Newsweek recently ran an article citing many studies that have found this all-too-often missing link can actually affect a patient’s sense of well-being, number of symptoms and overall health. Newsweek specifically noted a Canadian study which audiotaped more than 300 office visits by 39 primary care physicians. Afterward, patients were asked to rate the visit when it came to their doctor-patient relationship. The researchers then followed the patients’ health over time.

“When patients reported that their doctors focused on their feelings and listened to them carefully, they not only felt better, but objective measures showed they had fewer symptoms of the disease,” wrote Shannon Brownlee, Newsweek contributor.

These days, what used to be called a good beside manner is being referred to as a “therapeutic relationship.” Google it and you’ll see it’s often used in the context of psychiatry – engaging the patient, listening, empathy, support, sincerity, etc.

There are lessons here for us as healthcare marketers as well. Forging a relationship based on listening, engagement, empathy and support shouldn’t start with the provider, it should start with us – the marketers. If you think about it, a relationship is really what patients want from all of their doctors and healthcare providers, isn’t it? And establishing this tone in your marketing message right from the beginning isn’t just good business, it just might be good for the patient’s health as well.

In short, when it comes to patient communications, whether it’s doctor-patient communications or a communications plan, it all comes back full circle to one very important thing: trust.

Have you infused your healthcare marketing with this relationship-first approach? Have anything you’d like to add? We’d love to hear it.

So, as a marketer, how do you make sure caring bedside manner goes beyond the bedside? Here are some thoughts:

Encourage doctors to know patients. There’s nothing like a doctor or staff member who jots down (or types up) personal notes in your chart and then asks you about your family or career each time they see you. CRM is an effective way to help personalize the patient experience.

Have your doctors pick up the phone. Skype. Send a text. Shoot an email. Doctors who dedicate some time each day or week to follow-up with patients who’ve had a surgery or procedure are proving just how important their patients are to them. Doctors might not make house calls anymore, but they can still make contact with patients at home. It could be as easy as picking up the phone. Telemedicine – where doctors video conference with patients – is gaining in popularity as well.

Also, a friendly text or email reminding a patient of an appointment is usually a welcome gesture. More and more, doctors are also reminding patients via an email blast to use up their insurance benefits before the year’s end.

Keep the lines of communication open even when the office is closed. No patient likes having to wait for the doctor’s office to open on Monday morning to schedule an appointment to address whatever happened over the weekend. For those doctors whose websites don’t have it already, creating a patient portal allows people to schedule appointments online, ask questions, access their electronic medical records, pay bills and refill prescriptions.

Share the knowledge. For the most part, patients want to be informed. Which is why websites like WebMed are so popular. Recommend your doctors invest in a couple of iPads for their lobbies. Have them bookmark relevant sites and download helpful and healthy apps. If they have blogs, Twitter or Facebook accounts, make sure patients can easily see those, too.

Have any other ideas on how to keep the patient front and center? Let us know your thoughts.

Nielsen and NM Incite published a helpful graphic that provides an informative view of consumers’ social, local and mobile consumption habits and how these three players relate to one another. It’s titled, “The Most Valuable Digital Customers,” and here are some of the statistics that caught my attention.

Social

• App adoption rate
• 58% used the Facebook app
• 18% used the Twitter app

Location

• App adoption rate
• 39% used the Google Maps app
• 5% used the Foursquare app
• 5% used the Yelp app
• 45% of visitors to local deal sites are very likely to recommend those daily deal sites
  Visits to coupons/rewards sites are up 11% since 2009 (65.4 million, August 2009 vs. 72.3 million, August 2011)

Mobile

• 38% of Americans own a smartphone
• Smartphone users spend 2/3 of their mobile phone time on apps
• 44% visit social networking sites

Those who acknowledge this shift and incorporate social, local and mobile strategies will be rewarded with increased customer loyalty and trust. Look at brands like American Express and its Small Business Saturday campaign. Or Krispy Kreme and the company’s new Hot Light app. Neiman Marcus is another brand that has truly embraced SoLoMo, utilizing Foursquare for its recent “Foursquare Challenge” promotion where 15 high-end clutch purses were hidden in secret locations throughout its stores nationwide.

