Loading...

Clarity

Amy Austin

Iowa City, Iowa

Focused on helping health care providers educate, engage and empower their audiences. 20 years of health care marketing experience including development of multi-platform brand campaigns, launch of new health care services and patient portals, and operational assessments.

$2.00/min

—
0 Calls

9 Reviews

—

Avg. call

Marketing Public relations Healthcare Marketing Communications Advertising Marketing Strategy Public Speaking Writing Brand Management Brand Implementation

Call me to talk about

Marketing and Branding Your Health Care Business

20 years of health care marketing experience in academic and community hospital systems. The work I've done has increased market share and consumer awareness, decreased employee vacancy rates and positively influenced patient satisfaction ratings.

Answers 7
Reviews 9

Answers

Amy Austin answered

Who should I contact to sell ad space in transit - Brand owners/Chief or Advertising agencies?

I've spent many years working in a marketing department as our primary brand liaison to the advertising agency. Based on that, I believe you need to strongly consider both as your target audience.

I suggest developing a relationship with the media buyers/planners in agencies. When they do need transit advertising as part campaign their agency is developing, they will think of your company because of the relationship you have developed. Additionally building relationships within the marketing communications/brand owners will also be helpful. Every business/corporation is different. Some may have their own media buyers on staff, others may rely on their agencies to make the buy but they can influence what media is bought on their behalf (or direct who the agency should work with at a specific media outlet).

My gutt tells me you should focus your energies on the media buyers at agencies, with the brand owners/marketing departments as a secondary focus. My rationale on that is solely from my personal experience. If I were in the position to buy transit advertising, it wouldn't be something I did often so I would go back to the agency for assistance to make sure I was making a good decision and negotiating the buy for the best outcome.

I'd be happy to discuss further if you have additional questions. Good luck!

Schedule a call • Share • Flag

Sales

Marketing Strategy

Startups

Amy Austin answered

Strategies for lead generation and sales to Bariatric Surgeons

You need to reach out to the person working with the surgeon who is responsible for their marketing or their customer service - such as a clinic manager, patient representative or equivalent; or a hospital or health system-based marketing department representative if the bariatric surgery program is affiliated with one. Oftentimes bariatric surgeons do community seminars or webinars so getting the names of the individuals coordinating those programs on behalf of the surgeon could also be beneficial. It is not likely you'd be able to reach the surgeon themselves. If you were able to reach them, they may be able to influence the marketing decisions being made about their program, but they are likely not the sole decision maker. Hope that is helpful.

Schedule a call • Share • Flag

Marketing Strategy

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Sales

Amy Austin answered

How can I audit my startup idea regarding technically, business model, revenue model, marketing strategy, etc.?

I agree with the other responses to this question. I'd like to suggest that you look seriously at developing a lean business canvas. Through this, you'd start to see a variety of hypothesis that you need to validate through the discovery interviews. I'm currently going through a Venture School program that is guiding us through this exact exercise. Two books that are highly recommended are Business Model Generation Book and StartUp Owner's Manual. I would also recommend searching for the Strategyzer videos on YouTube. All of these are filled with excellent information about testing your assumptions related to a startup. It will also outline how to pivot and iterate to further develop your ideas, leading to a higher likelihood of success. Good luck! Happy to discuss further if you have other questions.

Schedule a call • Share • Flag

Start-ups

Entrepreneurship

Business Strategy

Amy Austin answered

How do I go about getting real customers insights?

There are some excellent responses here already so I'll just add this. Customer discovery interviews with your actual customers will help. Customer discovery is part of the lean start-up and business canvas development. A key takeaway in conducting those interviews is to know what your purpose is before starting the interview and then ask "why" five times to each primary question. Each answer to the "why" question will uncover more information, helping you get to the true root of the answer.

Good luck!

Schedule a call • Share • Flag

Marketing Strategy

Psychology

Consumer Insights

Amy Austin answered

How can I go about building a website from scratch without the technical knowledge?

I just built a new website for my business using WordPress and a custom theme (the7). It is a drag and drop with excellent tutorials. While I had a couple of things that really tripped me up, I reached out to the customer service for the theme and was able to figure out how to correct what wasn't working as I thought it should. I believe the theme came with six months of customer support from the theme developer, with the option to buy an additional six months for a small fee.

To find the themes, I used Theme Forrest. It is essentially a catalog for custom WordPress themes. Each gives you the ability to look at demos of sites built using those themes, examples of specific page types and information on how to build the page (is it a drop/drag, requires coding, etc).

