We’re joined by Kurt Lee Hurley, Chief Marketing Officer at American Family Care, an urgent care and primary care provider, to explore the future of marketing post-COVID-19. In this conversation, we discuss the need for strong patient relationships, the importance of messaging versus marketing, and how to create successful pandemic-specific content.
Transcript
Brian Erickson:
Thanks for joining the Cardwell Beach Marketing Podcast. My name is Brian Erickson, Chief Strategy Officer and partner at Cardwell Beach. In this series, we’re interviewing senior marketers across industries to develop perspective on what marketing will look like in a post-COVID-19 world. Today’s guest is Kurt Lee Hurley, the Chief Marketing Officer for American Family Care, an urgent care and primary care provider with more than 160 clinics nationwide. Kurt, thanks so much for joining us today.
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Thank you, Brian. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Brian Erickson:
All right. Well, let’s talk about weathering the storm. The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously affected every industry, but perhaps none as directly as the healthcare segment. So I guess talk a little bit about how the ongoing pandemic has changed the way that you communicate to your patients, communities, and staff, and I’m sure it’s been a moving target as the situation continues to evolve.
Kurt Lee Hurley:
You hit the nail on the head, it truly has. I mean, essentially, much is the same, and fortunately, we didn’t go from zero to 60 in three days. And so, because much is the same, it’s really more what’s being communicated in the process and how that’s being communicated today, versus let’s say, six months, nine months, or a year ago, so big factor. A huge pivot, where I think we have not only elevated, but have evolved, is in the area of telehealth, and that’s obviously become a significant component and has allowed and enabled long-distance patient in-clinic contact. So it also created a hyper focus on that specific care, the sort of advice that is dispensed, reminders that are provided, notifications, the information, education, the intervention, the monitoring. Of course, remote admissions have become more fluid and relational, which should’ve been a more vital element of healthcare, but I think that particular facet of communications has evolved significantly.
Brian Erickson:
You have locations nationwide, right? And from what I can tell, it seems that your heaviest concentration is kind of in the Southeast US, but has your approach differed regionally as the situation has unfolded differently in various geographic parts of the country?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Yeah. I mean, American Family Care is both a corporate entity, as well as a franchise entity. Although there is a general guideline and general approach to mandates across the entire organization, what takes place in a specific locale, be it a region or a specific area, or even nationally, there are some variants across those locations, and that is relatively commonplace in all industry, even more specifically with regards to the construct of urgent care and primary care providers, as it pertains to the individual prospective patient, as well as patient.
Brian Erickson:
How have you managed to align communication among, what I imagine are quite a lot of different parties with potentially disparate messaging at different times? Was that something that you had an infrastructure in place for, or was that just kind of woke up one day and you had a new challenge on your plate?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Well yeah, I think any business that is not only going to effectively contend with such a significant change, the need to pivot, the need to be able to innovate in real time and affect change, not just locally, but globally across the entire system, is an absolute necessity, and I think American Family Care has done that exceedingly well.
Brian Erickson:
Definitely have kind of watched as at least the social presence and website presence you’ve had online has shifted and adapted, and it seems like you’ve had it work out pretty seamlessly. How has the tactical mix from your original 2020 plan to where COVID really set in and hit, how has your tactical mix adapted and changed from what you might’ve originally foreseen coming into the year?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
So generally speaking, from a real sterile marketing perspective, again, much is the same, however, that pivot to less marketing-driven communications and more toward that messaging-driven communications approach has been a sizeable factor in that. Obviously, the approach to content has been updated, email marketing has become more prevalent, and even when we talk about content, it’s become and evolved into more pandemic specific content. So those mechanisms have been deployed as a pivot. So essentially, a shift to a communications-driven marketing approach has taken place, versus that generalized marketing approach, which does include communications and PR. That focus has really become more of what not only American Family Care, I think, is doing in this particular space, but any smart marketer in this space has made that pivot, that shift as well.
Brian Erickson:
If tactically, that’s the way that you guys have adapted, would you say that within those tactics, the service mix has moved largely over to telehealth, and I would imagine likely to COVID testing and related services, or has the service mix of your communications stayed largely the same?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Yeah. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. Because of telehealth, there was a significant shift in that direction. Obviously, COVID testing has become not just a more important, more needed service, but to be honest, American Family Care was already working with Abbott Labs and was already utilizing that sort of rapid approach to testing with regards to strep and flu, and machine was retooled, and of course we already had the infrastructure for that particular approach to testing. So it became not only a more prevalent factor, but because we did have the infrastructure, as well as the machines, they were modified to not just hit the ground running, utilize that technology in a very efficient, effectual way. So between telehealth and COVID testing, as well as a shift to that more personalized telemedicine approach, from the patient perspective, the consumer perspective, those things really kind of effectively collided in a almost seamless way, and I can say we were one of the few.
