5 Healthcare Marketing Tips to Increase Registration at your Next CME Course

The way physicians obtain Continued Medical Education (CME) credits has changed significantly in the past few years. Between cuts in clinician educational budgets and stricter rules surrounding the Affordable Care Act, attending medical conferences is becoming more and more difficult. Physicians also have to be more selective in the conferences they attend due to limited time away from the office.

Marketing for your CME course has never been more important. Healthcare marketing communicates the specific value and inspires people to register. Here are five healthcare marketing tips that will increase registration at your next CME event.

1. Target Segments within your Contact Database

Whether you realize it or not, you have TONS of information in your contact database. Using that information, you can segment your contacts into different groups that have similarities.

These segments not only attend a specific CME course for different reasons, they also respond to marketing tactics differently because of their age, years in practice, and other demographics. When marketing for a CME course, it’s important to consider these specific segments. Below are a few examples of segments to target with your marketing messaging:

• Residents and Fellows
• Physicians in practice for more than five years
• Private practice physicians vs. physicians at an institution
• Researchers vs. Medical Doctors
• Past attendees

Sign up to view the MedEd Manager CME LMS Demo

2. Make a Landing Page for your Course

A dedicated page on your website that highlights your CME course offerings is essential for your marketing efforts. This page should be easy-to-digest and include the main reasons a user would want to attend. Highlights could include:

• Speakers
• Educational nuggets that the attendee with gain by attending the course
• Testimonials from past attendees
• The location
• Research unveiled at the event
• Collaboration or networking events

It’s also important to include calls-to-action (CTAs) on your course landing page. These should be easy-to-identify next steps you want the user to take. Create a button or image to clearly call out next steps such as ‘register now!’ or ‘view the program’. These CTAs will help guide users to register and learn more about your course offerings.

3. Promote the Course Content Before the Event

Educational value is a big reason physicians attend CME courses. Most programs are developed months in advance, so start promoting the education and speakers that will be featured at your event as soon as possible.

While you don’t want to give away the exact presentation, think of other ways your speakers can engage in your marketing efforts. You could do an interview with the speakers or highlight specific abstracts as a way to inspire potential attendees.

These interviews and educational teasers should then be promoted in your email messaging, landing pages, and other marketing efforts.

4. Use Social Media

Even if your social media following is small, it’s still a great channel for marketing due to low cost, specific targeting, and minimal efforts. Studies show physicians regularly use social media, so it’s important to promote your social media presence.

Social media is great for engagement and direct messaging. To encourage engagement, think of different ways to promote your event. Instead of just linking to an interview with a speaker, pick out three tidbits an attendee will learn at that speaker’s presentation (or better yet, a video!). Or, include a trivia question about the location of the event and encourage people to answer for a prize. Ensure all social media content is quick to ready and easy to digest.

Be consistent and keep momentum going throughout the whole event and beyond to continually build your social media presence, making it an even more valuable marketing tool in the future.

5. Try Paid Digital Ads

If you’ve never used digital advertising, it may be intimidating. However, digital advertising is extremely effective due to parameters you can set and customization options available. You have complete control over everything: how much you spend, who sees your ads, and when.

Start with Google Ads or Facebook Ads and start simple. Choose one or two highlights of your course, create messaging that includes some good keywords, and always link your ads to your landing page. Paid advertising is a great way to generate interest.
Getting your CME course in front of physicians can be difficult. Utilizing these five tactics will increase your course visibility and get more attendees at your next event.

One way to assist with the CME course marketing process is to use MedEd Manager, a premier learning management software (LMS). It automates and improves several marketing processes and revolutionizes course management. Start your free demo below!