The True Value of Medical PR

August 12, 2011 Leave a comment

As a physician, launching a PR and media relations campaign, you can have a number of objectives.  Your aim may be to bring in more patients, to establish your practice, to establish yourself as one of the primary experts in your field, or to separate yourself from the competition.  All those objectives are sound and can be accomplished through an effective public relations outreach.  Every physician has his or her own needs and goals and it’s important to tailor each media campaign to achieve those specific aims.

In the past we’ve placed physicians and health care professionals in a wide range of media outlets from local and regional media to such national outlets as Oprah, the Today Show, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and hundreds of other media outlets.  But, apart from reaching a physician’s target market, establishing their brand and establishing them as experts in their fields, perhaps the most rewarding aspect of health and medical PR is that by presenting informative and educational stories to the media, we’ve been able to impact people’s lives.

We’ve worked with a wide range of physicians including oncologists, cardiologists, pain management specialists, ob-gyns, and pulmonary specialists.  Each one has had unique patient stories to tell and each one has addressed issues that affect hundreds, thousands and sometimes millions of people.

By taking these stories to the media we in turn have been able to offer options and solutions for patients who were often unaware that new approaches, treatments or modalities existed.

These stories have offered hope and guidance.  After stories on a  physician or treatment have been published in a magazine or newspaper or have aired on TV, not only have new local patients decided to seek help, there have been several instances where patients have flown cross country or from foreign countries to seek help, guidance and treatment.

I’ve found this type of media outreach to be the most gratifying.  Whereas the campaigns are designed to reach a physicians target market, grow a medical practice, establish him or her as an expert and gain the credibility and validation which comes from being featured in the news, they are also designed to educate and inform

As a physician, one of the most important aspects to keep in mind when launching a health or medical-oriented public relations campaign is how important the information you’re offering can be.  Through the media you are able to directly communicate with hundreds, thousands or millions of people.  Some may be directly dealing with the problem, symptoms or disease you’re addressing, others may know a friend or a family member who could use the information.  There will be treatments, approaches, and options you offer that may not be new within the medical community, but could be new to many patients.  The information you offer can often it can be a life changer.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under doctor pr, Medical PR, medicine, Public Relations, public relations services Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media & Medicine: Developing a Medical Practice Utilizing PR

June 13, 2011 Leave a comment

If you’re a physician looking to market your practice or reach out to new patients, keep in mind that physicians, more than those in other professions, can benefit from an effective media campaign. Press coverage reaches their target market, drives patients their way and gives them validation and credibility. The public generally learns about the latest medical breakthroughs, news, or studies via the media.  It is an avenue they trust and trust is the bottom line when it comes to health care.

Physicians that are featured in the media are seen as the experts, whether they are featured in their local newspaper or on the Today show.  Doctors and health care specialists can present themselves as media go-to experts by offering the media relevant and timely stories.

Although marketing a medical practice via print ads or commercials can have some effect, that approach has inherent risks.  No patient wants to feel that he or she is being “sold”. Patients want to see someone they trust, someone they feel is the best in their field.  It is that validation and trust factor that comes with being featured in the media. For example, if a prospective patient reads an article that features a physician in the New York Times or USA Today, or sees a doctor interviewed on CNN or on a network nightly news segment, chances are that physician will be viewed as an expert, as a leader in his or her field who can be trusted.

Public relations is also important because a PR campaign is not just about marketing; it is also about educating the public.  An effective media campaign educates and informs.  Used effectively, media relations can not only build a practice, it can educate and introduce new concepts and perspectives and shape the ideas of a community.  Because of that, it’s important that physicians see and present themselves as educators.

Physicians need to keep in mind that their best media stories are not about themselves, but about their patients.  A transformational patient success story with a strong narrative is what the media is searching for.  If you’re looking to reach more patients, bring a story to the public, or position yourself as an expert in your field, you’re best approach is to make a list of patient’s who have interesting impactful stories they can tell.  You want these stories to illustrate how lives were changed or transformed.

There are a number of different media outlets available including Dr. Oz, CNN, the Today Show, Men’s Health, Shape, the Wall Street Journal and hundreds of other media outlets.  Before presenting a story match the various patient stories to the appropriate media outlets.  For example a story about a ten year old struggling with Autism, would be pitched differently than a story about the latest in bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.  Meet with the patients and review the questions that the media could ask them.  Make your patients as comfortable as possible with the process.  Remember, these patients are not only telling their stories, they’re representing you and your practice.  You want them to be articulate and the presentation to be accurate and appropriate.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under doctor pr, Medical PR, physicians, PR, TV, tv interview Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PR for Complementary Health Care Practitioners

February 28, 2011 1 Comment

It’s taken the media and the traditional healthcare world quite a while to learn what the public has now known for quite a while.  Complementary and alternative healthcare is a huge force in the U.S. For example, a 1998 phone survey of 1539 adults found that 42.1% in the United States had used at least one form of complementary health care within a twelve month period.  That usage had increased since 1990 and continues to increase; the most used treatments were herbal medicine, massage, megavitamins, self-help groups, folk remedies, energy healing and homeopathy.

