Online seminars or webinars can help educate your patients about your medical specialties and attract new patients. They are an easy and viable solution for educating and engaging patients while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are six simple steps to help you get started:
1. Determine Your Topic, Date & Time: Your topic should be simple, engaging, and geared towards a patient audience using non-medical terms and dialogue. The date and time should be based on your patient audience’s availability and demographics. Schedule the event when patients are most likely to be free to attend.
2. Create Marketing Materials & Presentation: Your marketing content and materials should relate to your core medical services to educate and engage your community on your specialties and areas of expertise. Be sure to check for compliance of advertising laws and regulations to ensure your topics and presentation do not make unsupported claims. Marketing materials should include a simple graphic or flyer for social media and referring physicians to promote the event and topic.
3. Select a Platform: There are several webinar platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Webex & Zoom. You can select any of them based on your webinar format which could be a slide presentation, a Q & A session, or a discussion between experts. Zoom is a user-friendly platform that facilitates easy interaction with your patient attendees.
4. Get Technical Support: Work with your hospital or IT department to help host the webinar and choose the right webinar tools. Different webinar tools offer varying features such as video, desktop sharing, chat, phone/VOIP, etc. Have a technical support person present during the webinar to ensure smooth running of the session, and ensure you can resolve any unexpected issues at the time of the event.
5. Market the Event: Post all event information and registration on your website. Invite existing and potential patients to the webinar through your social media channels and email blasts. Make sure your staff monitors and confirms registrations, and tracks attendance. Running Facebook or Google ads campaigns for the event two weeks before the date will help drive attendance.
6. Host the Event: At the scheduled time, everyone logs in to the webinar hosting provider by clicking on a link and participates in the webinar. Log in early with your IT team and ensure everything is working well. Start your presentation and personally connect with your audience to educate and engage new or existing patients online. Leave time for questions and discussions.
Webinars can help maintain positive relationships with your existing patients during this unprecedented time. They can also help you find new patients online that have questions or want to connect personally with a provider if they are considering surgery.
Katy Puckett has over 25 years of experience in business management, education, and client relationships.
