Health Nonprofit Digital Marketing: Recent Episodes
Spencer Brooks
Are you a nonprofit marketing and communications leader responsible for reaching and engaging people with health issues? Join host Spencer Brooks of Brooks Digital in a series of in-depth conversations with nonprofit marketing leaders and experts who discuss the unique challenges of marketing in the health issue space.
Nonprofit professionals have a lot of responsibilities. One of those is organizing the resources on their website. However, this is usually not their top priority.
A poorly organized site can lead to visitor confusion, frustration, and abandonment. If you want to educate, engage, and turn your visitors into donors, this isn’t what you’re looking for.
In this episode, Spencer shows you how to reorganize your site to encourage patients to browse other pages.
Resources:
- Companion article: How to Organize Patient Resources: A Field Guide for Nonprofit Professionals [Part 4]
- Service: UX Research & Content Strategy
Most website visitors are time-strapped and inundated with information when researching health information, making it hard to determine which sources to pay attention to.
It can be tough for them to find a trustworthy source when it comes to their health. With all of the conflicting information out there, how can they know which site to believe?
In this episode, Spencer outlines seven tips for writing helpful content for patients. These tips will help you earn a visitor's trust and encourage them to stick around your site and explore.
Resources:
- Companion article: 7 Tips for Writing Helpful Content for Patients [Part 3]
- Service: UX Research & Content Strategy
You're a nonprofit in the health space and you want to generate awareness for your organization.
However, you don't know where to start or what strategies will work best for your organization.
In this episode, Spencer outlines four SEO strategies that nonprofits in the health space use to boost their search traffic.
These strategies are not only effective but they can be easily implemented by any nonprofit with limited resources and time.
Resources:
- Companion article: SEO Strategies to Boost Patient Resource Traffic [Part 2]
- Service: UX Research & Content Strategy
A lot of nonprofits in the health space provide online resources for patients, but it can be tough to figure out how to make your website more user-friendly.
In this episode, Spencer outlines the overall strategy to create a better patient user experience. He examines the problem from the perspective of a new website visitor and the 5-step journey they might take from awareness to engagement with your organization.
Resources:
- Companion article: Creating a Better Patient User Experience for Nonprofit Websites [Part 1]
- Service: UX Research & Content Strategy
Many nonprofits face the challenge of improving their confusing website. In this solo episode, Spencer outlines three (and a half) reasons your website has a poor user experience and specific steps you can take to improve it.
Resources:
- The Complete Guide to Nonprofit Website User Experience (UX) [Brooks Digital]
- The Secret of Highly Effective Health Nonprofit Websites [Brooks Digital]
- Service: UX Research & Content Strategy
Have you ever wondered what nonprofit marketing would be like without social media?
In this episode, Jed Johnson of Wide Awake International shares why they made the decision to remove themselves entirely from social media.
We discuss how social media conflicted with their values of dignity and love, how they generate awareness without social media, and what it cost them to make the decision.
Resources:
- Website: https://wideawakeinternational.org/
- Email: jjohnson@wideawakeinternational.org
- Article: Nonprofits, It’s Time to Own Your Social Media Audience [SSIR]
In this episode, Dominique Viel of InvisiYouth Charity discusses the unique struggles of young adults with chronic illnesses. We discuss her personal story as the founder of InvisiYouth Charity, what being "medically adult-ish™" means, and how she reaches and engages the young adult demographic.
Get in touch:
- Website: http://www.invisiyouthcharity.com/
- Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
- InvisiYouth Chat Sessions on YouTube
- InvisiYouth Charity shop on Etsy
Are you a one-person marketing department at your nonprofit? In this episode, Melissa McGurgan shares her tips on being the only marketer in your organization. We discuss how she handled marketing when her school was unaccredited, how a "sprint mindset" helps her get more done, and operating with limited human and financial resources.
Resources:
- The American Marketing Association and their Nonprofit and Cause Marketing Virtual Conference
- Hubspot Academy
Get in touch:
- Website: cgi.edu
- Podcast: Disruptors at Work: An Integrated Care Podcast
In this episode, Julia Campbell shares her advice on nonprofit storytelling in our digital age. We discuss why storytelling has become so popular, the building blocks of a captivating story, and ways to tell stories ethically and effectively on digital channels.