When I began working in the arena of health-oriented PR, trying to get the media to do a segment on herbs, acupuncture or bodywork was a challenge.  Those modalities were considered too alternative, too out there; not mainstream enough.  And if the media did do a story on acupuncture, it had to feature an acupuncturist who was also an M.D.  Times have changed.  Now CNN, the Today Show, Time and other mainstream media outlets all cover alternative and complementary healthcare.  If you work in the world of wellness or complementary healthcare, you need to know how to work with the media and how to launch an effective PR campaign, the media floodgates have opened, but you need to learn to control the message.

Years ago, we worked with the Rolf Institute and the Heller Institute and, even though both modalities had been around for quite a while, they were still considered quite exotic by the mainstream media.  We were able to launch effective campaigns, but it was a hard go.  The media was weary.  They were not used to covering stories that did not involve an M.D., unless it was to uncover some type of fraudulent practice.   Well times have certainly changed since then. From body work and acupuncture to nutritional supplements and yoga, more modalities are making the leap from the alternative to the mainstream.  Traditional hospitals now have wellness centers that cover a host of alternative modalities.  More physicians are melding traditional and complementary health care in their practices.

More than anything, the public’s thirst for knowledge about their healthcare has skyrocketed.  It can be confusing for an individual to understand which supplements and what modalities are best suited for them.  The press understands their readers, viewers and listeners are craving information on how they can best utilize complementary health care.  This time offers some amazing public relations opportunities.  If you can explain your field, discuss how it works, offer anecdotal stories and present yourself to the media as an expert in your field, you’ll be well positioned to ride this healthcare information wave.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under doctor pr, healthcare, Medical PR, medicine, PR Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to Get TV Exposure as a Doctor in 2011

November 15, 2010 3 Comments

The public learns about the medical and health-oriented topics via the media.  Being featured in the news offers physicians credibility validation and a chance to reach their potential patients and target market.  Coverage in print, radio and TV is also the most effective and powerful way for physicians to inform, educate.  With that in mind, on Wednesday, November 17th at 2:30 p.m. eastern time, I will be leading an ExecSense webinar entitled, How to Get TV Exposure as a Doctor in 2011.
The webinar examines the best tips and techniques used by doctors to get exposure on television and become a “source” for local/national TV stations. Take the 60 minutes to view this webinar (on your computer, mobile phone, iPod, iPad, Kindle or printed out) to understand how to position yourself in a way that will make you especially attractive to TV stations, how to approach them that you are interested and available to be an on-air personality regarding health topics in your area of expertise, and use this exposure to enhance your reputation and create a personal brand for yourself. For information visit: How to Get TV Exposure as a Doctor in 2011

Filed under doctor pr, healthcare, Medical PR, medicine Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why “Selling” Never Works

March 23, 2009 1 Comment

Forget about selling when entering the PR world.  The media’s not interested in being sold; it’s interested in finding new, unique and compelling stories – that meet their specific needs.  That is something most companies and, to be honest, PR firms, generally forget.  Actually that’s something I have to remind myself on a daily basis.  When I worked as a journalist or as a magazine editor, it was always obvious that what I wanted was a good story.  When a company or PR rep would call and pitch me an idea, they (at times) had interesting stories, but generally not stories that interested my readers.  So, nine-times-out-of-ten, my response would be a (hopefully polite) no.

 

It’s not enough that the story you’re pitching is interesting, it has to fit the needs of the publication or TV show, or radio segment that you’re targeting.  That’s where the brainstorming comes in.  You have to think like an editor or a producer in order to find the story that works.  And once you’ve found your primary story, you need to drill down and come up with more targeted story ideas.  For example if you’re pitching a product, your primary story will most likely be around the product and how it helps your customer.  But it has to be told with a narrative, as a story, not as a hard sell.  Once you’ve figured that out, you then have to uncover you’re other stories.  Is there a human interest angle, is there an entrepreneurial angle, what other story ideas can you come up with to meet the needs of the various media outlets?   Your stories hold the key to your success, so focus on finding them and presenting them to the media in the most interesting way possible – and forget about the selling.      

 

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2009

 

 

Filed under advertising, advertising vs. public relations, business, doctor pr, Medical PR, PR Campaign Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Financial Success in an Economic Crisis?

