1. Health IT
Marketing Content
Effectiveness Survey
A look at how
hospital executives
use health IT
vendor-generated
content for
decision-making

2. Introduction
The health IT marketplace is a unique, dynamic and highly
competitive environment. Very few target audiences are as
skeptical and disillusioned. Very few products have a life and death
impact. Very few markets or solution offerings are as complex.
Health IT companies generate a ton of content for prospects and
customers along a very long sales cycle. Considering the budget
and resources allocated to creating all this content, the big question
is: how effective or compelling is any of it? With little room for
waste in today’s marketing budgets, it’s time to take a hard look at
the content we spend so much time and resources developing.
That’s why Quiddity conducted a survey with 100 hospital
executives on LinkedIn, through online surveys and telephone
interview to better understand the perception and role of vendor-
generated marketing content in decision-making, as well as identify
key challenges and opportunities. The results are interesting, and
the trends very strong and consistent with larger research studies in
other industries.
Randi Rossman
Founder & Chief Marketing Officer, Quiddity Marketing

3. What You’ll Learn in This eBook
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Lesson 1: Something here
Finish with something like first let’s talk about the challenges facing
OVERVIEW

4. I wish more vendors would focus less on
all the marketing hype, and instead
provide us with material that will help set
priorities, build internal champions for
initiatives and understand best practices
for mitigating risk and successful
change management.”
Hospital CIO

5. What vendor generated marketing material
influences your Health IT
most
purchasing decisions?
Hospital executives do not find most
marketing collateral useful or
relevant for making purchasing Case Studies
decisions. The reasons why were
Conversations with Sales &
investigated in this survey.
Executives
The leading vendor-generated White Papers
influencers for health IT purchasing
decisions are executive/sales
Website
conversations and case studies,
followed by the vendor’s website and
white papers. Note that not one Brochures
hospital executive were influenced by
brochures. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

6. What You’ll Learn in This eBook
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HEALTH IT VENDOR
COLLATERAL

7. I don’t understand how so many vendors
say the same thing and think they are so
different.
If you are different, then give me an
example of what I can do with your
solution that I can’t somewhere else . . .
And don’t make me work so hard to get
the picture of the value of taking on a
new initiative.”
Hospital CEO

8. Brochures “Brochures a credible source of information for purchasing decisions? Not
at all. Who writes these things anyway, and why do they bother?”
CIO
brochures influence
Why don’t
your purchasing decisions?
The key reason that brochures do
not influence health IT purchasing They provide no valuable
decisions is that the messages and information
content are undifferentiated – they
They make unsubstantiated
all sound the same.
claims
Hospital executives also believed
They all sound the same
that brochures are so broad and
vague that they don’t provide any
valuable information, and They are marketing hype
particularly called out vendors for
their “marketing hype.”
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

9. Case Studies “I do skim over health IT vendor case studies. Most don’t provide much
useful information, but they do at least tell me who their customers are.”
CMIO
case studies provide you with
Do
meaningful information for
decision-making?
In spite of being considered the
most influential tool in the CASE STUDIES DON’T
marketing collateral toolbox, case PROVIDE MEANINGFUL
studies don’t deliver meaningful INFORMATION CASE STUDIES SORT OF
information for purchasing decision- PROVIDE MEANINGFUL
making. INFORMATION CASE STUDIES
DO PROVIDE
MEANINGFUL
66% INFORMATION
32%
2%

10. Case Studies
Case Studies “””If you want me to seriously consider taking on a new initiative, then
I’d like to see more peer-to-peer content, like we see at conferences.”
VP Patient Safety
How can health IT vendors make their
case studies more useful for
purchasing decision-making?
Hospital executives overwhelmingly
agree that case studies that focus
Focus on the customer
on the customer and best practices
instead of the product
instead of the product help them
make purchasing decisions. Very
few found product differentiators Best practice focus
instead of product
helpful.
The good news? Hospital Focus on what the
product does differently
executives do believe vendor
marketing material can be credible
and valuable. Nothing, vendor material
is never credible
0 10 20 30 40 50 60

11. White Papers
White Papers “I’m hungry for knowledge, but don’t expect me to plow through 20 pages
of dense writing that doesn’t teach me anything new.”
CMIO
Vendor white papers provide
information that allows me to:
While many vendors create white
papers in the hopes of generating Think about a problem in ways I
demand or leads, hospital haven't before
executives tend to find them more
useful much further in the sales Understand the need for considering
cycle. a particular type of solution
Hospital executives tend to view Form the strategy and/or solution
vendor white papers as long-form criteria
brochures that do a decent job of
providing deep details of a product Understand how I can be successful
implementing a solution
or solution.
Understand the product better once
They typically don’t find vendor
I've narrowed the field
white papers make an effective case
for changing the status quo nor do 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
they use them for developing their
strategies.

