neat, huh? It’s like getting zombies to eat each other instead of us.

On TV, there is no cure for the zombie virus; the only recourse is a bullet to the brain. But there is a happy ending in business writing. Zombie sentences can be restored to life and it’s usually quite easy to do. The antidote? Use active voice, the old subject/verb/object sentence structure.

Instead of “The research was analyzed and a final report was delivered to the client” try “We analyzed the research and delivered a final report to the client.”

Instead of having something being done to someone, have someone do something.

“Further changes were made to the logo by the artist” becomes “The artist made further changes to the logo.” Cured! 

Of course, there are times when it’s a good idea to use passive voice, just as it’s allowed — once in a great while — to let a zombie live. (Remember the end of Shaun of the Dead, when Shaun chains up Zombie Ed so they can still play video games?) Here’s when passive voice works:

  • When you don’t know who did something or want to de-emphasize who did it: The quarantine was put into place too late to stop the outbreak.
  • To emphasize an object: A zombie herd was spotted crossing the highway.

The outbreak of zombie sentences has reached pandemic levels. Keep your writing clean and aim for the head.

Raintree Systems Engages Amendola for Strategic PR and Marketing Services

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Award-winning healthcare PR agency to collaborate with physical therapy technology leader to amplify thought leadership and company milestones

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 2, 2023 – Amendola, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare technology and life sciences public relations and marketing firm, announced today that Raintree, a leading provider of electronic health records (EHR) including patient engagement, scheduling, billing, and practice management, in addition to revenue cycle management (RCM) software solutions for the therapy and rehab industry, has selected the firm to amplify client successes, thought leadership, and industry best practices.

Amendola is implementing comprehensive PR and marketing plans to demonstrate Raintree’s industry-leading technology and services, new offerings, accomplishments, customer wins, and industry partnerships.

“The physical therapy and rehab industry has reached a moment where improved efficiency and efficacy are priorities to advance their medical practices,” said Allison Jones, vice president of marketing for Raintree. “Our partnership with Amendola will enable us to educate the industry by showcasing our ability to help clients deliver better outcomes through technology and the power of analytics.”

“Raintree is dedicated to empowering healthcare organizations with the tools, processes, and services they need to operate the best medical practice possible,” said agency CEO Jodi Amendola. “We are excited to collaborate with Raintree to amplify its accomplishments in enabling therapy and rehab organizations to provide the best services possible for every patient they treat.”

Raintree’s solution is a fully integrated and interoperable EMR platform that powers a practice’s entire business cycle from a single source. From clinical documentation to patient engagement, to RCM and billing, Raintree helps automate manual processes, improve efficiencies, maximize revenue, and deliver business intelligence allowing clinicians to focus on delivering quality care and growing a successful practice.

About Amendola

Amendola is an award-winning, insights-driven public relations and marketing firm that integrates media relations, social media, content and lead gen programs to move healthcare, life sciences/pharma and healthcare IT decision-makers to action. The agency represents some of the industry’s best-known brands as well as groundbreaking startups that are disrupting the status quo. Nearly 90% of its client base represents multi-year clients and/or repeat client executives. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros understand the ongoing complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and provide strategic guidance and creative direction to drive positive ROI, boost reputation and increase market share. Making an impact since 2003, Amendola combines traditional and digital media to fuel meaningful and measurable growth. For more information about the industry’s “A-Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Raintree Systems

Raintree is the preeminent platform for enterprise and mid-sized therapy provider organizations. They have a proven track record of success and client satisfaction providing solutions in patient engagement and communications, clinical documentation, revenue cycle management (RCM), and business intelligence/analytics for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, audiology, and ABA across all treatment settings. From pediatrics to geriatrics, Raintree has more than 2,500 implementations and more than 25,000 users daily. Its commitment to “Software-as-a-Relationship” uniquely distinguishes it from other providers in the market. To learn more about Raintree, visit https://www.raintreeinc.com/.

Media Contact:

Marcia Rhodes, mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

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Putting Your Communication On A Diet

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On the cusp of a new year, many of us start thinking about exercise regimens. But the founders of Politico and Axios recommend we put our “prose on a diet.” In their book, “Smart Brevity,” they spell out effective ways to communicate in a world of 24×7 news cycles and social media.

Theirs isn’t the first book to detail better ways to write. But they do build off the seminal “The Elements of Style” to account for our 21st century digital age.

Citing various research studies, they suggest that we’re “overindulging in words” and that we need to pay attention to how “people consume content,” and to “communicate to save people time.” The key is to get people focused “on what matters most.” That’s what they’ve done with their Axios newsletters, i.e., structured them in a way to inform, but also linking to the details if readers want to go deeper. Go “short, not shallow,” “with simplicity and brevity,” is their mantra.

In order to get people to understand what we’re saying, PR professionals also need to package content so it answers two questions:

  • What’s new? (i.e., tell me something I don’t know.)
  • Why does it matter?

