By: Tony Barlow | tbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com
Communicating with physicians in some fashion is at the heart of our work whether that is recruitment, relations or onboarding. If you have been at it a while, you may have noticed that the amount of attention your writing gets from physicians runs in cycles. Sometimes it feels like you are doing everything right and getting excellent responses. Other times, we can’t get a response and wonder what we’re doing wrong. The summer cycle can be particularly challenging for a variety of reasons. Let’s take a look at how to communicate more strategically during those down cycles.
The primary challenge we face in communicating with physicians is distraction. When you look at the calendar year, there are obvious periods of distraction that come and go. Examples would be different holidays, conference season, summer and maybe even the end of the school year for physicians with young kids. You may be seeing the same cycles working in your own life. There are times where you have a few extra minutes in your day to go through your inbox and there are other times where you are maxed out and just don’t have the time.
Our job, of course, is to continue to communicate effectively and get results no matter what the season. We are not looking for excuses for poor results. We want to be strategic and prepared for tough periods and excel through them. Here are some ideas on how to do that:
- See it coming. We have already efficiently worked through the first step in this process and that is just knowing when challenging periods are coming. Mark the known and expected cycles on your calendar if you need a reminder.
- Prepare in advance. Take the time to get prepared in advance. Bring it up during a meeting or with your colleagues and share ideas. Set aside some extra time and work on your strategy.
- Don’t be afraid to change things up. Try something new with your subject lines or your first paragraph. Now might be a good time to experiment a bit. Our goal is to catch their attention. So, think outside the box and try some more unique subject lines.
- Shorten up your messages. In a season of distraction, long emails will get ignored. Just like long boring subject lines. Shorten your subject lines and your messages. If you are recruiting your goal is ten percent information and 90 percent response. Yes, we want to give them a little information, but more than anything we want them to write us back. Make that your focus!
- Change your timing. Do you always send messages at the same time of day or day of the week? Try something different. Have you tried weekend emails? It seems counter to our goal but this might be a good time to try a Saturday morning email. Or if you consistently send messages in the early afternoon, try early morning or late evening.
- Pay attention to your metrics. Now that we have built a strategy and tried some new things don’t forget to look at how you did! Did you turn some heads or get a few more responses? Look at last year’s efforts and compare your numbers. You might find a few new tactics that you can employ during other times of the year to increase your success.
Tough cycles come and go. It is easy to just look past the tough periods and wait for a period of time when things will be better. Our job is not to wait. Our job is to strategize on how to be effective no matter what season we are in. Is there anything I missed? Feel free to send an email (tbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com) or leave a comment to share your experience.
Communicating effectively with physicians is part of our DNA at Barlow/McCarthy. We do it for our clients every day. Email marketing for physician recruitment is a specific focus. If you have been looking for someone to help with you messaging send us an email at info@barlowmccarthy.com and we will be in touch!