True North Custom Launches Healthcare Marketing Podcast to Guide Engagement and Growth Strategies

With insights from True North strategists and interviews with top hospital marketers as your guide, you’ll discover proven tactics and practical tips that inspire your marketing initiatives.

Look­ing for a quick, fun, engag­ing way to stay cur­rent on mar­ket­ing top­ics and indus­try trends? Check out the health­care mar­ket­ing pod­cast from True North!

Host­ed by Pres­i­dent Eric Sil­ber­man and Vice Pres­i­dent of Strat­e­gy and Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Jane Cros­by, the pod­cast was cre­at­ed to share our best prac­tices plus action­able ideas from the bright­est minds in con­tent mar­ket­ing, dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing and health­care strategy.

We hope you’re inspired by their con­ver­sa­tions with experts from Cleve­land Clin­ic, Sales­force and oth­er lead­ing brands:

Episode 1: Building the #1 hospital blog with Amanda Todorovich from Cleveland Clinic

Cleve­land Clin­ic sets the pace for con­tent mar­ket­ing in health­care, and Senior Direc­tor of Dig­i­tal Mar­ket­ing and Health Con­tent Aman­da Todor­ovich offers her view from the peak as senior direc­tor of dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing and health con­tent. In this inau­gur­al episode for our health­care mar­ket­ing pod­cast, you’ll find out how she’s built an elite team based on the guid­ing phi­los­o­phy “How do we beat yes­ter­day?” and why more than 10 mil­lion vis­i­tors turn to Health Essen­tials—the #1 hos­pi­tal blog in America—each month. You’ll learn which chan­nels are dri­ving the most engage­ment dur­ing COVID-19, the blog’s top-per­form­ing piece of con­tent for many years, how the hos­pi­tal is lever­ag­ing Tik­Tok and much more!

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 2: Get ready for the context marketing revolution with Mathew Sweezey from Salesforce

As direc­tor of mar­ket strat­e­gy at Sales­force, Math­ew Sweezey has a front-row seat to the trans­for­ma­tions in con­sumer behav­ior and mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy. He draws on those insights and his expe­ri­ence work­ing with some of the world’s largest and most well-respect­ed brands—including AT&T, Dell, UPS, The Home Depot and more—in his new book: “The Con­text Mar­ket­ing Rev­o­lu­tion,” pub­lished by Har­vard Press. Find out why Math­ew believes mar­keters have to change the way we think about our brands and our mar­ket­place to suc­ceed in the post-COVID-19 future.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 3: How marketing leaders at Vanderbilt Health are making a dent in the healthcare universe

Van­der­bilt Health is a nation­al leader in val­ue-dri­ven care. The mar­ket­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tions team plays a piv­otal role in plan­ning and imple­ment­ing these ini­tia­tives. We spoke with two mar­keters lead­ing the charge—Megan Pruce, VP of strate­gic mar­ket­ing, and Mal­lo­ry Yoder, senior man­ag­er of busi­ness engage­ment strategies—on best prac­tices for suc­cess­ful­ly engag­ing both physi­cians and con­sumers around pop­u­la­tion health strate­gies, what it takes to build a cross-func­tion­al team and oth­er crit­i­cal issues in advanc­ing the mind­set shift from val­ue-based care to value-for-volume.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 4: SHSMD President Holly Sullivan believes this is healthcare marketing’s moment

In the words of Hol­ly Sul­li­van, senior direc­tor of strate­gic mar­ket­ing at Spec­trum Health and pres­i­dent of the board for the Soci­ety for Health­care Strat­e­gy and Mar­ket­ing Devel­op­ment, “Our orga­ni­za­tions are look­ing to mar­ket­ing to help get through this.” In this episode focused on effec­tive lead­er­ship and com­mu­ni­ca­tion dur­ing a cri­sis, you’ll learn how she’s help­ing her 14-hos­pi­tal sys­tem and 4,000+ SHSMD mem­bers rise to the occa­sion and guide their com­mu­ni­ties toward recov­ery and growth.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 5: Rose Glenn on how to have a remarkable, highly rewarding career in healthcare

With 30+ years of expe­ri­ence work­ing for large, com­plex orga­ni­za­tions, Rose Glenn under­stands what it takes to build a suc­cess­ful career in health­care mar­ket­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tions. The Chief Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Mar­ket­ing Offi­cer at Michi­gan Med­i­cine and for­mer pres­i­dent of the board of the Amer­i­can Hos­pi­tal Association’s Soci­ety for Health­care Strat­e­gy and Mar­ket Devel­op­ment shares can­did per­spec­tive and prac­ti­cal advice on risk-tak­ing, men­tor­ship, and the impor­tance of being assertive while also show­ing kind­ness — shat­ter­ing the myth that “sharp elbows” are a require­ment for leaders.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 6: From funnels to flywheels: digital marketing virtuoso Rand Fishkin on modernizing your approach to engagement and growth