It’s particularly important to be memorable in the subject line, be it in business communications or a story pitch to a reporter. The authors recommend no more than six words, grabbing the reader’s attention.

In the body of a communication, they also recommend bold-facing key points and using bullets to “impose rhythm.”  The first sentence is important because it may be the only opportunity to “tell someone what they need to know.”

Here are other key takeaways, many already known, but still good reminders for anyone in the business of writing and communicating:

  • Single out the person you want to reach
  • Be simple and direct
  • Use the right words
    • As Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
  • Sharpen thoughts and ideas
  • “Deliver depth, detail and nuance more quickly”
  • Less is more
  • Use active verbs always
  • Write direct, declarative sentences
  • Use one-syllable words in lieu of two- and three-syllable ones
  • “Tell me a story; don’t tell me about a story”

One thing I found interesting was their recommendation to use emojis in e-mail subject lines, as a means to stand out.

The book also includes chapters with best practices for writing e-mails and presentations, running meetings, writing speeches, building visuals, doing social media, and running companies.

The ultimate goal is to “win the war for attention,” and this book provides a worthy playbook for doing so.

Amendola Communications Wins Three MarCom Awards

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Boutique Healthcare & Health Tech PR Firm Wins Two Golds and an Honorable Mention for Campaigns for ABOUT, Verana Health and 4medica.   

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 1, 2022 – Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized healthcare and technology public relations and marketing firm, has won three MarCom Awards for work on behalf of clients.

Amendola won Gold for campaigns for ABOUT and Verana Health and an Honorable Mention for work for 4medica. The annual international awards sponsored by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals honor excellence in marketing and communications.  

“We’re thrilled to win the MarCom Awards,” said agency Chief Executive Officer Jodi Amendola. “While we measure our success in the results we produce for clients, recognition from your peers is gratifying because they, better than anyone, know how much work and creativity goes into a winning campaign.”

Amendola won Gold for helping ABOUT (formerly Central Logic) raise awareness of the importance of care orchestration. Amendola created a 120-day plan that shaped the narrative with key stakeholders and established ABOUT’s reputation as a thought leader in care access and orchestration. Tactics included press releases, byline articles, executive interviews, blog posts, and social media.

Amendola’s second Gold was for its work promoting the launch of Verana Health’s VeraQ™ population health data engine and curated, disease- and therapeutic-specific Qdata™ modules in three therapeutic areas. Amendola helped to position VeraQ and Qdata as a source for quality insights, specifically targeting trade press within three medical specialties. Tactics included: press releases, blog posts authored by clinical experts, targeted media outreach and interviews, social media promotion, and analyst meetings through which Amendola positioned Verana Health as a key innovator.

The Honorable Mention was for helping 4medica raise awareness among healthcare providers of patient safety problems caused by duplicate records and how 4medica can solve them. Amendola created and executed a comprehensive plan to put the problem squarely on the radar of the target audience and position 4medica as a solution. Tactics included: press releases, bylined articles in relevant media outlets, interviews, blog posts, social media and email campaigns.

Amendola also won two Golds and an Honorable Mention in the 2019 MarCom Awards.

Amendola has built a loyal customer base among the healthcare, health IT and life sciences industries by delivering significant, measurable results for healthcare, healthcare tech and pharma-focused organizations, many of whose leaders have hired us at successive companies. To see other awards Amendola has won and to learn more about the agency, click here.  

About MarCom Awards

MarCom Awards honors excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the creativity, hard work, and generosity of industry professionals. Since its inception in 2004, MarCom has evolved into one of the largest, most-respected creative competitions in the world. Each year about 6,500 print and digital entries are submitted from dozens of countries. MarCom is administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP). The international organization, founded in 1995, consists of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, digital, and web professionals. AMCP administers recognition programs, provides judges, and rewards outstanding achievement and service to the community. Entrants are not charged entry fees for work they create pro bono for nonprofits. In the past few years alone, AMCP has contributed more than $250,000 to charitable causes.

About Amendola

Amendola is an award-winning, insights-driven public relations and marketing firm that integrates media relations, social media, content and lead gen programs to move healthcare, life sciences/pharma and healthcare IT decision-makers to action. The agency represents some of the industry’s best-known brands as well as groundbreaking startups that are disrupting the status quo. Nearly 90% of its client base represents multi-year clients and/or repeat client executives. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros understand the ongoing complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and provide strategic guidance and creative direction to drive positive ROI, boost reputation and increase market share. Making an impact since 2003, Amendola combines traditional and digital media to fuel meaningful and measurable growth. For more information about the industry’s “A-Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Marcia Rhodes

Amendola Communications

mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

You Still Have To Write For Humans (And Not Just Eighth Graders)

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Anyone who has been in marketing eventually is advised to “write like an eighth grader.” People who offer this advice may cite legitimate literacy studies showing that the “average American” reads at the level of a seventh- or eighth-grader. If that is true (especially since more than 90% of adult Americans 25 years or older have graduated from high school), I’d like to have a word with our education system.

