Our Thoughts
Understanding the 3 Approaches of Adult Cancer Patients to Healthcare
Today’s Patient Journey The modern cancer patient lives in a vastly different world than those who were diagnosed just a decade ago. In addition to the burden of their diagnosis, they are immediately inundated with a myriad of choices about their...
Maintaining a Competitive Edge By Delivering Consumer-Centric Healthcare
In healthcare, being patient-centric is an oft touted value that providers have laid claim to for decades. What is typically meant by healthcare practices, service lines and centers of excellence, when they say this is that they care deeply for their...
How to create a successful B2B hiring campaign
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you should by now know that the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the employment landscape. So, how should your business change its approach to attracting potential job candidates? The job market is still...
Why is now the time to invest in marketing (even if sales are up)?
Traditionally, a company's marketing budget has often been the first thing to get cut during down times, and the last thing to get (fully) restored during booming times. The last couple of years have been a case in point. In 2020, many CMOs reported...
3 Steps to Building Referral-Boosting Relationships With Physicians
Healthcare, like all businesses, is about relationships. In addition to building high-quality relationships with patients, caregivers and employees, it is vitally important for modern healthcare practices, service lines and centers of excellence to...
How to Create a Next-Level B2B Marketing Plan
If you're running a B2B company, then it's essential that you have an effective marketing plan in place. Your marketing plan not only helps you to allocate resources with maximum impact and minimum waste; it also plays a major role in shaping the...
5 Reasons Market Research Is Essential for Your Healthcare Practice’s Growth
Much like the stock market, consumer markets shift and evolve, too. One example of how the healthcare marketplace has changed significantly in the last five years is found in the phenomenon of healthcare consumerism. Gone are the days when a practice...
4 Steps to Ensure Your Healthcare Marketing Measures Up
All healthcare practices, service lines and centers of excellence have goals, but the ones that succeed in achieving those goals are the ones that measure success at every step. Regularly performing data analytics is essential to your ability to...
4 Ways to Level-Up Your LinkedIn Video Ads
Video marketing is an excellent way to promote your brand. In a recent survey, 69% of businesses were using video ads for marketing in 2017. A year later, the number rose to 81%, and in 2020, 86% of businesses were using video ads for marketing....
3 Reasons Branding Is Critical to the Success of Your Healthcare Organization
One of the most defining trends in healthcare is the rise of healthcare consumerism, or patients “shopping” online to conduct research and compare practices and services before choosing a provider. A significant amount of research has been done to...
Ideas for Creating a Company Culture That Attracts New Employees
As a business owner, you know that hiring is part and parcel of your business operations. Anyone you hire for a particular position has a direct impact on the future of your enterprise. However, attracting top talent when seeking new employees can...
Step-by-Step to Getting on the News
It’s that time of year again! Spring and summer are the seasons for fresh starts, and with the global pandemic coming to a (hopeful) end with the administering of vaccines it’s time to take another look at your messaging and marketing/PR goals. One...
2021 PR Lessons from COVID-19
In March 2020, the United States declared the coronavirus a national emergency. Soon enough, other countries across the world followed suit and went into full-scale lockdown. With all the changes that the world has undergone in a year, it's safe to...
Next Level Branding
Taking your branding to the next level involves a lot more than just the visual components. Your brand is not just your colors, fonts, and logo. It is a multifaceted depiction of who you are, what you do, and how you convey that to customers. In...
Telemedicine Customer Service Tips
Telemedicine is already an incredibly powerful tool; but focusing on customer service will help elevate the use of telemedicine to much greater heights. Consumer usage rises when patients are happy with the customer service they receive-- and...
How to Use PR to Tackle Disinformation
It’s nothing new. The threat of misinformation and disinformation has made the headlines the last few years. And although false propaganda has been around for centuries, if not longer, it has become an even more substantial threat in today’s...
Understanding PR and Ethics
When it comes to perception, public relations doesn’t always have the best reputation in the eyes of the public. Many people equate PR with “spin" and playing with the truth. Even the Institute for Public Relations points out that “among many...
Blogging: 6 Tips to Crown Your B2B Brand as a Market Segment Leader
In today's busy and crowded digital marketplace, B2B blogging is a smart strategy and platform to help you stand out from the crowd. It is an excellent way to connect with your target customers and grow your online audience while increasing the...
How Healthcare Marketing is Getting Personal
For a long time, the healthcare industry was focused on one very large population – Baby Boomers. The focus of marketing was directed to them and presented in a way that made that group most comfortable. But today, healthcare marketers are focusing...
7 Effective Tips to Move Your Brand to The Next Level
Employing creative B2B marketing strategies to get your company's brand noticed and visible to your clients could go a long way in amplifying your business' profits. Customers will mostly resonate well with your brand if you share the same values and...
