It’s Time for Providers to Understand & Market the LGBTQ+ Community

 

Gay pride image by naemi_a from Pixabay

And meet their healthcare needs in the process.

In an interesting article wittier by Eric Burger in PRWeek on September 22^nd, “More than one-third of LGBTQ individuals say healthcare companies don’t understand them. The data comes from a study by CMI Media Group with Wells Fargo and Human Rights Campaign.”

If you’re a healthcare marketer, I would suggest that you read the article and consider how you can become the champion in your provider setting to change the narrative internally and in your community.

You can’t market what you don’t understand.

That is the issue given the scant attention in most healthcare providers who ignore the LGBTQ+ community. Political and religious views aside, failure to understand and create those marketing communications messages, content, and appropriate LGBTQ+ friendly images is a deal-breaker.

I don’t think it’s necessarily intentional. Still, as healthcare marketers focus on traditional markets, it is easy to see why provider marketing is not as diverse and inclusive as it needs to be.

The LGBTQ+ community is not one size fits all nor isolated in one area of a locality.

NYC crowd image by Robert Lee Cortes from Pixabay.

Individuals, and those in partnerships or as couples, in the LGBTQ+ community, are your neighbors and have probably used your medical services at one time or another.  If you live in an urban area, there are probably communities that are known as predominately LGBTQ+.  

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t market to those areas, but be realistic about the convenience and accessibility of your provider services from a transportation and travel time viewpoint.

Also, creating a provider marketing campaign to reach the LGBTQ+ individual is not just about finding appropriate images, repurposing messaging, and away you go.

To be effective, you need to fully understand the medical needs, messaging, tactics, and marketing channels. In the grand scheme of things, your efforts are not only externally focused but need to address the internal issues as well. You can do the most outstanding provider marketing the world has ever seen to the LGBTQ+ community, only to have it fall apart internally. It’s not just a checkbox in the EMR,  form, or a question that is asked.

Understanding spark image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

With all of this in mind, here are some steps to consider in marketing to the LGBTQ+ community. 

1.       Do your primary and secondary market research.That research in your community will provide you with the road map for messaging, tactics, and channels. Chances are you don’t know this market. You get one effort to get it right, don’t miss the opportunity t fully understand. 

2.       Develop personas for LGBTQ+ individuals. The personas will assist not only in clarifying your external marketing efforts and can be used internally as well to educate the organization. 

3.       Unfortunately, this must even be mentioned, but we live in a highly polarized political and religious belief age.There will be medical staff, employees, and leadership whose beliefs are opposed to active outreach to the LGBTQ+ community. You need to acknowledge that but create the internal marketing effort and training necessary for a broader understanding. Of course, leadership and HR needs to be involved and have full participation.  If the provider is not fully committed, then why bother.

4.       This is more of a Captain Obvious statement, but all LGBTQ+ images and messages need to be appropriate and reflective of your audience. It’s okay to show a male as a hairdresser or fashion designer, for example, or a same-sex couple. Don’t be afraid to be creative and show visually you understand.

5.       The broader community will have misconceptions, false information, and outright lies about LGBTQ+ individuals regardless of source- political, religious, or social media. Be prepared for some blowback from a vocal minority. It’s unfortunate and hopefully won’t happen, but you need to be prepared. You do not by any means need a crisis communications plan, but you need talking points and responses ready to answer any calls, emails. Letters or other means people will use to communicate their displeasure.  If they say they will never be a patient at your facility again, say thank you for expressing their views, and you hope they find the medical care appropriate for them.

6.       The marketing plan needs to contain a relationship-building component to the LGBTQ+ community. You can’t expect to have success unless you’re actively working to build trust, not just dropping marketing efforts out of nowhere, which could be perceived as disingenuous.

7.       Make sure you create LGBTQ+ appropriate content on your website and for distribution in the community. Make certain content design - images and words support your audience.

8.       Identify the LGBTQ+ influencers in your community. They may have already been using your medical services and could be willing to be brand ambassadors.

9.       There is a time and place for User Generated Content (UGC). LGBTQ+ is the right market where UGC is highly impactful.Use UGC wisely.

10.   Use less traditional marketing tactics and channels. Focus your LGBTQ+ strategy, tactics, and messaging on inbound, digital, and social media channels supporting grassroots activities.

Saying you care about the person includes caring about the LGBTQ+ individual too.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Business & Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and ranked No. 3 on 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites to follow by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives.  For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. 

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The opinions expressed are my own.