An outreach program can benefit clinical laboratories in multiple ways, from strengthening relationships with physicians to engaging patient communities and contributing to the bottom line. It can bring economic value by developing a rapport with the patient and physician community.
Why clinical laboratory outreach marketing?
The outreach programs began because of the government’s verdict on bundled reimbursements made in 1984. These programs were aimed at cost cutting and keeping lesser number of patients in the hospital. An effective outreach program for a clinical laboratory should include creation of productive business strategies, development of effective marketing programs and training the sales team. Each of these aspects plays an important role in the success of an outreach program.
Editorial content for outreach marketing
Editorial content is one of the prominent assets of any outreach marketing effort. Industries often publish editorial content based on market research and surveys and offer it to their customers. This acts as an excellent mode to engage your clientele by offering them a greater insight into your products or services.
Using editorial content to gain brand authority
One of the best methods to succeed in gaining instant brand authority is by frequently publishing authoritative editorial content. A clinical laboratory can create useful, high-quality content targeted at medical and health professionals. In this case, the type of editorial content is generally rich in statistics and visual indicators such as graphs and in-depth analysis of the mechanisms and procedures of tests. For example, your article could be on the lines of “Evaluation of (your test name)”. The second type of content targets patients. It can contain an overview of the test or product and its benefits along with other general information. For example, your article could provide general information with topics such as “What is (your test name)?”
As a part of your publishing efforts, you must also devote a significant amount of time to research about your brand and where can it fit conveniently online. Social media is one of the best places to publish your content as it has an extraordinary reach. Other than this you could also try and find certain communities and blogs where your brand is being discussed in order to obtain maximum leads. In addition to this, you could publish your content in the form of white papers, ebooks, and webinars. These methods help you share your expertise with your consumers while getting quality leads for your services.
Other methods
Other than web sites and newsletters, you can also engage your clients through some innovative health care apps. These apps help the clients with accomplishing simple tasks and tests themselves. There are many smartphone applications that help patients conduct several tests such as ECG, blood glucose, heart rate, body temperature and blood oxygen saturation with the accuracy of clinical instruments. These apps directly provide the test results to the patients. The result can then be sent to your clinical laboratory, analyzed and reports can be prepared.
[Source: Millennial Consulting]
