See How Clients Rate Our Passion for Their Business

Thursday, May 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

Surveying your customers in order to gauge their satisfaction with your products or services is nothing new—and applying that same principle to a PR, marketing and communications agency such as ours makes perfect sense. And we’ve been measuring client satisfaction for 11 years.

The results, as you might expect, help us assess our strengths and weaknesses, and they form a strong foundation for determining the agency’s to-dos, whether that’s to build on our ability to drive new sales for our customers or polish our storytelling capabilities.

Instead of purely bragging about our results, however, which you can see a select sampling of here, we challenge you to assess your own PR/marketing/communications agency on the following criteria:

1) Is your agency an extension of your own team? By this I mean does your agency work efficiently and effectively with your staff? Do the two teams have a solid rapport and bullet-proof communication? Does your agency enhance your own capabilities (versus creating redundancy) and complement your existing skillset (versus replicating key abilities)? If it didn’t violate any contracts or policies, would you hire the staff at your agency as employees? Do they have the same (or complementary) core values, work ethic, personal style (and even sense of humor) as your strongest team members?

2) Does your agency demonstrate a passion for your business? Let’s face it—it’s difficult for anyone to know your business as well as you do—but a good agency can come damn close—and should. Your perfect agency should demonstrate complete immersion in your industry, including knowing your competitors, understanding the key issues and having a familiarty with the major players, trends and developments. We’re not talking about a quick refresh before your next in-person visit or conference call—we’re referring to a deep  and ongoing knowledge of all your strengths, weakenesses and paint points—internal and external. In a word, your agency should be a subject matter expert in your company and your industry.

3) Does your agency work proactively on your behalf? Someone once said you can’t teach people to be proactive—they either are or aren’t. In my opinion, the best employees are wired to take charge and think ahead—they try to solve problems ahead of the curve. The flip side, naturally, is less desirable—the reactive (versus proactive) employee waits for your orders before they move. Seems pretty clear which type makes a better partner, don’t you think?

4) Last but not least, and perhaps most importantly, does your agency help drive new sales? Is your agency connecting you to qualified leads? Yes, a large part of PR, marketing and comuinications work involves building a brand, whether that’s through thought leadership (contributed articles), social media (Facebook likes) and/or media coverage (Wall Street Journal). But is your agency working from a strategic point of view, directing, managing and integrating all the efforts, from content creation and media outreach to social media, ongoing measurement and reliable follow-up, in order to drive new business into your hopper?  At the end of the day, just answering that one simple question may be the truth you need.

Barbara Call is director of content at Greenough. Follow her on Twitter @BarbaraCall1

Campaign Success: Telling the Story of Diversity for Network Health

Thursday, May 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

Network Health could be called the epitome of the word diverse. The Medford, Mass.-based health plan, which provides access to high-quality health care for more than 200,000 moderate- and low-income residents in Massachusetts, has embraced diversity at many levels—one could even say they’ve embedded it into the company culture.

The reasons for this commitment are easy to understand. Having a diverse workforce allows Network Health to better serve, understand and represent its members who come from a wide range of ethnic and racial backgrounds. And the strategy appears to be working: Today, Network Health employs more than 400 employees, 46 percent of whom are non white, and 24 percent of which are in supervisory positions. Network Health’s employees speak nearly 20 languages themselves, and provide customer service in more than 170 languages.

The commitment to diversity, in large part, stems from Vin Pina, vice president of Human Resources. Pina, who experienced discrimination firsthand when a landlord refused to rent him an apartment due to his race, has made it a priority in both his personal and professional life to promote diversity and the understanding and acceptance of other races and cultures. When Pina joined Network Health, he spearheaded a three-year strategic effort to diversify the health plan’s workforce in accordance with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EOCC) employee-diversity standards. Under Pina’s leadership, Network Health hired twice the number of minority employees than standards propose in only two years.

As Pina said, “It’s simple: If our employees speak the same language as our members, and know our members’ neighborhoods, struggles, customs and traditions, we can be more efficient and effective in connecting and communicating with them.”

Pina was soon recognized for his dedication to diversity and was named a 2011 Boston Business Journal Leader in Diversity. It was then that we knew Network Health had a compelling story to tell and we used this recognition as a launching point. We developed a PR campaign that would highlight Pina’s unwavering commitment and showcase the multiple programs Network Health has created to promote cultural diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As a part of the campaign, we also highlighted the fact that health care reform would result in a dramatic increase in the number of minority patients entering the health care system in 2014, when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is set to take full effect. In other words, embracing diversity would be more important than ever.

