The visibility, awareness and effectiveness of your organization’s brand directly impact your ability to recruit and retain members. If your organization isn’t the first thing member prospects think of when they turn to industry issues, there’s work to be done.

But where to start?

As popular wisdom has it, knowing and admitting you have a problem puts you half way to solving it. In this case, that means doing a little member research to determine how your members and prospective members view your organization through its brand. This can take one of several forms, including a quick poll on your website, a phone survey, an e-mail or electronic survey, or a paper/mail survey.

Regardless of the format, the recipient list should be equal parts members and prospects, to get both perspectives and spot any disconnects between those that know the organization from the inside versus what the brand alone presents to the outside world. The included questions should be formulated so that the responses returned are actionable, and give you some indication of their perceptions of the brand and the organization behind it, based on their actual experience with you, as customers, as members, as industry participants.

Reading the results in a timely fashion is important, as the cyclic nature of non-profit schedules creates peaks and valleys in the brand perception and awareness level, depending upon what time of the year it is, and how high the level of activity involving members is at the time you launch the survey. For organizations that have even more volatile years, it may be necessary to do two sets of surveys at different times of the year and compare the results to get a good reliable read on the level of awareness you can count on.

The results of your survey are one source of data, but there are other sources that while less formal or quantifiable, are just as valid in getting a read on your brand awareness and effectiveness. These include interviews with Board members, committee members, volunteers, chapter presidents or directors, vendors, other related professionals, including members of related associations, and members of ASAE.

Once all this data is collected, it needs to be interpreted accurately so that the actions you take drive your brand efforts in the most effective direction possible. Some items will be readily apparent if the surveys and interviews were constructed correctly.

One good tool you can use to read your results is to retrieve the set of brand characteristics from the marketing archives, and see how many of your responses line up with those characteristics. If your responses, including the open-ended comments, use some of the terms and attributes that make up your organization’s brand, then you’ve got a good solid start on reading your data correctly and rating a good score on your brand effectiveness.

Conversely, if very few or none of the responses include those attributes on the list, there’s a good chance there’s a disconnect between what you’re trying to convey with your brand, and how it’s being perceived by the various populations it’s designed to serve.

Now that you’ve got a read on how well you’re doing, how do you go about improving? The answer is, much as it’s been overused by too many of us in today’s litigious society – it depends. It depends upon what your data tells you, and every case is different. However there are some common scenarios and a few valuable remedies to match them.

Scenario #1 – Our brand registers very low on the surveys for memorability.

Typically this means that your customer base doesn’t remember your brand in response to a question designed to illicit a favorable response unprompted. Your organization isn’t top of mind for them as relates to your products or services, and someone else’s brand is. That could mean that your exposure frequency is too low, they don’t see enough from you to keep memorability high enough.

It could be that a competitor has captured some key emotional connection to the customer that you have not, despite an inferior product or service – they’re not as good, but customers remember them because they’re “out there” more. This can be remedied with some increase in exposure to key audiences – your top buyers should hear more from you in a positive light to reassure them that you offer the product or services that give the best value.

Putting your brand in front of them for positive reasons, like a price discount, a new offer that really saves money, rebate eligibility or other product or service related reason other than to sell them something should go a long way toward remedying this issue. It will boost memorability without seeming like you’re overselling them, a positive cognitive light that will cement the brand in the uppermost memory of the customer.

Scenario #2 – Our brand rates favorably and has high memory retention among customers, but neither do as well among prospects.

Usually, this indicates that your product or service has to be “seen to be believed” – it’s value is best seen at delivery or in the transaction, rather than prior to receiving it. This is a sticky problem that has to do as much with promotional direction and relevance as anything else. Your customers know you and have experienced your value, been satisfied with the product or service upon and after delivery and the reputation of the brand was reinforced positively.

Prospects, on the other hand, only know you by your “public” face – advertising, packaging, direct marketing, sponsorship associations. The brand unfortunately has little carriage by word of mouth, based on the fact that satisfied customers are not waving your flag and passing on the good word to prospects themselves. Prospects only get a read based on what you tell them.

Look to your research and find those key hot buttons of your best customers, and promote those attributes to prospects more heavily. Also, compare your reading on prospects versus customers in other areas of your brand – you may find another disconnect in their perceptions that could cause this effect, and you can remedy both with a shift in your promotional or creative approach to highlight those key elements more heavily. Align your creative with those highest ranking attributes of your best customers, and the prospects should get the best, most relevant perception of your product.

