Dave Oury is the president and managing partner of Medical Leverage, a healthcare communications company.
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As a medical communications company, our core focus is building relationships. After more than 20 years of building connections between doctors and the brands that develop treatments, we’ve learned a thing or two about what it takes to create strong, mutually beneficial bonds between two parties.
Relationships are the foundation of any successful business, no matter what industry you’re in. It’s just easier to market to customers who already know your brand. As such, I wanted to share four strategies we use when building connections between our clients and the medical community, so you can use them to develop stronger, more authentic connections with your audience.
Set Expectations Early
If you don’t communicate with your audience in a way they like, you’ll have a hard time gaining and keeping their attention.
Ask audience members or potential clients how they’d like to be contacted in the beginning of your relationship. You can ask for information like what time of day is best for a call or whether they’d like to be emailed, called, or texted. Also, find out what information is important to them, so you’re not bombarding them with content they don’t need.
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By doing this, you’ll tangibly show your audience that you care about their needs. That initial act of good faith can go a long way toward building a trusting relationship between the two of you.
Do Your Research
Knowing your audience is key to successfully connecting with them via marketing, outreach, partnerships, etc. This doesn’t mean going out and shaking hands with each and every customer. But it does mean bringing together panels, attending conferences, conducting surveys, networking with leaders in the field, and doing focus groups.
It’s very difficult to connect with someone you don’t understand. Researching your audience gives you the insight you need to put yourself in their shoes.
In addition to the ideas above, another great source of information is current clientele with whom you have a strong relationship already. Ask them questions. What do they like or not like about your brand? What keeps them coming back instead of going to your competitors? For people who don’t like your brand (e.g. the kind that leave negative reviews), dive into finding out what went wrong with their interaction with you. This way, you know what it is about your brand that isn’t hitting the mark with your audience.
Seek Out Relevant Thought Leaders
You’ll likely never be able to meet every person in your audience, but you can connect with the thought leaders who influence them. Not only will following or building a relationship with these thought leaders give you some insight into the inner workings of your audience, but you may be able to parlay these relationships into partnerships and co-branding opportunities. Then, you can leverage the thought leaders’ influence to increase your own social capital.
A connection with the right thought leader may instantly put your brand in front of their audience, which builds a bridge to connecting with that audience directly down the road.
Be There In The Lows, Too
It’s easy to be there for your audience when life is good and money is rolling in. It’s not so easy to be there when times are tough. But that’s when it’s most important to show up and stand beside your customers.
When bad times hit, whether it’s a global pandemic, an economic downturn, a hurricane, or something else, look for ways you can help your customers and community.
Last year, mattress company Serta donated 10,000 mattresses to hospitals in New York, which were running out of beds for Covid-19 patients. Also last year, Netflix set up a $100 million relief fund for out-of-work creatives who lost their jobs because production on TV shows and movies came to a halt. My own company, Medical Leverage, met with clients in 2020 to reorganize their strategies around the COVID-19 pandemic, at no cost to them.
If you don’t have millions to give away, there is still a lot you can do to be there for your audience. Have food drives, back-to-school supply drives, donate Thanksgiving dinners to low-income families in your community, etc. Ignore the saying that “no good deed goes unpunished.” The truth is that no good deed goes unnoticed.
Join Their Causes
A powerful way we connect doctors to the brands we work with is to join them via good causes. Nothing can be more powerful than caring about what your customers care about.
You see this regularly with big brands. Plenty of companies like Seventh Generation give money to charities and get behind issues that their audience cares about.
Customers want to believe that your company is in business for more than just profit. When you show your core values line up with your customers core values, and that you’re supporting causes you both believe in, you inherently make a personal connection that’s deep, meaningful and memorable.
Show Up Authentically
Brands are expected to do more than provide products or services these days. Audiences expect the brands they buy from to show respect for them, their communities, and the causes they care about. When you connect to your audience on a real, personal level, you’ll be able to move from supplier to partner, which is the next level.
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Author: Dave Oury, Forbes Councils Member