Brian Erickson:
Definitely depends on where you were seated in the world, right? There was just a rapid shift, and certain folks just were ready for this without really knowing that they were preparing for it, and the spotlight hit them, and it was go time, which it seems like you were in that category, and obviously, other industries kind of ground to a halt. I’ve been using the term pandemic time warp, where it kind of accelerated certain trends and slowed down others, and telehealth and telemedicine are definitely on that front. So I guess when we’re looking toward the future and looking at what comes next, when it comes to the way that patients interact with healthcare brands, do you anticipate a return to pre-COVID reality, or what might a new normal that incorporates some of our recent experiences look like?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
I look at this from both a personal perspective, as well as a professional perspective, and obviously, things were forced to evolve, and they have, so back treading into that normal, I don’t think is going to take place, and I would like to think that we can return to a normal, or at least a new normal that is more humane and aware than the old normal. Not to utilize any tragedy as a vehicle to become more effective at what you do, but even Amazon has benefited significantly from the pandemic, and so have many other entities and industries.
And so, in this particular vertical, in healthcare and in urgent care, primary care, and this more consumer-centric approach to it, I don’t think we’ll see that the old normal, but I do hope that the new normal that we do arrive at is not only a satisfying normal for us all, but it’s a better normal, it’s a more kind and caring, service-driven normal that in retrospect, we can all look back on all of this and say, “Yes, we have become better.” Sadly, it was out of tragedy, but because we are more aware of things, we can move forward with that awareness and that more fine-tuned outlook. I have to infuse both my professional as well as my personal opinion into that and give you that answer, because just from a professional perspective, there’s always money to be made in tragedy, and that is sad, but there’s also the opportunity to become better, to serve better, and to do better for not just the organization or the industry, but for everybody.
Brian Erickson:
And I think the folks, at least that I’ve seen in personal experience on the professional side of things that have done well, are the folks that placed emphasis on agility and nimbleness, right? And when facing unprecedented situations that require fast response, how can marketers make a messaging pivot, or overall strategic pivot to adapt to changing conditions, while staying true to their core brand promise? What infrastructure can we all proactively start to build now that can at least put the building blocks, that will allow us to be nimble in future crises in place, even if we don’t know what those are?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Great question. As a marketer, I love marketing questions, and although I am representing the healthcare brand, at the end of the day, for me, it’s all about marketing, and it’s all about a connection, and creating connective tissue to people, and marketers are smart. They’re animals of change, that’s what makes a good marketer. Most are organically inclined to pivot, move fast, adapt, be nimble, be agile, and move through innovation, or through shifts in the market, the dynamics of the market, so that’s all kind of the organic nature of who we are as marketers. So adapting to changing conditions is in the DNA of marketers, and that’s a good thing. I like to think that those of us who have excelled in this particular dispensation, this timeframe of this pandemic, we have become better. We’ve become more adaptive, adept, more nimble, more agile.
Part of that, in looking at infrastructure, is retooling what exists to become more fluid and more like we are as marketers, using technologies that are more nimble and agile, and integrating things that work to not just serve the organization and serve us as marketers, but serve our core markets. But from that 30,000 foot perspective, I think marketers have become more attuned and have really kind of gained or gleaned insight into being more driven, and being able to see things from a 360 degree perspective. I know I have, and I know it’s caused a challenge for me, and I like to think that I’m one of many, and not just one of one.
I think the final analysis on that, is because marketers are smart, because we’re adaptive, because pivoting, and shifting, and understanding market changes is a part of who we are, that we have emerged and evolved into becoming creatures of the present. Part of that is at the end of the day, building infrastructure and utilizing technologies, and integrating who we are with those technologies to a greater degree, utilizing AI and smart technology to be ready and be better prepared for that prospect in our market, as well as our existing patients or our existing market.
Brian Erickson:
And just kind of to play off of some of that in terms of desire to remain nimble, and as we get greater insight and greater visibility into tactics, we have a ability to make data-driven decisions, I’ve seen instances where we use that data to make the decision that drives the greatest return on investment, or greatest return on ad spend, or whatever specific metrics you’re looking to move at that given time, that comes at the risk sometimes of cutting off some options to diversify and have multiple channels running that maybe aren’t delivering the absolute highest return on your spend there, but would allow you to stay nimble and keep options open. So that is kind of a conversation in the C-suite that might be changing now that we’ve heard a couple of folks talk about, of risk mitigation versus purely looking at the absolute highest return on investment at a given point in time.
