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Marketing in Healthcare – The Digitally Optimized Press Release

February 3, 2011

A press release can do more for your business than you probably realize, especially in our advanced digital era. Technology can take a simple few paragraphs, and, if optimized effectively and marketed towards the right audience, can blow them into a traffic generating juggernaut. Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have created new opportunities for medical marketing and PR agencies to reach a fresh audience and connect on a more local level.

So, what does social media have to do with your medical press release? More than you ever knew. Medical marketing in Arizona is all about relating to your target audience. In order to relate, you must inherently know your audience, know the demographics, the interests, the topics that spark discussions and create social “chatter.” A press release in the digital era must not only be optimized for that audience, but optimized for search engine visibility as well as social media dialogue.

Take the classic theory of a press release, tweak the distribution methods, toss out the old architecture, think interactively, and uphold the true purpose and meaning of a press release, and you’ve got yourself a press release for the digital age. Here are the top three medical marketing tips for creating an effective and targeted press release:

1. Content Is King

There is still no substitute for content that creates emotions and provokes conversations. A successful medical press release for Arizona will have the facts, the five W’s, but will be written in a creative way. In the creative process it’s important to understand search engine optimization techniques such as using the proper keywords targeted towards the audience you want.

An Arizona medical marketing agency will use tools such as Google Adwords, Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery to determine which keywords will be most useful for the press release. Consider what you want to garner attention for, in what industry, and how you can implement those keywords into your press release. Use the keyword research to help you discover how your core audience is searching for your products; what words are they using, what questions they are asking. A medical marketing agency will also use tools such as Yahoo Questions to understand how an audience feels towards a certain industry or product.

Don’t over-stuff the keywords. Targeting audience while simultaneously targeting the search engines involves being smart about creating content. Pick out about three to five keywords and use them sparingly. Many medial marketing experts will tell you that your overall keyword saturation within a press release should be between three to six-percent. You will be penalized for more.

2. Branded Multimedia Messaging

After you’ve determined which keywords you are going to use and you’ve creatively incorporated those keywords into the press release, it’s time to consider your digital audience. The old standard of all content and facts no longer applies in medical marketing. An Arizona marketing agency will want to add some interactive aspects to the press release to help it get noticed. It’s one thing to write a press release in Arizona strictly for search engine visibility, but when the search engines rank your press release it must be exceptional in order for your target audience to appreciate it.

To make your press release exceptional, add multimedia aspects such as podcasts, videos of the product, or pictures. Creating a multimedia message is your best medical marketing tactic for promoting audience conversations on social networks. And once people start talking, they start flocking to your website.

3. Press Release Distribution

The final step in that a medical marketing agency will take is distribution of the press release. If it’s keyword rich, creative, and branded with multimedia, search engines such as Google and Bing will only find it if it’s distributed properly. Consider creating an addition to your company website where you feature news articles and press releases. A medical marketing agency will submit the release to press release sites and directories to spread the message. The release should also be submitted to local Arizona media, to social contacts on Facebook and Twitter, and to local bloggers.

A press release for the digital era in literally alive with content, multimedia messages, and opportunities for media sharing on social networks. One press release can alter the entire landscape of your company.