Healthcare Influencer Strategy Built on Trust

Announcer: Welcome to the Ignite Podcast, the only healthcare marketing podcast that digs into the digital strategies and tactics that help you accelerate growth. Each week, Cardinals experts explore innovative ways to build your digital presence and attract more patients. Buckle up for another episode of Ignite.

Ashley Petrochenko: Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Ignite Healthcare Marketing Podcast. My name is Ashley Petrochenko, and I’m the VP of Brand Marketing here at Cardinal. I am so excited for today’s episode because we’re going to dig into a topic that we don’t often touch on at Ignite. Many healthcare marketers are interested into influencer marketing and the role it plays in brand storytelling, social media. Our guest today is going to break down how to get started, what works, what doesn’t work, and how to measure impact. Without further ado, let’s welcome Ella McMahan to Ignite.

Ella McMahan: Hi, everyone. So excited to be here. Thanks so much for having me, Ashley.

Ashley: Ella, you are the Director of Brand Marketing at Spring Fertility. Can you give the audience a little bit of background on your role, the work you do there, and then we’ll dig in.

Ella: I’ve been at Spring for just about over six years. As you said, I’m our Director of Brand Marketing. When I started at Spring, I was the community manager, so have moved up quite a bit over the years and was the second marketing hire on the team. I’ve touched every single marketing channel at this point, one of which is influencer marketing. Super excited to talk about this topic. I am the one who brought influencer marketing to Spring, built the program. I still run it today.

I came from a background in women’s fitness as well as female-founded alcohol and drink companies. Came in with this passion for women’s health and all things that serve females, but I think that obviously, healthcare is a different beast than health and wellness. I think it’s been really interesting to build out an influencer program at a more traditional brick-and-mortar healthcare company and understand how all that can work together and not feel gimmicky or cheesy or over-the-top.

Ashley: Yes, it’s definitely a sensitive space, and there’s a lot of things that we’re going to dig in around that, and how do you actually consider that when building out the influencer program. Something that healthcare struggles with that retail brands do so well is differentiation. So many healthcare brands, they look the same. They have their high-key white with blue logos, same stock photos. They all look the same.

They all say the same things, and they don’t talk about their identity, their meaning, and why someone should really trust them with their most vulnerable healthcare decisions. I think that is something your background is going to give you a lot of perspective in. Where do you think healthcare lost the story? How did we become so transactional and sterile?

Ella: Yes, healthcare has, like you said, become really transactional in the way that people are always looking out for their bottom line. It’s a business. We get that. I think that what’s really interesting is people have moved away from this idea of we’re here to serve patients and have really just focused on how can we do this more efficiently? How can we get more people in the door? When that happened, I feel like in my mind, I’m like, it’s probably always happened.

Maybe when the doctor was knocking on your door in olden times, that felt pretty personalized probably, but now it’s how many people can we get through the door, through the beds. From the perspective of human-first marketing, it just doesn’t work that way. If you really want people to understand what you’re trying to sell, because we’re all still trying to sell something, but there is, I would say, “easier way” to market or to sell to people, which is to appeal to their human.

To make sure that they understand that, yes, of course, this is a business, but also the whole purpose is to serve you. I think that’s where a lot of these companies, which you said, it’s like this bright stark white with a navy blue logo. It’s all the same font. Even to the point of not even just marketing, branding is so cold.

I think what’s really interesting about the healthcare companies, I think about Function Health, which obviously is not a traditional healthcare company, but even their colors, it evokes such a warm, we’re here for you, we want to help you. It’s like these birth tones. I think the companies that are really winning in healthcare today are the ones that are thinking about it from the very inception of their branding and their Vanguard rails of how can we make this warm and not so clinical all the time.

Ashley: Even not just warm, but sometimes fun too. Some brands, especially in the pediatric space, and they’re learning and leaning a lot from retail, trying to pull in some of that human element that you referenced. It’s a company that we’re going to be working with. We all get that, but no one wants to feel like they’re, like you said, in a cold, sterile room, a waiting room, and just left alone in this complex patient journey. It’s sad. No one wants that.

