Transforming Healthcare Marketing With Michelle Barbeau

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [2:14] Michelle Barbeau's pivot from advertising to healthcare innovation
• [3:45] How Michelle's consumer empathy drives her marketing strategies
• [4:44] The strategy that transformed eHealth’s business model
• [7:10] How can brands boost brand awareness while minimizing acquisition costs?
• [8:42] eHealth's approach to attracting its senior target market
• [13:33] Leveraging integrated marketing to skyrocket website traffic
• [16:35] Improving customer retention strategies
• [20:01] How mentoring fueled Michelle's growth journey

In this episode…

While technological innovations are revolutionizing patient care and management, they are also reshaping the roles and demands of healthcare marketing. With the healthcare marketer's job no longer limited to traditional sales and marketing strategies, how can these professionals leverage customer centricity to help brands reach the right audience at the right time? 

For customer experience expert Michelle Barbeau, the secret lies in establishing a brand identity that differentiates itself from industry norms. Michelle's cutting-edge healthcare campaigns improved transparency and consumer trust and delivered impressive results that included improved brand awareness, boosting website traffic, and minimizing acquisition costs. By prioritizing customers’ needs and developing an integrated marketing approach, marketers can address the major challenges of healthcare marketing — confusion, cost, and complexity. Michelle’s approach demonstrates how understanding and aligning with consumer needs can boost business growth and industry recognition.

In this episode of The Growth Fire Podcast, Kevin Hourigan chats with Michelle Barbeau about strategic innovation and leadership in healthcare marketing. Michelle highlights the importance of consumer empathy in driving business growth, the critical role of mentors in her career journey, and the value of stepping out of your comfort zone. Tune in for insights on brand building, business transformation, and aligning marketing strategies with consumer needs. 

Quotable Moments:

• "Healthcare expenses are the number one driver of bankruptcy in America, so there are very real problems to solve for people."
• "It's about making health care more transparent, easier to understand, and personalized to what they need."
• "We've shifted the business that had lost millions in EBITDA into one that saw high EBITDA growth in the first year."
• "Our campaign, ‘eHealth, your Medicare matchmaker,’ was born from consumer insights."
• "Being clear on your strategy and building a fully integrated marketing campaign around that is crucial to success."

Action Steps:

1. Listen to your customers to develop a brand identity that resonates with them: This empathetic approach directly addresses consumer pain points.
2. Embrace significant pivots in your career: Focusing on solving real consumer problems can lead to innovative contributions. 
3. Lead with transparency in your marketing efforts: Building trust and credibility in crowded industries helped eHealth double its brand awareness. 
4. Implement an integrated marketing strategy that coordinates across all channels: A consistent narrative, like eHealth's multifold website traffic increase, helps achieve goals 
5. Constantly innovate and refine customer retention strategies: This ensures long-term success and loyalty.

Sponsor for this episode...

This episode is brought to you by Spinutech. Spinutech is a premium digital growth agency that specializes in revitalizing lead-generation strategies and accelerating online sales for top brands.

To learn more, go to www.spinutech.com.

Guest Contact Details

• Michelle Barbeau on LinkedIn
• eHealth
• Lara Sasken on LinkedIn