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Fortunately, in most industries, our technologies are becoming, and I say that in the sense that if we’re utilizing a CRM that not only serves the organization, serves the industry, as well as serves our customers, or a CDP, a platform that is specifically AI-driven that enables us to look at those campaigns at a glance to see what channels are providing that return on ad spend, or ultimately, that return on investment, those sorts of technologies, and us, as marketers, being nimble in the use of those technologies, we should be able to see that stuff in real time. We shouldn’t have any channels or campaigns, unless we’re consciously choosing to utilize them because they serve a greater good. That technology, at the end of the day, for us as marketers, is there to serve us and is there to serve the organization and ultimately, is there to serve the populace of our market.
And so, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that we’re looking at this through dirty lenses or anything, because it, in some cases, we do choose to utilize channels and campaigns that don’t seemingly serve the organization from a ROAS or ROI perspective, we tend to do it from a, for the greater good perspective, and PR is one of those things. Many organizations spend a whole lot of money on PR, and it doesn’t specifically serve the bottom line or even the top line, but ultimately, it serves the greater good, and that’s okay.
Brian Erickson:
Not that I’m a big fan of drilling for oil, but I do like the metaphor in the sense of constantly having two buckets of explore versus exploit, right? You always have to be drilling where you know that there’s oil and extracting as much as you can, but you also have to be searching for new sources, knowing that eventually that source is going to be tapped, right? If you don’t actively maintain both of those different buckets of marketing tactics and channels, you greatly reduce your ability to pivot and to adapt in a situation like we’re in currently.
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Absolutely, and one of those particular examples that come to mind is TikTok. I can tell you when it first emerged, relatively few looked at it as being a truly viable channel for what it has become. If we as marketers, aren’t constantly looking ahead, at least sampling out, testing out new technologies, and new approaches, and new ways of thinking and doing, then we’re not doing our jobs.
Brian Erickson:
That is definitely a very valid point. And I think for many folks, we’ve all personally and professionally been thrown headfirst into a digital first world, whether we like it or not, right? Everybody knows digital has been around a long time, but the physical world still has come first, and in many regards, business is no exception there. So if you could give one piece of advice to mid-market and smaller healthcare providers trying to create engagement online right now, what would you say is really important for them to keep in mind?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
So, unfortunately, a huge by-product of this pandemic has been mass unemployment, right? It’s been layoffs, and furloughs, and downsizing. That’s part of the tragedy that follows, and of course, it’s the aftereffect, it’s what follows the actual tragedy that occurs. But as marketers, we have to become more personally brand-centric and company-centric. And that’s not to say our former company, for example, if we were furloughed or laid off, or downsized out or whatever the circumstance may be, but we have to really understand who that particular marketplace is, prospective employers, as well as who we are as marketer. So that’s why I say we have to become more personally brand-centric, as well as company brand-centric. It’s not just the retooling of the resume, and the updating of the LinkedIn profile, it’s all of it. It’s how it integrates, and utilizing the fundamentals, the rules, the foundations, for which a solid resume will reflect you as a marketer, as well as how it will serve the new organization that you’re potentially looking at.
Networking has evolved as the new networking, and it’s not orange is the new black, or black is the new black, it’s networking has become the new networking, and with an emphasis on networking, it’s become vital to our lives and our livelihoods. And so, the dependence on networking is here, I believe it’s here to stay, and I think that’s great because it’s enabling us to connect at levels, and through channels, and mediums that really didn’t, or weren’t, being utilized in the past to the degree that they should’ve been. And so, we have to look at ourselves through our backgrounds, our professional backgrounds, we have to represent ourselves through our wins and through our losses, obviously emphasizing the wins and downplaying the losses, but we also have to reflect on those losses and we have to be honest with them, because if we can win through loss and that’s how success arrives, and if we’re honest about that, then a prospective employer will look at that and see honesty, and honesty is a big factor, especially mid-pandemic, post-pandemic, however, we want to look at that, it’s super important.
So, in essence, marketers, they have to build out that personal brand, they have to be very precise, they have to understand who they are, what they do, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, what the potential threats in the marketplace are, and there are lots. Competitive landscape is five to 50, maybe even a hundred times, greater than it likely ever has been, and we also have to recognize that professional brand out there, that company that we are applying for, and we have to seamlessly bring those two things together to make them look like they’re already partners, when in fact, they’re not yet.
And that’s what I think that single piece of advice would be, is understand who your marketplace is, the prospective employer, understand who you are, and tie those things together through those previously mentioned things, those channels, mediums, the approaches, and make them as seamless as you possibly can. Keywords are great, they enable us to understand what it is that we’re looking at, and then utilize those specific keywords in who we are, and infuse the keywords of the organization, and the keywords of us as individuals, or as prospective candidates and/or employees of an organization, and seamlessly bringing those things together.
