We Are, Marketing Happy - A Healthcare Marketing Podcast

Kicking off a four-part Epic series! This week, Jenny Bristow sits down with Sarah Cutcliffe, Hedy & Hopp’s Director of Epic Services, to tackle one of the most overlooked growth opportunities in healthcare marketing: re-engaging lapsed patients with data that’s already living in your Epic EHR.We’re always chasing net-new patients, but some of your biggest wins are people you’ve already seen at least once. Jenny and Sarah walk through how to actually act on that, from defining a “lapsed patient” by service line to building tailored campaigns right inside Epic.In this episode:Why lapsed patients are the audience that often falls through the cracks between your CRM and your EHRHow Epic’s marketing tools (like Cheers) let you build re-engagement campaigns down to the service-line levelThe case for keeping your data in Epic to protect its integrityEnriching your patient data with tools like Definitive Healthcare to target on more than a last-visit dateHow to prioritize which campaigns to launch first — starting with revenue impact and your team’s most time-consuming outreachIf you’re exploring Epic’s marketing suite, this is a great place to start.Connect with Jenny:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Connect with Sarah:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-cutcliffe-294a8971/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.

The team is back from Orlando! This week, Jenny is joined by Marissa, Lindsey, and Sarah for a full recap of HCIC 2026 — the sessions that stood out, the ideas worth stealing, and why this conference earns a spot on the calendar every year.Jenny and Sarah kick things off with a look back at their own session, “From Access to Action,” where they teamed up with Leigh Ann Coleman from Bayhealth to talk about using Epic’s tools to market smarter — and why it sparked nonstop conversation at the booth. Then the team shares the talks that had them raving.In this episode:Why measurement and attribution were the questions everyone wanted to talk aboutA standout orthopedic campaign from The Christ Hospital Network“Letting Go of Perfect” — building an authentic voice in healthcare social media (and why a story problem is usually a process problem)Keeping leadership from derailing your website redesignPrivacy-first marketing and what healthcare can learn about loyalty from airlines and CPG brandsWhy HCIC’s technical, high-energy vibe keeps the team coming backWhether you were there or are considering it for next year, this one’s worth a listen. Session recordings go live the second week of November — so bookmark the talks we highlight.Connect with Jenny:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Connect with Sarah:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-cutcliffe-294a8971/Connect with Marissa:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissa-gurrister/Connect with Lindsey:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseycbrown/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.

Patient satisfaction is high — 93% high, according to Alchemer’s 2026 Healthcare Patient Experience Report. But dig a little deeper into the data and a more complicated picture emerges.In this week’s episode, Hedy & Hopp CEO & Founder Jenny Bristow walks through the report’s key findings and what they mean for healthcare marketers, from the gap between patient feedback and follow-through, to the gender and generational divides shaping how patients find, choose, and leave providers.Key findings from the report:The Feedback Follow-Through Gap: Over 73% of patients received prompt acknowledgment after giving feedback, but only 50% actually saw any action taken as a result. 11% said nothing happened, and 18% were never told either way. If patients are taking the time to share concerns, having a real resolution process (not just an auto-responder) is a significant opportunity.The #1 Trust Driver: Feeling listened to. More than 50% of patients said feeling heard by their provider was the most important trust factor — beating out clinical expertise (41%) and communication clarity (43%). As Jenny puts it, this can be a tricky one for marketers to navigate.The Gender Divide: When patients said they were leaving a provider, women most commonly cited poor communication. Men most commonly cited long wait times. The reasons were starkly different.The Generational Divide: 78% of patients aged 18-44 read online reviews before choosing a provider, compared to only 35% of patients 65 and older. Younger patients have a low tolerance for administrative friction and will readily switch providers over a poor digital experience. Older patients prioritize continuity of care and relational medicine.A Notable Example: Despite a strong clinical reputation that came through consistently in reviews, Mayo Clinic’s average rating was dragged down due to scheduling and front desk friction. Marketing can’t fix everything, but online scheduling and reducing administrative burden are squarely in the lane.Jenny’s bigger takeaway: marketing rarely succeeds in a silo. Patient experience, IT, and clinical teams all play a role in what patients find, access, and experience, and the marketers who build strong cross-functional relationships are the ones who move fastest.Full report available here: Alchemer 2026 Healthcare Patient Experience ReportConnect with Jenny:Email: [email protected]: 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.