The media responded immediately to the campaign. Through carefully crafted storylines, we secured several feature stories for Network Health in mainstream media, UMass Amherst Magazine (Pina’s alma mater) as well as a number of multicultural publications such as OJournal, Southcoast Today and TuBoston.com. We also helped Pina author contributed articles for outlets such as Color Magazine, which highlighted his personal experience with discrimination and views on why diversity is a societal imperative.

In addition, the campaign helped secure further recognition for Pina and his work at Network Health.  Most recently  he was named a 2012 New England Human Resources Association (NEHRA) Diversity Champion.We’re proud of our work on behalf of Network Health and look forward to sharing the many ways this Massachusetts company is making a difference in the lives of its employees and members.

Jessica Boardman is a senior consultant at Greenough. Follow her on Twitter @J_Boardman.

5 Steps to Applying Stimulus/Response Thinking to Social Marketing

Thursday, May 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

How many of our Twitter followers are real buyers? What percentage of our tweets do followers actually see? Are those new Facebook likes really valuable over time? Certainly you’ve posed similar questions to your marketing team or agency.

Getting answers to questions like these is challenging work—and well worth the effort. But even with access to so much data, we can still tell very little about customers and prospects by observing their relatively passive social network participation. To really understand behavior, we must rely on a concept that is both so simple yet so poorly applied in social marketing that it borders on stupidity: stimulus and response.

Most classically-trained marketers understand the concept of introducing an offer (stimulus) and waiting for a response. And over the years we’ve learned to not just measure uptake, but also to understand more about why and when a prospect actually becomes a real marketing-qualified lead. Significant investment is made in refining this process, but I hear too many stories about this discipline not finding its way into social engagement.

Before I go into five discipline-building tips, I must offer one strong caveat: I’m not saying that you should simply treat social networks like any other channel – these are venues for strategic brand storytelling, not lead gen repurposing. So, with that said, I offer five steps for bringing stimulus/response into your social marketing strategy:

We love data at Greenough. We pore over it daily, but we also understand that social marketing isn’t driven by data alone. Yes, stimulus and response works well with highly-structured data analysis, and you should have a plan for that too, but don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and use it like a conversation instead of simply a scientific probe.

Scott Bauman is executive vice president at Greenough.

Greenough Alumni Update: Susan Willson

Thursday, May 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

For many people, a first job out of college is an introduction to the professional world, a learning experience that allows a young person to get his sea legs before starting down a career path. For Susan Willson, who joined Greenough in 2004, her first job proved to be much, much more.

Susan interned at Greenough’s San Francisco office during her senior year Stanford University, then joined the company full-time after graduating. She worked for a true mentor in Helena Kimball, and earned immediate client and media exposure due to her excellent skillset and Greenough’s boutique structure.

“I had the rare and rewarding experience of getting to make an impact very early in my career,” said Susan. “I wasn’t hidden from clients at Greenough. Far from it – I had the opportunity to work on client-facing items and even new business opportunities almost from day one.”

When Greenough’s San Francisco office closed, Susan joined the rest of the team in Boston. There she became a day-to-day contact for multiple clients. Under the mentorship of Helena, as well as Phil Greenough, Stacey Mann and many others, Susan learned to become a subject matter expert, manage account demands and hold her own by providing clients with a strategic advice.

“The level of responsibility I received was tremendous,” said Susan. “I distinctly remember going on my first new business pitch only a few months into the job. It was terrifying, but also one of the most valuable work experiences I’ve ever had. It was especially gratifying when we ended up winning the business!”

After five years with Greenough, Susan left to become a corporate relations manager for Genentech, a biotechnology company in San Francisco. She says one of the most valuable skills she learned at Greenough was how to acquire a high level of expertise about any industry in a short period of time. Susan leveraged this Greenough-honed ability to research and process information when she earned a job in biotechnology, an industry in which she had little experience but a great deal of interest.

“Greenough taught me how to develop a knowledge base so strong that client experts would ask me if they had forgotten to mention anything during a media interview,” said Susan. “That has come in handy many times in my professional life, not least when I had to go up against people with years of biotech experience as I was interviewing for my Genentech position.”

In her role at Genentech, Susan manages external communications for several bio-oncology medicines and helps inform the way the company’s story is told, including creating appealing, media-friendly narratives using all the information at her disposal, from clinical trial statistics to real-life patient experiences.

Susan found Greenough’s investment in cultivating her strengths and recognizing her successes made the company a rewarding place to work, but she also says that Greenough’s most valuable asset was its people. “This is a place with a committed focus on mentoring,” she said, “and on making employees take ownership of clients regardless of their position in the company.”

Jake Navarro is a senior consultant at Greenough.