Ella: I think a company that’s doing this really well in the retail space is Bobbie, the formula company. If you guys are listening to this and you’re not familiar, look them up. They provide infant formula, but their marketing is amazing. Their fonts are fun. It’s quirky. They are really good at community events. That’s somebody that we’re always talking about at Spring is Bobbie. That’s a great brand to look up to if you’re in the healthcare pediatric space.

Ashley: Feel free to drop any brands that anyone’s ruined. I said that through a whole episode, it’s people, what they can learn from retail, influencers they follow, ways they get inspiration, because I think that is so helpful when you’re just starting at square one, and you don’t really know where to go. The idea of a brand can only humanize so far.

They have the identity, and you can do a lot through the branding, through messaging, and creative, but there is a point where that can only go so far. That is really where influencers can act that modern storyteller in a way that a brand can’t credibly do it themselves. Is that something that you’re identifying themes and messages that are most suitable for an influencer versus the brand?

Ella: Yes and no. I would say that our core guardrails around our Spring difference is what we call it are really a few main things. We talk about that from a brand perspective, and we employ influencers to talk about that. I will say that, and I’ll caveat this with this is maybe not the traditional way that somebody would think to set this up, but whenever I have engaged influencers to work with Spring, I feel very, very strongly that I need to let them tell the story.

I do provide a very brief, that’s don’t say X. We don’t want to be compared to Y, but I don’t usually say, you need to talk about our payment plan, or you need to talk about something that we have called Spring Promise, because I just don’t feel, even as a consumer who consumes a ton of content from influencers– I love influencers. I don’t feel like when an influencer is giving me the key points about the brand, that it is genuine because, well, obviously, the brand marketing team gave them those talking points.

What I think is so much more effective is hearing an influencer say, I went to Spring, I froze my eggs, here was my experience. Yes, it was difficult because freezing your eggs is not like getting your hair blown out, but also, my doctor was amazing. The rest of my care team was so great. They were so communicative. All of these things that are a little bit of the squishier things, our payment plan, which we want to market that, but did an influencer use our payment plan?

Maybe not. Should they even be talking about it? I really try to give them free reign. I say, of course, we want to approve it before you put it up, but I try not to give too many guardrails just because I think then you lose the story, and it becomes this performative thing, and it feels like what everyone else is doing.

Ashley: Consumers are not stupid. They can see right through, and they can understand the bullet points that are coming from their brand. Yes, they’re not stupid. I think that is a great approach to give them their freedom. If it doesn’t work, you can go back and iterate again. Start with that more open-ended, brief. I love that. They’re not going to social media, TikTok, Instagram, to hear about the payment plan. They’re there to hear the story.

They can go to your website and hear about the payment plan. Where does influencer content show up? What role does it play in that journey? Thinking about the beginning when they’re still in the education phase, how do you scope out where the content plays and maybe what different stories you’re telling and different influencers along that journey? How do you map all that out?

Ella: I think that in terms of how do we want to share the story, what kind of content, I really leave it up to these influencers a lot of the time. As a general statement, when you are working with influencers, whether in healthcare or not, there’s this larger movement from the creative creator community, which is, I know how to sell. I don’t need you to tell me how to sell. I feel really aligned with that.

A lot of times when I approach an influencer, the first thing I do, and again, I work for a fertility clinic, so it’s a little bit different than a regular primary care office or something like that, or an urgent care. In terms of somebody working with Spring, we always invite them first for a consult. There’s no posting obligation. It’s really just for them to come in, meet the team, understand what does their reproductive health on an individual basis look like, and so they can just get a sense for the brand.

After that, whether they decide that they’re going to freeze their eggs or go through IVF or whatever it is or not, I typically say, now that you’ve had this experience with the brand, where do you think you should show up? Is it an event? Do you have a podcast? Do you have a sub stack? I’m not super hot on Instagram Stories and Reels or TikToks unless they’re going through a treatment cycle and they want to share along the way. I feel like those are throwaway deliverables in this day and age. Nobody’s really buying something or looking into something like a service based off a one-off post. This is such a–

Ashley: The whole story of their journey.

