What Do I Do With All This Information?

We spend a great deal of time collecting data. Data itself remains a primary talking point within the marketing industry. We’re all supposed to be amassing this massive cadre of information about our customers, potential customers and competition. 

Data on its own is meaningless. It’s a lot like dumping a pile of topsoil on your driveway. The topsoil has the potential to grow trees and gardens, but unless you know how to use it, it’s simply a pile of dirt.

The goal of any commercial venture is to put boots on the ground. Your business needs customers. Whether it’s orders placed through your website or foot traffic in your brick and mortar location, this goal hasn’t changed much since human beings began selling things to each other. Our ability to collect copious amounts of information is supposed to help us achieve that goal. Instead, most of us ignore it.

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ve likely been approached by many companies scaring the living daylights out of you by warning that your business isn’t collecting enough data. But how much is enough? And how in the world do you begin to sift through it all?

DATA NEEDS TO SERVE A PURPOSE

This statement seems on the surface to be ridiculous. Of course data needs to serve a purpose. But for most of us, we’re collecting data simply because we can and we’ve been told we should. Every piece of data you collect should have an end point. Why else are you collecting it? Data doesn’t lie. It shows us where we’re succeeding and, more importantly, where we’re failing. Data is only a pile of topsoil until we use it for planting. 

DATA ALLOWS YOU TO SEE TRENDS

One of the primary uses of data is to view trends. A product-driven organization can see clearly and almost instantly what sells and what doesn’t. Information organizations such as news sites and entertainment companies can spot trends and provide content that is most desirable for their audiences. The types of trends your data can show depends on your business. From straightforward data trends such as abandoned shopping carts to where a user drops off your website, to more complex data algorithms that monitor traffic patterns, peak demand and negative feedback, there’s a tremendous value in data. 

For people who slept through algebra class, data analysis can seem daunting. Analyzing data is a learned skill. It requires an analytical mindset. Part of the fun of data analysis is looking for the obscure. Data isn’t only derived from inbound marketing. If you’re going to follow a transaction life cycle, you need to have information for the whole cycle. That includes your outreach (your advertising campaigns), behavior during the transaction, questions or comments during an online chat or through your sales staff, sales data, customer reviews and comments, and product defects and returns. Your business may have different touch points. Effectively using your data requires you to understand where these touch points exist. 

DATA COLLECTION OFTEN INFURIATES CUSTOMERS

Your customers watch the news. They read things online. They’re acutely aware that data breaches are an everyday occurrence. They’re becoming reticent to provide too many details. If you request too many private details, things like a Social Security number, a CVV code on a credit card, mother’s maiden name, etc., you will lose sales. There are many situations where confidential information is required. Customers used to provide that type of information willy-nilly. Today, requiring too much identifying information often leads consumers to search elsewhere. The decision process happens quickly. Too many questions, too many details, customers will abandon you.

Many companies try to harvest data that has little or nothing to do with the transaction taking place in order to fatten their marketing outreach. We build email lists in order to bombard our existing customers with promotional material. There’s a thin line between customer engagement and customer abuse. Do you really want to send e-blasts to customers who have no interest in what you’re promoting? 

BE WARY OF STORING TOO MUCH OF IT

If the NSA, the IRS and the Defense Department computers can be hacked, trust me, so can yours. The law regarding responsibility for the inadvertent release of personal data is still catching up with real life. At some point, one of the lawsuits by consumers against companies that have been hacked will stick and precedent will be set. But whether or not your company bears legal responsibility for data breaches, your company will have to answer to the consumer. It may be through customer boycotts or even through increased costs to implement extreme digital protections. 

How much data do you need? How much of it do you need to keep? How long do you need to keep it? What are you planning to do with it? Each of these questions needs an answer. If your business can’t answer these questions, it’s time to seriously look at the information you’re collecting.

