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As anyone in marketing knows, change is constant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
From print to digital\u2014and now AI-generated ads\u2014the methods and madness behind campaigns are constantly evolving. For healthcare marketers like Paul Matsen, chief marketing and communications officer at the Cleveland Clinic, the last few years have been about keeping up with industry trends while also navigating marketing in the pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOver the last three years, everybody\u2019s world changed in healthcare,\u201d Matsen told Marketing Brew. \u201cOur team has had to be extremely nimble and responsive to the changing landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Matsen has weathered the transformation across both marketing and healthcare while overseeing some of the health system\u2019s largest projects to date, including its centennial campaign in 2021. He said the key has been to \u201cembrace the change.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In his role, Matsen oversees an international team of 250 people spread out across Cleveland Clinic\u2019s 22 hospitals in Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Canada, London, and Abu Dhabi. Since his team is so spread out, Matsen said one of his primary responsibilities is fostering a sense of connection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic in 2006, Matsen spent 12 years as CMO of Delta Airlines, a role he said prepared him to lead the health systems\u2019 marketing team because the airline industry was early on the push toward digital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen I joined Delta Airlines, we were just moving into the era of online booking,\u201d Matsen said. \u201cNow, of course, you do everything online and you don\u2019t give it a second thought\u2026It\u2019s pretty revolutionary when it all works well, and healthcare is moving slowly down that path.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
More employees and patients are able to complete tasks virtually these days. At Cleveland Clinic, patients can book and complete their appointments online, and use their electronic health records to order medications and see test results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cDigital in both industries plays a huge role,\u201d Matsen said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While Matsen said marketing in the airline industry was more about conveying \u201cperks and benefits,\u201d healthcare is about \u201cbuilding a trusted relationship and providing trusted content to patients.\u201d To do so, he said Cleveland Clinic\u2019s main marketing strategy is content development, writing SEO-friendly articles and investing in paid search to ensure it\u2019s reaching the right patients, Matsen said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe have over 100 campaigns for specific diseases and conditions that we target into geographies where we know patients are likely to need that care and want to travel to Cleveland Clinic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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This year, he anticipates its website will reach more than 1.2 billion visits, adding that it\u2019s \u201cbeen growing at a very rapid pace\u201d due to interest in the clinic\u2019s health library and Health Essentials content, which helps people understand topics ranging from sugar substitutes to gender identity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On top of that, Matsen said his team is \u201cvery active\u201d on social media and in podcasting, while also investing in its newsroom team to put out \u201cearned media stories about research, innovation, [and] patient care stories,\u201d that then \u201cget covered around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Looking ahead, he said he, like many other marketers, is keeping an eye on the possibilities that generative AI could unlock, not just in search algorithms but also in content creation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working on a roadmap, because you don\u2019t want to grab every hot idea that comes along,\u201d he said, adding that his team is looking at things like, \u201cWhere can generative AI help us the most? Is it in creating and editing podcasts? Is it creating social posts? Is it in drafting press releases? Where can it make the biggest impact on the business?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
One of the challenges of being a healthcare marketer, according to Matsen, is breaking away from some of the conventions that have become standard in the industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIn the healthcare space, a lot of the advertising looks identical,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s often been referred to as a sea of sameness.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Matsen cited Cleveland Clinic\u2019s \u201cunadorned facts\u201d campaign from 2011 as one that broke the mold using line drawings, bold colors, and facts about the Cleveland Clinic, like how at the time the health system was conducting one lung transplant every three days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
More recently, Matsen said he\u2019s proud of the work his team did on the hospital system\u2019s centennial campaign in 2021, which they started planning pre-Covid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n