Ella: Exactly. It’s such a technical and scientific process too that one post, you’re not going to get all the information you need from one post. I usually explain that. A bunch of different touch points. Here are some examples. Where do you think you can slot in? Then we back into budget from there based on what they think are the best deliverables.

Then in terms of selecting the influencers, I think a lot of times for a healthcare influencer specifically, you really want somebody who is sharing a lot of their life and would be willing to say, I’m going to freeze my eggs, or I need to go through IVF, or I have PCOS. These things that are a little bit deeper than just these fashion influencers or people who are sharing Amazon links all day long. I think it’s really important that healthcare brands find a match in a creator that is willing to share and has been sharing some more of their innermost thoughts because that is who people are excited to hear more from.

Ashley: In the healthcare space, we’re used to success stories, patient outcome stories. The testimonial nature of the UGC content or patient, that’s well-known. People do that all the time. I think that might be where people gravitate towards. I like what you’re saying about it’s the whole journey from their treatments over time. It’s not like they are finding a solution in a day.

It’s many years, multi-years of failures, successes, and failures again. It’s a very complicated journey. How do you find that person? Sometimes they’re coming to you or their clients, or are you seeking out people that you’ve already seen active in the space? How are you finding these influencers?

Ella: Yes, it’s a mix of different avenues. Most successful campaigns or partnerships within the influencer space have been with people who– and again, I work in fertility, so there’s a more specific audience, but have been our egg freezing campaigns. We’ve gone after influencers that talk a lot about dating and share really candidly about their own dating experience. People like Serena Kerrigan or Lindsey Metzler, who has a whole podcast about dating.

From the IVF perspective, that one’s a little harder. We don’t typically go seek out people unless they’re already sharing that they’re going to a clinic, that they’re going to get a second opinion. Then that would maybe be somebody that we’d reach out to. We wouldn’t pitch them a partnership, but we’d be like, if you want a second opinion, you could come to Spring.

When you’re looking for these influencers, a good mix of people who send in interest and then doing your outward research and really aligning. Again, if you are in urgent care, maybe you want to go after a mom influencer who needs to take her kid to the emergency care when they’re sick or whatever it is. The other rule that I follow that I feel is very important is that these influencers will show you their true colors and their true interest. You should listen.

If I get on a call with an influencer and their first question is, “Well, what’s your budget?” I’m like, “It’s probably not a fit,” because I know that this is a very personal journey. It is something that is probably going to be a little bit hard for them, regardless if they get paid a bunch of money or not. The best partnerships we’ve ever had are from the people who are like, “This is not typically what I would be paid for all of these deliverables, but I understand the value of this service and what you’re giving me by partnering with me on this, what you’re giving back to my community by educating them on this.”

Something I always try to remember is, “Yes, again, it’s a business. They need to make money. This is their job, but this is not a skincare brand. It’s not a T-shirt that they can sell. They really need to understand the value of what you’re trying to educate people on.

Ashley: Be bought in and wanting to bring that back to the community. I think that exact social media in some ways, and even just Facebook groups and Reddit forums, there is a real community that are being developed around chronic illnesses, different types of injuries, that people are really looking and seeking care and seeking outside perspectives because they feel alone. Finding those people who can be authentic in that space is where you’ll find the best success.

We talked about how to find the right person and align it with your buyer personas and how to show up authentically in these spaces, but how do you tell just from a marketing perspective, your media mix, how do you even tell if you’re actually ready for influencer or marketer? Because I think a lot of people are like, “Oh, this sounds amazing. This is how I want to show up,” but it may be leaps and bounds before they’re even ready to get to that space. How do you evaluate in a marketing maturity when you should jump into influencer marketing?

Ella: I think the number one thing I would say is you have to be at a point in your marketing mix where you are comfortable spending a lot of money on something that is mostly brand awareness, especially at the beginning. There is a lot of upside in influencer marketing on lower funnel events, but often it takes time, especially if you’re not a service that people need to go to all the time. If you have a low lifetime patient value, there’s a lot of things to consider.

