Publicity Hound Pat Sabiston, a marketing communications consultant from Panama City, Fla., asks:
“One of my clients, a facial plastic/ear-nose-throat physician in northwest Florida, will be celebrating 20 years in practice in August.
“We’re hosting an open house, producing a funny TV commercial, and we’ll have an “oldie but goodie” slide show during the event. It will feature photos of him growing up, his years in medical school, etc.
“We’d love other ideas on how to spread the word about his practice and his anniversary throughout the community. Can your Hounds help?”
The Publicity Hound says:
His area of specialization will give my Hounds a lot to work with, Pat, and could result in some fun ideas. Let’s see what they suggest. If you have an idea for Pat, share it in the Comments. To kick off the resurrection of the #HelpThisHound feature, I’d like Pat to choose her favorite idea. The Hound who suggested it will win a $50 gift coupon good for products at my website. Have at it, Hounds…
If you shift your focus and instead of celebrating the minutiae of your client’s life, you highlight the ways in which he has changed the lives of his patients, you will have a winner. Have him collect stories of lives that were either saved or drastically improved because of his work and journalists will be a lot more eager to cover him. That angle has much more potential to be spread on social media as well.
Marcia, you’re so right about those stories being shared on social media. By whom? By the people whose lives were changed, and their friends and their friends….
Great idea!!! I love it.
Here’s an idea that may appeal to you for the purpose of spreading news about your doctor friend. I happen to own an online newspaper called “Biz News Buddy.” It is a little different than most online publications. All newspapers contain news. Remember, no one reads the newspaper, listens to the radio, watches TV or surf the Internet for the advertising. They do it for the news.
But, most newspapers DO NOT market their news to journalists at other publications to entice them to write more news about your news. But, Biz News Buddy does. In fact, Biz News Buddy empowers small businesses and entrepreneurs to create press kits on its site to showcase numerous press releases in one location.
To learn more about what Biz News Buddy can do for your need to promote the doctor, visit http://BizNewsBuddy.com.
Lamar, best of luck with your new site. And thanks for the idea.
Make it more about them – his community, patients, projects and causes he supports. More them = more benefits to him
Steve, I like the idea letting people know about the causes he supports. Thanks for stopping by.
I would place an announcement in the local newspaper asking all customers to come to the Parking lot, park, etc. of choice for a group picture of all the people he has helped for decades. If their parents are no longer living but were a patient, those people should bring a picture to hold up…Nothing more powerful than the image of all the positive impacts this person has share with his community in the smiles that will show clearly in the picture!
Peggy, they could turn the photo shoot into a party with refreshments. Love this idea!
Before and after pictures of clients (with their permission of course) showing the physician’s work plus their testimonials. Pictures are worth a thousand words (or more). Good luck!
Think of all the places online that these photo testimonials can be used, Tess. Thanks for submitting this one.
Nothing tells the story about a doctor better than happy patients. Ask three-to-five people he’s treated to talk about why they think that in an era of “health care on the run,” why your client is the best at what he does. Chances are, there are one or two for whom he’s helped changed their lives.
Gail, these testimonials can be used in a variety of places, such as on a TV monitor in the waiting room. Thanks for the idea.
I’ve been fortunate to make it this far without ever needing the services of an ENT specialist for myself or any family members… So I looked up what a facial plastic ENT does, and why I, a potential future customer, would ever want to attend an ENT’s anniversary celebration.
I’d imagine there are many like me who normally wouldn’t bother. So, I think the focus, as mentioned above, should be on the past patients he’s helped, as well as on educating specifically how he has & can help make someone’s life more enjoyable.
Highlight his specialties. Have a “bring a friend” promotion, to encourage past patients to bring along a friend or family member they think could benefit from the doctor’s services. (There could be a referral “prize” offered to the past patient, as well as savings for the friend.)
Best of luck on the event!
Rewarding patients or friends for referrals often results in more referrals. Great idea, Neil. Thanks for joining the conversation.
As a parallel and complementary effort to what you are already doing or planning, why not draft a news release celebrating (David Letterman-list style) “The Top 20 Things Dr. XYZ Has Learned Over 20 Years of ENT” (paraphrasing; you’d have to tweak or work that headline).
You can use this list to highlight fun facts, memorable patient outcomes or valuable lessons-learned over the last 7,040 days (20 years) and XYZ number of patients …
This is a very fun/entertaining way to make some important points in a subtle, storytelling way:
1. Length of time in practice
2. Countless patients seen over many years
3. Much expertise and knowledge derived from patient cases spanning 2 decades
You can also work with the office/practice staff … perhaps have them dig through files to pull/sift/find really interesting factoids like, as a fake example, “63% of ENT patients are local coming from X, Y or Z locations” (geography focused which is great for local SEO) … or a fun infographic from the types of patients who needed only-Ear, others needed only-Throat etc” or “surgical and non-surgical” patients helped over 20 years etc. I’m certain there are enough patient stats in those files to make for some super fun factoids and perhaps even identify trends, etc.
Any data you can milk, twist and repurpose to create infographics and/or tell fun stories or share entertaining yet informational David Letterman-like top lists would be super!!
Good Luck!!!
Mayra
@ruizmcpherson of @ruizmcphersonHQ
Mayra, I love this idea! You can never have too many Top 10 or Top 20 lists. Thanks for submitting this one.
I would suggest you can cover the most challenging case of his career and show how peacefully he handled it. So that many patients and stakeholders take an example of him to not get depressed in critical situations in life.
I love this idea. If he can get permission from the patient, he can pitch them both to media outlets. This can be a heartwarming story.