Here’s the fascinating thing about SoLoMo – you do not have to be a glossy, national brand in order to incorporate social, local and mobile strategies. SoLoMo is just as important, if not more, to small business owners in your community. These establishments live and die by customer loyalty and word of mouth. Social, local and mobile have the potential to be game changers for those small businesses that recognize the possibilities available in these areas.

Regardless of whether you are a small mom-and-pop store or a high-stakes brand, you need to be cognizant of how SoLoMo will impact your online identity. The increases in smartphone ownership mean not only are users active in virtually any location, but they’re only a couple clicks away from their entire social graph. The repercussions for those brands that choose to ignore this shift? Potentially missing out on sales, customer insights, credibility and the opportunity to influence.

Are you taking advantage of SoLoMo for your brand? Tell us about it.

By far, the most disturbing 2011 event for me was the Japan earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster that spurred massive leaks of radiation. While the crisis led to yet another change in Japan’s leadership (the governing Democratic Party elected Yoshihiko Noda as the new prime minister in August -  the sixth person to hold the post in five years), that change led to no better handling of the situation as the tragic events unfolded.

What I remember most is the anger that bubbled up as Tokyo Electric and the Japanese government created as much mystery as possible around the amount of radiation being let off by the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant – the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. I’m still haunted by the matter-of-fact statements made by plant workers, bidding goodbye to their families for at least “many months,” to contain the toxicity emanating from the bedeviled reactors. To this day, I can’t recall any reports of what ever became of those unfortunate souls. Did any of them make it back out of the reactor facilities?

And then, there’s the kicker. Japan’s emperor Akihito comes out of the woodwork to comfort a lost and terrified nation. The emperor’s speech was his first-ever televised address and it was the first time any Japanese emperor has given a speech directly to the people on television during a national crisis. I wonder if the emperor realized what an irreversible PR nightmare was in progress. Did he sense that the trust and confidence of an entire people in its government was at stake? Was he somehow trying to bridge the gap between the Japanese government’s need to save face with the world by minimizing the appearance of chaos and the need to be honest and transparent with the Japanese people when they needed it most?

For many Japanese, the crisis brought with it a wave of doubt as to whether or not their government, an institution that has enjoyed a trust not seen in the U.S. for decades, was telling the truth about the realities of the disaster and the harm it was doing to people. When the government says that, on one hand, everything is just fine at the plant, but on the other hand, seal yourselves inside your homes and try not to breathe the air from outside, even the most loyal Japanese nationals began to lose trust.

This was a chilling reminder to me that as a PR practitioner, trustworthiness and transparency are my most valuable assets. Failing to communicate or waiting too long to communicate during a crisis can strip people of the calm they desperately need during that time. And it’s one of the things people tend to remember when the crisis is over or subsides. If Japanese citizens continue to lose trust in the government’s truthfulness or competence, then Tokyo will face another crisis, this one of its own making. Once that trust is gone, saving face will be out of the question.

If you haven’t already, chances are you’re finalizing your list of New Year’s resolutions. You know, go to the gym more, get organized, eat healthier, stick to a tighter budget, stress less …

Which got me thinking. Now is also the perfect time of year for organizations to really think about improvements they can make when it comes to their advertising plans. I’m not talking about an entire overhaul here, just some simple suggestions. Minor tweaks, if you will.

1. Be more social. Launch a new blog or a new Twitter feed in support of a specific product or service. Really go after that niche audience. A very specific blog or Twitter feed is a great way to differentiate yourself without the worry that it might undermine your existing marketing efforts.
2. Help others. Build a contest tab on your Facebook page to benefit charity. Ask your followers to vote on a charity, or perhaps recommend their own, and then make a donation to the most popular choice. It helps you build Facebook traffic, generates some viral buzz around your brand and makes life better for those around you.
3. Be more eco-friendly. There are lots of ways to make your organization green, but what about your advertising? We say, save a tree and try digital if you haven’t already. Scrap that brochure for a QR code. Or turn that annual report into a microsite. It’s the perfect way to test the effectiveness of a new media and help the environment at the same time.
4. Push yourself. Let’s face it, at one time or another, every client has been presented with more than one creative concept at a time. If your concepts tend to gravitate toward more conservative ideas, 2012 is your chance to try being a little bolder. I’d venture to say that the more creative the concept, the more it resonates with your audience. And the more attention-grabbing and memorable it is, the better your return on investment. Thus, what you might tend to view as a “risky” choice, in actuality is the “safe” one.
5. Look to the future, not to the past. If 2011 was a great year for you, “Congratulations!” If not, there’s nothing you can do about it now. It’s a new year, which means a new beginning. Figure out what worked and what didn’t. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

Now that we’ve got some ideas out on the table, here are some tips to help you follow through.