Public Relations and Teamwork
How teamwork, in-house and out, helps strengthen PR Lately the phrase “We’re in this together” and similar slogans seem to be everywhere. When things get tough, people tend to band together. But, teamwork isn’t just for tough times. When it comes to...
Healthcare Consumerism
We are living in the information age where a seemingly endless stream of information of all types is available to everyone at any time. When it comes to healthcare, this easy access to medical information has helped fuel the growing trend of...
2021 Marketing Trends for Healthcare
Here we are looking at a new year. The entire world seems ready to turn the page on 2020. As we look forward to a better 2021, our focus atNichols Brand Storiescare is on what to expect for healthcare marketing. Overall, we believe 2021 will be a...
2021 Public Relations Trends
As 2020 (finally) winds down, it’s time to look ahead to the coming year. At Nichols Brand Stories, that means looking for 2021 public relations trends. To get started, we weigh information from well-known industry experts, marketing forecasters and...
2021 Marketing Trends for B2Bs
This is the time of year we begin thinking about the new year and wondering what it will bring. While marketers try to predict what’s hot, we have to remember that no one saw what 2020 had in store for us. For that reason, we’re adding the idea of...
Realigning Strategic Focus Post COVID-19
Around the world, governments, industries and people are continuing to adjust to life amid COVID-19. While no industry has gone untouched by the crisis, healthcare has undergone tremendous changes to adapt to the public’s needs. While the crisis is...
Looking Ahead to B2B Recovery – 5 Ways to Connect with Your Audience
In my first blog about The Road to B2B Revenue Recovery, I wrote about where to start. Today, I want to look ahead to the post-B2B recovery landscape and focus on how you can use communication and marketing to overcome the obstacles that may get in...
Why Does Social Listening and News Monitoring Matter?
If you read our blogs, you know we are big proponents of using social media for public relations. Another side of social media that is important for PR is social listening. Social listening and news monitoring track social media platforms for...
Healthcare Providers Expected to Provide Leadership During a Crisis
When it comes to a big crisis, whether it is local, regional, national or even global, we look not only to our leaders for solutions, but also often to healthcare providers. Natural disasters or man-made situations, we often turn to healthcare...
How to Make Your Virtual Trade Show a Success
Sitting in for Barry Armbruster is Kara Saylor, new business specialist at Nichols Brand Stories. Kara worked in the trade show industry for years before joining Nichols. An expert on the topic, she has four tips to make your virtual trade show a...
5 Ways to Get Your News Headline Noticed
In a society where every organization is fighting to get noticed, the most common question we get as a PR agency is “How do I get a news reporter’s attention?” In public relations, maintaining a strong relationship with journalists takes effort. We...
The Road to B2B Revenue Recovery
Know Where You Stand One thing that 2020 has taught us all is that even the most reliable business forecasters sometimes get it all wrong. Yes, there were early warning signs of a global pandemic. But even people who were sounding alarms did not...
Developing a Successful Telehealth Marketing Strategy
Telehealth is nothing new. Hospitals and clinics have had the capability to use digital information and technology to provide remote healthcare services for years. However, telehealth marketing strategies have been lagging behind the technology,...
3 Reasons Your Marketing Campaign Needs PR Components
In most marketing and branding firms, there is a clear distinction between the marketing and PR teams. While they are certainly very different aspects of business communications, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t work together. I come from a public...
What Social Media Should B2Bs Invest In?
As a B2B marketer, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with all the available social media platforms out there. Of course, you want to make the most of what each offers, but how do you know which ones are the best fit for your industry and company? A...
3 Types of B2B Marketing and How to Determine Which Is Best for Your Company
When it comes to B2B marketing, there’s not a single one-size-fits-all approach. There are countless ways to reach a potential audience. However, Nichols Brand Stories has found that there are three broad types of marketing that we find most...
Don’t Get Caught Unprepared. What You Can Do NOW To Prepare For a PR crisis [DOWNLOAD CHECKLIST]
Managing a PR Crisis: A Social Media Checklist FREE DOWNLOAD On social media, everything moves quickly. This is great when it comes to quick pay-offs on posts. However, when a company is facing a sudden PR crisis, that speed can be devastating on...
How Healthcare Specialties are Marketed Differently
Healthcare specialties, or “service lines,” feature distinct qualities that patients desire in each. For an emergency room, speed is paramount. For maternity wards, comfort, care, and safety often matter most. Marketing for each specialty should...
Differences Between Healthcare Marketing for Hospitals vs. Private Practices
Healthcare marketing is not a one-size-fits-all solution. In fact, the size and offerings of a healthcare service provider have major implications on the marketing strategies and tactics that should be used. Patient volumes, service line offerings,...