These are just two of the possible outcomes to this type of analysis. Suffice to say that if you’re brand is aligned with your message and your audience, you’ve got a strong package for success.

Website promotion is a competitive, lucrative industry where everyone from Manhattan Public Relations(PR) Firms to smalltime Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies are vying for a piece of the pie. Ironically, on the information super highway, it is because of this lack of knowledge that most SEOs and PRs have for one another, which hinders their ability to offer a truly effective and affordable online-visibility solution for their clientele.

Let me explain.

THE TROUBLE WITH PUBLIC RELATIONS

PR is an industry that creates visibility across several different media for its clients while adhering to a pre-defined budget. It is an industry of communicators, with the ability to disseminate information to selected outlets armed with a rolodex, a press release and some serious people skills. Yet, with all of their strengths, one of the greatest criticisms of PR is their lack of ability to produce measurable ROI.

Large companies see the overall benefit of a well executed PR campaign, but medium-sized companies don’t see the immediate value in a bunch of blog links or they can’t afford to have Custom Myspace Tools developed for a product launch. As a result, many medium sized companies are leaving PR out of the marketing mix.

THE TROUBLE WITH SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

On the other side of the spectrum are search engine optimizers (SEOs). Technically savvy problem solvers, SEOs can tweak a website to maximize its exposure in the search engines (the tools that over 90% of internet users turn to when finding new resources or information online). SEOs rely on their technical expertise as well as their ability to build “backlinks” (links coming from other websites) to achieve success in the search engines for their clients.

In the past few months, however, (06-07) search engines have gotten “smarter” and have made traditional methods of building backlinks less effective. Many SEOs have turned to what they call “link bait”, tapping into social media (blog forums and others) to build backlinks. Of course, “link baiting” is really just a nerdy term for online publicity. It’s something that only the best of SEOs have mastered, and many PR Practitioners are now diving into.

WHY PR AND SEO SHOULD BE BEST BUDS

Where “link baiting” (and really online promotion in general) is concerned, Public Relations firms have a distinct advantage. With their preexisting experience, contacts online and off, and other resources already dedicated to building online visibility, PR firms are much better equipped to get mentions and links on authority websites than their SEOs counterparts.

Of course just because a PR firm can get mentioned in a dozen blogs posts, or make the first page of Digg.com, doesn’t necessitate an increase in their client’s bottom line. With the help of an SEO consultant, or SEO company, however, PR firms could present actual numbers to prove the value of their service by converting online publicity into search engine dominance.

If PR could tap into the technical expertise of a search engine optimizer they could solve the problem of tangible ROI and expand their services to more medium sized companies, ecommerce sites, and others. What if you as a PR Practitioner could hand your client a piece of paper saying “Look, we’ve gotten your name out to your niche here, here, here and here – oh, and as a result of this, you are now number one in the search engines when searched for these top keyphrases…”

Likewise, SEO firms, what if you could cut your workload in half by completely cutting out link building, show your clients better results, and get them mentioned in related high-traffic blogs or ezines? How much more would they be willing to spend with you? For how many more keywords would they want to rank?

YES, BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

It is a symbiotic relationship. Yes, you have to pay another company and cut away at some of your margin, but the relationship is mutually beneficial. Furthermore, if each party is accommodated with solutions specific to the other’s industry where both stand to make a buck from offering the other’s services, the relationship will grow.

By putting stock in SEO as well as outsourcing it, Public Relations Firms will be able to retain their larger clients with greater frequency as well as set their sites on medium sized businesses that previously hid their wallets when someone mentioned the words “press release.” Similarly, by outsourcing to PR firms, Search Engine Optimization companies will be able to service more clients, while providing all around better results.

The most important point to remember here is that neither SEO nor PR firms have the whole of the online promotions pie yet. PR’s strengths lie in creating visibility, but not technical prowess. SEO is just the opposite. They’re a veritable Ying and Yang, an Odd Couple, Bonnie and Clyde, Simon and Garfunkle, Best Buds just waiting to find each other out there in the entangled world of bandwidth, servers and free information that is the internet.