First off, commit yourself to trying just one to start. Then, make a plan on how you’re going to achieve it … and tell someone. That’s right, stick your head outside of your office right now and yell, “Attention everyone! I am going to (insert New Year’s resolution here). Ok, maybe not, but you get the idea. Not only can colleagues hold you accountable (oftentimes with just the right amount of good-natured peer pressure), they can also be there with a little positive encouragement when you need it most.

Have any other advertising New Year’s resolution ideas? We’d love to hear them.

Many in our industry are watching this process as a first step in cracking down on “greenwashing” –deceptive marketing or PR spin meant to portray a company as being environmentally friendly. The phrase was actually coined in response to those hotel cards asking us to reuse our towels and sheets for the duration of our stay to lessen the environmental impact of doing laundry. However, there are certainly plenty more egregious examples commonplace in the work our industry produces today.

I wouldn’t recommend we pin all our hopes on the FTC swooping in to save the day and clean up the practice of greenwashing, though. Their Green Guides review has been ongoing since 2007 and it appears it still has a way to go.

I don’t know that marketers really need to wait on guidance from the FTC here. If we as marketers are doing our jobs right, we should already be in compliance with whatever their directive is likely to be. We should already be working to a higher standard than “avoid misleading consumers with unfair or deceptive claims.”

That standard should be “advertising with integrity.” We, as an agency, owe you forthright consultation on plainspoken and genuine communication with your consumers. You owe your consumers authenticity, trustworthiness and promises delivered. If we all market under the belief that our name and our reputation are our most prized possessions, the FTC’s guidelines really shouldn’t have any significant bearing on our marketing practices.

What do you think? Does striving for higher ground in marketing practices cover FTC Green Guides compliance? Any particularly absurd instances of greenwashing you’d like to share? We’d love you to join the conversation.

Wondering what to do for next year? (It’s never too early to start planning, although October is when you really need to hit the ground running.) A lot of it is pure preference. But if you’re still on the fence, here are some things to consider.

1. Who is your audience? Even as the number of grandmas and grandpas receiving iPads as gifts is increasing, email probably isn’t the best way to reach senior citizens. On the other hand, if your target audience is tech savvy and glued to their smart phone, email blasts make perfect sense.
2. What seems most fitting for your company? Obviously, if you’re a printer, or if your communications rely heavily on direct mail the rest of the year, traditional cards are probably the way to go.
3. Do you have a thorough email address database? If so, email blasts can be an inexpensive alternative to printing and shipping a traditional holiday card.
4. What’s your motive? Are you looking to do something different and fun? Are you going to link your email blast to a website? This year, our agency did its first email blast/interactive holiday microsite and the results have been very positive. Not only is it a lot of fun, we’ve attracted people who might not have normally visited our website thanks to its viral nature.

Take a poll. How many traditional cards and how many email cards have you received? We’d be interested to hear. Also, do you have thoughts one way or another? Let us know.

• comScore: U.S. online sales for Cyber Monday amounted to $1.25 billion. An increase of 22% compared to 2010.
• IBM: 33% increase in Cyber Monday online spending from 2010 to 2011. In that same survey, IBM found that 10.8% of people used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site.
• Monetate: While desktop computers still accounted for the majority of website visits from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, the number of website visits decreased from 2010 by about 7 percentage points. Mobile devices and tablets saw an increase of about 7 percentage points.

The record-setting amount of money spent on Cyber Monday, along with increased use of mobile devices during the Thanksgiving weekend, are further evidence of mobile device market share growth in 2011.

We saw this trend coming. The thought of statistics like these was the impetus for the mobile-friendly site for high-stakes retail brand La-Z-Boy. The key features of their website could have been more easily accessible on mobile devices. So in our redesign, we pulled forward the aspects of the site most useful to mobile users, including a store locator and product search and share functionality. Copy was optimized for ideal mobile viewing.