Healthcare marketing is rewarding work — but when the service line involves behavioral health, addiction treatment, oncology, bariatrics, or sexual health, the playbook looks a little different.In this week’s episode, Hedy & Hopp CEO & Founder Jenny Bristow shares how to compete for attention on sensitive topics without violating platform restrictions, alienating patients, or creating content that feels clinical and cold.Four key strategies for marketing sensitive service lines:Target the moment, not the condition: Rather than trying to identify and target people with a specific diagnosis (which platform restrictions make increasingly difficult anyway), build content around the searches people actually make. Someone with depression isn’t searching “depression treatment” at 2 a.m. — they’re searching “why can’t I get out of bed?” Meeting patients at their actual moment of need sidesteps platform restrictions and delivers far more relevant content.Market to the care circle, not just the patient: For service lines like addiction, behavioral health, and memory care, the decision maker is often a family member. Campaigns that speak to caregivers — who face fewer stigma barriers and are often in active problem-solving mode — tend to convert better. Think about CTAs and content designed specifically for the people who love the patient, not just the patient themselves.Lead with normalization, not services: Before a patient will ever click through or submit a form, they need to feel like they’re not alone. Content that says “this is common, this is treatable, you’re not broken” builds the trust that service-forward messaging simply can’t.Design the landing page experience for privacy: Clear confidentiality messaging, discreet contact options (text or chat over phone), and minimal form fields go a long way for patients who feel vulnerable. Every field you ask for before someone is ready is a barrier. View every touchpoint through the lens of empathy before anything goes live.Jenny also references a recent eMarketer piece — Healthcare Marketers Can Make Patients Laugh If They Listen First — which adds four layers worth knowing: listen to the community for 6-8 months before creating, make the situation funny (never the patient), recognize that awareness alone doesn’t drive action, and earn the right to use humor by building trust first.Connect with Jenny:Email: [email protected]: 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.

SHSMD 2026 is in the books — and the Hedy & Hopp team is back with takeaways, highlights, and a few sessions worth talking about.In this week’s episode, Jenny is joined by Marissa Gurrister (Director of Growth), Sarah Cutcliffe (Director of Epic Services), and Lindsey Brown (VP of Integrated Marketing) for a full recap of the conference, from their sold-out workshop to their favorite sessions to the booth backdrop everyone raved about.The Workshop: From Access to Action: Turning Epic Into a Growth Engine for Healthcare MarketingJenny and Sarah presented a 90-minute lunch workshop on pulling patient appointment and revenue data out of Epic and using UTM parameters to build a complete picture of campaign performance. The room ran the gamut — from attendees furiously writing down tool names for the first time to seasoned Epic users asking detailed implementation questions. The Q&A made one thing clear: marketing and IT are still figuring out how to work together, and that conversation is happening everywhere.Favorite Sessions:Jenny — From Acquisition to Acceptance: Building Awareness and Preferences in New Communities (OhioHealth)A session led by Cody Albert and Christina Thompson, MA on integrating newly acquired and rural hospitals into a broader health system, covering communication strategies and lessons from previous acquisitions. M&A’s impact on healthcare marketing isn’t slowing down.Lindsey — Nine Lessons from a Values-Driven Culture (Dayton Children’s Hospital)This was a presentation led by Kristen Bowser, APR and Ashley Junkunc, MA on what it actually takes to build a values-driven culture; not just externally, but all the way through to clinicians, nurses, and front desk staff. A great reminder that a rebrand without internal implementation isn’t a rebrand at all.Sarah — The Playbook: Where Rivals Unite to Champion Women’s Health (Ohio State & Michigan)Ohio State and Michigan (yes, those rivals) partnered to present how they reimagined women’s health care at their respective institutions, driven by data showing poor outcomes in existing structures. A powerful session led by Luanne Thomas Ewald, Jennifer Dauer and Priya Bathija on using data to make the case for change and then actually making it.Marissa — Beyond Automation: Human-Centered Community Engagement in an AI Era (Rochester Regional)In this session, Rachel Conley took a refreshing step back from the AI conversation to talk about community sponsorships, local events, and what it looks like to build trust with your community the old-fashioned way (a jazz festival, a 5K, and genuine human connection). Quality over quantity in action.One more note: AI was woven into conversations at SHSMD this year, but it wasn’t the star of the show the way it was in previous years. The novelty has worn off. What the room cared about was meaningful outcomes…and that’s a healthy shift.Stay tuned: the team heads to HCIC in Orlando in two weeks. A similar recap is coming!Connect with Jenny:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Connect with Sarah:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-cutcliffe-294a8971/Connect with Marissa:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissa-gurrister/Connect with Lindsey:Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseycbrown/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.