DO SOMETHING WITH IT

You have at your fingertips the type of information Don Draper could only have dreamed about. Unless you use the data, there’s no reason to have it. Use your data to take action. If data trends are telling you that Product X is doing well during the ordering process but has a 45% defect rate, you should be focusing on improving Product X. If you regularly see negative comments regarding a particular portion of the consumer experience, maybe the wait time to place an order or lack of knowledge by the customer service team, that tells you that you need to target those particular weak points. Data tells us what’s happening. But it requires us to learn how to read it. And it requires that we have the desire to make the types of changes the data suggests.

Nobody’s perfect. Every business can improve. You have at your command enough information to figure out where you need improvement. You also have enough information to learn what other information you need. What pieces of data will allow your business to make educated decisions? What do you need to know? Why do you need to know it? Those are the questions you should be asking when you’re thinking about data collection. After all, who wants a giant pile of topsoil sitting in their driveway forever?

The Care & Feeding of Creatives

There they sit, huddled in the dark in front of movie screen-sized computer monitors, doing something with those weird pen things, surrounded by toys with their heads shrouded beneath enormous headphones. They’re your creative team. And they are nothing like you.

Creatives are a separate breed from every other group in your organization. Creativity isn’t magic and wizardry, but the good ones make it look that way.  Here are five things to remember if you’re managing a creative team or simply need to interact with one.

CREATING SOMETHING REQUIRES PERSONAL SACRIFICE

In order to produce artwork of any kind, be it for a gallery showing or a corporate promotion, a designer needs to pour some of themselves into it. There’s no getting around it. To produce something creative, one needs to create. And that requires a great deal of personal energy. Creatives are making a form of art. As such, they are making thousands of creative decisions that each impact another. Commercial design requires not only creativity but market awareness. There’s a lot of themselves creatives put into each project. Why is this an important point? Because it colors every interaction surrounding the project. You want your creative team to be passionate. In order to be passionate, they need to care. It’s very difficult to care in an environment that doesn’t foster cooperation and mutual respect. Creativity is a personal experience. Constructive criticism is an important part of that experience, but destructive criticism such as “this is crap” completely negates cooperation. If you do only one thing to make your creative team more effective, it’s to play nice. You’re all on the same team. Constructive criticism builds up, it doesn’t tear down.

2. CREATIVES REQUIRE SPACE AND TIME

Some people call it the zone, others call it letting their mojo out. No matter what it’s called, it is the single most important part of a creative’s job. Leave them alone. Not all the time, but be aware that their process is internal. For a salesperson, their process is external. When you’re baking a cake, you need to let it cook. Something I’ve effectively done in the past is to set “creative hours”, where all other departments understand that while the cake is baking, don’t open the oven. The flip side of that is having “office hours”, where members of other departments can meet with and collaborate with members of the creative team. Creativity requires dedicated blocks of time. That’s simply how it works. 

3. CREATIVES REQUIRE FEEDBACK

We all want to hear if we’re doing a good job. We also all need to hear if something we’re doing needs to be changed. Creatives are no different. Their job in any organization is to be part of a collaborative process. Whether it’s designing advertising for a magazine, building websites or executing the marketing strategy, clear and distinct feedback allows your creative team to quickly and effectively morph the project into its final iteration. Most creatives understand that their ideas and contributions are part of the puzzle. Some creatives get their noses bent out of joint when hearing criticism. The reason is sometimes arrogance, but most often it’s because they’ve had to pour so much of themselves into what they’re doing. Here are some tips on how to efficiently provide feedback to creatives:

Be clear about what you’re asking for. “I just don’t like it” isn’t a proactive criticism. A seasoned creative will ask detailed follow up questions if they hear that response, but it’s important to have at least a reasonable idea of why something doesn’t work. 

Engage the creative in the feedback process. There are few things a creative likes less than being dictated to. You hired this team for a reason. That reason was their creative abilities. You have a valuable resource available to you. Collaborative input will not only make the project stronger, but will enable both parties to have a stake in it.

