After over two years of talking with and working with dozens of mHealth, Digital Health, and Health IT firms, THIS remains the NUMBER ONE biggest marketing challenge for nearly ALL firms:
They struggle telling their story.
They fail to connect the VISION of their business with the problems and desires of the Market.
Their Message isn’t DIFFERENT. It doesn’t resonate and deliver value.
Even when the Message is fleshed out and matched to the Market…
It’s told in the wrong Media at the wrong time in the wrong way.
For stories to work, they must convey the RIGHT MESSAGE to the RIGHT MARKET using the RIGHT MEDIA at the RIGHT TIME.
Sounds simple, huh?
Yet, so many struggle with getting the Story Strategy formula right because they start at the wrong place.
It ALL begins with figuring out WHY.
Most mHealth companies are sitting on elegant, powerful solutions for healthcare providers and end users, yet time after time run into resistance in getting buy in from healthcare system decision makers.
WHY?
Putting the big WHY out there and having the courage to tell WHY isn’t exactly easy.
Let’s examine WHY this challenge exits.
One simple adult delight is watching children as you tell them a story.
WHY?
Exactly.
Do a quick check of this site: QuestionsChildrenAsk
You’ll notice that nearly all the questions begin with “WHY’?
WHY is that?
Children don’t care about Who, What, or How…
They want to know WHY.
Your potential clients are also curious about your WHY.
Why Is Telling
Your mHealth Story
So Hard?
Every business knows what they do.
Some know how they do it.
Only inspired businesses know WHY they do what they do.
Inspired businesses think, act, and communicate from the inside out.
And we learn this and discover this as children.
WHY?
It’s part of our biology.
“People don’t buy what you do; they buy WHY you do it.”
So now the obvious question is: “WHAT do I need to do to tell my marketing story, and HOW do I do it?”
Like a child, keep asking WHY.
Like Steve Jobs, keep asking WHY until you can tell an mHealth story people believe.
WHAT you need to do is ask WHY until you get to the real, core, purpose of WHY you do what you do.
Here’s an example of a conversation that illustrates HOW you do it:
WHY do you provide mHealth communication solutions to health care providers?
“Well, we provide totally integrated communication systems…”
WHY is that?
“Because communications are critical for healthcare providers.”
OK… but WHY communications systems… WHY healthcare providers?
“We understand the technology how the communications systems work and healthcare providers need better communications solutions.”
WHY do you understand communications technology better? WHY do healthcare providers need better communications solutions?
“Hummm… ahhh… well…. We have the background and experience in communications technology. Our better communications systems help healthcare providers save lives.”
WHY the background and experience in communications technology?
“Well…good question… as a team, we’ve all been fascinated with how to put complex technology together and have it do cool things.”
Interesting… again WHY is it important that your cool technology solutions help save lives? You could do cool technology that helps people waste time playing games…
“Saving lives is important to me because I believe my Mother died because the doctor didn’t have the right information when she needed it. My Mother was given penicillin after a routine outpatient surgery. This resulted in a severe allergic reaction, and her heart and body just shut down.”
Getting to the real, authentic core of your purpose of WHY you do what you do is often painful. Lots of times, many of us know this is what’s driving WHAT we do and HOW we do it, but it’s simply easier and less painful to talk about WHAT it is we do and HOW we do it,
We fail to share the passion and inspiration of our WHY.
You’ll discover exactly how to tell your story and what you need to say.
NOTE: This blog post was updated with new information, insights, and value on July 23, 2014.
Annette Simmons says:
Good Article. Thanks for writing it.