Mass. Senate Passes Key Upgrades to Green Communities Act

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

On April 5 the Massachusetts State Senate unanimously passed key energy legislation that advances the state’s efforts to lead the nation in the clean energy sector, as detailed by Janet Gail Besser’s blog for the New England Clean Energy Council.

I agree with Besser’s assertions that by acting overwhelmingly on S2214, An Act Relative to Competitively Priced Electricity in the Commonwealth, Bay State legislators have demonstrated their shared belief that the innovation economy is a critical tool for the region’s economic development and for the state’s job-creation efforts.

Passage by the Senate sends the bill to the State House of Representatives, where members will likely take up legislative debate in the coming weeks.

S2214 strengthens important tenets of the landmark Green Communities Act (GCA), which Governor Patrick signed into law in 2008 as nation-leading energy efficiency and clean technology legislation.

To date the GCA has provided hundreds of millions of dollars of net benefits to electric and gas ratepayers in Massachusetts, primarily through smart investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy. These investments have helped reduce energy waste and have lowered reliance on imported fossil fuels while promoting clean technology jobs.

Among the key provisions outlined in Besser’s blog, S2214 achieves the following:

I believe strongly that the Senate’s passage of S2214 is an important next step for our state. Do you agree?

Jay Staunton is Vice President, Account Services, at Greenough.

Accountable Care Organizations: Here to Stay?

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

It’s clear that no matter how the Supreme Court rules on healthcare reform, the way health care is delivered in the U.S. is changing dramatically. The consensus among healthcare experts is that a new delivery model called the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is here to stay.

The ACO model brings healthcare providers together under one business umbrella to manage the needs of patients. Unlike the HMO model of the 80s, which was led by insurance companies, the ACO approach is driven more by physicians and hospital groups. The goal with this model is to increase the quality of care while keeping costs down. Providers share any cost savings associated with their services as long as they meet certain quality-of-care requirements. The move is a significant one; it’s taking the industry from what has traditionally been focused on fee-for-service with rewards for volume to more of a shared-risk strategy that relies on fee-for-performance. Unlike HMOs, this model is also patient-centric; the goal is to improve quality and lower costs – without limiting choice (which, as many will remember, was one of the leading consumer frustrations with HMO plans).

ACOs are still in their infancy, but many healthcare providers are pooling their resources.  Local companies, such as Waltham, Mass.-based Medventive, stand out by helping healthcare organizations use technology, including clinical-integration and risk-management tools, to successfully transform themselves into ACOs. Other key strategies of successful ACOs include integrated-care models that improve communication between primary care doctors, specialists, hospitals and other caregivers and allow providers to focus more on case management and preventative care.

In Massachusetts, Senate President Therese Murray is working on a major healthcare bill that would also move the industry away from a traditional fee-for-service approach and toward more of an ACO approach. The bill is another effort by the Commonwealth to address the soaring costs of healthcare.

In recent remarks to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Murray noted that “Hospital systems have stepped up their efforts to provide quality health care within set budgets.” Murray referenced five Massachusetts healthcare systems that were recognized this year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as “Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations” for “providing better care at a lower cost by emphasizing primary, preventative care, improving integration between doctors and reducing unnecessary tests and hospitalizations.”

Thirty two Pioneer ACOs have been selected nationwide –including Partners HealthCare, Steward Health Care System, the Beth Israel Deaconess Physician Organization, Mount Auburn Cambridge Independent Practice Association and Atrius Health in Massachusetts.  The purpose is to test different payment arrangements for Medicare beneficiaries that support these organizations in providing better outcomes at a lower cost and, ultimately, to demonstrate the viability of the ACO model to all patients. As Dr. Gene Lindsey, president and CEO of Atrius Health, said in a recent article, Atrius “follows the ‘Triple Aim’ — high-quality care of the individual, improving the health of populations and doing it all at sustainable costs.”  That sums it up nicely.

What do you think? Will ACOs succeed? Why or why not?

Stacey Mann is EVP, Account Services for Greenough. Follow her on Twitter @sliedermanmann

The Consumerization of Clean Energy

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

Solar Suitcase, courtesy We Care Solar

Have you noticed that really cool (and occasionally humorous) applications for renewable energy—designed with you, the consumer, in mind—are popping up all over?

