We Are, Marketing Happy - A Healthcare Marketing Podcast

When it comes to payor marketing, or marketing for insurance companies, planning for the year falls into two primary periods of the year: your open enrollment/AEP period and the off-season.   In this week’s podcast, our CEO Jenny Bristow breaks down how to plan your marketing efforts for these two stages of the year to maximize marketing success:   Always On During your slow time of year Focus on brand awareness efforts for paid media, some acquisition (don’t go dark!) Now is a great time to do website updates/redo Ensure measurement plans and dashboards are in a good place (including patient privacy clean-up work) Integrate new tools, like CRM, email marketing, etc. Put some time toward persona development and user journey optimization Roll out and test content marketing strategies   Open Enrollment & AEP During your busiest season Ramp up your conversion-oriented media programs Limit website changes, testing and tracking programs only Test persona-based messaging and optimize, optimize, optimize! Implement the right marketing tactics at the appropriate time of year to leverage both stages of the payor marketing year. Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/ https://calendly.com/jennybristow 

Hedy & Hopp CEO & Founder Jenny Bristow, Copywriter and Content Editor Sarah Zajicek, and SEO Marketing Specialist Yenny Rojas discuss AI and personas in healthcare marketing, focusing on AI's impact on search and the importance of writing tailored content for your website. They highlight that with nearly half of all searches now being questions directed at AI, marketers need to optimize content to answer these queries, adapting it for various practice sizes. Key strategies include prioritizing readability for both users and AI by incorporating bulleted summaries, FAQs, and FAQ schemas. Sarah notes that while AI tools can be incredibly useful in the content creation process, human oversight is necessary to ensure that the writing has a natural voice and that the content is medically accurate. Yenny emphasizes the importance of persona-based marketing, where content is customized to specific audiences and formats, facilitating AI's ability to recommend relevant information. Integrating personas into your content can look like including targeted examples, localized details, customer-focused calls to action, and using insights from Google Search Console.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Hedy & Hopp CEO & Founder Jenny Bristow, along with Director of Data & Technology Mark Brandes, Director of Activation Lindsey Brown, and Marketing Analyst Cassie Haxton, discuss Hedy & Hopp’s experience becoming the first marketing agency to achieve Epic certification and the various opportunities for healthcare marketers to leverage Epic tools in their daily work.Our Epic certification journey, spanning four years of relationship-building with Epic, was driven by Epic's recognition of marketers' importance in patient experience and the demand from clients for certified partners. Marketers can effectively use Epic tools to enhance patient experience and communication strategies, with messaging capabilities that engage both current and prospective patients. Epic offers a wealth of data for demonstrating ROI, tracking patient acquisition, and showing the impact of marketing campaigns. While the platform itself has a visually-outdated interface, its structure and depth is highly sophisticated. Implementing features in Epic is not an easy undertaking, but having an overall understanding of the system has the potential to be extremely valuable to healthcare marketers.If you are interested in learning more about using Epic for your marketing, we are hosting an in-person Learning Lab on Epic and marketing analytics at The Healthcare Interactive Conference (HCIC), with registration opening soon. We are also offering a free virtual session covering the same content from HCIC shortly after the conference. Sign up at HedyandHopp.com/EpicWebinar. Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Hedy & Hopp CEO & Founder Jenny Bristow chats with Hedy & Hopp’s new Director of Growth Marissa Gurrister about how to strategically implement influencer marketing as a tactic in your campaigns, offering insights into case studies, challenges, and best practices. The discussion covers understanding various types of influencers in healthcare marketing, exploring how it differs from traditional social media influencing, and discovering the power of patient advocates (parents/family), physicians, and micro-influencers in healthcare campaigns. Marissa and Jenny highlight campaign successes, including case studies that humanized care and built community trust through patient and patient advocate stories, drove engagement with preventative services using traditional social influencers, and addressed public perception to increase appointment bookings through physician-led content. The conversation also delves into navigating challenges and risks, including HIPAA compliance and best practices for paying influencers. Finally, Marissa and Jenny share best practices for campaign development, emphasizing the importance of vetting influencers, balancing brand messaging with authenticity, and diversifying influencer voices.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Jenny Bristow of Hedy & Hopp offers practical tips for healthcare marketers to enhance their professional presence and credibility by enhancing their setup and background for video conference calls on Zoom, Google Meet, and other platforms. Learn ways to optimize your video background, lighting, and camera setup to best represent the brand and the personality that you want people to remember. There are many simple, cost-effective ways to improve your video call background, no matter how small or large your space. Try creating visual depth with plants or frames of varied heights, or even try adding peel-and-stick wallpaper. Play with your lighting—experiment with natural light, lamps, and even a second monitor displaying a white screen to achieve the best lighting setup. Always ensure your camera is at eye level and that you're looking directly into it for a more engaging interaction, and make sure your camera lens is clean. To avoid a monochrome look, try incorporating art, photos, or even sophisticated posters to add visual interest and personality. For back-to-back professional meetings, it’s helpful to keep a jacket or blazer within reach for quick changes or to add layers to your look.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In this episode of We Are, Marketing Happy, Jenny and Nicole Knight, Marketing and Communications Manager at Virginia Heart, discuss why and how to build your personal brand on LinkedIn as a healthcare marketer. Learn how to overcome the discomfort of self-promotion and leverage LinkedIn for professional networking, career advancement, and lifelong learning.Using LinkedIn in today’s dynamic job market is a smart long-term investment in your career that gives you control over your personal and professional reputation and brand. You can easily create LinkedIn content by drawing inspiration from your daily work and personal passions and curate your LinkedIn feed to create a space for learning and connecting with like-minded professionals.Connect with Nicole:https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-knight-5b90ba73/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

