Information Management Research's Launch into the Healthcare market.

Title: Making an Impact in the HIPAA-driven Healthcare Market

Situation Analysis:

IMR's objective was to enter into the healthcare market with a new healthcare document management product called RecordCare, which helps healthcare providers and payers achieve HIPAA compliance by converting paper-based records into a secure digital repository. The company faced significant barriers to entry, including no visibility in the healthcare market, only beta customers for the new product, no collateral or supporting research to explain the significance and purpose of the product, and a sales team that was new to selling to executives, IT heads, and business administrators in the healthcare industry.

IMR's first step was to assemble a team to formulate a detailed product launch, including the strategic marketing communications plan. IMR assembled a team consisting of members from its corporate marketing dept., Steve Rannells, IMR's in-house healthcare expert, its PR agency, Ripple Effect Communications, its advertising agency, D3, and its email marketing agency, Inbox Interactive. The external team members were carefully selected for a number of reasons: Ripple Effect is one of the few agencies to offer "a la carte" marketing communication services and deliver a PR matrix to measure the overall success of its communications programs, D3 for its ad creativity, and Inbox Interactive because of its experience in email marketing.

The team's first mission was to develop a strategic marketing communications roadmap, as outlined below, with detailed milestones including completion dates for a messaging workshop, a press release, collateral, the white paper, editorial coverage, a HIPAA-compliance Webinar and the media/analyst tour.

Objectives, Strategies and Tactics for IMR's Marketing Communications Plan

• Assess and align IMR's corporate messaging, RecordCare positioning, and market entry strategies
• Develop feature coverage opportunities through the creation of a master editorial calendar based on Healthcare market as well as a well-devised pitch campaign.
• Gain third-party endorsements, customer testimonials, success stories, white papers
• Generate Leads

Communications Strategies

• Define and communicate umbrella key messages and competitive differentiators of RecordCare
• Clearly map out the company vision for RecordCare today and the future as a context for all IMR communications
• Focus on thought leadership programs, starting with a Webinar

Communications Tactics

• Articulate and convey clear, concise key messages in the new RecordCare datasheet, press release, whitepaper
• Educate all levels of media, analysts, healthcare associations
• Demonstrate IMR's innovation and leadership
• Illustrate the business strategy behind the new product innovation
• Devise a roadmap with milestones to be reached in the context of PR and increased visibility via published articles, speaking opportunities, a media tour, a Webinar (online seminar), customer testimonials, analyst acknowledgement in newsletters/reports, in addition to the development of new collateral, white paper, and product sheet

Challenges to Meeting the Objectives:

• New market, no market recognition in the healthcare industry
• Only beta customers, no pre-existing installed base
• Creation of strategic marketing plan and vehicles for facilitation
• Education and training of Sales and Marketing Team
• No research, white paper, collateral, or product sheet

Milestones and Tangible Results:

During the messaging workshop, the team drove consensus on positioning, developed an "umbrella" message, identified defensible proof points and tailored the newly identified key messages for the healthcare audience. In addition, the team developed a messaging workbook with a script that was even more granular to help drive consistency across all company communications. Importantly, the key message points have been used to provide talking points for all media interviews and serve as a basis for internal communication.

Following the messaging workshop, the second milestone was to write a compelling press release that would entice future customers and press to visit IMR at AIIM 2003 and see a live demonstration of the new product, RecordCare. The team knew that the next step needed was to quickly create a one-page product sheet and press kit to support the sales efforts at the booth and used by executives during media/analysts interviews; the team enlisted Ripple Effect to complete the documents in time for the show.

The fourth milestone was to publish a white paper that explained the significance of records management in an increasingly regulated market and importantly, how RecordCare could help companies achieve the necessary HIPAA-compliance. Steve Rannells, IMR's in-house healthcare expert, wrote the paper based on his vast experience in the industry and the changing market needs. The team had strategically decided to have the paper published before the rest of the launch could be completed.

In conjunction with the white paper, IMR had to write persuasive customer success stories that would resonate with its potential customers. The team decided that the University of Louisville Hospital, Arizona Medical Clinic and Liberty Medical were the most compelling.

As soon as the white paper and case studies were completed, the next milestone to achieve was garner meaningful editorial coverage to maximize visibility of the product. Ripple Effect was successful in securing coverage in several notable publications, including Advance for Healthcare Executives, Health Leaders, and Health Management Technology as well as a mention in SearchCIO.com Webinar on trends, solutions and technology.

The seventh milestone, managed by Ripple Effect, was to leverage the healthcare white paper to initiate and facilitate a HIPAA-compliance Webinar, hosted by IMR. The Webinar featured two of IMR's customers (the University of Louisville Hospital and Arizona Medical Clinic) who gave testimonials about their use of IMR's HIPAA-compliance solution. Inbox crafted the direct mail strategy and email invitation. IMR's Webinar successfully met the team's objectives of being a cost effective means to reach the healthcare executives who are the influencers and have the buying power, and enabling management to reach its targets without a large time commitment or need to travel. In the end, the Webinar produced 176 hard leads, strengthened IMR and RecordCare's brand awareness and helped the company maximize its return on its marketing dollars.

The eighth milestone achieved was publishing a thought leadership piece on HIPAA. A revised version of the healthcare white paper will be highlighted on Advance for Healthcare Executives' Web site on August 11th.

The team is now in the process of reaching milestones nine and ten, which are the media tour and an analyst tour, currently scheduled to take place the first week in August. IMR executives are well prepared for the tour and have been media trained with the key messages for the healthcare audience developed during the messaging workshop.