If your business is based on external client feedback, bringing the creative into the conversation with the client can help eliminate delays and miscommunication. The need for creatives to have “creative hours” may be at odds with the urgency of an in-person client meeting. That’s where the Creative Director comes in. They’re the traffic cop, among other things. A Creative Director needs to have their head in both worlds, the creative and the day-to-day business. And they need to be able to offer alternatives and propose solutions. Creatives know what questions they need answered. A short client meeting can help eliminate errors or misunderstandings. Your creative team shouldn’t be your sales team. If an urgent client meeting is required outside of “office hours”, use your creative resource wisely. Understand that disrupting the creative flow can often take significant time to regain.

 If a creative project receives praise, let the creative know. In business, we are accustomed to only delivering negative feedback. We operate on a reactive basis, and forget to celebrate our wins. A little praise can go a long way.

4. CREATIVES WILL MAKE MISTAKES

Just like you, just like me, your creative team won’t get it right every time. Spell check doesn’t catch everything, especially if the wrong word is an actual word. Mistakes can be fixed. We’re all human. I’ve worked in many environments wherein strong, aggressive personalities have taken great joy in pointing out small errors. Remember that your goals are the same. You’ll get farther with kindness than hostility.

5. CREATIVES REQUIRE STRONG LEADERSHIP

Being a leader and being a boss are two very different things. A boss dictates. A leader gives people a reason to follow. Leaders are leaders because they’ve learned that each person under their leadership is unique. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Effective leadership requires the ability to listen, to communicate, to empathize and to see the big picture. Creative leadership is a lot about mentorship. Some people prefer a strong hand, others require a softer touch. Learning that comes from actually engaging with your team. And leadership is also about learning to delegate. Throughout any creative team, there are people with skills at all different levels. A leader uses all of her or his resources so that everyone rises together. Sharing skills and tricks of the trade between the creative team not only builds up everyone’s skill set, but also builds a team. It’s hard to be in a competitive relationship with someone you’re helping and who’s helping you. Creativity fosters in a collaborative environment. And a collaborative environment doesn’t just happen. It requires a leader to move the pieces into place, and then to let the organic processes take place. 

Creativity requires a different muscle group than, say, your sales team or your customer service reps. Both of those groups can incorporate creativity into what they do, and should. But a dedicated creative team has an entirely different way of approaching the world. Their core job  is to create. They use different tools, need a different physical environment and bring different parts of themselves to bear than any other department. Creatives are a lot fun. They just need to be left alone sometimes in order to get the job done.

It's Storytime

Your brand has a story to tell. That’s not a metaphor—telling your “brand story” isn’t some marketing doublespeak. Storytelling is as old as the human experience itself. It’s how lessons are passed from generation to generation, it’s how we learn about who we are and the relationships between each other, and it’s how we understand complex ideas. Your brand is no different. Tell a good story and you’ll have customers eating out of the palm of your hand.

The operative word, of course, is “good”. We’ve all read atrocious stories and wasted enough hours sitting in front of idiotic films to recognize crap when we see it. It’s easy to write. Sit down in front of a computer and start typing the words that pop into your head. It’s extremely hard to write well. Here are a few writing basics you can and should apply to your own brand story.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?

Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? In fiction, we call this the “theme”. What is your story about? Not the sequential events—that’s an outline. What is the larger message? In fiction writing, we tend to have a few overarching themes. Man vs. nature, man vs. himself, etc. In brand storytelling, the theme is not necessarily so epic. Product X may perform particular functions, but those functions are not the theme. To resonate with prospective buyers, you need to talk about what larger issues Product X solves. What problems, issues or needs are being solved by Product X? The theme derives from the problem being solved. Understanding what you’re solving by your writing allows you to clearly develop a solution. It’s a bit like developing a mission statement. You should be able to describe your theme in a single sentence. Think of it a bit like a thesis statement in an essay. The single thesis statement will tell you what you need to say and what you need to support through examples in the brand story. Once you figure out what you’re trying to say, you’ll need to start figuring out how to say it.

