By Jim O’Reilly, VP, Client Relations
Non-profit medical associations play a key role in healthcare: advocating for policy changes, conducting medical research, publishing studies, creating awareness for their causes and educating the public. Their mission centers on promoting the public good, focusing on creating positive change and supporting communities or society as a whole. Given their commitment to helping others, medical associations often have powerful and credible stories to share that engage, educate and inform the audience. It’s been my experience that their topics tend to feature good, strong stories that audiences can more easily relate to.
Ideally, these stories can be told in a way that isn’t one-size-fits-all. While you may be repurposing the same content, there are almost always ways to tailor the messaging to resonate with specific interests and concerns of your key audiences. For example, the message sent to association members can be more technical and detailed, whereas for consumers it needs to be simplified and relatable.
When strategizing how to tailor your stories, here are some things to consider:
- Identify Local Thought Leaders: While spokespeople like association presidents are often used nationally, also consider using key local members in targeted markets. A local member is more likely to understand their community’s specific needs, which adds to their credibility and relatability and may strengthen how your message resonates with the local audience.
- Invest in Media Training: Equip thought leaders and key spokespeople with media training so they can deliver clear, concise messages in interviews and public appearances. They’ll appear more confident and know ahead of time what’s most important to make time to say, how they want to say it, and how they might pivot if unexpected questions come up in an interview.
- Conduct Research: Use surveys to gather valuable insights from both the public and other healthcare professionals. This data can inform your advocacy efforts, public education and membership engagement. If you’re sending to the same audience that you always have, research insights can also help you identify new audiences or narrow down who may most want to hear your story.
- Pitch Broadcast Media: Media tours enable medical associations to engage directly with the media, ensuring key messages reach the public, stakeholders and policymakers. With access to a broader audience, media tours provide the platform to address important health topics, personalize complex information and connect with audiences locally.
- Engage Influencers: Collaborate with influencers to enhance public health campaigns, raise awareness about health issues, and promote events or new medical research. Influencers can also include association members or patient advocacy groups, who may have a niche following and/or the professional credibility to build trust with the audience, ensuring the message is both relatable and authoritative.
- Utilize PSAs: Public Service Announcements are an impactful way to tell your story and reach a wide audience. Through compelling storytelling, PSAs capture an audience’s attention, drive awareness, inspire action and amplify your core messages.
- Leverage Paid Media: Sometimes a paid strategy is needed to boost your story’s reach. Consider using audio news releases for radio and podcasts, native advertising and sponsored articles, paid video advertising like YouTube, and display ads to reach broader audiences in the places they’re most likely to interact with the story.
- Promote Education & Awareness: Research indicates that multimedia content leads to better content retention – 40% more than text-only content, in fact. By combining video, graphics and storytelling, medical associations can deliver a unique and unforgettable experience that resonates more deeply and inspires meaningful action.
Here are some examples of medical associations putting these strategies to work:
The American Society of Retina Specialists launched an awareness campaign aimed at preventing blindness from common adult retinal conditions. Through PSAs, the public could learn the importance of seeking early treatment from a retina specialist.
By leveraging a mix of research, media tours and strategic outreach, medical associations can strengthen community connections and drive actionable change. These efforts not only highlight the critical work of healthcare professionals but also influence public opinion, increase awareness of critical health issues and advocate for important changes in healthcare policy.