Public relations (PR) should be an integral part of your communications strategy. We use the phrase “communications strategy” because there are multiple components to consider. PR is not advertising nor marketing, nor social media nor blogging.
Chiropractic practices have many ongoing expenses like salary, benefits, insurance, rent, etc. Spending money on marketing is often limited or hit-or-miss. Why? Because it is an expense with an uncertain return. Hopefully, you are keeping an eagle eye on your expenses to ensure an adequate profit.
Many PR agencies would be happy to charge you thousands of dollars for preparing a PR plan, drafting materials and implementing the plan for you. Rightly, you would view the cost as another expense with an unspecified revenue impact on your practice. But what if you could become your own PR firm? The good news is you can. This article presents 10 steps to help you become your own PR agency.
1. Meet with your staff and brainstorm ideas
Your team knows what differentiates your practice from the competition. What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? Do you have specialties in certain conditions or use specific techniques not readily available from other practitioners? In other words, why should a potential patient start chiropractic care with your practice or move to your practice from another provider?
2. Revisit your decision to be your own PR firm
Your ability to successfully brainstorm ideas in step one should validate your decision to move ahead without hiring an outside PR firm. A dozen or more ideas will provide you with one year’s worth of press releases if you send them once per month. It is key to assign one or two staff members to manage the campaigns. You may need to assign some of their day-to-day work to others to allow enough bandwidth to excel at PR. Once you establish a well running system, the monthly time commitment will be reduced.
3. Set goals for your PR campaigns
Establishing benchmarks allows you to monitor your progress and adapt midstream, as necessary. Benchmarks might include 1. number of media interviews, 2. number of times you are asked to contribute a quote to an article or radio segment or 3. number of times you are asked to speak to a group.
4. Identify your target market/audience
Who do you want to reach with your messages? Various studies over the last 10 years have shown about 10% of the population utilizes chiropractic care each year. That means 90% are not currently benefiting from chiropractic. Is your goal to add some of the current chiropractic users to your practice, re-activate past users or acquire patients new to chiropractic?
Regardless of which group you are targeting, you need to define them. The descriptions could be general, but also use demographic segmentation (age, gender, education, occupation).
5. Research media where you want to disseminate your press releases
Open your favorite search engine and identify all the local radio stations, newspapers, magazines and TV stations. We usually think about the higher-profile outlets. Be sure to include free local newspapers and magazines in your target areas. Some will print your press releases almost verbatim.
Public access TV is always seeking content because they operate on such a limited budget. Consider a college radio station; it might be much more interested if one of your practice specialties is working with athletes.
Social media has exploded with podcasts and YouTube shows. The hosts of these shows must continually feed “content” to their programs. Often, it is much easier to engage these folks than to speak with producers of big network programming
6. Flesh out the ideas in step 1 to help write the press release
Most press releases are one page, though you may add attachments as well. They may or may not be read, so try to target the most appropriate person to send it to Plan out what you would like to include, such as headlines, section labels, images or photos and the call to action (CTA), or why the reader should take action and reach out to you. Be sure to include your contact information on the press release so it’s easy for the person who reads it to get in touch with you.
7. Draft press releases
Responsible staff should be drafting the press releases for the rest of the team to review. Incorporate any feedback you receive into the next draft. It is an iterative process requiring multiple drafts. No need to draft all the press releases at once. Have a few ready to go and continue drafting throughout the year.
8. Schedule and organize campaigns
Your content is not going to be breaking news. So, send out the press release with plenty of lead time for when it might be acted upon by the media outlet. For example, backpack safety would be at back-to-school time. That means you need to be sending out a backpack safethy press release at least one to two months ahead of time. A new associate, new techniques or new equipment can be sent out as part of your regular schedule.
The best way to handle various topics is to use an editorial calendar. According to inbound marketing company Hubspot, “An editorial calendar is a visual workflow that helps a team of content creators schedule their work on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Editorial calendars can help you track content types, promotional channels, authors and most importantly, publish dates.”
9. Proofread and finalize details
Rounds of edits can lead to mistakes creeping into the document. Have fresh eyes read what is written versus what was intended to be written. Verify posts are HIPAA and FDA compliant and you have permission to quote any patients and use any photos. Be careful that any claims of health benefits you make are on label for the FDA clearance, if applicable.
10. Send out your campaign
In step 5, the team identified media outlets where your press releases will be sent. Review the list each time to make sure you want to send that particular topic to everyone on the list. Your approach to each media outlet must be targeted and consistent. If you have received feedback from them about what they will consider, note it on your media contact list and your editorial calendar.
Final thoughts
Your team will improve as you draft press releases and establish strong media contacts. Just as with chiropractic care, we get better the more we work at it.
ROB BERMAN, MBA, is a partner at Berman Partners LCC, a medical device sales, service and marketing company. Berman Partners specializes in new and pre-owned therapeutic lasers He also is partner at Energia Medical LLC, which specializes in light therapy products. He helps doctors improve patient outcomes while increasing their income. He has held a variety of marketing roles during his career. He can be contacted at 860-707-4220, rob@bermanpartners.com or by visiting his website bermanpartners.com.
REBECCA BERMAN is a student at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. She is studying business and management with a concentration in marketing, new media and media analytics. She has interned at a variety of businesses where she produced, edited and implemented PR, digital media and advertising. She may be reached at 860-999-4129 or rebeccaberman04@gmail.com.