The Top 7 Online Platforms to Promote Your CME Events/eMedEvents

 Continuing Medical Education events are in high demand, due in no small part to the extreme benefits they offer healthcare professionals around the globe. Healthcare is one of the major industries that is moving rapidly away from strictly traditional classroom settings, with a growing number of current licensed healthcare professionals preferring either online or blended learning.

There is no shortage of CME providers ready and willing to adapt to this new and flourishing online market, which makes it all the more crucial to plan a successful promotional strategy when advertising your content. A more effective promotional campaign leads directly to more eyes on your CME activities, which culminates in a worthwhile return on your investments.

The U.S. continuing medical education market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.92% during the forecast period.

The first step is choosing the right digital platform for your business’s needs. There are many sites dedicated to hosting and promoting CME content; once you have identified and assessed your ideal target audience, you can begin researching the best online avenue to reach them.

Listed below are the top 7 online marketing platforms, based on overall user-friendliness and site traffic.

1. Facebook

As a starting point, Facebook has a multitude of free in-site tools that can help you cultivate an audience for your CME activities. One major feature is the ability to form specialized groups based around a central topic; once created, the Facebook algorithm automatically populates relevant searches with a listing for your group.

For example, you can build an active and enthusiastic community by creating a group based around centralized access to valuable medical information. Once it has grown to a level with which you are comfortable, you can easily incorporate promotional material regarding your upcoming CME events without deviating from the group’s core focus. 

2. LinkedIn

If your target audience consists entirely of healthcare professionals, or you desire a more professional atmosphere than what Facebook can offer, LinkedIn is the ideal social networking platform. Professionalism is actively promoted across the site, increasing your chances of reaching licensed HCPs who are actively searching for education opportunities.

By subscribing to LinkedIn Premium for business leaders, you can significantly boost your in-site marketing efforts. Premium features include increased opportunities to network with industry peers and potential business partners, and a more robust search tool that can help you obtain new avenues in which you can advertise your CME events.

Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn is perfect for publishing exclusive material and forming specialized communities. By creating and publishing articles related to your available CME activities, you can attract interested healthcare professionals who are eager to learn more about a given topic through your courses.

3. Instagram

For promotional strategies that rely heavily upon visual media and short, succinct bodies of text, Instagram is an excellent choice. The immense effect images, videos, gifs, and infographics have on people’s emotions cannot be understated, and they are an excellent medium through which you can motivate your audience to take action.

Through visual media tailored to your CME content, you can initiate community engagement with curious healthcare professionals in the comments section of each post and answer questions regarding your events.

Instagram offers a free “Story” feature that can be a potent marketing tool for your business. The main draw of this feature is that each post disappears after 24 hours, which allows you to disseminate promotional materials in a format that is digestible and non-intrusive to your audience. Videos posted to Instagram Stories are capped at 15 seconds, so make every shot count–but be careful not to overwhelm your followers with a surplus of information.

Through your Story, you can give users a sneak peek at your upcoming CME activities, including any workshops or seminars that will be available to them at your event.

4. Twitter

Twitter is an exceptional social media platform for minimalist and concise marketing strategies. Each tweet has a hard limit of 280 characters, making it vital to choose your words carefully. Attaching images and videos to your tweets is a great and easy way to catch users’ eyes and drive up engagement.

If you have netted one or more replies on a given tweet, you are now utilizing Twitter’s Conversation feature, where you can respond directly to questions or comments regarding your CME promotions.

Furthermore, you can create a custom Hashtag for your CME content, where Twitter will automatically compile every tweet with that Hashtag in one central location, making relevant posts and conversations easier for you and your audience to find. Implement your Hashtag in tweets discussing topics or news as they relate to your available CME activities, and encourage your followers to use your Hashtag when posting about your events that they have attended.

5. Digital Advertising

Some platforms–like LinkedIn–provide in-site, targeted advertising as a paid feature, allowing you to promote your CME content to the specific healthcare professionals within your target audience.

There are other paid services, such as AdRoll, that provide net wide advertisements across a variety of sites in one centralized spot. Through complex algorithms, these services ensure the right people see your event promotions, based on your determined specifications.

Through digital advertising, you can reach valuable healthcare demographics such as residents, fellows, attending physicians, physician assistants, medical scholars, nurses, and even attendees from one of your previous CME events.

Although all reputable digital advertisement services have an initial outlay, there is an immense potential for long-term rewards.