This is great for the renewable energy industry, and my reasoning is simple.  The greater the number of cool or laugh-out-loud energy-related products being developed and marketed, the better the chance that “renewable energy” (or some other, consumer-friendly version of that catch phrase) will become a common household term. And you know as well as I do that once a concept enters the mainstream conscience, the better the potential for the concept to take off.  When that happens, many companies in the field of renewable energy, from solar to biogas, wind and more, should prosper. But let’s get back to the hip and funny stuff.  You may have already seen these inventions, but I thought all of them were pretty cool:

As I stated earlier, I think the “cool” (or funny) factor can play a role in bringing renewable energy, in whatever form it takes, to the forefront of people’s minds. From there the logic is simple: The more familiar the technology, the sooner it’ll become second nature. The sooner it becomes second nature, the more the renewable energy industry will grow—and take off. What cool gadgets and applications have you seen lately?

Barbara Call is Director of Content for Greenough. Follow her on Twitter @BarbaraCall1

IT Healthcare Vendors: Don’t Forget Social Media’s Role in Healthcare Reform

Friday, March 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

Courtesy Capterra. Click on the image for a full-size rendering.

Hospitals and health practices today are governed by a number of standards and regulations, including the HITECH Act,  that encourage the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health systems with an investment in health information technology.

Today, IT is enabling healthcare facilities to not only meet these regulatory needs but at the same time improve all practice areas, from patient management to revenue, with solutions such as electronic medical records (EMRs). EMRs streamline the patient care workflow by providing physicians safer and quicker access to important medical information and can benefit all health systems, from large hospitals to single practitioners. Specialty software companies, such as Massachusetts-based athenahealth, focus solely on healthcare-related business services such as EMRs. These companies were quick to recognize that their tools can provide safe and cost-effective healthcare solutions, and athenahealth and some of its competitors now lead the industry in product innovation.

Recently, online enterprise software directory Capterra published an insightful view into the most popular EMR software providers (see graphic, right). The infographic’s index is compelling because it ranks companies not only by revenue but also by digital data, aggregating results for each of the vendors based on Alexa rankings, Compete traffic and Google searches. The social media component of Capterra’s infographic articulates several important takeaways about the healthcare industry; social media has huge potential in healthcare IT and, as such, the onus is on the individual software vendor to use social platforms to set themselves apart from competitors. Examination of various social platforms, such as Facebook likes, Klout score and LinkedIn company followers, also contributed to the popularity rankings and present opportunities to think critically about how these vendors should leverage social media for their content strategy.

Given that the healthcare industry is limited by government mandates that restrict creativity in product development, the key to a company effectively broadcasting its unique corporate message revolves around intelligence in storytelling, and targeted content is the golden ticket to success. As we’ve learned through our work with client Network Health, it’s important to live in the ecosystem that caters to the needs of customers. As Network Health’s partner, we create compelling storylines that reach the health insurance provider’s end users – low- and moderate-income residents in Massachusetts.

We believe that a similar approach has and will continue to achieve success for health IT companies vying for the top spot in the industry. When comparing vendors that made the leaders’ list in social media, such as GE Healthcare and Practice Fusion, it is important to recognize that these companies follow different content strategies  based on their target audience. While GE Healthcare caters predominantly to hospitals and large practices, the company’s Twitter and blog content has a global perspective. Conversely, Practice Fusion caters to medium-size practices and individual practitioners and does an excellent job at engaging with its localized audiences.

The opportunities for health IT companies to leverage social media for business development are endless, yet there is always room for improvement. One immediate fix could involve inserting the service providers into conversations around this week’s Supreme Court hearings. With so many uncertainties within healthcare reform, consumer are undoubtedly wondering what the outcome will be for them.  Moments like these are critical communication-inflection points, and social media tools are the ideal platforms for information exchange between the athenahealths and allscripts and their current and future customers. For what it’s worth, just as social media continues to be an avenue for quick and secure communication, we expect that IT innovations will continue and will weather the storm of reform. What do you think?

Sarah Hurley is a consultant at Greenough. Follow her on Twitter @Sarah_Hu

Coming Full Circle: Greenough Alumni Update

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

Where you land early in your career can shape your professional life for years to come. Make good connections, and those contacts may last a lifetime. Build a skillset for understanding your client’s needs, and you’ll use those techniques over and over again. And gain the confidence that you can do whatever you put your mind to, and chances are you’ll do just that.

Just ask Helena Kimball, who cultivated good connections, learned excellent client-service skills and grew to trust her own abilities under the tutelage of Phil Greenough.

“Greenough was instrumental in getting me where I am today,” says Helena, who worked for Greenough for five years starting in 2000. “Phil has always made it a priority to help guide young people in their careers, and during my tenure, he made us believe we could accomplish anything we want. He used to say, ‘You can run the ship as long and far as you want—just make sure it doesn’t hit the rocks.’”