It’s fair to say we don’t see these trends reversing anytime soon. In the U.S., 90 million people own smart phones. And 79% of mobile Internet users have used a smart phone to help with their shopping (Google/IPSOS Reid 2011). Plus, there’s going to be a 272% increase in the number of tablets shipped this year over 2010 (IHS). That’s right, I said 272%.

What does this all mean? As more and more people transition to smart phones and the demand for tablets increases, the utmost consideration should be given to optimizing your site for on-the-go digital consumption.

Having a mobile-friendly website is an essential step in connecting with customers. Your potential customers will move along to your competitor’s site if your site is difficult to view, takes a long time to load or does not load properly in their mobile browser. A mobile-friendly website needs to follow the rule of “less is more,” aiding potential customers in ways such as finding a retailer, comparing prices or reading reviews.

Have you noticed an increase in traffic to your website from mobile sources? How often do you turn to a mobile device to access the Internet? Did you use a smart phone or tablet to make a purchase Black Friday or Cyber Monday? We’d love to read your thoughts – share them in the comments section below.

The U.S.’s more relaxed system of political advertising can make life extremely difficult for non-political marketers leading up to an election. Cutting through the noise to reach average citizens or key sub-sets of the population can feel impossible during this time.

We understand the challenge from both sides. We’ve rolled up our sleeves for a good-old political election from time to time, and we’ve certainly worked on behalf of non-political clients to get their message out during election season. There’s no definitive formula for doing this successfully, but here are a few tried and true methodologies we have employed to increase the chances of a breakthrough:

1. Pay attention to what the media is covering and know the issues candidates are discussing. If possible, organizations might try to find a relevant link and tie their messages to larger national issues. Issues that the candidates are not discussing will be harder pressed to garner media attention during an election year.
2. Become part of the discussion. Position the organization’s leaders as experts by writing position papers and op-eds, by hosting events, and by providing the media with research and briefings on issues to educate the public.
3. Find partners to maximize the strength of the organization’s voice. Organizations should remember that there are others across the U.S., even in their home state, that focus on and care about the same issues. Like-minded organizations coming together will make a stronger impact promoting messages rather than one organization attempting this on its own.
4. Use media tools such as YouTube, blogs and social-networking sites in conjunction with traditional media outlets to focus on the issues important to your organization. Utilizing various media tools will strengthen the impact of messages and will allow a broader reach.

Doing these things can certainly help marketers’ chances of cutting through the election season clutter. The critical element to any activity in such a noisy marketplace is maintaining a laser-like focus on your message and repeating it every chance you get in the right places at the right time – even if it has to be during an election year. Do you have any other suggestions that have worked well for you? If so, we’d love to hear them.

As copywriter, I’m here to tell you it’s not because we don’t want to go back and tweak what we already created. Or that our feelings are hurt. (Our skin is thick and we’re not afraid of eating dinner at our desks.) It’s truly because we want someone besides our parents to truly remember not just the creative, but the message.

After all, when you tend to go on and on and on about who did this, why they didn’t do that, where it was or wasn’t done, who it affected, how much it cost, why they may or may not do it again, why we didn’t say this before, and where this or that is going, people become lost. Confused. Uninterested.

TARTA (click work to expand)

As you can see, this campaign has one simple message with one very arresting visual. There’s no picture of a bus. No full-page report explaining every detail of why TARTA is better than driving. By telling people to simply stop guzzling gas and ride TARTA instead, I walk away understanding (and remembering) what TARTA was trying to say.

HCR ManorCare (click work to expand)

This example is similar to TARTA in that the headline and visual are quick reads that are intriguing and draw you in. HCR ManorCare has more extensive body copy, but the visual and headline remain clear and concise. I get it. I understand it. And I won’t look at a razor the same way ever again.

Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank (click to play spot)

Sometimes people think that tight budgets are a bad thing. Not necessarily. Often, it forces to you really get at the heart of what you’re saying. This is a prime example. We had to quickly and effectively draw people in and get then to understand that people in Toledo aren’t able to feed their families.

If you have any examples of advertising you’d like to share that show why sticking to one message is so important, we’d love to see them. Of course, if you have examples of an ad that’s got everything but the kitchen sink in it, feel free to share those, too.