It’s been one year since Hedy & Hopp acquired iHealthSpot, and in this episode, we’re celebrating the milestone by diving into how the practice marketing team has evolved. Jenny is joined by Kristin Wiedman (Project Management Lead), Phil Terry (Account Manager), and Yenny Rojas (SEO Marketing Specialist) to share what’s changed and what’s working.They discuss how renaming packages around goals like patient volume and brand reputation has made services easier to navigate, and how the new Foundation Package brings strategic, data-driven support to smaller practices. They also talk about how account management has become more proactive and flexible, and how SEO efforts have shifted toward AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) to increase visibility in AI-generated summaries and voice tools.Connect with Kristin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinweidman/ Connect with Phil:https://www.linkedin.com/in/thephilipterry/ Connect with Yenny:https://www.linkedin.com/in/yennyrojas/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

We’re back with part two of our brand strategy conversation with Madison Molho, Director of Strategy at Hedy & Hopp. Last week, we explored how to build a strong brand foundation. This week, we’re moving into activation and talking about how to actually bring that brand to life in a way that connects with audiences and drives results.Jenny and Madison dig into the engagement framework, a tool we use to guide strategic execution. They walk through how it maps the audience journey, defines messaging by stage, aligns with the right channels, and sets clear KPIs. They also talk about how to approach activation for both brand-level and service-line campaigns, how to make space for local brand equity in larger systems, and why brand architecture matters more than people think.Connect with Madison:https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-molho-she-her-30b2279a/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

What makes a brand more than just a logo and a tagline? In this episode of We Are, Marketing Happy, Jenny sits down with Hedy & Hopp’s own Madison Molho, Director of Strategy, to unpack the three tenets of a successful brand: authenticity, relevance, and differentiation. Madison shares how these elements come together to create a substantively distinctive brand—and why that sweet spot is what truly connects with audiences. They walk through real-world examples, including Hedy & Hopp’s own rebrand, highlight common pitfalls like aspirational branding, and explore what it takes to move from brand theory to execution-ready strategy.Connect with Madison:https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-molho-she-her-30b2279a/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In this episode of We Are, Marketing Happy, Jenny welcomes back Abby Davis, now leading Sales & Client Operations for Hedy & Hopp’s Practice Marketing Division. Abby shares her journey as a returning team member and dives into how the agency has expanded to support smaller healthcare organizations, like specialty groups and critical access hospitals, with scalable, budget-friendly marketing packages. From foundational reputation-building and SEO to paid media and analytics, Abby and Jenny explain how Hedy & Hopp helps practices drive growth and stay competitive, even with limited budgets.Connect with Abby:https://www.linkedin.com/in/adavis513/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

