Nothing drives a message home like a well-told story. And an increasing number of healthcare organizations are making patient testimonials a central part of their marketing strategy, harnessing the power of a compelling story to build loyalty, highlight compelling cases and showcase their best work. In this session, experts will share best practices—and common pitfalls—to keep in mind when using patient testimonials.
The power of the story: Using patient testimonials and stories to drive marketing efforts
1. of a Patient Story
Lily Vautour, Senior Social Media Specialist
Boston Children’s Hospital
@LilyVautour | @BostonChildrens
THE
2. Why Cover Patient Stories?
Objectives:
Relationship Building
Care Discovery
3. Identify a compelling
and/or innovative
patient story
Pitch and place story,
publish blogs, publish
video/photo assets
Research
Share earned media
story, blog, video on
social media
Plan content
development
and deployment
Utilize social advertising,
influencer outreach,
additional media pick-up
1
Strategize
2
Execute
3
Promote
4
Amplify
5
External
Communications
Process
4. Best Practices
ISSUE SOLUTION
Identify
compelling
stories
Efficiently move
through an
approval process
Lack of coordination
in sharing a multimedia
story
Forge relationships
with clinical and
administrative staff
Work with families
and clinicians who are
genuinely invested
in doing a story
Consistent
team story
huddles
5. • Highlight incredible innovation and care team work
through an authentic lens
• Best-performing social media content
• Stories can be repurposed
Patient
Stories
Case Study
Content
6. Making Connections
Everywhere they went
they were told surgery
would be a death sentence.
But Jen remembered a story
she had read before Owen
was born, an article about
boy whose encephalocele
was removed at Boston
Children’s Hospital.
“
”
7. Violet
CONCEPT
Violet is unique but not
alone at Boston Children’s.
We have seen this before.
New Craniofacial Anomalies
Program
Rare, priority condition
Cute kid
Great family
Traveled for care
Coordinated care
Simulation/3D printing
innovation
8. AmplifyPromoteExecuteStrategizeResearch
Concept
3D printing
angle, NYT
given exclusive
3D angle crafted
specifically for
NYT
Blogs mirrored
video series
Blogs
developed as
campaign
progressed
Blogs
advertised
through
Facebook
Video SERIES
to cover the 4
angles
Video series
developed
1 video shared
each week on
social in
January
Videos
advertised
through
TrueView,
Facebook
Strongest
emphasis on the
video series.
NYT piece +
blogs excellent
support. 2 month
campaign.
Content calendar
schedule –
appropriately
spaced
Content also
pushed through
Cleft Facebook
page
All posts
included
targeted
Facebook
advertising
Intro copy
developed for
videos + earned
+ blogs
cohesively
1 video
published each
week of January
Blogs publish
throughout
January
NYT feature
video/piece
publishes
Blogs shared
on social media
Feature was
advertised
through
Facebook
Feature was
shared social
media
channels
Coordinated Campaign: Violet/Cranofacial Video Series
Patient stories and influence (maybe a bit of a buzz word now, but..)– why does Boston Children’s commit to 2-3 patient story blogs per week? Why is all of the time and effort that goes into creating a motivational, emotional, educational, etc story worth it to us? That’s what I’ll cover with you in the next 15 minutes.
** tied to volume and reputation. Complex care #1 pediatric hospital in the states. But not just a marketing tactic for us. When you start treating them that way things can get tricky.
Relationship building: Allow families to relate to other families through real experiences. Allow BCH to relate with families
Care Discovery: Help parents find the right care for their child through us and through other parents
Our standard procedure
2. (press release, blog, photography, videography, design)
Can be tough to get stories solution: forge relationships and seed the MAC dept. throughout the institution. Get to a place where docs are picking up the phone because they have an interesting case. Give them the tools to know what will make for a good patient story (good family being key)
Not properly vetting a family can lead to issues with the approvals, etc. solution: need an engaged family that has the same motivations as us. We’re careful to put a family out there. We’d rather not do the story if unsure of the family than do the story. Are conservative with this. Provide guidance so that they can write the blog themselves if they’d like. We love this perspective
Need Coordination between marketing, communication, content, internal, PR, social – we do 9AM huddles every morning where we discuss stories in the news, blogs, something someone heard. Bring everyone up to speed, allow for brainstorms. Anyone in dept. welcome. With multimedia story, imagery is KEY. Need coordinated effort to make a photo shoot happen. Proper planning. BALANCING different team INTERESTS
We use our stories to tell an authentic story. Can weave many different angles and messages into a patient story. Can have parent/patient-written blogs bring a story to life through an even more authentic lens.
Our patient stories consistently outperform all other types of social media content we share, across platforms
Patient stories can be repurposed and used in a variety of ways across a marketing department: (email, web, newsletters, ads, fundraising, blog, video, social, etc
Each of these patients parents found care at BCH from the other patient’s patient story. I’ll dig into Violet and showcase how we brought her incredible story to life.
Pull quote: from Owen’s Thriving patient story
Verbal key points tied to results------ 20% increase in rare craniofacial procedures in 2 years prior to dominic and 2 years post
Craniofacial procedures: 2011-2012:152
POST DOMINIC: 2013-2014: 180
Highlight newly launched Craniofacial Anomalies Program + coordinated care + innovation – unique case but not unique for us!
How to do this? Thought of a video series….
Part 1: the Journey begins
Part 2: Meet Violet’s team of doctors ---- coordinated care
Part 3: Inside the operating room
Part 4: Violet returns home
So what did we do? FOCUS ON VIDEO SERIES to get all of the key points across:
Teaser
Part 1: the Journey begins
Part 2: Meet Violet’s team of doctors ---- coordinated care
Part 3: Inside the operating room
Part 4: Violet returns home
4 months of planning, 3 months of production, 2 month execution period
with a very talented team from across Marketing – 6 people
Teaser
Part 1: the Journey begins
Part 2: Meet Violet’s team of doctors ---- coordinated care
Part 3: Inside the operating room
Part 4: Violet returns home
FB advertising spend: $2,000
TrueView YouTube advertising spend: $1,000