Time 20:52

This year a marketing firm that will go nameless gave me a gift. They showed me the importance of being relevant. It was an interesting lesson that I turned into an entertaining podcast, but it’s better if you be the judge of that.

The story begins with the presentation I gave about social media in health care to the Minnesota Medical Group Management Association this summer. The group is a professional association for those in clinical practices for the most part. They attended the presentation to discuss how social media is being used by health care delivery practices. Here is the summary of that presentation.

The conference had around 300 or so attendees, and exhibitors. I ended up on the list of attendees I suspect because two weeks after the conference I received a prospecting letter from the account manager of a marketing firm that either attended or exhibited at the show. This is where the fun and the lesson begins.

The firm sent about 6 letters, 2 emails, and a cute, well designed die-cut, four-color direct mail piece. The assumption of all these communications was that Provident Partners, yes, the PR/marketing firm that produces this podcast and has been providing consulting services in using social media in healthcare, was instead a medical clinic.

Imagine my dismay when I was told that this marketing firm could help me with my social media marketing to seniors looking for healthcare. Am I missing something here? No, they just skipped the part of marketing that says know your prospect.

I just didn’t have the heart to call this local Twin Cities based firm to tell them they should check their prospect list first. No, instead I thought I could learn a thing or two from their work. I am as much a student of how business and people communicate as I am a practictioner. By remaining on their list, it reinforced for me the importance of being relevant to any prospect. If that means you need to spend 80% of your time researching prospects before you contact them, then that’s what you have to do. When a company takes the time to learn about each of the prospects on their lists, then, and only then, can they begin to establish a relationship of value.

In this case, it’s one marketing firm not checking the records on a conference list and sending prospecting materials to another marketing firm. No harm no foul. What if however, it’s that same methodology for a clinic. Would a cancer patient get a marketing piece for Lamaze class, or a “thanks for being our patient” direct mail piece to a patient who has passed on? Exactly, it does make a difference.

It’s a lesson we can all learn from and apply all year long. Focus on being relevant and the prospect will react favorably. What amount of time do you spend on researching prospects? Are mass lists useful in lead generation for health care?

If you are interested in more about social media in health care we have created a separate blog called Social Media for Health Care