Stretching Your PR and Marketing Communication Budget Dollars in “Tough Economic” Times

Although the economy is showing some signs of strengthening, in our present economic environment, healthcare marketing departments must make every dollar count. How can you ensure you are maximizing your marketing expenditures? There is one sure way to eliminate waste in your spending – outsource some of your marketing communications and employ targeted marketing and integrated communications tactics.

Consider Outsourcing Some of Your PR and Marketing Activities.

“Outsourcing some of your PR and marketing communications activities will enhance your productivity and lower your costs of doing business.”

Outsourcing some of your PR and marketing communications activities has always provided multiple financial benefits, but in “tight economic” times the benefits can be even greater. Outsourcing allows you to augment your present staff’s capabilities without hiring additional direct employees.

You can also hire very experienced talent at a fraction of the cost of hiring them directly. You get immediate healthcare industry expertise with very little training required to get them up to speed on your company’s technology niche. Outsourcing will also lower your payroll costs and make them more predictable, because you will not be paying any fringe benefits. Also, with some outsourcing companies, you can cancel with a simple 60-day notice and you pay no unemployment benefits or separation package costs.

Employ Targeted Marketing Tactics

Targeted marketing works to eliminate waste in your marketing budget. It doesn’t guarantee valid leads will be produced for every dollar spent, but it does guarantee the individuals you are reaching are legitimate prospects for your products and services. The term targeted marketing is fairly self-explanatory. It requires that you draw a fine bead on a defined, targeted group of prospects. Subsequently, the first step in targeted marketing is to define your prospect group as narrowly as possibly. For the purpose of this white paper, we will apply targeted marketing to the healthcare industry.

Targeted Marketing Benefits

Almost any healthcare vendor can benefit from targeted marketing, but it works best in situations where you can identify the individuals by title, and sometimes by the facility’s size, who can benefit specifically from your software or hardware solutions. This helps you hone in on your target audience. The more niche-oriented your product/solution, the easier your target identification process. For example, if you sell a registration quality assurance software package, you probably won’t want to reach the lab or pharmacy director; you will want to reach the registrar, registration director, and patient access manager, among others.

“Targeted marketing works to eliminate waste in your marketing budget.”

How Do You Create a Targeted Marketing Program?

After you have fine-tuned your prospective target job titles, the next step is to source both electronic and print lists for these titles. There are many excellent resources available to the healthcare industry for both of these media.

Now, that you know who your target audiences are and where they work. What communications tactics should you use to reach these prospects in the most cost-effective manner? Here, budget comes into play. You will want to use as many targeted marketing communications tactics as your budget will allow and they should be integrated with each other, as closely as possible, to maximize their effectiveness. The more tactics you can afford to employ, the greater your chances of reaching your target audiences with your message(s).

With most healthcare companies, budget is usually a concern, and it’s even more so today. We’ll start with the most targeted tactics down to the least. This plan assumes that a company will see the value in purchasing good print and electronic lists from reputable vendors for their target audiences, if it doesn’t already have them.

The next step is to develop your marketing message(s) with the most compelling value proposition statement possible. You must then put these messages into creative print direct mail pieces, email blasts, webinar programs, and other print and electronic formats, and deliver them, on an ongoing basis, to your target audiences, without burdening them with too many messages. The number and timing of marketing pieces sent should be carefully considered with your marketing professionals.

The next communication tactic is to identify any specific healthcare trade journals that your target audiences might read. How do you do this? Call your target prospects and ask. If there are no trade journals specific to your target audiences, select broader coverage magazines that they receive/read. For instance, if your target audiences use information technology, they are most likely receiving healthcare IT magazines.

This media research can be used in two ways. One, if your budget allows, you can create print ads using your defined marketing message and place them in these targeted magazines. Two, the editors and writers of these magazines become your targets for a proactive media relations program, which you should aggressively conduct on an ongoing basis.

The final targeted marketing activity to be considered is trade show attendance specific to your software or hardware solutions. Even the most niche products usually have some sort of trade show specific to their users. However, unless the shows are small and fairly targeted, I would avoid them. Most large trade shows are a waste of budget for small companies.

Conclusion

Stretching your PR and marketing communication budget dollars is a necessity in tough economic times. Execution of targeted marketing campaigns will help you do this and result in enhanced marketplace awareness, improved lead generation and increased closed business. Outsourcing some of your PR and marketing communications activities will also enhance your productivity and lower your costs of doing business.