As the founder of Moz and now CEO of Spark­Toro, Rand Fishkin is a lead­ing voice on SEO tech­niques, soft­ware tools and oth­er must-know top­ics for today’s mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sion­al. In this episode, you’ll learn how to avoid “boul­der-push­ing mar­ket­ing” and build a fly­wheel that gains effi­cien­cy, low­ers costs and gen­er­ates high­er ROI for your con­tent strat­e­gy and dig­i­tal campaigns.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 7: Guiding marketers toward growth: how Meghan Keaney Anderson helps Hubspot win hearts and minds

As a VP at Hub­spot and one of the most bril­liant mar­ket­ing minds on the plan­et, Meghan Keaney Ander­son is build­ing a world­wide com­mu­ni­ty while dri­ving rev­enue for the com­pa­ny’s all-in-one growth plat­form. Her expert per­spec­tive on mak­ing paid ads more effec­tive, writ­ing for search and why con­tent qual­i­ty beats quan­ti­ty (among oth­er top­ics) is guar­an­teed to raise your mar­ket­ing game.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 8: Chris Pace of Banner Health on removing friction from the customer experience

As Senior Direc­tor of Dig­i­tal Mar­ket­ing at Ban­ner Health, Chris Pace is instru­men­tal in mak­ing sure the largest hos­pi­tal sys­tem and employ­er in the state of Ari­zona deliv­ers on the mis­sion: mak­ing health care eas­i­er, so life can be bet­ter. Learn how his phi­los­o­phy of “strat­e­gy first, tools sec­ond” along with his elite team is pow­er­ing a dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion that impacts near­ly every step on the patient jour­ney, includ­ing online sched­ul­ing, billing and oth­er touch points. Get prac­ti­cal advice on cre­at­ing a zero click strat­e­gy, con­sol­i­dat­ing web­sites and per­son­al­iz­ing con­tent, along with per­son­al insights from his jour­ney to cope with imposter syndrome.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 9: Johnny Smith of Encompass Health is disrupting B2B marketing strategy

John­ny Smith was recruit­ed to trans­form the mar­ket­ing func­tion for Encom­pass Health—the largest post-acute care provider in the coun­try with 140 reha­bil­i­ta­tion hos­pi­tals in 39 states. Dis­cov­er how his pas­sion for lead­ing by lis­ten­ing — espe­cial­ly to those who “don’t drink the mar­ket­ing Kool-Aid” — and lever­ag­ing data is empow­er­ing his team, build­ing equi­ty in the brand and dri­ving growth for the organization.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 10: HCA Healthcare’s Head of Digital Strategy Kelly Nye is at the epicenter of evolution in healthcare marketing

As VP of Dig­i­tal Strat­e­gy & Devel­op­ment at HCA Health­care, Kel­ly Nye works with mar­ket­ing, IT and oth­er dis­ci­plines to “inter­weave dig­i­tal into every­thing we’re doing and think­ing about” across the system’s 180+ hos­pi­tals and 2,000+ sites of care. Go behind the scenes of the largest U.S. health sys­tem for a glimpse into COVID’s trans­for­ma­tive impact on the team and tech­nolo­gies under her purview, along with glean­ing Kelly’s expert per­spec­tive on man­ag­ing ven­dor part­ners, the future of health­care CRM sys­tems and more.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 11: Ascension’s Nick Ragone on his passion for storytelling, chess and mission with a capital M

Nick Ragone’s offi­cial title is exec­u­tive VP and chief mar­ket­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tions offi­cer — but he calls him­self Chief Sto­ry­teller for the system’s 160,000 asso­ciates spread across 2,700 sites of care. Find out how COVID accel­er­at­ed the Ascen­sion brand jour­ney, what chan­nels are keep­ing the team engaged and why he feels the qual­i­ta­tive mod­el of mar­ket­ing no longer suf­fices in healthcare.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 12: Content marketing pioneer Joe Pulizzi on where the puck is going

As the founder of Con­tent Mar­ket­ing Insti­tute and Con­tent Mar­ket­ing World, Joe Pulizzi helped define and advance the dis­ci­pline con­sid­ered essen­tial to mod­ern marketing—especially in health­care. Accord­ing to the 2020 Dig­i­tal Health­care Mar­ket­ing Trends report, “Look­ing at the capa­bil­i­ties where lead­ers are fur­thest ahead of oth­ers, con­tent devel­op­ment tops the list.” Get expert per­spec­tive from Joe and hosts Eric Sil­ber­man and Jane Cros­by on build­ing an audi­ence, exper­i­ment­ing with Club­house and oth­er new plat­forms and the mar­ket­ing chan­nel we’re the most bull­ish about in 2021.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 13: Victor Reiss on creating data-driven vaccine communications at UNC Health