I think the companies that are ready and will succeed at this are the ones that, again, are prepared for what influencer marketing is for, which is not to drive a conversion tomorrow most times, and has also a leadership team that is bought into the idea that influencers can sometimes take two or three years to convert. We have influencers that we worked with in 2021 that we’re still getting conversions from.

It is just this longer cycle, and it’s not something that you can always pull the lever on immediately, depending on what your business is. It takes time to massage these relationships and get it to a place and get the deliverables to a place that makes sense, and everybody’s happy with, understanding that it’s not, we can throw a TikTok up tomorrow, but that it does take relationship building. If you’re going to put a person in place to be in charge of it, they need to be good at relationship building because that is the number one thing that will make you successful.

Ashley: Yes. It’s like, how are you measuring success with someone telling their most vulnerable stories? Then you have to say, maybe that didn’t hit. That’s a relationship that you’re nurturing. Are you coaching them through things that we could do better the next time, or is that you’re still leaving it up to them?

Ella: I would say that if we work with a creator who doesn’t perform well in terms of the metrics on the backend within the period of time that we’ve determined as, okay, if there’s no conversions after six months, probably wasn’t really the right audience fit, with those people, we just don’t usually work with them. When I’m writing these emails to say, what are the deliverables you think you want? Like I mentioned before, I always put in there, these are the things that we’ve seen work well in the past, and really helping them understand that providing education is the goal here, not putting the book-a-consult link in their stories.

It’s like coaching them on the front end. This is what’s going to resonate. Figure out how that slots into your content and how you think you should present that, because we can’t do affiliate links. It’s not really the same. How can we get the information in a way that feels digestible and helpful and help them take the next step if they’re ready? If they’re not ready, well, great. We’re still happy that they are more informed about their reproductive health now.

Ashley: Yes. I think everyone’s familiar with those affiliate links. I think even the influencer might think that you want them to do things like this. It’s almost as education. This is what works. Come to the story authentically. Don’t feel like you have to be a shill and promote the brand. Link, link everywhere. You can be authentic. I think too many of us, we see all the retail things, we see all the links, and there might be some kind of expectation there, so that’s really cool how you coach them through the process.

Especially in healthcare and in a higher-acuity, high-consideration decision like this, it’s very different. I think dental, maybe like med spa, metastatic, there’s things that could work in that. In this type of space, it is a little bit different. There’s influencer rules that you may follow that I think there’s a little bit of wiggle room across the healthcare spectrum. It sounds like before getting into an influencer marketing, you really just need to have your basic channels in place.

If your Google Ads are a mess, if you’re not even showing up for the key terms that you want, there’s a lot of things that you just have to get set and get right. If those things are happening and you have a comfort level for experimentation, you have budget that you can allocate to influencer marketing to see the impact it can make over a many-year period, if there was one starting point or tip that you could say, where do you begin? If you meet all those marketing maturity criteria and you’re ready and you have the appetite to get into here, where do you start?

Ella: I would say the first thing I would do is define what your goal is with the influencer marketing. We talked about is it educating people? Obviously, it’s getting more patients in the door. Decide what your higher funnel goals are for that. Then back into what kind of influencer do we need to meet that goal. If it’s education, find somebody who’s already good about educating their audience.

This might mean that you, as the influencer manager, it’s what I do, I go through, and I follow a bunch of these influencers and I watch them for weeks or sometimes months. I see which ones I think are a good fit and who are sharing content that could be interesting to us. Then from there, it’s just reaching out. Here’s the pitch. We’re really excited about you. I’ve been watching your content. Starting that relationship off on the right foot from the beginning.

I’ll say as somebody who also has dipped their toe into the creator’s face personally, I am sometimes appalled by these emails that I get from influencer managers where it’s just so cut and dry. This is money in exchange for your Instagram posts. I’m like, “Even if I’m interested in this product, I don’t even want to work with you because I feel like you think I’m like a mule or something.” I would say that, again, watch these people online, decide who you think would resonate, and write a personalized email. That will even put you in a better spot when you’re negotiating because they know that you’re interested in something specific about them.