Resources:
- Nonprofit Tech for Good
- Beth Kanter
Get in touch:
- Website: https://jcsocialmarketing.com/
- Podcast: https://nonprofitnationpodcast.com/
Digital maturity is a measure of how well an organization is able to create value through digital channels and react to disruptive technologies and events. For example, how badly COVID disrupted your nonprofit is one indicator of digital maturity.
In this solo episode, Spencer discusses the various digital maturity models available today and outlines a digital marketing maturity framework for nonprofits.
Resources:
- Deloitte's digital maturity model
- Forrester's digital maturity model
- Optimizely: What's the right digital transformation model for your business?
- Digital Leadership's digital maturity model for nonprofits
- Brooks Digital's digital scorecard for nonprofits
We all love stories of a miracle cure, but for people with chronic, incurable conditions, there is no model for what it looks like to live a meaningful, "unfixed" life.
In this episode, Kimberly Warner of Unfixed Media Productions shares how she uses film to enable people with chronic illnesses to share their stories. We discuss her personal journey with chronic illness, how sharing stories can bring healing, and her new docuseries Life Rebalanced Chronicles produced in collaboration with the Vestibular Disorders Association.
Resources:
- Health Story Collaborative
- Enabled Disabled podcast
- Disorder channel
- The Journal of Health Design
Get in touch:
- Website: https://unfixedmedia.com/
Every once in a while, you hear a story that makes you smile from ear to ear. In this episode, Nita Wilkinson of Green Hills Community shares a heartwarming story of a program connecting seniors with teens who volunteer to teach them technology.
We discuss the value of tech skills for elders, the unexpected results of bringing teens and seniors together, and how aging folks can add value to those around them.
Resources:
- International Council on Active Aging
- LeadingAge
Get in touch:
- Website: http://www.greenhillscommunity.org/
- Email: nwilkinson@greenhillscommunity.org
Sometimes, people latch on to poor metrics when they can’t find a good proxy for what they want to measure. And those poor metrics can lead them away from what they want to accomplish.
In this solo episode, Spencer challenges the popular digital metrics of traffic and stickiness and explains how to find your "smoking gun" metrics instead.
- Article: The Vanity of Nonprofit Metrics
- Article: The Surprising Truth About Digital Metrics for Nonprofits
- Service: Health Nonprofit Digital Diagnostic
It used to take CoachArt's staff seven hours to match a volunteer with a child seeking arts and athletics lessons. Now, it takes them less than seven minutes. How did they do it?
In this episode, Greg Harrell-Edge of CoachArt comes on the show to discuss how he built a customized tech platform to match volunteers with kids. We discuss the creation of CoachArt Connect, how CoachArt quickly pivoted to virtual lessons during Covid, and how that unexpected digital pivot is helping them scale nationally.
Resources:
- Masters of Scale podcast
- How I Built This podcast
- First Round Capital blog
- Positive Equation
- Leading Good
Get in touch:
- Website: https://coachart.org/
- Email: greg@coachart.org
- Become a CoachArt Ambassador: https://coachart.org/healthcareambassador
"We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us."
— British MP Jo Cox
Accomplishing something truly great by yourself is a hard road. It's why many nonprofits develop partnerships with other organizations that have similar missions. But doing so is not always straightforward.
In this episode, Kyle J Rose—a Vice President at the International Diabetes Federation, Head of Strategy at DiabetesWise, and an Advisor at DiabetesMine—comes on the show to share his extensive experience developing partnerships. We discuss his journey that started in engineering, his advice for staying unbiased in partnerships, and how to navigate international relationships.
- Website: https://diabeteswise.org/ and https://idf.org/
- Twitter: @KyleJacquesRose
Awareness campaigns are a lot of work and we all want to make the absolute most of them. So how do you get more PR and earned media opportunities to boost your reach? Jennifer Weaver of the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation is a print and TV veteran and we dive into this exact question on the show. Jennifer breaks down the successes of their recent Journey of Hope campaign, how to get more press coverage, and her favorite PR tips and tricks as an industry insider.
- Website: https://cholangiocarcinoma.org/
- Email: jennifer.weaver@cholangiocarcinoma.org
Writing website messaging that captures the attention of visitors doesn't happen automatically. In this episode, Pam Lowney of Fistula Foundation comes on the show to discuss what nonprofits get wrong about their messaging, the difference between head and heart messaging, and the messaging framework she used during their web redesign.