12. What You’ll Learn in This eBook
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HEALTH IT VENDOR
WEBSITES

13. I would think that vendors have an
incredible opportunity to build a valuable
source of online information. After all,
they seem to spend a lot of money on
their websites, and they should have a
good view of what’s needed and how to
address challenges from their customer
base.
But it’s all the same stuff. And I often
have to hunt to understand what they
offer.”
Hospital CIO

14. “I am well aware that any content on a vendor website is biased. Still, I
Websites would imagine they could be a valuable source of information. Yet most
vendor websites all sound alike, and provide very little thoughtful insight.
VP Operations
Maybe
Would you be more likely 17%
Hospital executives believe they
would show preference for a vendor
to engage a vendor that’s
No
who delivered quality online provided quality online 21% Yes
62%
information. information?
How valuable is the online information vendors
provide for the following purposes:
But are not often finding quality online
Define a previously unrecognized need Not Very
information from vendors. Just as Valuable
1 2 3 4 5
valuable
with vendor white papers, most
Identify the right type of solution to Not Very
websites are too product focused. Valuable valuable
meet that need 1 2 3 4 5
Determine the criteria for choosing the Not Very
Valuable valuable
solution 1 2 3 4 5
Research which vendors offer the Not Very
solution we decided to invest in Valuable valuable
1 2 3 4 5
Determine which vendors will be Not Very
Valuable valuable
considered for RFP 1 2 3 4 5

15. “Most vendor websites are overwhelming and do not tend to provide any
relevant information. I’m not going to hunt for the information I need. It
Websites makes me wonder – if the usability of their site is so bad, how could the
technology they are selling be much better?”
CIO
What challenges do you find with
health IT vendor websites?
Health IT vendor websites present a Often seems more focused on being
clever than providing me with
confusing array of content that is not
information
meeting the information needs of
hospital executives. Does not provide me with tools to
champion solution in my
organization
Overwhelming amount of
information that is not put in
context
Hard to get the big picture of the
solution
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

16. Websites “Vendors don’t seem to understand what it takes to start an initiative
internally. I need help championing solutions.
CNO
vendors to do with their
What would you like
websites to provide more
value?
Executive prospects would like to see
vendor content on their websites
organized better.
Organize the information better
An additional opportunity for vendors
is to provide tools that allow
prospects to champion change and Provide tools that help me make the
new solutions within their case within my own organization
organizations.
Focusing on how existing customers Showcase how they mitigate risk
have addressed the risk and obstacles and overcome obstacles
inherent in implementing the solution
is top on the requested content list, 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
yet very rarely provided.

17. What You’ll Learn in This eBook
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Finish with something like first let’s talk about the challenges facing
HEALTH IT VENDOR
SALES ENGAGEMENT

18. The best vendor salespeople fight for
me, and bring together all the people
and information required to help us
move forward with a decision.
That said, those folks are few and far
between. Too often the people that
contact me from vendors are really off
the mark. I don’t need someone who so
obviously doesn’t understand my needs
in my face pushing products.”
Hospital CMIO

19. Sales
“In all honestly, vendor salespeople would be better off putting down the
Engagement PowerPoint and just talk to me.”
CMIO
Do you feel vendorsalespeople meet your
needs during your buying process?
The perception of sales effectiveness
was inconsistent among hospital
executives – it depended on the SALESPEOPLE OFTEN
vendor and the particular salesperson. DON’T MEET OUR NEEDS
IT DEPENDS, SOME
The chief complaints about vendor SALESPEOPLE DO AND
salespeople were lack of knowledge SOME DON’T
about the prospect’s needs, and often SALESPEOPLE
a lack of knowledge about their own OFTEN DO MEET
company’s products. 53% OUR NEEDS
31%
A key complaint was the inconsistency 16%
across different vendor
representatives – they could get
multiple stories, facts and advice,
depending on who they talked to
within the vendor. That raised red
flags with the executive prospects.

20. What You’ll Learn in This eBook
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Lesson 1: Something here
Finish with something like first let’s talk about the challenges facing
CONCLUSION

21. Conclusion
Most vendors are falling short on providing relevant, meaningful
content to their prospects. Chief complaints include:
• Too much marketing hype
• Information that was too vague
• Loss of credibility due to so many vendors making the same
claims of “uniqueness”
• Lack of relevance
• Lack of truly educational and informative content
• Not meeting the informational needs of all the members of the
buying team
• Information is too long
Health IT vendors currently have
• Content does not address the questions they need answered to
a huge opportunity to
make effective purchasing decisions.
differentiate themselves by filling
the gap between the information NEXT STEPS:
healthcare executives would like Want to know what you can do about addressing these challenges?
to receive during the buying Quiddity Marketing will be releasing a series of PLAYBOOKS that will
process vs. what they are improve your Health IT marketing effectiveness. Subscribe to the
receiving. Story to Sale blog to be kept informed about the release.

22. What You’ll Learn in This eBook
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ABOUT
QUIDDITY MARKETING

23. About “Randi is a talented marketer and strategist with a wealth of experience in
the healthcare IT industry.”
Zach Mortensen (formerly) Product Manager, Microsoft Amalga
Randi Rossman
Randi is Founder and Chief Marketing
Officer for Quiddity Marketing.
With over a decade of in-depth
Health IT experience as a marketing
leader at McKesson and Microsoft’s
Health Solutions Group, Randi
combines a passion for the promise
of health IT with marketing
excellence.
Quiddity Marketing develops marketing strategies,
Randi's career is defined by her programs and content that connects the dots
relentless search for fresh marketing between the story and the sale.
strategies that solves business
problems. With a background in Through messaging that resonates, persuasive
both marketing and sales, Randi content, sales enablement and demand generation,
takes a broad approach to building Quiddity accelerates revenue generation by
strategies and programs that engaging the customer in the right way at the most
accelerates the sales cycle, builds opportune time.
bridges between sales and marketing
teams, and encourages audiences to For more information, email
take action. randi@quidditymarketing.com or call 425-591-2612.
©2011 by Quiddity Marketing LLC