When marketing your medical tourism services and treatments to the US target market, it is important to understand how we process advertising as a culture.
First, marketing is more than just mere advertising. Public relations is for more than just the mainstream media audience. When you publish hyperbole and send it to us, you are what you publish. If you have mis-spelled words, improper idiomatic phrases, or impolite greetings and assumptions, your message will be dismissed.
Americans are critical about authenticity, we don’t respect “spin”, especially that which is extremely obvious. Engage us. We tend to respect an opportunity to participate over propaganda. When you send out blast emails about cheap healthcare, the facilitation services you sell in a 2-page menu, or the assumption that we can’t get our own relationships with hospitals you represent, you are causing a one-way interruption instead of delivering important content at precisely the time we need it.
Research us. Find out if what you sell aligns with what we want to buy. Otherwise, your message is just noise. Build a strategy that is centered upon reaching vast numbers of under-served audiences via the web, instead of broadcasting something few people care about. First, not everyone wants cheap healthcare. Second, not everyone needs healthcare at a given moment in time that your message arrives.
Your hospital is not Bumrungrad, and you are not in Thailand. Even Ruben Toral can’t turn you into Bumrungrad. It would be great to have your hospital profiled in Fortune or Business Week or 60 Minutes. But instead of putting all of your public relations efforts into that one potential PR blockbuster (a mention in the major media outlets) consider aiming for dozens of the most influential bloggers and analysts to tell your story directly to their niche markets who are looking for what you have to offer. Public relations is not about websites and e-books, webinars, podcasts, and video streams on YouTu.be It is about reaching potential buyers.
Spend your money on market research to filter how to reach those buyers in an advantageous way. Learn about your target audience. What else they buy, from where they buy it, how they make purchase decisions, and what messages resonate with them. Then send out your laser-beam directed messages so you can win business. You need to drive customers into your purchasing process with great online content and original information. Use a combination online and offline strategy. Keep in mind that content drives action as long as you use a Call-to-Action strategy that is effective. Otherwise, it is just broadcasting. And that won’t close sales.
Yea Maria! This is so right on!! Unfortunately, what I see, at least here in Mexico, is marketing that was auto translated into English that is so bad that one has to read the Spanish original to understand the English. Also, since it is translated from texts used to market to Mexicans, it totally misses the mark in terms of what will attract Americans! Third, “cheap” can be viewed as a negative to Americans because the word also holds a connotation of now well made or poorly organized. Your suggestion of finding out what American want to buy and market those products is really important. To add to that point, I’d also like to suggest, once you find out those things, decide what you are best at and market to your best specialties rather than list every possible treatment under the sun! The old American proverb is, “Jack of all trades is master of non!”
Thought your article was so well stated, practical and to the point as always!