Are you getting the expected results from your CME healthcare marketing strategy? Many elements go into an effective campaign, and it's sometimes difficult to determine what parts are missing. When you find yourself stumped on a lack of course sign-ups or event registrations, check this list to see what you need to add.
Email Marketing
Are you keeping in touch with healthcare professionals in between classes or events? An email marketing list helps you stay connected even when your audience isn't shopping for CME courses for the year. You can share relevant news from your part of the healthcare industry, information about your courses and events, and other related messages.
Your audience is full of busy people, so make sure that every email you send delivers some type of value. The other benefit of email marketing is reaching medical professionals through their phone. They might not spend a lot of time in front of the computer, but they often have a smartphone nearby.
RELATED: How to Build an Email List for your CME Marketing
Social Engagement
Social networking is another area some CME providers overlook. This marketing channel gives you another way to build a relationship with your audience. You can build a community around your social profiles by holding live Q&As, live-streaming behind-the-scenes videos and engaging with your clients in comments.
Excitement
The CME requirements for medical professionals might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, but that doesn't mean that your marketing can't build up anticipation for your event or courses. Plenty of your competitors are taking a dry and straightforward route with their campaigns.
Spend some time thinking outside the box with your CME marketing campaigns. Try adding in some personality, humor and lively messaging to stand out.
Segmentation
Your clients might fall into the same broad category, but you can probably identify smaller segments within this group. You can optimize your marketing efforts by using separate campaigns for the most common segments. For example, the way you approach your older clients who are well-established medical professionals, and the younger group fresh out of med school, should be completely different.
RELATED: 7 Strategies to Improve Your CME Website
Personalization
"Dear previous attendee" doesn't quite have the same impact that "Dear Firstname Lastname" does. Personalization helps you stand out as a CME provider that pays attention to the little details. You treat them like a person, rather than just a number on the registration sheet.
Email marketing and marketing automation tools help you streamline this process, so you aren't writing out hundreds or thousands of edited emails. The name is also just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to personalization.
You can also send messages based on the courses they took or the events that they attended. The content you present on your website can be different for someone who is currently registered for a course, versus someone who has not visited recently.
The biggest benefit of personalization is improving how relevant your marketing is for your target audience. You want to do everything you can to avoid wasting a medical professional's time, so tailoring their experience to the most important parts performs this well.
Your CME marketing strategy could benefit from a tune-up in any one or more of these areas. Your ongoing optimization efforts will help you achieve your goals, whether you want to boost attendance for your events or expand your course offerings to a new market.
PJ Calkins is a Solution Engineer. He is an expert at identifying client needs, marketing strategies and budgets. PJ has managed over 4.5 million dollars in PPC advertising and analyzed almost 1 million unique website visitors across dozens of websites & industries. Because of his lengthy experience running a small business, he also has tons of experience in problem solving and creative brainstorming.