Gaining national or local media exposure for your company, products or services in print is one of the most valuable ways to secure consumer interest in your business. While many companies turn to advertising (a costly road to go down) many overlook the power (and more cost effective nature) of Public Relations and especially the power of newspaper and magazine PR.

Have you ever picked up a national newspaper or industry trade magazine and seen one of your competitors featured in an article and thought “Should my company be doing this? What is the value to having my company featured in an article like this?” The answer to the first question is: yes, you should ABSOLUTELY be trying to get coverage for your company in newspapers and magazines. This lets consumers nationally and locally know that your product is out there and available. Here Marsha Friedman will give you the answer the second question: What is the value of doing print PR for your company?:

1. Anything written is perceived to be true. In any business industry it is important to have and continue building credibility. Without credibility, consumers and business associates will not pay attention to your message. One of the most valuable aspects of using a print campaign to get media coverage is that anything written is believed to be an absolute fact. “Therefore articles you’ve written that get published or articles with quotes from you gives you immediate positioning as an expert in your field”.

2. Print is where you’ll find a huge segment of your buying audience. Going to a newsstand nowadays you are bombarded with choice. Newspapers and magazines are scattered all over the floors and filling the racks with more titles than ever before. “With over 137 million Americans regularly reading a daily newspaper and more than 31,000 publications ranging from antiques to zoology, print media holds mass appeal as a key source of entertainment and information”.

3. A huge variety of publications. One of the most attractive aspects of the print media is the huge variety of publications you can target: daily and weekly newspapers, local and national magazines, the trade publications of your industry. “There’s truly an endless source of publications to target.” This enables your print PR campaign to be as targeted as possible, almost down to the exact demographic! In the world of print, the more choice there is, the more opportunities you have to penetrate niche markets.

4. Interviews are not all held over the phone. Many busy business people want to get coverage in newspapers and magazines, but are too tied up at work to deal with impromptu telephone interviews by journalists that last for hours. Also, many are being interviewed for the first time and are scared that they will be misquoted or say the wrong thing. “Another great aspect of print media is that many interviews are done via email so when this happens it gives you a chance to carefully consider and reconsider the best way to convey your message within the construct of the question”. Thankfully email interviews are becoming more common and as a result give you ample time to think and respond to each question to ensure that you communicate your message in a clear fashion!

5. Every publication offers an opportunity! Many people think that if you are not going to get your article published in a major national newspaper or magazine, then a print PR campaign is a waste of time ‘I want USA Today or Nothing!’ It is true, coverage in a huge national title can be phenomenal, but you may be missing a huge segment of your market! “Don’t discount coverage in small publications”. “Every newspaper story, sidebar, small mention or magazine article is like gold when trying to get the attention of editors at the national major magazines, or the senior producers of national TV shows.”

So now you are ready to get writing!

Many OB/GYNs are facing the same challenges, which include lower reimbursement rates, increased competition, and the feeling like the practice is running you – instead of the other way around.

OB/GYNs are facing a changing environment… making it more difficult to attract and keep patients, earn high revenues, develop referrals, and ultimately enjoy a quality of life that was once expected and easily attained by physicians.

We know that an effective and strategic marketing solution can eliminate these obstacles to personal fulfillment, and open the door to new opportunities, growth and satisfaction.

The market is shifting. And due to insurance costs and concerns about liablilty, some doctors are getting our of obstetrics entirely and focusing just on gynecology.

Others are exploring new revenue streams such as cosmetic gynecology. Some are combining disciplines and offering internal medicine, dermatology and OB/GYN under one roof. We ahve also noticed that some OB/GYNs are wanting to focus on attracting certain types of patients and cases that bring either personal fulfillment, higher revenues, or both. Whatever your particular situation is, or how near or far you may feel from your goals of having a more managable, fulfilling practice… there are solutions and methods to get you to where you want to be.

And male OB/GYNs are in need of special marketing that addresses the growing trend towards female-to-female doctor-patient relationships.

The bottom line is this: What you knew about the business of being an OB/GYN has changed and continues to evolve. If you want your practice to thrive and grow in the coming years, contact us for a free OB/GYN marketing consultation. You can ask all the questions you want, and we may even give you a few more that you hadn’t yet thought about.

For more information, please visit our website, www.healthcaremarketingpartners.com

Or send us an email by clicking here.

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