Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

What's the goal of the conference? Educational or selling products?
Can you make the conference online?
Are you looking for people to present the latest findings?
What type of health professionals? Located where?
Have you done this conference elsewhere in the world?

The more information you share, the better we can help you.

Dear Kirsty,

Jay's asked a series of great questions, all of which you need to consider. As for hiring a local consultant, do you mean here in the US, or wherever you are?

If your conference attendees are global, the location of your consultant might not matter. What matters more to the people attending your event (presuming it's going to happen in the flesh, so to speak) is where it is, when it is, what they'll get out of attending the event, who they'll meet and potentially mingle with, and how much it's going to cost them to attend.

Networking opportunities are an important part of events like this, so consider using the whole networking aspect as bait.

To SELL this event, to market it, you need to consider the age old "what's in it for them" mantra. Why would anyone get on a plane and travel to your event?

To market this event you need to consider some or all of the following, and keep in mind that these questions must be posed at your potential attendees—because any event like this is NOT about who is on stage, or who is speaking, ultimately, it's about what attendees get out of the event and what practical tips, and advice they can take back to their practice and put into operation to enhance their service to patients.

So, tell consider telling attendees that they'll learn what's new in their field, what's new, proven, and what can be put into practice in their clinic now.

Four other selling points could be:

How to attract more patients.

How to generate more revenue from the same number of patients.

How to attract referrals.

Great new benefits to patients

The risk of loss here, the possibility that by NOT attending that your podiatrists and vascular surgeons will somehow lose out has great potential as a selling point.

You could also use early bird discounts and special offers (break out sessions, exclusive seminars for early bookers and so on) that close out as the conference gets closer. The sooner one of your doctors books, the more money they save and the more benefits they get.

In cases like this scarcity is a great motivator because it takes advantage of peer pressure—it connects with the notion that someone else might get the upper hand if a booking is delayed.

The thing to consider is telling doctors three things:

This is what we've got. This is what it could do for you.
This is what you need to do next.

The easier you make it to book and SECURE places the better,
and you do this by offering benefits and values that can (and will) go away if Dr. Foster mucks about too long.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Kirsty:

Not sure if your question of marketing to HC professionals was grounded more in what to say or how to reach them (or both). Gary provides a good overview of 'what to say'. As for how to reach them, consider advertising in, and/or buying the mailing lists from, targeted medical organizations and publications.

i.e., with a web search you can likely find professional publications, groups and websites for Diabetes as well as for various specialties like Podiatrists And Vascular Surgeons. The same could be done for identifying consultants with medical-specific focus or experience.

-Steve