February 5, 2009 Leave a comment

Perhaps with success, financial and otherwise, it all comes down to asking the right questions.  Who has time to think about success? you ask.  Now a days it’s tough enough just to make ends meet, or so the story goes if you listen to the pundits and the media.  Agreed.  These are challenging times, but just as the government and financial sectors are having to review (we hope)  their decisions to see where things went so wrong, this could be a real opportunity to reassess your own house; how you’re running your business and, while you’re at it, your life. That comes down to asking the right questions.  Some questions  may seem basic and make sense, for example, take the question, are you fulfilled by the job you’re working at, or by the career you’ve chosen?  That question makes sense.  But maybe that’s the wrong starting point.  Perhaps the first question should be:   is the job of your profession or career, to fulfill you?  For some people the answer could be yes, for others no.  Maybe your career’s job is to give you financial security, or mental stimulation, or social interaction, but not to fulfill your deepest inner needs.  If that’s the case and you’re asking your job to fulfill the needs that art, or a hobby, or an avocation, or a partner should fill, you’re never going to find balance.  And, strange as it may seem, that’s actually how I think we’ve ended up in the situation we’re currently at.  We haven’t asked the right questions and we began to believe that the answer to every question was the same – money.  Money became the sole solitary answer.  It was going to fulfill all of our needs, so we took our eye off of how where and why it was being made.  We did away with regulation, with basic common sense, all in the service of this one focus.  Now the boat is taking on water and everyone on board is panicking and running for the lifeboats.  But it’s not that the boat is going under, rather it is completely out of balance. It can be set right again, but will take a combined effort.  It’s not going to be the President, or Congress or Wall Street that saves us, or bails us out (to continue the boat metaphor) it’s going to be each one of us finding what’s important, asking the right questions, making the appropriate choices and cumulatively setting the ship, that we’re all in, back on course.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for money, but it really goes down to a place for everything and everything in its place.  Money is one aspect of what defines success.  We forgot that.  We asked it to be the end all and be all, and in doing so, we let the wolves mind the store.   When you ask any one thing to be everything, it has a tendency to become nothing.  So, from my perspective, a big part of the shift we need to make in order for our financial lives to prosper is a philosophical one.  Ask the right questions.  See what’s important.  What makes you, you? What fits where?   Now, make the appropriate decisions.   Maybe it doesn’t look like a one-to-one correlation, but if all of us do that, things will turn around more quickly than all of the bailouts, laws and legislations combined.

Filed under Public Relations, Media Relations, Entrepreneur PR, small business Public Relations, advertising vs. public relations, business, doctor pr, public relations expert, public relations specialist, green pr, Medical PR Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Why Fear-based Selling Is A Bad Bet

January 8, 2009 Leave a comment

You know how annoying it is to go into a store and have a salesperson stick to you like glue and continually try to sell you?  And you know how that experience is even worse if the salesperson tries to convince you that you need to buy because if you don’t something horrible could happen?  Yep.  No one wants to be sold, particularly with a fear-based pitch.  We want to purchase something that we feel comfortable buying; something that is going to help make our lives easier, better or more interesting.  The trouble is that many businesses and experts still feel that they have to sell fear and sell it big time; they’re advertising, marketing and public relationsis all based on trying to scare the hell out of you.

Now instead of the preverbal used car salesman, we have the Internet sales pitch.  The endless emails telling us how we have to order whatever it is they’re selling “now” or we’re going to regret it. Selling through fear can be effective.  It’s been done since marketing existed.  Sometimes it’s a part of the package.  When you think of it, when we buy car insurance, we’re betting that we’ll have an accident and paying the insurance company a monthly premium so that they’ll be there, check in hand, when we eventually do.  But unlike insurance most other purchases don’t so readily fall into that fear category, yet they’re generally sold to us as though they do. 

The fear sales pitch is made to give us a sense of urgency, when there really is none.  But now-a-days, more and more people see through and are turned off by that type of pitch.  So if you’re not selling urgency through fear, what then?  Use the biggest motivator there is – TRUST.  But, unlike fear, here you have to be able to back it up.  If you are going to make this shift, you can’t sell smoke and mirrors.  Your product or service really does have to be top of the line.  You actually do have to give your customer value.   If you’ve worked to make your product or service the best it can be, and you’re still using fear-based marketing, shift your approach and see what happens.  People will want to work with you, not out of fear, but because they trust you, because you offer a top-of-the-line product, you solve a problem for them, you’re reliable.  Here they not only buy from you, but they actually feel good about the process.  It’s trust that builds a loyal customer base.  It’s not something you sell, but a promise that you deliver.

 

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2009

For further information visit:
www.AnthonyMora.com

 

 

Filed under Public Relations, Media Relations, Media, Entrepreneur PR, small business Public Relations, PR for publishers, advertising vs. public relations, business, doctor pr, media relations for publishers, public relations expert, public relations specialist, pr for green companies, green pr, Edelman, Medical PR Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

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