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Building a Better Healthcare E-Newsletter

Posted on by Brian Lee

INTRODUCTION

newsletterAn e-newsletter is a regularly scheduled publication sent to a hospital’s stakeholders, such as patients, donors, community leaders and volunteers. As a result, an e-newsletter is a tool for customer retention, not customer acquisition.

Healthcare newsletters are an effective way to stay top-of-mind with recipients. They also can demonstrate how your hospital is a fixture of the community.

HOW TO SET UP A HEALTHCARE NEWSLETTER

You should use MailChimp over other email marketing platforms such as Constant Contact and Vertical Response for its ease-of-use, lower cost and integration with other programs, including CRMs.

After you’ve imported your contacts—remember, because email marketing is a form of permission-based marketing, these contacts must provide consent to be added to your list—you should segregate them, for example, by their relationship to your hospital. That way you can tailor your messages to each subscriber subset.

For your e-newsletter design, you can either modify existing templates, or you can upload your own custom HTML design. Set up blocks for 3-4 short articles and at least 1-2 graphics.

HOW TO CREATE RELEVANT NEWSLETTER CONTENT

First, you need to give your audiences a reason to subscribe to your newsletter. Make the promise of relevant, timely information, and be up front on the frequency of your emails (e.g. weekly or monthly).

Here are some topic ideas:

  • Humanize your hospital (e.g. write bios of physicians and staff).
  • Promote events (e.g. flu shots).
  • Share case studies and good deeds.
  • Educate on national health concerns (e.g. Zika virus).
  • Be transparent (e.g. report on the operations of the hospital).

‘Doctor Who’ Highlights Programming at Wizard World Madison

Posted on by Brian Lee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 4, 2016

Contact:

Jerry Milani
646-512-5022
pr@wizardworld.com

‘Doctor Who,’ ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D,’ Mike Colter Q&As Highlight Programming At Wizard World Madison, April 8-10

(MADISON, Wis.) – Q&A sessions with “Doctor Who” stars David Tennant and Alex Kingston, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” duo Elizabeth Henstridge and Brett Dalton, and “Jessica Jones/Luke Cage” standout Mike Colter, costume contests, comics-themed sessions, gaming tournaments and more are among the programming highlights at Wizard World Madison, Friday through Sunday, April 8-10 at Alliant Energy Center. Most programming is included as part of the standard event admission.

Some highlights of the more than 50 panels scheduled include:

  • Interactive Q&A with “Doctor Who” stars Tennant (Saturday, 5 p.m.) and Kingston (Saturday, 1 p.m.); “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s” Henstridge and Dalton (Saturday, 3 p.m.); and a voice acting session with Charles Martinet (“Mario”) and Cas Anvar (“Assassin’s Creed) (Sunday, noon)
  • Solo Q&A sessions with Billy Boyd of Lord of the Rings (Saturday, noon); “Ghost Hunter” Steve Gonsalves (Saturday, 12:30 p.m.), Colter (Saturday, 1:30 p.m.), “Finn & Jake” star Jeremy Shada (Saturday, 2:30 p.m.), “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” Nicholas Brendon (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.), Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show) (Sunday, 1 p.m.), WWE® Diva Paige™ (Sunday, 1:30 p.m.) and Kristin Bauer (“True Blood”) (Sunday, 2 p.m.)
  • Panels featuring superstar creators J. Sedelmaier (Friday, 7 p.m., Saturday, 3:30 p.m.), Dirk Manning (Saturday, 1:30 p.m.), Tom Cook (Saturday, 2 p.m.) and more
  • “Storytelling” with artist Michael Golden (Saturday, 12:30 p.m.)
  • Focus on Wisconsin creators Mike Baron (2 time Eisner award winner), Barb Kaalberg and Jeffrey Butler (artist Badger, Green Hornet) (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.)
  • Gaming events including Naruto 4, Pokken, Tekken 7, Street Fighter V, Smash Bros. Tournaments and free play
  • U-CRE-8 Comics Presents: Character Crafters and VIPs of Self-Publishing with Dandridge (Saturday 11:30 a.m.)
  • World famous Wizard World Costume Contests for adults (Saturday, 7 p.m.) and kids (Sunday, 3 p.m.)

Unless noted, programming events take place in the designated General Programming Rooms at the Alliant energy Center. VIP tickets or additional costs may apply to ensure access to select activities, as noted.

A full list of Wizard World comic con Madison programming is available at http://wizardworld.com/comiccon/madison/programming-madison.html (subjects, guests, times and rooms subject to change).

Wizard World comic con Madison is the sixth in the 2016 series of comic cons produced by Wizard World, Inc. (OTCBB: WIZD). For more on the event, visit http://wizd.me/MadisonPR.

About Wizard World (OTCBB: WIZD)

Wizard World, Inc. (www.wizardworld.com) produces comic cons, gaming and pop culture conventions across North America that celebrate the best in pop-fi, pop culture, movies, television, cosplay, comics, graphic novels, toys, video gaming, sci-fi, gaming, original art, collectibles, contests and more. A first-class lineup of topical programming takes place at each event, with celebrity Q&A’s, comics-themed sessions, costume contests, movie screenings, evening parties and more. Wizard World has also launched Wizard World Store (www.shopwizardworld.com), CONtv, a digital media channel in partnership with leading independent content distributor Cinedigm™ (NASDAQ: CIDM), and ComicConBox™ (www.comicconbox.com), a premium subscription-based monthly box service. Fans can interact with Wizard World on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and other social media services.

Wizard World 2016 schedule available at: www.wizardworld.com/wizcon.html.

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Resulting Media Coverage:

Communication in a Digital Age

Posted on by Jessica Hamilton

comm blogAfter reaching out to a someone recently for an interview to supplement a story I was writing, I was surprised when the person offered to meet for the interview over coffee, rather than just answering the questions via email (as routinely done).

While today’s digital communication makes it easy to sit behind a screen and connect with many people conveniently, we lose the face-to-face connections that build real relationships and the social cues that give us complete messages.

Forbes magazine said 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by body language. Tone and body language contribute to how we interpret messages, both of which are lost via digital devices. Consequently, miscommunication via digital mediums can leave employees feeling stressed as they obsess over the meaning of their boss’s “K” (okay) in an email response.

If you’re crunched for time but intend to have in-person meetings, set guidelines beforehand so everyone in attendance knows what the expectations are and what they need to bring to the table. You can accomplish more in a 30 minute in-person meeting than a series of hurried emails.

In addition to constructive meetings, it’s important to take time to foster relationships with those who work around you. I recently attended a lecture by Ali Zelenko, University of Wisconsin alumna and Senior Vice President of Communications at NBC News. She said she aims to eat lunch with a different person that works around her office each week to get to know them.

Ultimately, it’s important to be in contact with those you interact with to ensure clear communication and to build relationships that strengthen your work space.