What Can You Do When a Promotion Falls Flat?
September 27, 2011
Too often, wellness program managers give up on a service after a lukewarm response. Instead of learning from shortcomings we turn in a different direction, trying to avoid any similar situation. That’s often a mistake — there’s a lot to learn from what went wrong. Here are some questions to ensure the second time is a charm by learning from the first attempt:
- What drove the development of this program? Was it a need expressed by participants, or something you or management felt was necessary to address health risk or cost? If your services aren’t grounded in interests and readiness, you’re programming only by chance.
- How was the service positioned? Did you highlight personal benefits known to be important to your target groups?
- Were preferences considered? Only a few may be interested in personal health coaching, but many may want web-based learning tools on the subject, for example.
- Did you test your assumptions? Sometimes what feels like the greatest idea from a brainstorming session falls apart in the real world. When introducing new approaches, always test them on your target audience before a complete rollout.
- Did you promote adequately? We’re often surprised at how little promotion many programs receive. Take a cue from credit card companies who, if your credit is good, will bombard you through the mail and email — as well as advertise on TV, in magazines, and on the Internet.
Finally, if you’ve got a good service and you know it, don’t give up. Hard work and fine tuning can make it a success, but only if you stick with it.