WRITE FOR YOUR READER

Having a keen awareness of your audience allows you to tailor your storytelling to appeal to them. Specific groups of readers have specific needs, desires and vernacular. Fans of the Twilight books have different needs than fans of Fifty Shades of Grey. Both have common elements—they’re unconventional love stories, they both take the heroine into dark worlds previously unknown to her—but they satisfy different audiences. Shakespeare wrote for his audience. The jokes, earthy humor and thinly-veiled jabs at the monarchy and religious figures appealed to a low-brow audience. Shakespeare wrote commercially. He told stories that were designed to present his product to the widest audience possible. What is your audience wanting to hear? How do you speak to them in their voice, at their speed and in their chosen venue? 

SHOW, DON’T TELL

A big mistake novice writers make is to rely on description rather than action. The world around us is a constantly moving entity. Your brand story needs to contain forward movement. Your story will likely contain many moving pieces—web content, social media content, video content, print advertising—that all need to work together as part of a broader story, while also being able to stand alone. How do you make each piece vibrant and engaging? Use action. Verbs are powerful things, and finding the right verb can replace lines and lines of unnecessary copy. Is there a better way to say what you’re saying? Say the words you’re writing out loud. Read them to other people. Hear how the words fall. Storytelling is a lot like songwriting. There’s a beat behind everything. Find your beat. 

ALL STORYTELLING IS CHARACTER DRIVEN

In a traditional fiction story, characters are created to fulfill certain objectives in the story, and the story is built around the struggles and challenges of these characters. The same is true in brand storytelling. Your characters are most often your users and potential customers. Your audience needs to be able to picture themselves in the story, which means using the product or service. When you know your audience (through research and demographic data), you can build brand characters that share your audience’s stake in the story. They become surrogates your audience, which allows your audience to easily step into your story.

USE THE EDITING THUMB TRICK

Editing is one of the most difficult but most important pieces of a good story. At least twice as much time should be devoted to editing as to creating. There are two really good editing tricks I’ve picked up through years in publishing and printing. First, look at each sentence individually. Find an adjective? Put your thumb over it. Read the sentence again. Does it still make sense? That means you need to cut the adjective. The second trick is to read backwards. With the advent of autocorrect, you may be typing too fast to notice that your “if” became “of”. If you are expecting to see “if”, your mind will often read “if”, regardless of whether “of” is there now. Reading the text backwards (right to left, bottom to top) will kick off your brain’s habit of glossing over words and allow you to catch more mistakes.

GOOD WRITING ISN’T DONE BY COMMITTEE

Too many cooks will inevitably dilute your message. You operate in a competitive environment. Your job when writing evocative brand stories is to synthesize all the messages into a cohesive identity. A story is compromise. There are often lots of characters, each playing a valuable role, but all of whom are part of the larger story. Hitting all the important facts is vital. That’s kind of the whole point of the thing. But producing a white paper and creating a brand identity through storytelling are two different animals. The more saturated your writing, the less likely it is to be effective.

Not all storytellers can write effective brand stories. Just like not all marketing copywriters can write a good story. Find someone with the ability to analyze data, to extrapolate behaviors based on that data, and to provide engaging, creative content. I’ve built my career through both storytelling and copywriting. I’m a published writer and accomplished copywriter. You can reach me at jrosenplot@gmail.com, or at 812.822.2077.

Start A Content Conversation

We all have a lot to say. Between sales pitches and proposals and PowerPoint presentations, we’re kind of up to our eyeballs in information. But is information content? If so, what information?  

If content is king, how do you ensure he doesn’t get dethroned? The answer is to have a conversation.

BE APPROPRIATE

That doesn’t mean don’t post questionable photos on your website. (Don’t do that, though). Being appropriate means having something to say that reflects the venue in which you’re saying it. Your corporate website and a product-specific Facebook page that has a college-aged audience will have different things to say. Neither are mutually exclusive. But you likely have a different way of speaking when you’re talking to your best friend versus a corporate CEO. The content, or conversation you’re having needs to focus primarily on the audience with which you’re having it. Like any good conversation, it should be a two-way street. I’m not talking about a live chat feature. I’m talking about solid research. How your customers reach out to you tells you a lot about the conversation they’re looking to have. Traditional websites, product-specific sites, individual social media interactions, trade show interactions and even Skype chats, each attracts a unique audience that will respond to you if you are appropriate.