Brian Erickson:
Let’s say you were looking for somebody to join your team on the marketing side of the business. What skills would really stick out to you on a resume if somebody had them as line items? If somebody is looking to re-skill, let’s say they’re furloughed or been laid off, what aspects of the marketing toolkit should they really focus on building right now?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Because the competitive landscape is so fierce, because it has grown so significantly, we don’t feel that, we don’t see it as that person who is in that place of looking for work. You have to really understand how vast that pool is, how big that pool, that sea has become, of competition, and really, really taking a good hard look at who we are as not just talent, but as creators and innovators, as masters of analysis, and really emphasizing those strengths.
But I think the real answer to that question is tenacity, to be tenacious. My approach has always been, don’t just send a resume, identify who the key players to that specific role are, try to find their email addresses online, and most of them are found. Network with them, connect with them on LinkedIn, send them inbox emails. You have to campaign, and you have to use a tenacious approach to that campaigning. I know many prospective employers don’t like that, many hiring managers don’t like that, many HR professionals don’t like that, but many do. Same thing with recruiters. If a recruiter contacts you, be tenacious, shine through that dark and dim sea, that vast, broad, and deep dark sea of competition, and shine, shine lights on you everywhere you possibly can, and be tenacious about it. Be the biggest advocate and become your own raving fan, represent yourself in ways that you would represent an organization, and that’s how you do that.
And if a employer doesn’t like that, if a head of HR doesn’t like that, if a recruiter doesn’t like that, if a hiring manager doesn’t like that, then move on to the next opportunity, because you’re looking to find a employer that recognizes your value, as much as you’re looking to find an employer that has a value and values that you want to be a value-added player in context, and in conjunction and concert with. So that tenacity, campaign like you’ve never campaigned before, and do it like your life depends on it because in this competitive landscape, it truly does.
Brian Erickson:
I think that’s a fantastic point, and honestly, I’m really surprised that I haven’t heard that as an answer to this question before on this series here, and I think it really can’t be understated that only one person gets the job, right?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Yeah.
Brian Erickson:
And as Seth Godin, in The Dip, talks about, it’s the person who’s the best in the world, and the definition of that, is the person who’s hiring, their world, right?
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Yeah.
Brian Erickson:
Tailoring your message to them and being persistent, being persistent. The worst thing that you can hear is silence. I think if you’re going to ruffle some feathers and get a no, always a fan of getting a no over hearing nothing, and if folks in the job market can take one thing away from what you just said, I think it’s that it’s just so much more competitive than you probably think it is. We put out a job post and even before all of this, we’ve been fully remote for a number of years, and so, we put out a job post for somebody to work fully remote. I mean, we get hundreds, if not thousands, of applications and we can’t possibly look at them all. So, the people that cold call us, and send emails to the CEO, and add us on LinkedIn, those are the ones that get their resume looked at, and unfortunately, we can’t go through hundreds or thousands of resumes for every single job post. So I think that’s very, very important, and again, I think cannot be understated.
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Yeah. And you know what? HR is very busy. Like you said, you’re looking at, and depending on the echelon of that particular job that you’re applying for, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of applicants. Sure, some of them are spit into the circular filing cabinet on the floor, otherwise known as the garbage heap, but many of them that make it through that applicant tracking system, now become viable candidates and are whittled down.
And so, in order to be heard or seen through that noise and that clutter, that dark and murky, you have to become a marketer and campaign like your life depends on it, because it truly does, because like you said, only one person gets the job, and your job, until you get that job, is to become the loudest and the biggest advocate of yourself in that process. I’ll say this: HR reps, they’re not in the business of understanding, to any great degree, a good marketer from an average marketer or a poor marketer. That’s really not their schtick. So it’s your job as that candidate, to, in fact, lobby and campaign to get that job because there can, as they say in The Highlander, “There can be only one.”
Brian Erickson:
Well, I think that’s a fantastic way to end the episode here. So Kurt, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today, and for quoting The Highlander as your signing-off quote.
Kurt Lee Hurley:
Thank you, Brian. It was my pleasure, and anytime you need a quote in a pinch, you know who to call.
Brian Erickson:
Awesome. Definitely make sure to follow Kurt on LinkedIn and all of his other social properties. He definitely practices what he preaches in terms of personal branding. So look him up, he is a fantastic resource. So this is Brian Erickson with Cardwell Beach, thanks again for listening, and please make sure to check back for more senior marketers sharing their perspectives on what marketing will look like in a post-COVID-19 world.