It’s a big day on We Are, Marketing Happy—we’ve officially hit our 100th episode! To celebrate, Jenny is joined by fellow owner and agency president Maggie Piasecki for a conversation about what’s really top of mind for healthcare marketers right now. They dive into four key themes healthcare marketing executives are navigating in 2025, including how to stay ahead of rising patient expectations in an AI-driven world, why local trust and brand loyalty still matter, how to build long-term relationships with baby boomers through preventative care, and the industry’s growing focus on capturing more of the healthcare dollar.Connect with Maggie:https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiepiasecki/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In healthcare marketing, creative is more than just bold graphics, brand-compliant colors, and pretty fonts—it’s your opportunity to connect your audience visually to your message. In this week’s episode, Jenny sits down with Hedy & Hopp’s Senior Art Director Haily Bartlett to discuss high-performing creative that drives results. They share tips for developing creative that complements copy to enhance the user journey and create a seamless experience from social media graphics to landing pages. From platform-tailored typography to clear messaging hierarchy, they share best practices for designing creative that aligns with campaign goals. And, they touch on how AI is helping designers improve efficiency without replacing the creative process completely.Connect with Haily Bartlett:https://www.linkedin.com/in/hailybartlett/Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

If your 2025 marketing motto is “back to basics,” you’re not alone. On this episode, Jenny sits down with Hedy & Hopp copywriter and content editor Sarah Zajicek to talk about one of the biggest and most important “basics” of all—website content. From setting up site architecture to choosing the right tone (and reading level!), they share tips for creating high-performing copy that ranks well, reads well, and builds trust with potential patients. They dig into what SEO and AI Overviews are loving lately (hint: bullet points and short sentences), why “heart doctor” might work harder for you than “cardiologist,” and how to avoid common content pitfalls like fluff, jargon, and keyword stuffing. Connect with Sarah Zajicek:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-nicole-zajicek/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Reputation plays a bigger role in SEO than most people realize, and it’s only growing with the rise of generative search. In this episode, Jenny sits down with Hedy & Hopp’s Project Management Lead, Kristin Weidman, to explore how reviews, listings, and brand consistency influence both traditional SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). They dig into how reputation signals shape search rankings, what tools and workflows to consider, and why timing and tone matter when asking for or responding to patient reviews.Connect with Kristin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinweidman/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Straight off the plane from Wisconsin, Jenny is joined by Mark Brandes, Director of Data and Technology, to unpack insights from Epic’s first-ever marketing-focused event. As one of only four invited agencies, Hedy & Hopp had a front-row seat to how Epic is evolving to support health system marketing teams, with tools aimed at boosting engagement, elevating branding, and powering campaigns through privacy-safe data integration.Jenny and Mark break down key updates, including MyChart Builder, which allows marketers to create real-time, branded microsites, Cheers campaigns that enable multichannel patient outreach, and new integrated analytics that track true ROI from campaign to appointment.Connect with Mark:https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbrandes/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

If you’ve listened to this podcast before, you’ve heard Jenny say loud and clear that remarketing is off the table in healthcare. But this week, we’re adding an asterisk. Heidi Hammond, Senior Paid Media Specialist at Hedy & Hopp, joins the show to explore the very specific ways healthcare marketers can still ethically and compliantly remarket to audiences, even in a post-pixel world.From Meta’s platform-owned signals to the storytelling power of ad sequencing, Jenny and Heidi break down what’s possible when you rethink remarketing through a privacy-first lens. They also cover what’s absolutely still off-limits and how new platform tools are shifting what compliance-friendly performance looks like.Connect with Heidi:https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiehammond/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

