Justin Steinman, chief marketing officer at Definitive Healthcare is loving his side hustle as a podcast host. Well, maybe not quite a “side hustle” as the “Definitively Speaking” podcast is all part of Definitive Healthcare’s marketing plan, but there is no denying that he is loving the gig.
As a small brand with a small marketing budget, Steinman wanted a creative way to get the commercial intelligence company’s name and expertise in data and AI analytics out to a larger market. He checked out the podcast landscape for healthcare and found lots of opinions and thought-based shows, but nothing that leaned towards a data-driven approach.
“The idea behind it was, if we could get really cool, interesting people doing interesting things around healthcare, and go at it by looking at data, we'd have something unique and different to say,” Steinman said. “I never ever pitch Definitive Healthcare products or solutions, we don't even talk about our products or our customers. If people walk away from this podcast and think, ‘that was interesting, thanks Definitive Healthcare,' and maybe the word ‘data’ is floating in their head. That's a home run.”
Thanks to Steinman and his team’s more than 20 years each in the healthcare industry, they have a lot of friends and friends of friends in their networks to call on for content. Steinman, who admits to being a frustrated journalist and talk show junkie, does a lot of prep before each show and becomes a bit of a mini expert in a week on a variety of subjects.
The podcast is available to stream on all the major platforms as well as the company’s own page. Most promotion comes from social media especially LinkedIn with some ads on Facebook. But it’s really the personal socials of guests especially the high profile ones that really put the word out. Recently Steinman spoke with Cara McNulty of CVS Health resulting in a push from the pharmacy giant.
Recent topics include virtual care, telehealth trends, the shaping of a post-pandemic healthcare world and genetic testing in cancer.
The hunch paid off and the show is exceeding expectations and Steinman says it’s a really cost-effective way of increasing the company’s profile. The entire operation is done in-house from writing to recording and there are plans to just keep going.
While the goal is to entertain and educate others, Steinman is also soaking up knowledge.
“I am full of really useful tidbits of information and I just kind of cost them out casually, but I love it because I like to talk to people and I like hearing what they have to say,” he said. “I'm having a blast.”