Nearly five years ago, shortly after the launch of the original iPhone, four guys appeared at my office with an idea. A big idea. A huge vision to grow a billion dollar business in healthcare IT using mobile technology.
Here’s what happened…
About This Show:
Each Wednesday, Sam Stern, founder and Chief Marketing Technologist at Modallic, an mHealth marketing and brand development firm reveals his winning Mobile, Digital and healthcare IT marketing strategies, shares real life Mobile Health marketing success stories, and offers breakthrough marketing tips and tactics so you can lead the field with your Mobile Health and healthcare IT solutions.
Discover how to craft compelling stories to open doors with key health care system decision makers. Understand how an agile marketing mindset and approach positions you to create a profitable, sustainable business.
Gain insights into Mobile Health and healthcare IT marketing strategy, how to tell your unique mHealth and healthcare IT marketing story, creating your mHealth buyer personas, how to integrate an agile marketing process, mobile health and digital health brand development and market positioning, and learn what really works in attracting and landing mobile health and healthcare IT clients.
Show Notes:
Voalte: a Digital Health Success Story (and how Modallic helped)
Fast forward five years…
These four guys have built a 150 plus employee business with more than 10,000 iPhones installed in over 30 hospitals nationwide. The Voalte Voice Alarm Text system using iPhones is transforming communications in hospitals.
How did it happen?
As a serial entrepreneur in the marketing consulting business, I get frequent visits from folks with big ideas. The trick is to sort out the flat out crazy ones from those with real promise.
The vision these four guys had sounded intriguing and seemed to have promise, but they had a problem. While they had a big idea and vision, they lacked a solid brand strategy. So, we agreed to work together.
Here’s how we helped these four guys go from an idea to 30+ hospital clients using 10’s of thousands of iPhones to improve communications and efficiencies.
When we started working together, there was idea, no working product, no software. Innovus (the original company name) truly was only an idea. We helped Innovus develop a brand plan, a communications and roadmap designed to make them look like a real business. Innovus needed to look legitimate so they could open doors to talk to leading hospitals about their idea. Branding and positioning was required. Innovus became Voalte. (Voice Alarm Test, pronounced “Volt”) A website was created. Tons of press, both local in Sarasota and the industry trade publications was generated. Dressed in pink and green, the founders make a splash as different at the HIMSS conference in Chicago. Voalte was one of the first to talk about using iPhones in hospitals. A brand was born.
All of this initial branding and positioning enabled Voalte to land an opportunity to test their big idea in Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
“Without a doubt, Voalte would not be here without Sarasota Memorial,” Trey Lauderdale, Voalte Founder and President, said. “They were willing to take a chance on a start-up.”
The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build – the thing customers want and will pay for -as quickly as possible.With the Sarasota Memorial test opportunity, Voalte entered the lean Build-Test-Learn phase and the firm’s product and marketing message began to take shape. The value and growth hypothesis of the founders vision was proven. They had a product that delivered value to customers and knew they could build a sustainable business.
Was the initial branding and positioning work crucial in landing the Sarasota Memorial opportunity? I haven’t asked Trey, but I’d like to think his quote regarding how Modallic helped Voalte get off the ground would be the same as his quote on the value of the Sarasota Memorial test opportunity.
Do you have a big idea, a vision that could make a significant impact in healthcare communications and use of information technology? If so, let’s talk and see if we’re a fit to move your vision to a legitimate branding and positioning strategy designed to open doors to land a test opportunity.
Visit the Show Notes Resources for the link to schedule your no-cost, no-obligation Digital Health Marketing Consultation.
Resources:
How Sarasota’s unique assets helped launch Voalte Inc.
Digital Health Marketing Consultation
Will You Help Me Get This Message Out There?
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