If you’ve got a communications program that’s achieving the results you want, you’ve almost certainly got a good process behind it.
Maybe I’m biased from the way this was drilled into my head during the 20 years I spent doing comms at a large payer. But still, it should be true for any organization. And especially critical for healthcare. There’s too much regulatory and compliance risk to just get out there and wing it with your public messaging and storylines.
While that’s applicable for healthcare marketing in general, it’s doubly true for executive communications in healthcare.
This is not to say there can’t be creativity or personal authenticity in a healthcare leader’s communication style. To the contrary, execs who have an engaging, unique style on top of valuable things to say are the ones who tend to gain the biggest and most influential following.
Healthcare communications + executive communications = a glaring need for process-driven communications
One of the most important roles I played in corporate life was that of lead speechwriter and executive communications adviser for the CEO and a few other members of the leadership team. But since I started working primarily with healthcare startups, I’ve found that only parts of the big-company model apply to working with founders, CEOs, and other members of the leadership team and board.
Nailing the executive’s messaging, key topics, and style matter for all stages of company sizes and maturity, for example. On the other hand, supporting the startup founder or CEO differs greatly: There’s little to no infrastructure, unlike the cast (chief of staff, administrative assistant, direct reports who themselves are executives with big teams) that surrounds the leader of a large enterprise.
Which means the marketing and communications leader or team should supply the structure and support to make executive communications work.
Since I’ve recently started a new client engagement that includes founder-led communications, it seems like the perfect time to run through the approach I’m using for early-stage startups. Here it is, nine steps in total over four categories:
STRATEGY
No matter if you’re leading marketing/comms in-house or contributing as an external resource, it’s hard to envision getting a program off the ground or recalibrated without taking stock of where you are. These are the steps for kicking off or enhancing founder-led comms and thought leadership:
- Diagnostic:
- Audit founder/CEO/SME external presence, profile and visibility
- Audit company presence
- Make early strategic recommendations, set goals, get everything in place (meeting/interview cadence, system for tracking ideas, tech stack, reporting, measurement tools)
- Kickoff:
- Conduct initial interviews with founder and other leaders and SMEs (send questions in advance)
- Review materials (ICP/personas, pitch deck, existing messaging, sales materials, style guide, bios)
- Conduct audience analysis
- Develop lists of events/conferences, media/publications, influencers
- Messaging:
- Develop content pillars and messaging platform, ensuring that the founder/CEO and other leaders have “leading thoughts”
- Build editorial calendar
CONTENT
Creating content is a given. It’s the fuel for any marketing program. Behind this blinding glimpse of the obvious is a process for surfacing content that will help establish higher executive visibility:
- Discovery:
- Conduct regular (at least monthly) interviews with founder/CEO to discuss topics (send questions in advance)
- Share knowledge/ideas regularly, looking for visibility opportunities and topics
- Schedule interviews with other leaders and SMEs as needed
- Creation:
- Write LinkedIn posts and articles, newsletter articles, resource center or blog posts, op-eds and contributed articles
- Edit those written by founder/CEO
- Create video
- Develop media pitches, founder/CEO talking points, and prep documents for interviews and podcasts
AMPLIFICATION
Since content without distribution is pretty useless, consider these steps for reaching and engaging target audiences. Note the addition of PR elements. This is a rather large bucket of activity – and one that today’s new crop of LinkedIn and executive presence experts leave out because most of them aren’t well-versed in media relations. At certain milestones, like a Series A funding round, the best move for a startup is to bring on a PR firm, but in the meantime, these are the steps that make up content amplification:
- Distribution
- Post on owned channels (including LinkedIn)
- Suggest LinkedIn comments on posts from key audiences
- Repurpose content for social and other channels, including vertical videos, carousels and other formats on LinkedIn
- Engagement
- Track engagement on LinkedIn (e.g., who’s commenting or following)
- Work with founder/CEO to send DMs and connection requests to “warm” contacts who have engaged with content; respond to DMs and connection requests
- Recommend yes or no to requests for interviews, podcasts, speaking opportunities, awards, sponsorships, paid content, etc.
- Visibility
- Send media pitches for stories and interviews
- Pitch op-eds and contributed articles
- Send podcast pitches
- Equip founder/CEO to engage with 3-5 key reporters (“going direct” PR strategy for startups)
- Fill out speaking opportunity forms and send speaking opp pitches
- Engage with influencers and look for opportunities for content co-creation
- Staff media and podcast interviews
ASSESSMENT
How well is the program working? Are target metrics improving? What’s the contribution to new business wins and higher revenue? Even though some performance marketing measures won’t work for the brand-building activities of founder-led communications, it’s important to look for these signals and adjust the plan as needed:
- Measurement:
- Track reach, visibility, engagement
- Track media coverage, issues
- Contribute to tracking of leads
- Suggest opportunities for paid promotion
- Monthly report
- Strategic recommendations for adjustment
Keeping on the path to better results
These steps might not guarantee a wealth of new LinkedIn followers, media hits, or prospects beating down the CEO’s door. But a process like this will almost certainly move an early-stage startup toward its growth goals.
Most startup marketing/comms leaders already have processes they follow to get results. With these steps, I’ve attempted to pull together what I’ve done myself, what I’ve learned from others in startup marketing, and what’s more likely to work in digital health startups that often have clinical leadership to involve and a compliance mindset to follow.
Reach out to me at [email protected] with ideas to make this process better or to learn more.
The case for founder-led communications