RELEVANT WEBSITE CONTENT

One of the primary drivers of Google’s search algorithm comes from relevant content. Google, they’re pretty smart. Not long ago you used to be able to type a bunch of keywords onto the bottom of your web page and jump to the top of Google’s search. Actual content that relates to the subject of the page, the industry associated with the site, etc., is one of the things that drives search results. More is not always better. Doing extensive research about search terms and analytics data will give you a good start in providing content that corresponds to the most relevant search terms for your site. If you tailor your content to what your audience is actually looking for, you will notice a dramatic difference in your search rankings.    

KNOW YOUR STUFF, BUT DON’T BE A KNOW-IT-ALL

Content is a conversation. It’s not a lecture. There’s a fine line between the two. Your job and the job of your business is to be the expert in your field. As such, you’re expected to know a bunch of stuff. But information is like having your in-laws come to visit. A little goes a long way. Keep in mind that what most of your customers want to know is that you know. They don’t need the complete recipe to your secret sauce. They just need to know that you know how to make it. 

BE BRIEF

A good deal of your ongoing conversations with your customers will be via social media. Social media is a drop in sort of place. It’s the virtual water cooler. Your interaction should be short, sweet and to the point. You don’t need to write the entire novel, just a short chapter. When you’re writing short content, be specific. Don’t necessarily talk about all your new products, just one at a time. Or maybe a single feature of a product. 

DON’T WASTE THEIR TIME

Your audience bores easily. Quick bursts of information that grabs their attention and allows them to get on with their lives will leave them wanting more. Respect the short attention span. You can’t win against it. Don’t even try.

BE BRAND CONSISTENT

Above all else, have a plan. Don’t sacrifice your overall brand strategy for a specific venue, but be flexible enough to remain appropriate. That takes a little effort. You may need to experiment a bit. 

There is no single way to generate awesome content. Your conversation is and should be different than your competition. What is consistent across the board is that you are having a conversation. You’re building a relationship. That’s the secret to creating killer content. Your voice should be unique. That’s what sets you apart. So now it’s time to start a conversation.

The Taylor Swift School of Marketing

We can learn a lot from young Taylor Swift. Love her music or can’t wait for her fifteen minutes to expire, she is one savvy marketer. Swift maintains control over her entire musical and public life. Her recent spat with Spotify proved that she has serious muscle when it comes to the music industry. No artist can exist in a vacuum, though. Her fans (called “Swifties”), are among the most rabid out there. So how does she do it, and what lessons can we learn from her brilliant strategies?

YOUR CUSTOMER IS EVERYTHING 

Taylor Swift regularly trolls her fan pages to get a sense of what her audience is talking about. I can only imagine how time-consuming this practice is, but she does it. Personally. She often comments directly to fans, which serves to make her more human and approachable. Taylor Swift uses social media in the way it was meant to be used. It’s a unique forum in which to engage directly with your customer base. Her interactions are not overtly directed at selling more albums. She is genuine in these engagements. Her brand is the girl next door, every girl’s best friend, every boy’s dream. She’s the cheerleader who hangs out with the goth kids.

When you’re putting together your brand, whether you’re a celebrity or a local shop, break down your identity to its essence. A lot of the basics can be developed by acting like you’re in high school. Although your customer base may be long past their senior year, there are lasting societal breakdowns that begin and are most evident in high school. Does your brand appeal to the brains, the jocks, the geeks, the freaks, the princesses? This is a great way to begin thinking about your customer—think about The Breakfast Club.

