Founder & President Joe Mercadante on navigating his marketing agency through the COVID-19
In 2020, almost 6,000 patients in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania alone contacted a new doctor, medical practice, or hospital as a result Internet marketing campaigns created and managed by Unleash Marketing. As an innovator and one of the leading marketing companies in this space,
Founder and President Joe Mercadante explain: “Making sure that patients have easy access to the right medical care is something we take very seriously and it’s at the core of what we do every day. COVID changed the way we operate as an agency, but it’s also changed how medical offices have to operate, and how patients want to interact with medical providers.
Unleash has worked with some of the most well-known figures in medicine, including a New York City hospital that’s world-renowned and many individual doctors who are globally recognized in their fields. At the head of one of the most experienced teams in medical practice marketing, Joe shares his thoughts about COVID-19 and its’ impacts on the medical industry.
“COVID has changed the way we work in a number of ways. At first, when our whole team started working remotely, we found that we struggled to communicate effectively. Instant messages would go unanswered if someone was on a phone call or in a Zoom meeting, and I think we also lost a feeling of collaboration and community among our team. Out of necessity, we made some changes and became more prepared.
We found a great video conferencing solution that brought back the ability to collaborate effortlessly, the conversations between team members came back and I think it brought us closer together as a group. For that reason, as soon as it’s safe, I see our whole team being back in the office. I don’t think that remote work is in our future for any longer than it has to be.
Secondly, how we communicated with our own clients and maintained our overall presence in the space that we’re in change. There were fewer meetings with clients and prospective clients, and after the first few months, I think people (ourselves included) had what I call “Zoom Overload”.
Instead of offering meeting times, we started putting out more on-demand content that people could absorb on their own schedules, from touching base with clients to giving our input on campaign reports to presenting our services to prospective clients.
People wanted short segments of specific information, without having to put items on their calendar, deal with waiting rooms, and meeting links, and everything else that goes along with virtual meetings.
Having made that change ourselves, we were in a great position to help our clients do the same. Since our clients are exclusively medical practices and hospitals, we were able to help our clients pivot.
Video content, text messages, and email campaigns that explain what COVID safety measures a medical office is taking, implementing telemedicine to allow doctors to video chat with patients, all became essential almost overnight. What’s important to our clients, and to their patients hasn’t changed… it’s only become more important.”
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The best way is our website, UnleashMarketing.com – from there, you can see more about our services, you can request a free consultation, see our portfolio of some recent projects, and check out our blogs and social media, which are great resources for anyone who wants to learn more about Internet marketing.
