How To Create ‘Lean’ PR in the Healthcare Industry

Leading healthcare companies will consistently return a profit, no matter what the economic climate, and each has its own strategies to achieve high revenues. But one strategy they all share is the streamlining and economizing of processes. This approach needn’t be limited to the production line and business strategies. Many of the world’s largest corporations have recently begun applying many of the same efficiency and quality control techniques to their communications departments.

Lean public relations – similar to the Six Sigma management strategy – allows companies to eliminate waste and put more effective and efficient communications practices in place. This approach promises to increase a business’s bottom line by analyzing the level of effort (input) versus the result (output) and then placing that result within the context of a larger strategy (outcome).

Often used by large companies, this approach also provides small and medium-sized businesses with a framework for how their public relations should be working.
 
Working Backward, For Forward Progress
The best way to create a lean public relations campaign is to start with the end in mind: map your initiatives back from your business goals and complementing communications objectives. When you are developing a communications strategy, make sure that the tactics you are about to employ offer the shortest and most efficient way to achieve your goals. If not, start looking at how they could be.

Lean public relations requires that you take a strategic and analytical approach to communications. This means putting everything under the microscope – from press releases to media relations and everything in between. Processes must be efficient, and they must produce measurable results. By examining the efficiency of each communications activity, you will be able to identify what areas need improvement. Begin with questioning the effectiveness of current initiatives. Do you see the desired results for the level of effort they require? If the answer is “yes,” ask yourself if your bar shouldn’t be a little higher; in other words, continually challenge yourself.

If the answer is “no,” then it’s time to roll up your sleeves and find the problem. If you were working at a Fortune 500 company, a cadre of efficiency experts known as “Black Belts” would be storming your building and waging a battle on your ineffectual methods. Alas, many of us don’t have a team of “Black Belts” at our disposal, so let’s analyze a simple case study together.

Take, for example, the popular public relations tactic of creating and distributing press releases. Though a necessary practice for public companies, some privately owned healthcare companies tend to overuse the humble press release. Requiring a lot of effort and time from an in-house communications team or an agency, press releases often fail to influence audiences beyond those constantly refreshing Google Alerts.

Start by looking internally. Are your copy review and approval processes as efficient as they could be? Examine the percentage of available hours your communications team devotes to research, writing and editing each press release and compare the expected outcome of those same hours spent elsewhere, such as direct media relations or trade show participation. Suddenly, you might find yourself questioning those 18 hours spent on your latest widget’s press release.

Also, analyze whether your distribution system is organized and targeted. The reason why your press releases don’t produce the desired outcomes (quality stories, website visits or leads) could be that the journalists who receive those releases find them lacking in newsworthiness.

Finally, are the people you’re using right for this particular task? A simple press release shouldn’t be taking up hours and hours of your CCO’s time. On the other hand, is your junior communications assistant two months out of college really going to understand the nuanced messaging of news writing or the media strategy involved in getting your release to the right journalists?

Once you answer these questions honestly and critically, it is time to optimize your company’s activities. If press releases prove to be an effective way to deliver your company’s key messages, streamline the practice and use it more often (within reason). Otherwise, reduce the use of press releases and assess alternative options, such as improving your relationships with reporters and bloggers.
 
Narrow Down the Path to Success
Another example of a public relations tactic that could need evaluation and streamlining is e-marketing. If you are told that an email marketing campaign with a five percent open rate is a successful one, doubt it. First, the fact that somebody opened your email doesn’t mean that they clicked on a link and looked at your website or made a call. Unless these clicks convert into increased web traffic and qualified leads, the initiative is not effective. Second, having an open rate of fewer than 10 percent means that 90 percent of your work was wasted. Is it efficient? Well, decide for yourself.

Lean public relations gives your company an opportunity to reduce time-consuming activities and improve the quality of your final product. Concentrate on a few meaningful themes or news stories and then use these messages consistently in advertising, interviews, press releases, online initiatives and product branding. Concentrate on reaching the right target audience – key health-related decision makers and referrals – everywhere they look for information and are open to your company’s messages.

If you want to grow your business and have a sustainable advantage over your direct and indirect competitors in the healthcare market, you need to embrace the culture of constant improvement and streamlining. Lean public relations allows you to do more with less: minimize costs, eliminate waste and create more efficient ways to communicate with your target audiences.

This article originally appeared in the October/November 2011 print edition of Case in Point. It can be viewed online here.