But unless you’re selling a high school product, don’t make this your final analysis. Your customer is complex. Savor their layers. Engage with them. Find out what else they do. What else do they like? All media is social media. When you engage with your audience, you develop a relationship. That has tremendous value.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE THINGS UP 

Taylor Swift, the country music darling, make the cross-over to pop with her latest album. Some would argue that her version of country was already pop, but the media had a field day with her potential for failure. Swift proved everyone wrong and that infernal “Shake It Off” is now perpetually engrained in our gray matter. (I know you’re singing it right now).

Your business is fluid. What worked today will not work tomorrow. Sometimes paradigm shifts are caused by technology. Sometimes competition. Whatever the reason, you need to be ready to change. Taylor Swift’s transition was probably just a step to the left. But the ripples it’s caused have made it seem monumental. Give yourself the freedom to adjust. Change is good. It’s essential. Otherwise you get left behind. Sometimes change involves something minor. Other times, it’s a major brand shift. Look at McDonald’s. The mega-giant tried-and-true ubiquitous brand is being rebranded. Competition has led them to make changes. Will it save their business? Remains to be seen. Will the changes you make save your business? If you’re smart, do your research, talk with your customers, look at your competition, then you’ll at least be making an educated change.

BE GENEROUS 

The now-legendary Taylor Swift gift barrage that’s been lighting up social media is a cardinal example of how giving away can build your brand. From paying off student loans to hand-delivering Christmas presents to her fans, Swift is doing double duty. She’s connecting with her fans in a deeply personal way, and she’s doing it publicly.

True altruism is anonymous. When a business donates or does good work, their reward is prestige. It’s the reason most businesses engage in charity. Donating time, money, resources, it all has a public impact. The fact that Taylor Swift recorded each of these donations was simply a wise business decision. Give things away in unique and public ways. If your staff is donating an afternoon to a Habitat for Humanity build, have someone record the event and post it on your social media. If you’re donating product to a shelter or a Boys & Girls Club, make sure you have your logo clearly visible. Generosity by a business is often considered newsworthy by local media. TV, radio, newspaper, they eat this kind of stuff up. Making your donation or gift a public event allows your business to obtain a bundle of free publicity. The cost of the donated goods, your staff’s time, all of it is well worth the sacrifice if you go public with it.

DON’T SHY AWAY FROM THE BAD STUFF Taylor Swift has a propensity for having bad relationships. What 24-year-old doesn’t? The difference with Swift is that her relationships are very public. Her breakups top the entertainment news. Swift, of course, has had the last laugh by owning the charts and download sales of her song, “Shake It Off”, which is all about not worrying about what everyone thinks. She owns her mistakes, and the public has forgiven her for any perceived wrong.

Bad stuff happens. Brushing it under the rug or trying to put some sort of spin on it just makes your business look shady. Own your mistakes. You’re human. Your business is run by humans. We are a fallible bunch. People get that. They respond to humility. You don’t have to drag out your dirty laundry for every interaction, but be honest and solve the problem. The kind of double-speak in which many corporations engage just makes their customers frustrated. Own it. Your mistakes belong to you, and they’re how you grow.

HOLD ONTO WHAT’S IMPORTANT 

Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? When you look at Taylor Swift, you probably don’t think CEO. Sexist or not, our first impression of her is likely dismissive. Taylor Swift’s net worth is estimated at $200 million. When you compare that Michael Jackson, ($350 million) and Paul McCartney ($800 million), that’s not too shabby for a kid. The big difference between Swift and other artists is that she owns herself. She recognizes that her public persona is a commodity with tremendous value. Taylor Swift is the CEO of Taylor Swift.

As a business owner, you will face tough financial times. No matter what market you’re in, there are ups and downs. You may be tempted (or required) to bring on investors or outside financing. Remember what’s important. Don’t give away the store. Investors are savvy and will very clearly recognize what’s of most value in your company. That’s what they want. It may not be your product. It may be your process. George Lucas famously took a decrease in pay and “points” on Star Wars in exchange for merchandising rights. As anyone who was a kid in the late ‘70s on up will tell you, Star Wars merchandise is king. You may be required to make tough decisions about the future of your company. Hold onto what’s valuable. You’ll be grateful.

