31 Aug 5 Key Places To Consider Reaching Your Target Audience: Patients
To bring an audience to action, one of the steps along the way is to pinpoint where your target audience is conversing. No matter how great your message, or important your cause, action can’t happen if you’re educating an empty room.
If your target audience is patients, locating your particular niche can be tricky because patients converse and gather information in a wide variety of places. We’ve designed a list of places to consider locating your particular patient group. This list may also spark ideas that help you find your niche.
Places your patient demographic may be conversing:
Talking to friends and family
Doctors still site recommendations from family and friend as the number one source for new patients, and the numbers support their opinion. 50% of adults looking for a new doctor rely on references friends and family. If you’re trying to reach a particular patient segment, think about ways information circulates between close-knit groups of people. For example: Individuals may pick up materials in a doctors office specifically for a friend.
Talking to their doctors
Patients that have a positive feeling about their doctor generally trust opinions and referrals from that doctor. If you’re target audience is a niche group of patients, consider building alliances with health professionals who may recommend your product or services.
In local communities
Patient conversations often extend beyond friends, families and physicians. It’s not uncommon for people to gather health information throughout their local communities in places like church, or recreation and community centers. Think about local places you can distribute materials or host educational events.
In online communities
80% of Internet users look online for health information, and 16% reference online physician reviews. From basic Internet searches to sites like Yelp, PatientsLikeMe, ZocDoc, and Quora, patients are turning to other patients to gather information. 34% of Internet users are reading personal medical stories on sites like these, and on social networks. You can learn a lot about your particular patient group by keeping up with conversations in these communities.
At medical conferences
In the Internet age, patients have more access than ever to live-streaming events including medical conferences. For example, TEDMED, aimed leaders in the health and medical field, was live-streamed this year and many speakers shared medical messages in plain English. Engage with conference organizers to get a sense for their in-person and online audience demographic. This information can help you make decisions around communication materials, speaking topics and advertising.
