Marketing Isn’t a Dirty Word
Marketing has been a word relegated to the fringes when it comes to medical education.
Healthcare workers are focused on quality care with their patients and are suspicious of anything that feels overly promotional which is why regulatory bodies strictly enforce what can and cannot be claimed across a variety of marketing activities, helping to maintain an ethical balance.
When it comes to promoting continuing medical education or professional development activities, this has often meant that those who produce content feel limited in what they can do to generate interest and maximize attendance leading to an overreliance on sales reps and sometimes, email marketing.
Marketing is just a division in your company, it’s the catch-all term for the activities associated with the dissemination of a message.
In medical education, this is your program. The interesting thing is that because it’s educational we can expand your messaging across multiple channels. This is what’s called full-funnel marketing, a process where we guide your audience through an entire journey ending with them attending your program.
Every buyer (or attendee at a medical education event) goes through the same process when it comes to making a decision.
First, they need to be aware that the program exists (the Awareness phase).
Then they have to consider if the program fits their needs, their availability and if they are sure it will be a good use of their time. (Consideration).
Finally, they decided to attend (Conversion). Having strategies to engage your customers across all the phases of the decision-making process will always end up with more attendees.