Don’t dismiss Taylor Swift as some bubble-headed pop star. We can all learn a few lessons from her. And since the haters gonna’ hate, hate, hate, it wouldn’t hurt to shake it off.

Patients, Grasshopper

We're all familiar with the traditional approach to healthcare marketing. Board certifications, big photos of the providers looking all serious and ready to find the next procedure that will get them published. Strength and stability and expertise are all important qualities, but there are some fundamentals that seem to be consistently missed in most healthcare marketing.

1. DON'T MARKET TO YOURSELF
The majority of healthcare marketing is done from the providers' point of view. Qualifications, looking serious, etc., all of these are internal-facing and have much more meaning to the providers than to the patients. From a patient's point of view, there are assumptions that a provider is qualified to perform the procedures they're promoting. Patients have two goals—to get better, and to be heard. That leads us to...

2. WHAT DOES YOUR PATIENT EXPERIENCE?
Here's a good little trick. Have a friend or a family member go through your patients' process. It's better if that person has a different last name and is unknown to staff. What is their experience? How long does it take to get an appointment? How long do they wait in the first waiting room? In the second? What is the lab experience like? How long does it take to get results? What is the process patients encounter when they receive their results? Remember that you're not doing this in a punitive way—don't look for poor performance by staff. If you find it, of course, address it. The goal is to experience what your patients, what your customers, are experiencing. At most levels, healthcare is tremendously competitive. The only point where it isn't comes from very specific specialists who are either the best in their field, or are alone in their market. For most providers, there are at least two other major competitors, sometimes much more. The ACA has or will open up an enormous market for new patients. These are people who have either never entered the healthcare system, or have used an ER as their primary care provider. In a competitive marketplace, a provider group that addresses wait times, customer service and simple friendliness will have the edge.

3. WHERE ARE THE BOTTLENECKS?
After receiving the data from your trusted source(s), analyze it. Can you accommodate new patients within a 48 hour timeframe? Do patients wait longer than 15 minutes past their appointment time? Remember that the wait time isn't just calculated in the main waiting area. Patients who have an appointment at 10am and aren't seen by a provider until 11, 11:30 will view the waiting period in its entirety. Rightly so. How long does it take to get test results? How long does it take to provide those results to the customer? There are always extenuating circumstances. Providers are busy. There is a shortage of doctors. And being a healthcare provider means tedious hours of paperwork. But from the patients' point of view, waiting for an hour or more after their appointment time is part of the problem.

4. WHAT IS YOUR CUSTOMER LOOKING FOR?
Most patients are taking time out of their own busy lives to come to you. Unless it's a routine physical, they're not coming to see you because they want to—they're coming to see you because they have to. Primary care physicians in particular are the traffic cops of the healthcare system. Much like triage in an emergency situation, primary care will lead to more specialized services. Patients are often scared and confused. The more complexity their symptoms present, the more doctor visits they'll need to endure. Let's face it—a doctor visit is not usually a happy occasion. A patient is looking for comfort, reassurance and most importantly, information. The entire patient care chain, from the initial appointment setting to the final referral, is part of the same experience for your patient. Clearly understanding their concerns goes far beyond being board certified. It requires a human touch.

5. FIX YOUR BOTTLENECKS, AND THEN PROMOTE IT
Putting the patient experience first is often a paradigm shift for a healthcare provider group. Doing so starts from the ground up, and from the top down. Respecting a patients' time, being clear and concise in your explanations, and then clearly explaining the next steps required provide the patient with a level of trust that no amount of letters beside your name can do. You may not be able to provide a 15 minute appointment guarantee. Logistics may not allow it. But promote it. Work as a team to ensure everything moves smoothly, and when the wait time exceeds 15 minutes, give your customers something. A gift card to Starbucks is a valuable commodity. A 15 minute guarantee will draw new patients from the large pool that now exists, let them know you understand their experience, and providing gift cards will offset any unforeseen circumstances. Starbucks gift cards can be personalized with your branding. People will do a great deal for very little. By providing some token as compensation for their wait, you let them know you get it. The patient experience is rough. To the patient, it's not a job. It's their life.