How to Build Company Culture at B2Bs and Why It’s Important
Unique and engaging company cultures are a trademark of Silicon Valley tech companies and startups. There, you’ll find offices filled with comfy bean bag chairs, employees with branded hoodies and T-shirts, and all the snacks you could ask for. ...
Media Training and Why it Matters
Preparing for a media interview seems like a major undertaking. And it is. Where do you even start? On one hand, you want to say so much about your company, but on the other, you don’t want to ramble on. For some, preparing for an interview on their...
What to Do NOW to Prepare to Reopen for Business [FREE DOWNLOAD]
We’re all looking forward to life getting back to normal following stay-at-home orders, but what exactly will that look like? Barry Armbruster of Nichols Brand Stories called up a few marketing pros to discover what you should be doing now to prepare...
Quarantine Insurance: 4 Reasons B2Bs Must Invest in Digital Marketing
Social distancing has upended society, devastated the economy, and laid off workers across the country. While a record-breaking 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past few weeks, we know our efforts to work from home and socially...
PR: Why It’s Better to Tell the Truth Than to Twist It
A lot of people hear “public relations” and they think spin and deception. But that’s absolutely not what PR is. The reality is, most people don’t really know what PR is and what PR pros do for their clients. In short, public relations is the act of...
For B2Bs, Print Production Will Always Matter
There’s something special about holding a tangible piece of content in your hands. Living with the pervasiveness of the internet and a plethora of digital content to consume, people are once again remembering the emotional power of paper, and print...
7 Marketing Communication Tips During the Coronavirus Crisis
The Coronavirus pandemic currently has all of us in uncharted territory. The situation seems to be changing at an increasingly rapid pace and we’re all just trying to keep up. When it comes to your business, the goal should be clear, concise...
Public Relations Guide to Goals, Objectives, Strategy, and Tactics
There is much more to PR than writing press releases, sponsoring events, and leaving phone messages with reporters. A ton of planning needs to be done before any copy is written or phone numbers are dialed. Planning elements include setting goals,...
5 Tips to Improve Your LinkedIn for PR Success
Are you actively using LinkedIn for PR? You should be. While Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok are the social marketing platforms marketers talk most about, they may not be the best social media platforms for PR or to get the word...
DO IT LIVE! 6 Reasons LIVE Streaming on Social Media Is a PR Must
Live streaming is extremely popular, and it continues to grow every day. By 2016, it was already a $30-billion industry. By 2021, live streaming content is projected to more than double, becoming a $70-billion industry. And it makes sense. People...
How Sponsored Events Lead to PR Wins for Local Companies
Sponsored events are a great way for local businesses to develop strong relationships in their communities. By partnering with local organizations, schools, and sports teams, businesses make themselves visible and set themselves apart from the...
5 Essentials For Effective Focus Groups
While it may seem like an old technique, focus groups are still effective for gauging public relations successes and failures. But, focus groups aren’t as simple as sitting in a room with strangers and asking questions. To maximize your chance of...
How PR Enhances Branding Efforts
Whether building a brand from scratch or reinvigorating a company’s legacy, public relations plays a substantial role in how potential customers perceive your products and services. Public relations is beneficial to both startup and rebranding...
How to use Social Media for Public Relations
Social media has become a tool for nearly everything a business does. It can serve as a platform for advertising, marketing, sales, customer service, and more. But did you know social media arguably stands tallest when used for public relations? Here...
PR Networking: How Public Relations is Built on Personal Relationships
PR networking is important for any business that takes public relations seriously. But too many businesses rely on press releases alone to reach their goals. The truth is, media advisories and press releases are simply not enough. Reporters are busy...
PR Crisis: How to Make a Plan Before You Need it
The risk of a PR crisis has increased dramatically since the adoption of social media for brand marketing. Customer complaints once saved for private phone calls or water cooler chats now exist permanently on the Internet for all to see. Because of...
5 Tips to Ensure Your Business Growth Makes the News
Business growth offers a tremendous opportunity for earned media in your local news market. When local businesses, manufacturers, nonprofits, or hospitals expand their workforces, local economies benefit and communities improve. These stories are...
B2B PR and Importance of Knowing “Who Cares?”
This post also appears on our Nichols Public Relations website. When I teach public relations courses at a regional university, especially when we discuss PR for B2B companies, I remind students that outputs aren’t outcomes. The sheer volume of PR...
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
“So you’re a spin doctor?” my new acquaintance asked, one eyebrow raised, as if I’d just admitted to being a reptile. I’d introduced myself as a public-relations counselor and university PR instructor. His reaction was not that unusual. “Flack.”...
The PR Side of Rebranding
So you’re looking to rebrand. It’s time. New owners, new products, new generation… we get it. In fact, sometimes we even encourage it. Heck, we’ve DONE IT. However, there’s a right and a wrong way to move forward with a rebrand. Deciding to make the...