Ashley: You have a lot of background in, like you said, the retail space and consumer branding. I wanted to share with the listeners that you also host a podcast where you talk about all things consumer, marketing, branding, retail. If there’s one thing that you’ve observed through all all your work there, one tip, one observation that really works in how those brands show up and tell their stories, what would it be?

Ella: I would say the brands that are creating a lifestyle brand, whether or not that makes sense in their vertical, are the ones who are winning. We can see this with a brand like Summer Fridays. They obviously are more in the lifestyle space already because they’re skincare, lip gloss. They do so many interesting activations with their community, and they show up IRL. They work with interesting partners.

Their two founders are very present online and share their own lives. One of them has a podcast. These brands that are creating this larger ecosystem of you’re not just getting the touch point from the brand Instagram account or the brand TikTok. You can follow our founders. They’re amazing. You can stumble upon our events on Eventbrite. All of these things that are a little bit just feel random sometimes, I think that those are the ones that are really winning and doing a good job, and the ones that are leaning into self-awareness.

I think that the Ryanair TikTok is the funniest TikTok account on that platform, and even Duolingo to an extent. They do a great job of being really self-aware, and Ryanair being like, “Yes, we’re the cheap plane. You might not even land. We’ll see.” Which you’re like, “That’s unsettling,” but it really works for their brand. I think that people appreciate the brands that are not super serious all the time and that are real and will share their missteps and all the things, or maybe the things that are bad about them that are shared online.

As a person who’s right on the cusp of Gen Z and millennials, I would say that any of the brands I’m interacting with at this point that are still trying to lean more into that millennial vibe, I’m over those guys. They’re not fun. I think that brands just need to be authentic these days. That’s what’s going to make you win.

Ashley: I think there’s so much fear in the healthcare space to have those missteps. They don’t want to be human. They don’t want to have a personality. Duolingo, some of those brands are just making fun of themselves. That’s how they are humanizing in a way that feels relevant to, especially like you said, younger audiences. Showing up across the journey, it’s not just social. It’s not just YouTube. It’s the events. It’s actually showing up locally. That’s something when you work with the influencers, like you said, you’re allowing them to pick wherever they feel comfortable to show up, so that you are spanning that spectrum.

Ella: Exactly. I would say that just as a tip for people, the number one way that we see that influencers resonate with people is when they host IRL community events. This is not applicable to everybody, but we will host a 30-person dinner at a really cool restaurant in New York or San Francisco and have the influencer be the host. They’ll do basically a fireside chat with their doctor, and they just put it up on their Instagram or their TikTok and let people sign up.

It’s so successful because people are excited to be in the room with the influencer, they’re excited to go to a nice dinner, all of these things. They get to enjoy and build community on your brand’s dime while also being educated about the brand. I think that’s a really good first way. If this is applicable to your brand, that’s a really good way to dip your toe into it because you’ll see even just the cultivation of the community and how that can be so effective.

Ashley: Yes, healthcare, a lot of the listeners are coming from large regional, national brands, but there’s always a local element of healthcare. If you can find even local influencers and bring that local community together, that’s a great tip. That’s a great closing thought. Thank you, Ella, so much for joining Ignite. This was a really great episode. If people wanted to connect with you, where can they find you? Then maybe you could share a little bit about your podcast and where can they hear more from you?

Ella: My podcast is called The So Us Pod. It is on Spotify and Apple. You can just type that in. It’s me and one of my friends who also works in the marketing space. Then I am Ella McMahan on Instagram. McMahan is spelled M-C-M-A-H-A-N. My TikTok is Ella_Pennington_. I post most on TikTok, but the podcast is really fun, so I highly recommend to listen.

Ashley: Awesome. Thanks for tuning into Ignite. If this episode sparked an idea, please share it with a colleague. We’re here to help healthcare marketers grow together, and we’ll be back next week with another conversation. Thank you.

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