I've seen the healthcare process from both sides. I've worked with providers of all disciplines to help identify and correct issues. I've been a patient, waiting for hours in consecutively smaller waiting rooms. I've read old magazines, listened to piped-in Muzak and wondered why I scrambled to make an appointment time that was completely unrealistic.

Healthcare providers are providing a service. They have customers, just like any consumer business. The regulations and reimbursements and paperwork are intense, but other industries have similar challenges. Hospital groups and provider groups continue to grow and expand. The competition is intense. A group that decides the patient experience is more important than anything else will win. That fact has been proven again and again.

Your competition will continue touting their certifications and promote their latest machinery. If your message is simply, "we will see you within 15 minutes of your appointment time, or you receive a gift card", you will rise above. Patients are consumers, whether they or you are aware of it. Provide a consistently negative experience and your patients will walk away. But provide a sensitive, timely and positive experience, and you will reap the benefits.

A How-To Guide On Going Viral (Hint: You're Going To Need A Cat)

We've all seen it by now—the Friskies video called "Dear Kitten". Originally posted on June 5 of this year, as of this writing the video had 7,673,365 views. It's a commercial for Friskies cat food. Most commercials don't go viral. So what's the difference with this one? If you haven't seen it, here's the link.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THEM, IT'S ABOUT US
The product they're trying to sell appears once in the two minute, fifty-seven second spot. The logo appears once at the beginning. The focus of the spot is not on the product, but on the user. For cat parents, felines are like potato chips—you can't have just one. At one time or another, a cat parent will introduce another cat into the household. The conversation the older, wiser cat has with its new kitten roommate is what we all imagine is going on. The entire video is taken from the older cat's perspective. The cat has a personality. Which is what makes it resonate.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T SELL
Never, ever, ever. The placement of the Friskies product in the spot is done consistent with the storyline. We're not beaten over the head with a sales pitch. And by not doing so, we aren't on the defensive. Which makes us eager to share this video with our friends. And that is the secret to going viral. Don't sell me anything. I go online to be entertained. So dance, monkey.

MAKE IT FUNNY WITHOUT MAKING IT LOOK LIKE YOU'RE TRYING
That's a tough one. The Friskies spot tells a story that on the surface isn't comic. The older cat is very earnest in his life lessons for the kitten. He's exactly like you'd expect a cat to behave in the same situation. And it's funny because of his sincerity. If you try to be funny without a reason, just do some goofy schtick, it will look like you're a business owner trying to be funny.

WHAT ELSE DOES YOUR CUSTOMER DO?
Yes, you may recognize that phrase as a common theme throughout our blog posts. That's because it's vital to any marketing plan, and the one that is most often ignored. This video isn't about the product, it's about what else the users of the product do. In this case, it's not even speaking to the actual purchasers. Be responsible for a cat has an associated lifestyle. If you have a cat in your house, your cat has a voice. You likely provide that voice. This spot speaks literally to cat parents.

CAT VIDEOS REALLY DO WORK
It's a proven fact that people spend hours watching funny cat videos online. It's just the way it is. I mean, who doesn't recognize the happy cat playing piano? Hell, as I'm writing this, I have four cats on my desk. Friskies worked with Buzzfeed in the video narrated by Ze Frank and achieved in hitting liquid gold. Liquid cat gold, which is a much more legitimate online currency than Bitcoin. And is absorbed with a charcoal-based litter.

IN THE END, IT'S ABOUT LUCK & TIMING
What will be a candidate for internet infection and what won't? The target moves every day, almost as quickly as our collective attention spans. Gangnam Style, for instance, was the biggest thing the world had ever seen—and is now a punch line. You can't set out to create a viral video. What you can do is try. It's like trying to explain British humour. You either get it or you don't. But above all else, have fun with it. And you probably need a cat.