Good Luck.

Schedule a call • Share • Flag

Web development

Amy Austin answered

How do you validate your startup idea?

I recently went through a Start Up Weekend event as well as a Venture School program through the University of Iowa. The entire course was on doing exactly what you are asking. They teach the lean start-up and business canvas model of proving a business idea.

The core strategy with proving your business has potential is customer discovery - determining a hypothesis and testing it through interviews (customer discovery). You'll do these interviews with several different hypotheses, concerning every aspect of your business idea - the problem, the potential solution, who are the possible consumers, what will they pay (if they will pay), distribution models, sales tactics, etc. I've provided a few links that present the theory behind the business canvas. It provides a means to be agile in your business development, helping you identify when to pivot or change up your idea to best fit the market needs.
www.slideshare.net/esaife/business-model-canvas-101

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoAOzMTLP5s

https://strategyzer.com/canvas

Good luck! Happy to chat further if you have questions about this concept or how to use it.

Schedule a call • Share • Flag

Early-stage Startups

Startups

Entrepreneurship

Amy Austin answered

What is the best marketing strategy for physiotherapist who just started a business beside digital marketing?

I agree with all of the answers and advice offered so far on this thread. Building word of mouth and referrals will be critical to the success of your practice.

Invite referral sources to an open house to get to know you and your clinic. Network, network, network. One of the commenters suggested a formalized relationship with referral sources - before you start a program as described, make sure you aren't held to Stark laws that prevent financial gain for referrals among physicians.

Social media strategies can seem overwhelming but are also very effective. If you go that route, pick one platform to focus on and do that well rather than cutting yourself too thin trying to maintain multiple platforms. Use the questions you hear from your clients as a means to develop content - if one person is asking, there are likely others who are looking for the same information.

Good luck! Happy to provide additional feedback, just reach out.

Schedule a call • Share • Flag

Marketing Strategy

Business Strategy

Early-stage Startups

Reviews

Amy was an integral member of the MyChart implementation team during its roll out at the University of Iowa. In particular, Amy developed the patient educational materials as well as the print and radio media campaign. The U of Iowa has some of the highest rates of MyChart activations due in large part to the strategy put in place early on which continues today.

Douglas Van Daele Source: LinkedIn

On multiple occasions, Amy Austin provided outstanding support to HP Financial Services. First was related to the messaging development of a new virtual platform. The content required Amy to quickly learn an industry and topic in which she was not familiar. She did this quickly and with ease. The second engagement was on a 6 month retainer basis where Amy focused her energy on helping us develop video scripts, collateral messaging and a host of other projects. Again, she performed all tasks superbly.

Jim Cavanaugh Source: LinkedIn

I've worked with Amy on several branding efforts for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Children's Hospital. She is collaborative, engaged on all levels and a vigilant brand steward. She's a good person to have as a client partner and I really value her views and insights on healthcare marketing and communications.

Keith Kusek Source: LinkedIn

Amy is an incredibly professional and personable business partner! Her skills and talents get things done in a world full of challenges and time constraints.

Deb Dunkhase Source: LinkedIn

Ms. Austin is a great person and a pleasure to work with in all situations. I can endorse her without reservation. Please contact me if I can provide any additional information. T Ryken, MD

Timothy Ryken, MD MS FACS Source: LinkedIn

I've worked with Amy on two marketing projects for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and both times, I have found her to be a great project manager. She balances a lot of different desired outcomes, and keeps her sense of humor while doing it!

Robyn Hepker Source: LinkedIn

Amy is a shining example of a Marketing Specialist. She is concerned at all levels with the hospitals vision and reputation. She is extremely reliable and understands excellent customer service and strives in her job to emulate that. She is a valuable asset to the hospital.

Pamela Kunert Source: LinkedIn

Amy & I collaborated on a rebranding project for UI Children's Hospital. She was very helpful and responsive in getting me the information I needed to implement the new brand in a timely fashion. She's incredibly patient and listens well. Given that she's easily approachable, warm and engaging, it's a delight to partner with her. She's firm, fair and influences others effectively.

Bryce Carlson Source: LinkedIn

Amy is a true professional. She does an excellent job of project management in developing products and materials to promote a service line or department. She is collegial and an easy person to work with.

Suz Kaprich Source: LinkedIn

Member since April 2014