“We will not be sat­is­fied until we have moved those who are vac­cine hes­i­tant to being ready and will­ing.” That con­vic­tion is the dri­ving force for Vic­tor Reiss and his team at UNC Health­care. We spoke with the Sys­tem VP of Con­sumerism and Insights about how he’s help­ing match vac­cine-relat­ed mes­sag­ing with the right audi­ence seg­ments, includ­ing what he calls the untapped mar­kets of Black and Lat­inX pop­u­la­tions who often expe­ri­ence lack of equi­table oppor­tu­ni­ty and access.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 14: Michael McCauley on healthcare marketing trends and building trust

As part of the pan­el that helped devel­op the 2020 By the Num­bers Spe­cial Report from the Soci­ety for Health­care Strat­e­gy and Mar­ket Devel­op­ment, the VP of Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Hack­en­sack Merid­i­an Health has his fin­ger on the pulse of indus­try trends and inno­va­tions. Find out what shifts your peers are mak­ing dur­ing the pan­dem­ic along with how his 17-hos­pi­tal sys­tem is build­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion plans around the COVID vac­cine, Michael’s four Rs for fos­ter­ing men­tal health at work and more.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 15: Ken Chaplin on combating the shadow curve and empowering patients at Cancer Treatment Centers of America

As Chief Mar­ket­ing Offi­cer for CTCA, Ken Chap­lin is advanc­ing the mis­sion of patient empow­er­ment for the house­hold brand in can­cer care. In this insights-packed 30-minute episode, find out how CTCA applies advanced attri­bu­tion mod­el­ing to pre­cise­ly mea­sure the impact of mar­ket­ing, why the orga­ni­za­tion is well posi­tioned for a cook­ie-less world and what they’re doing to flat­ten the “shad­ow curve” caused by the sharp decline in can­cer screen­ings and treat­ments dur­ing the pandemic.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 16: Julie Rose of CommonSpirit Health shares social media tips, trends and tools

As Sys­tem Man­ag­er of Social Media at Com­mon­Spir­it Health, Julie Rose helps guide the system’s 140+ hos­pi­tals on build­ing com­mu­ni­ty and dri­ving engage­ment on Face­book and Insta­gram. Find out how the brand’s Hel­lo Humankind­ness pur­pose is reflect­ed on these plat­forms, what tools she uses to plan and pub­lish con­tent and why the mag­ic on social media hap­pens after you post.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 17: Summit Health Chief Marketing Officer Matt Gove on Digital Marketing and Driving Physician Referrals

In the sum­mer of 2019, Matt Gove had just left Pied­mont Health­care to join CityMD when the lead­ing urgent care provider in the New York metro area merged with Sum­mit Med­ical Group to form Sum­mit Health. Then the pan­dem­ic hit, and his brand was front and cen­ter in media cov­er­age of COVID. In this live­ly con­ver­sa­tion, learn how these expe­ri­ences shaped his mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, along with his expert per­spec­tive on B2B vs. B2C mar­ket­ing, what to look for when hir­ing mar­ket­ing tal­ent and the most important—and often overlooked—digital mar­ket­ing channel.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 18: From Quirky to Quantitative: Christine Albert on How Humanizing the LCMC Health Brand Is Driving Business Growth

In one of our most col­or­ful and com­pelling inter­views, LCMC Health Chief Mar­ket­ing and Expe­ri­ence Offi­cer Chris­tine Albert high­lights her team’s suc­cess in lever­ag­ing data to dif­fer­en­ti­ate the New Orleans-based brand and gen­er­ate bot­tom line results. Learn how she’s ele­vat­ing the C‑suite’s per­cep­tion of mar­ket­ing through strate­gic insights that illu­mi­nate oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenge the sta­tus quo — like the system’s more authen­tic approach to online physi­cian bios that has gen­er­at­ed a 50% increase in organ­ic views and near­ly 25% more con­ver­sions to appoint­ments. As a SHSMD Board Mem­ber, Chris­tine has been instru­men­tal in advanc­ing the health­care mar­ket­ing dis­ci­pline. Find out how the orga­ni­za­tion is guid­ing mem­bers through con­sumer research, men­tor­ship pro­grams and oth­er new ini­tia­tives that empow­er career and net­work development.

Listen now on iTunes!

Episode 19: Amy Comeau on Thriving in a Competitive Healthcare Market

As VP of Mar­ket­ing at Emory Health­care, Amy Comeau has a unique van­tage point into the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges of lead­ing brand and rev­enue growth strate­gies for a nation­al­ly ranked aca­d­e­m­ic health sys­tem. Find out how she’s pri­or­i­tiz­ing her plan, lever­ag­ing CRM and oth­er tools and get­ting buy-in from key stake­hold­ers to influ­ence all stages of the patient journey.

Listen now on iTunes!