Top tips for marketing
Top Tips
Provide a short promotional leaflet for GP surgeries or pharmacists to hand out to potential attendees; if you deliver a national education programme then your national office should be able to provide these at a cost. Depending on budgets, you may want to design your own. Don’t forget to always include the NHS logo on any patient-facing materials – this helps to give it more credibility
Distribute flyers at local events to target local communities
Create a web page on your local organisation’s website, or a separate website for the programme. Include how patients or HCPs can refer, add the dates and venues of upcoming courses and keep this up-to-date. There is nothing worse than an out-of-date website!
Use practice websites and practice TV screens
Click here for a page of promotional text you could upload to all referring practice websites in your locality
You may want to film a short clip or PowerPoint presentation to run on the screen in practice waiting rooms – include patient and GP testimonials and discuss education as a form of treatment
Pharmacists are often underused, great resources (see our Utilising Pharmacists– consider putting together information packs for your local pharmacists including:
Stickers to be put on diabetes medication bags
Promotional leaflets for distribution to interested patients
Information ensuring the pharmacists know how patients can self-refer, if this is available locally
Posters for display in windows or on display boards
Information for the pharmacy staff to have a better understanding of what you offer to patients (course content, style, & accessibility)
Link with national/international diabetes and health campaigns
For example, Diabetes Week in June and World Diabetes Day on November 14th – if you have a twitter account, use the respective hashtags in your tweets to increase volume
Raise awareness by holding promotional events at practices, supermarkets, and shopping centres, etc. at these times
Are newly diagnosed patients offered an information pack on diagnosis by their nurse? If so, ensure that a flyer is included in this
Consider using social media to raise overall public awareness – you can add details of what you plan to do to your communications strategy. More detailed information about how you can use social media to support your promotion locally can be found here
Consider linking with local public health departments to do a campaign on diabetes awareness with a ‘call to action’
Think outside the box with your advertising: TV adverts, side of buses, bus stops, and sandwich boards outside the places that courses are being delivered are all ways to help raise the profile of the programme – but don’t forget to bring it back to the budget!
Use local websites – e.g. local gyms or council sports pages
Use Diabetes UK support groups to get the message out, including flyers to all its membership
Put posters that include patient testimonials on display in practices. If you are delivering a national programme, their national office should be able to supply posters, however, these may not be personalised to your locality. For generic examples click here
Use the NHS logo on all patient-facing materials n the UK
Put posters up in/have leaflets at: libraries, adult colleges, retinal screening venues, health marquees, supermarkets, leisure centres, community information boards, and/or half-time events at sporting fixtures
Advertise and include patient articles in local newspapers, free newspapers, local newsagents and local door-to-door leaflets
When waiting on the phone to be connected/on hold, use promotional message
Use patient testimonials in all publicity to increase patient engagement
Set up a patient champion.
Use local press articles from education ‘graduates’ or articles promoting any events you hold, to continue to raise public and patient interest - some sample press releases can be found here.