- Website: https://fistulafoundation.org
- Email: pamela@fistulafoundation.org
When someone is newly diagnosed, your organization has a prime opportunity to secure their attention and engage them with your resources. However, many nonprofit websites fail to effectively address the needs of newly diagnosed patients. In this solo episode, Spencer unpacks what newly diagnosed people want from your website and how you can adapt your website to meet their unique needs.
- Article: The Secret of Highly Effective Health Nonprofit Websites
- Article: How Patient Experience Design Creates a Better Website For Your Nonprofit
- Service: Patient-Focused User Experience & Content Strategy
- Thoughts or questions? Email Spencer
Experiencing stigma is a real and significant challenge for people with a health condition. And as a health organization, combating stigma is a complex issue. In this episode, Kevin Williams of The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) comes on the show to discuss why stigma is such an important issue, the 3 different types of stigma, and how DBSA addresses stigma through education.
- Website: https://www.dbsalliance.org/
- Email: kwilliams@dbsalliance.org
Does your organization have an awareness month? If so, you know it's not just about spreading awareness—it's about encouraging action. In this episode, Carolyn Baker of The Autism Community in Action (TACA) comes on the show to discuss why TACA calls them "action" months, how they encourage people to take action, and how they're adapting their messaging as they emerge from the pandemic.
- Website: https://tacanow.org/
- Email: carolyn.baker@tacanow.org
Is your healthcare content connecting with your audience? In this episode, Betsey O'Brien of Desire Path Marketing comes on the show to discuss mistakes nonprofits make with their website content, signs your content is falling short (and what to do about it), and how to prioritize content improvements on your site.
Betsey works with strategic planners, web developers, video producers and others to advance the communications goals of leading health care nonprofits. She has written for many c-level leaders, creating everything from op-ed pieces to keynote speeches to weekly blog posts.
- Website: https://www.desire-path.com/
- Email: betsey@desire-path.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/betseyobrien/
If you provide online health information, people must trust you before they choose to read it. However, many nonprofit health organizations miss this critical step when crafting their digital platform. In this solo episode, Spencer breaks down the six website trust signals he's observed in Brooks Digital's research, and how they fit into the larger arc of effective health information.
- Article: 6 Trust Signals For Online Health Information
- Article: The Complete Guide to Nonprofit Website User Experience (UX)
- Service: Patient-Focused User Experience & Content Strategy
- Thoughts or questions? Email Spencer
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is the gold standard of viral marketing and fundraising campaigns. So who better to bring on the podcast than Morgan Roth of The ALS Association? In this episode, Morgan shares how the Ice Bucket Challenge began, why it was so successful, the pros and cons of viral marketing campaigns, and her advice for other organizations seeking to emulate the same success.
- Check out The ALS Association website
- Email Morgan
- Connect with Morgan on LinkedIn
- Follow Morgan on Twitter
What does it take to make your health resources multilingual? Lynette Fludd of the Hormone Health Network comes on the show to talk about evaluating the need for providing health resources in multiple languages, whether you should use automated or professional translation services, and the importance of getting translation right when communicating health information.
- Check out the Hormone Health Network website
- Email Lynette
Should your organization use TikTok as a marketing channel? As one of the biggest nonprofits on TikTok right now, Sara Goldberg & Michelle Sagan of the National Down Syndrome Society discuss why they've been so successful, how they leverage the work of their policy team, and the unexpected fundraising opportunities they discovered on TikTok.
- Check out the NDSS website and TikTok
- Email Sara & Michelle
- Connect with Sara & Michelle on LinkedIn
In today’s rapidly-changing marketing landscape, agile methodologies are increasingly being adopted by marketing teams. In this episode, Lesli Proffitt Nordström of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) discusses how she uses agile marketing to boost the productivity of her team by over 200%.
- Check out NORD’s website
- Email Lesli
- Connect with Lesli on LinkedIn
Creating awareness for a little-known health condition is challenging—let alone promoting your organization’s existence in that space. Patrick McCartney of the International Essential Tremor Foundation comes on the show to talk about his experience using corporate partnerships to amplify awareness and how he chooses effective marketing channels with limited resources.
- See the work of the International Essential Tremor Foundation
- Email Patrick
- Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn
As a complement to the patient-provider relationship, health nonprofits have the opportunity to adopt a unique tone of voice. Carli Feinstein of Craft & Commerce comes on the show to talk about her experience refining brand voice at Bright Pink and how she uses it in her work at Craft & Commerce.
- See Carli’s work: Craft & Commerce
- Sign up for Dollars & Change
- Connect with Carli on LinkedIn