Germane & Wise
An integrated behavioral health start-up, expanding access to care at a critical time.

Setting Up Shop During Lockdown…

Germane & Wise is a Multnomah-Valley-based integrated behavioral health start-up that embeds providers in primary care clinics, allowing those clinics to offer more behavioral health services “in house” without significantly adding cost or changing other elements of their practice.

In the Spring of 2020, Germane & Wise had a handful of host clinics in hand and were poised to hit the trade show circuit to recruit more. With the COVID-19 pandemic in the offing, however, it was an inauspicious time for in-person networking. Parachute Strategies helped Germane & Wise pivot to accommodate the limitations posed by the COVID-19 pandemic without losing money or momentum.

Direct Mail Gets Straight to the Point

We quickly started producing a series of postcards tailored to administrators and care providers at clinics in western Oregon. Each postcard shared success stories and direct quotes from other regional clinics that had already integrated Germane & Wise consultants, explicitly highlighting the financial value of the Germane & Wise model.

Peer endorsements and nuts-and-bolts financials appealed to clinic leadership in ways more general marketing pieces couldn’t. A direct mail campaign, meanwhile, bypassed internet security and the digital messaging overload faced by many clinicians, who don’t have a ton spare time for email and social media to begin with. This initial campaign, though simple, initiated a cascade of host-site recruitment throughout the region.

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Shoring Up Web Channels is a “Virtual” Necessity

As the postcard campaign rolled out, we took steps to prepare Germane & Wise’s digital assets for an uptick in views. We gave the website a good buff and polish, making it more user friendly and refining Germane & Wise’s pitch to potential clients (see the video pitch above).

We also set up social media platforms for our client. As we worked, we found that we needed a broader selection of logo lockups, graphics, stock art, and other brand assets to work with, so we adjusted accordingly.

Post-Emergency Marketing Plan

As the COVID-19 pandemic eased its grip on the world and with our client on firmer footing, we started work on a formal marketing plan with a longer view. It focuses on using in person-networking and digital and print communications to support three key points in Germane & Wise’s delivery-of-care pipeline: selling more clinics on the idea of our client’s overlay services, motivating primary care clinicians to refer patients to Germane & Wise consultants, and supporting patients to keep follow-up appointments.

Recruiting More Clinics for Overlay Services

Helping our client get a foot in the door with area clinics is a huge part of what we do for them. Our work has included:

  • Letters of introduction directly to clinic leadership, warming them up for phone calls from our client.
  • A direct mail piece that shows two real clinics’ paths to integrating behavioral health care: one set up a new, internally managed department while the other collaborated with our client. The piece illustrates how much time, work, and money can be saved by working with Germane & Wise.
  • Identifying in-person networking opportunities and supplying our clients with business cards to hand out.
  • Retooling the written content of the website with the explicit goal of including terms and phrases that clinic managers would use when searching for behavioral care support online.
  • Expanding our client’s networks on Facebook and LinkedIn and regularly seeding each platform with posts about clinic overlay success stories.
  • An ad campaign to run on Google Ads, local health care media outlets, and industry rags.

Encouraging Host Site Clinicians to Make Patient Referrals

Once overlay services have been set up, primary care providers often need a little push to start referring patients. To support this behavior change, we:

  • Created “calling cards” to share with Primary Care Providers (PCPs), connecting them with the Germane & Wise providers serving their clinic.
  • Design and write a quarterly mini newsletter called the “Mental Health Break,” which is circulated among PCPs. It touts the benefits (to both PCPs and their patients) of collaborative care and reminds readers to make patient referrals.
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Empowering Patients to Keep Up Behavioral Health Care Appointments

Delivery of care, especially in behavioral health care, often breaks down after a patient’s first appointment. To curtail this trend, we developed a communications kit geared toward patients.
  • Flyers in English and Spanish, with different content for adult and pediatric patients, explain the collaborative model and how it works. They also answer common questions about insurance coverage, scheduling, and more. Host-clinic branding helps circumvent any confusion about where care will be received.
  • Sticky notes remind patients that they have an upcoming follow-up appointment. As with the flyers, host-clinic branding appears front and center.