 |
| RJ Bardsley |
The digital health industry is at a critical juncture, facing both challenges and opportunities as it navigates a shifting financial landscape and prepares for growth over the remainder of 2025 and into 2026.
For communications departments and agencies, trust has always been the cornerstone of how we build brands and reputation. The past year has been a tumultuous time for the healthtech industry, with a highly dynamic regulatory environment, ever-changing patient dynamics and even a slight uptick within the startup and IPO markets. It’s the communication departments that end up having to help these companies externally navigate this new world, where the rules of engagement are changing by the minute.
Technology, social media and AI make information (positive and negative) about brands, their executives and their offerings available in a millisecond via a click, a post, a like, a share or a search. The good news is, even when the rules are changing, brands still have the capacity to tell their own stories.
To help companies navigate and thrive in today’s complicated media landscape, Wireside has developed The Brand-builder Scorecard, to give comms teams and marketers the ability to grade their current efforts, outline best practices and ideas, and help identify blind spots to focus on moving forward. The scorecard is completely self-driven and enables teams to measure their own programs and performance, and to chart a course forward when they find they need to improve.
Our Best Practices scorecard is broken out into four main sections:
• Transparency and Open Communication: The first portion poses several questions about brand identity, honesty and integrity. Both are at the core of every effective and consistent communications program. While there are several ways of codifying brand identity, the process usually involves learning about how people view the brand, followed by workshops and programs to define, expand or re-align the brand. For some organizations, this process is more organic, while others follow a rigid process to define and defend identity.
• Smart and Savvy Campaign Programs: In the second section of the Scorecard, we dive into what makes campaigns work well – starting with a look at digital platforms and the value that a brand brings to their networks across these platforms. We also look at other components, including personalized engagement efforts, creator engagement and how a brand leverages credentials and expertise to instill confidence in their audiences.
• Demonstrating a Positive Impact: In the third portion of the Scorecard, we look at how brands actively showcase a positive impact. Thought leadership is a core component of this but it’s really only the starting point. We look at how brands are empowering patients by providing them access to resources, ideas and data that can help them navigate their own journeys. There are also places in this section where we ask brands to look at how they’re highlighting ethical practices and how they’re working to make their industries better, including through community engagement and innovation.
• Measuring and Monitoring: The last section of the Scorecard includes an honest look at measurement systems and how brands are not only monitoring results, but how they’re using them to adjust and develop more powerful, accurate campaigns in the future. For health IT brands, this means monitoring reputation but also capturing and understanding relevant patient experience data.
At a high level, the Scorecard helps brands identify where they’re being authentic and tied to their core purpose, and where they might be able to do better. It also allows companies to see where they can better define and articulate what their brand stands for and back it up with action.
As the market continues to shift and find its footing and as health IT companies try to navigate in real time, it is more critical than ever for communicators and marketers to keep a close pulse on their brand. Beyond monitoring, they must actively invest in building and managing their brand reputations in both the places their audiences already are, as well as where they will be next.
***
RJ Bardsley, is Partner and Co-CEO of Wireside Communications, an international, independent strategic communications, marketing, and public relations agency specializing in the tech sector.
Havilah Clarke, head of marketing and communications at the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation and Institute, has joined Purposeful Advisors as a managing director.
How purpose-driven communications strengthens reputation, rallies stakeholders and builds value during economically turbulent times.
Why healthcare must prioritize more strategic communications integration.
How the rules of the game are being rewritten in today’s turbulent health advocacy communications environment.
