• by Michael Leis , Op-Ed Contributor, May 13, 2016

Our agency’s vision for how to achieve success is fairly simple. By helping to connect people to better health outcomes, the companies, that are integral to help make those connections, will succeed.

Everything that comes after that in social and content feels exponentially complex.

From a brand management perspective, it feels like the people you need to reach are scattered everywhere. And as soon as it feels like the brand has successfully adopted one platform, an entirely new technology pops up for consideration. Therapeutic areas are starting to feel less like audiences and more like galaxies of a million stars floating away from the sun.

Lately, we’ve seen a few strategic tumblers fall into place that manage the chaos of social and content into real results for patients and marketers beyond expectation. Not by chasing down technology, but by converging a few key insights to focus our work. While I can’t talk about the work or our clients specifically, I can take you through a sketch of the way we are developing strategy that is more than social: it’s societal. It’s built to ebb and flow with the ways people make decisions to get to better health, narrowing the constellation of possibilities into a focused approach.

Purpose

Brands no longer exist in an aspirational imagined world; they have to articulate their purpose to someone who would want be a part of their community. Brand purpose is a single statement that develops out of research and becomes the litmus test of every execution. 

Personas

From research come the composite people that matter to your brand. Who are they? What are their lives like? What does their social media persona tell us about how they want to be seen? Good personas focus the work of every team. Just ask the simple question, “Would Sarah (persona) think this content helps her ‘Make Today A Healthier Day (purpose)’?” You’d be surprised at how quickly this moves decisions into a practical application.

Platforms

Yes, every today, millions of social profiles, apps, and websites were launched. Chasing them would be a fool’s errand. When you’re clear about your purpose and the people who matter, it’s much easier to prioritize where brand effort is best spent. What kinds of content matter? Where are people finding it? How are they sharing it? Why does it matter to them? This creates a clear prioritization of the social platforms that offer your customers value in a place where your company has ability to help. 

Behaviors

You have set an amazing goal to accomplish for the year. However, that goal is not a behavior, it’s an abstraction of many behaviors. As marketers, we spend so much time obsessing over the patient’s journey. This obsession can easily overlook what people need to accomplish their journey in the smallest, most specific actions. Mapping behaviors is about knowing exactly what you’re asking someone to do and when on their journey. It sounds simple, but how much of your marketing actually achieves this?

Tactics

What seemed like the impossible dream just a few short weeks ago is now a compelling set of clear executions that deliver on your purpose. Using this strategic approach creates tactics that won’t seem like advertising at all. Your posts and content will be designed for people to use as part of their identity. That has resulted in marketing metrics like beating the engagement benchmarks for two social platforms’ health and wellness categories.

No, this is not your typical SWOT. It’s a reusable strategic method that creates truly innovative solutions for the millions of people who want to live better. If you don’t help them define that path in social and content, anyone will.