Maybe this is unfair, but when I hear people say, “write like an eighth-grader,” it sounds a lot to me like “dumb it down.” Yes, I fully agree that marketers should express themselves simply and directly. As a consumer or B2B buyer, I wouldn’t have it any other way! Who has time for a lot of smoke and mirrors or hyperbole? We’re all busy and just want to solve our problems or enable opportunities.

Technology can be very difficult to understand, let alone explain – healthcare technology even more so. And don’t get me started about life sciences and advanced medicine. But it’s our job to make sure we’re getting our clients’ messages across in a crowded, noisy market.

Take this blog post. I am not writing this at an eighth-grade level because my target audience is marketers and healthcare professionals, and I’m supremely confident that most of the people in those jobs can handle a flashy four-syllable word or two.

Going back further, I’ve been writing about enterprise technology and healthcare technology for many years. My primary target audience has been CXOs, the people who make buying decisions or can influence buying decisions. CXOs tends to be well-educated and articulate. If they were placed back in middle school today, I’m convinced most would get gold stars for their outstanding reading ability. I believe in you, CXOs!

So while “write like an eighth-grader” is a pithy and memorable phrase that will get you lots of likes and fond references to Strunk and White on LinkedIn, understanding your audience and writing to their level is much better advice. If you do this effectively, you can connect with existing and potential customers on a human level, show you understand their problems and needs, and persuade them that you have the right solution. And that’s how sales are made and brands are built.

Resist SEO tyranny

Speaking of connecting on a human level, digital marketers also are constantly told they must “write for SEO” (search engine optimization) – almost always, incidentally, by SEO experts. (Just sayin’! 🤣) This process may require clumsily shoehorning highly rated “keywords” into the first 100 words of your text, writing “compelling” meta descriptions, inserting links in the text (but not too many), and other best practices that can change depending on Google’s latest search engine tweaks.

When I was freelancer, I worked for a content company whose platform literally wouldn’t allow you to submit an article unless it met about a dozen SEO criteria. The pain and shame of mutilating my copy to meet the exacting standards of a string of code in C++ forever will haunt me.

I don’t know much about SEO, but I do know a lot of smart people believe in its ability to help improve Google search rankings and raise a company’s visibility. But I worry that an excessive emphasis on SEO eventually can be counterproductive because the writer ends up writing to an algorithm. Not only does that feel restrictive, but you run the risk of sounding like everyone else writing SEO-driven copy.

SEO is a tool. “Write like an eighth-grader” is a concept. Don’t let either get in the way of you communicating on a human level with your target audience. Yes, you should be concise and direct, but there’s nothing wrong with showing a little personality or using humor when appropriate. These techniques might not register with an algorithm, but they will help your company or client connect with plenty of people on a human level. And that’s worth a lot.

Press Release Headlines: When Short Is Just Right

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A famous saying in my family is, “Our family is SO short, our family tree is a bush.” Ba dum bum.

Seriously, there are certain times when being short and sweet is right on point. Example: press release headlines.

My colleague Brandon Glenn recently wrote a blog about the 2021 State the of Press Release report from PR Newswire (a Cision company). Point 3 specifically states that for headlines, less is more. Cision recommends keeping headlines fewer than 70 characters. Not words…characters (including spaces.) Why? Email applications and Google’s search engine will cut off any text over that amount.

PR Newswire offers editors and journalists the option to subscribe to their wire service based on keywords that interest them. Subscribers are only emailed press releases with the applicable terms. Imagine how frustrating it would be if they missed relevant news because key words weren’t included in the first 70 characters of the title.

We all have a limited amount of time in our day, which is why a list of shortened titles that grab our attention is useful for helping us to decide what we will spend our valuable time reading. A clear example is the daily news feed from Becker’s Hospital Review. Not only do you see headlines comprised of just a few words, for each article you also get a one-paragraph synopsis that provides enough information to help you decide if you should open the article for a deeper dive.

Now I’m going to pick on a press release that fails to be short and sweet. Note that this is not one for our clients, but the release did make me flinch when I ran across it:

“Sandoz launches authorized generic of Narcan® (naloxone hydrochloride) Nasal Spray 4 mg in US to help reverse opioid overdose, expanding access during surge in overdose deaths”

This poor headline is 175 characters. Do we really need the generic name in the headline, as well as the dosage? Again, keep in mind that email platforms and Google will cut off after 70 characters, so all anyone will see is “Sandoz launches authorized generic of Narcan® (naloxone hydrochloride).” Journalists looking for important keywords like “opioid” and “overdose” would not see this release.

If I were writing this headline, I would say, “Sandoz unveils generic Narcan® to help surge in opioid overdose deaths.” My version is exactly 70 characters and succinctly communicates the company’s general message. The rest of the details could then be included in the sub-headline or body of the release.

A headline is meant to catch readers’ attention – and it is important to do it quickly. When it comes to writing a press release headline, remember that a short and sweet 70 characters is the magic number.