Helena joined Greenough during the technology boom, and in late 2001 she moved to San Francisco to help run an office for Greenough’s west coast clients. After four years on the West coast—and promotion after promotion at Greenough—Helena joined technology firm Laszlo Systems, Inc., a leading provider of Rich Unified Internet-Applications, as Director of Marketing Communications.

“It didn’t take a stroke of genius to recognize Helena’s many skills and potential,” said Greenough. “When presented with a great talent, a good coach knows enough to set direction and get out of the way. So I tried to fuel Helena’s vast competitiveness and enjoyed watching her lap the field.”

From there she moved into the solar industry, and that’s where she’s found her niche—and where she came full circle into Greenough’s wheelhouse. As Director of Marketing Communications for Recurrent Energy, a leading solar project developer and generating company, she not only cemented the PR and client-service skills she had built at Greenough, but also learned the ins and outs of the solar industry from the development side.

“Phil taught me how to build successful customer relationships,” she says. “He always told me ‘You should really be aware of your client needs before the client asks you.’ I honed that business acumen at Greenough.”

After helping to launch Recurrent and building their brand, Helena moved to the manufacturing side of the solar business where, as she says, “I could help influence change across the solar industry, ranging from policy issues to product innovations.”

Helena currently serves as Head of Marketing Communications for North and South America for Yingli Solar (NYSE: YGE), one of the world’s largest solar module manufacturers with headquarters in Baoding, China.

“My Greenough ties remain strong,” she says. Recently Helena helped bring Greenough client GT Advanced Technologies together with other solar energy companies as members of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE), a group of American solar companies representing 97 to 98 percent of the U.S. solar sector. CASE’s members are opposed to protectionist trade actions that put U.S. solar jobs and growth at risk.

Helena points to Greenough for helping her understand the importance of team effort, such as the CASE coalition. “At Greenough, it was very important for us to mentor people. I remember taking time out of my day to make sure people felt like part of a team and that they were growing career-wise. Teamwork is key to any successful business.”

How Do You Build the House of the Future?

Thursday, February 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment 

Earlier this morning Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and representatives from Maclay Architects were gathered in Newton to provide tours of the “house of the future.”

The residence, home to E2 Director David Miller, is the first net-zero energy, LEED platinum home within walking distance of Boston’s T. What, exactly, does that mean? Bill Maclay, principal at Maclay Architects, the Waitsfield, Vermont company that designed the house, explained.

A net-zero house or building is a structure that produces as much energy as it consumes. To achieve this architects reduce the amount of energy the home needs and design the building with its own means of generating energy. Over a year, the result is a net-zero energy calculation (this is figured over 12 months because in New England, more solar energy is produced during the summer months than in the winter).

Generally speaking, net-zero buildings feature higher-quality insulation and enhanced mechanical and ventilation systems (to reduce energy needs) and solar panels (to produce energy.)

The Miller home features several categories of material that provide higher levels of insulation than traditional materials, including R5 windows, R40 walls, an R20 basement and an R60 roof, says Maclay. “In an R40 wall, for example, the walls are around 12” thick, versus 6” thick in a traditional home,” he explains, “and that thicker wall may use different insulation than is typically used.” The home also features very energy-efficient appliances (for heating and cooling) and energy-efficient lighting, further reducing the home’s energy needs.

On the flip side, the home uses solar panels to produce both electricity and hot water. The placement of the solar panels is critical, however. “You gain the most solar energy when a home faces due south,” Maclay says. But the challenge with this house, as with any house, is the location of the street. How do you orient a home to both face due south and face the street? “We solved this dilemma by having the garage and part of the house face the street, but the major segment of the house goes off on an angle so it faces due south,” he says. The home also has fewer windows on the north side of the house, and very limited east- or west-facing windows, as the position of the sun doesn’t provide direct sunlight from the north and may produce overheating from the east and west.

In addition to the solar panels, the Miller home features an air source heat pump that “extracts energy from the air. It’s 2 ½ times more efficient than direct electrical use,” Maclay notes. When a home is as tightly sealed at this one, however, it also requires a source of fresh air, so Maclay added an energy recovery ventilation system that brings fresh air into the house and extracts energy from air going out.

The result of all this work? A home that is not only beautiful and highly energy efficient, but also “more comfortable and that has fewer headaches than a traditional home,” says Maclay. “You don’t get frozen pipes, for example, and you can sit comfortably by the windows, as the glass stays warmer. With more fresh air and natural light, it’s a healthier way to live. You actually get a better quality of life with this type of house.”

Living healthier? Reducing reliance on energy derived from fossil fuels? Fewer homeowner headaches? Sounds like a dream house of the future to me.

Barbara Call is director of content for Greenough. She can be reached at bcall@greenough.biz or follow her on Twitter @BarbaraCall1