In this episode, Jenny chats with three experts about a hot topic in healthcare marketing—server-side Google Tag Manager (sGTM) vs. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs). She’s joined by Mark Brandes, Hedy & Hopp’s Director of Data & Technology, Tyler Zey and Adam Putterman, co-founders of Ours Privacy. Together, they break down the key differences between these two privacy solutions and help healthcare marketers figure out which one’s the best fit for their needs.With more focus than ever on HIPAA, FTC, and state regulations, many marketing teams are wondering how to stay compliant while still getting the insights they need. This episode takes a closer look at how sGTM and CDPs work, their pros and cons, and gives you a simple framework to help you decide which one’s right for your team, based on your size, budget, and goals.Connect with Mark:https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbrandes/ Connect with Tyler:https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerzey/ Connect with Adam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamputterman/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

We’re back from HMPS25 and understand the hype! In this episode, Taylor, Kristin, and Jenny recap their time at the Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit—from sunshine and friendship bracelets to standout sessions on privacy, AI, and proving ROI. H&H came prepared with art prints in hand and even swapped some friendship bracelets. The conference, hosted at the Omni Orlando, delivered with plenty of food, nonstop coffee breaks, and a crowd full of seasoned healthcare marketers from across the country. Plus, there were 70 sessions to choose from!We’re sharing our favorite takeaways, including what it means to say “yes, however” when someone asks for a billboard, how hospital websites are becoming true transaction hubs, and why Cleveland Clinic shut down all marketing in a few markets.Speakers Mentioned:Christine Skiffington: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christineskiffington/ Sujal Raju: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sujalraju/ Celia Van Lenten: https://www.linkedin.com/in/celia-van-lenten-57a897a/ Gayle Sweitzer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayle-sweitzer-63ab739/ Alexa Warner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexa-warner-33807059/ Christine Woolsey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinewoolsey/ Susan Alcorn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-alcorn-1b6b0670/ Ben Texter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamintexter/ Gerard Gober: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerardgober/ Pam Landis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelalandis/ Lucky Rai: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukhvinderrai/ Jen Jenkins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenjenkins/ Lacey Reichwald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceyreichwald/ Chris Bevolo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbevolo/ Tanya Andreadis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyaandreadis/ David Feinberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-a-feinberg-57746a5/ Paul Matsen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-matsen-b65b751/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Further your understanding of what compliance means for healthcare marketing and get certified for it here: https://wearehipaasmart.com/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

What started as a conference Q&A has grown into a full-scale solution for our industry. In this episode, Jenny introduces We Are, HIPAA Smart—the first and only compliance training platform built specifically for healthcare marketers. Born from years of podcasting, speaking, and consulting on the evolving regulatory landscape, the platform was created to finally offer practical, tactical training built for marketers instead of clinicians. Jenny walks through what's included in the launch, from 101-level modules on HIPAA and general compliance to a more advanced technical course for teams deep in implementation work, and shares how the platform can help teams meet compliance expectations while getting back to what they love—marketing.Resources Mentioned:WeAreHIPAASmart.com Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

2025 Swaay.Health LIVE brought community, strategy, and a surprise win for the Hedy & Hopp crew. In this episode, Jenny and Senior Account Manager Shelby unpack their favorite moments from the conference, including standout sessions and Shelby’s Rising Star award (!) win. They dig into two sessions that stood out: how the American Board of Radiology used formal listening to reshape its certification process, and how Nebraska Medicine partnered with Unlock Health to rethink recruitment as a brand strategy. Jenny and Shelby also chat through who this conference is best suited for.2025 Swaay.Health LIVE Speakers Mentioned: Shereese Maynard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hitreeset/ Dan Dunlop: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dandunlop/ David Laszakovits: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laszakovits/ Laura Roberts: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-roberts-1644614/ Frank Lococo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franklococo/ Katie Beach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiemaybeach/ Connect with Shelby:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-wanne/ Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.