In the good old days - those kinder, gentler days when PR people in healthcare organizations placed positive stories, doctors and patients were happy, and the insurance money rolled in - the standard community relations program for many hospitals and other types of healthcare organizations (HCOs) was what was then called the "Speakers Bureau."
These benign programs existed primarily as an organized way of dealing with requests from outside groups, and were rarely, if ever, seen as a strategic communications force.
As healthcare PR and marketing communications evolved in the '80s and '90s, the traditional speakers bureau became upstaged by more aggressive advertising, physician referral services and direct mail programs.
Now the tide is turning and speakers bureaus are making a comeback.
Building Targeted Relationships
At a time when relationship building is an integral part of an effective marketing communications program, launching a Proactive Spokesperson Placement Service (PSPS) is a strategy that can deliver powerful and ongoing results!
Here are some tips on establishing a PSPS that works:
Control the program as a strategic marketing communications initiative. Instead of requesting "volunteers" from management or medical staff members, and making do with whomever turns up, go out and recruit individuals who have the personal and professional qualifications to be an effective institutional spokesperson. One way to entice busy physicians into the service is to mention that it's a good awareness and practice referral builder.
Focus on topics and training. Do an informal audit of organizations and associations to find out what healthcare-related topics they'd like to hear about and make sure you have one or two good presenters on those topics (which can range from women's health to aging and agility to health care costs). Then work with the chosen presenters on preparing and polishing a program. Many good PSPS efforts require that any participant go through presentation training, even if it's a simple review for the speakers who think they're already perfect. (And an outside trainer can help alleviate the problem of the PR director having to tell the CEO to stand up straight and quit muttering.)
Don't wait for the phone to ring - get proactive! Identify the key audiences in your service area, and identify what groups are likely to include members of those audiences. Approach these groups well in advance, offer a speaker with a topic of interest to that group - and if you get turned down once, don't give up.
Pin down all the details. Work with the speakers to develop polished, professional AV materials and handouts on the topic. Nothing's worse than a great physician speaker who then distributes smudgy copies of a single-spaced typed document.
Develop a standard core message. Presentations that deliver the HCO's key marketing messages and can be used with a presentation on any and all other topics. Whether they're talking clinical topics or health care costs, every speaker should have all the materials needed to say "Now, let me close with a little information about our HCO."
Evaluate from beginning to end! In addition to simple evaluation forms that are distributed to the audience, the PSPS manager should also develop an overall service evaluation form that's sent to the organization program chairperson after the event, seeking input on the service and overall arrangements, as well as on the individual speaker.
Leverage the first contacts into ongoing relationships. Names of audience members should be gathered (the good old guest book is one way to gather data, as is distributing interest/profile forms), compiled into a database that can then be used for mailing HCO publications and creating specialized interest group mailing lists.
Kathy Lewton is director of the National Health Care Practice at Porter Novelli in Chicago. She is author of Public Relations in Health Care: A Guide For Professionals. She can be reached at 312/856-8888 or email at [email protected].
Delivering Fine-Tuned Messages, Generating Feedback
The advantages of a Proactive Spokesperson Placement Service (PSPS) are numerous, including:
Putting a human face on the healthcare organization with an articulate, spokesperson talking to special interest groups.
Delivering finely tuned, strategic with no media filters to confuse or distort the issue.
Getting immediate feedback from the target audience-including comments about overall content and general impressions about the HCO. This feedback can be used as a relationship- builder with target audiences for future initiatives.
Source: Kathy Lewton, Porter Novelli