8 Ways to Improve your CME Marketing Strategy/eMedEvents

 For healthcare professionals, education does not end with medical school; it is a permanent endeavor that accompanies them throughout the entirety of their careers. Continuing Medical Education (CME) is pivotal in the medical world’s quest for the most efficient, effective, and competent patient care. Accordingly, there are a plethora of CME activities scattered across various websites and healthcare resources–both online and in-person.

With so many options to choose from and a hectic work schedule that limits the time available for web browsing, HCPs expect quality CME content that provides flexibility in terms of virtual vs. live components as well as user-friendly organization that allows them to quickly locate activities that are relevant to their professions and specialties.

Yet with so many other CME providers bidding for their time, your company must work tirelessly to triumph over the competition. You must entice healthcare professionals into buying your services, and then you must provide an exemplary and valuable learning experience that convinces them to return for more.

Effective marketing strategies are essential when it comes to standing out in a sea of competitors. Here are several important objectives to keep in mind:

• Engage local businesses
• Acquire commercial support
• Open the door for new healthcare professionals
• Connect with previous clients
• Generate positive attention from online healthcare communities

With the correct marketing approach, your CME activities will not only attract your target audience but also amplify commercial interest in your business. To this end, there are 8 crucial marketing elements to integrate into your existing strategy.

1. Email Marketing

Maintaining a robust email marketing program is a quick and convenient way to stay in touch with your audience.

• Create an opt-in email list – You can generate a comprehensive list of HCPs who are interested in your content based on either CME sales or site membership. An email list allows you to share relevant, up-to-date news from the healthcare industry, information about your own CME activities, and any other messages that concern your company as it pertains to your audience.
• Segment your customer base – If a healthcare professional attended one of your CME events, why not provide them with relevant content in a follow-up email? “Relevant” is the key word: your customers want information that aligns with their interests and careers, and “blanket emails” sent to everyone may cause your audience to disregard future messages. Always send emails to specific groups within your customer base that relate to their professions, specialties, or CEU requirements.

2. Segmentation

As a CME provider, your clients will fall into the broad category of “healthcare professional”. However, you can optimize your marketing efforts by identifying smaller groups and sorting your customers accordingly. These “segments” can be based on any number of personal details, such as profession, specialty, age, location, and so on.

By segmenting your customer base, you can more accurately personalize your content for your audience and compose targeted campaigns for specific groups. As mentioned before, this is important for email lists, but segmentation is useful for all areas of marketing.

For example, the way you approach your older clients, who are well-established medical professionals, and your younger clients, who are fresh out of medical school, should be completely different.

3. Personalization

“Personalization” is a way of showing your audience that you care about them and their careers on a deeper level, and this–in turn–helps you stand out as a CME provider. Treat your customers in a manner that respects them as individuals rather than numbers on a registration sheet.

This can be accomplished by tailoring your content to best meet your HCPs’ needs as you understand them. For example, you can:

• Send messages based on courses or events they took in the past or
• Populate information on your site according to each user, based on how often they log in or whether or not they are currently registered for one of your activities.

Through personalization, you improve your company’s relevance to your target audience, which will help keep them interested in your CME content and active on your website.