3 Common Medical Education Marketing Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
Are You Maximizing Attendance at Your MedEd Events?
Your medical education program is packed with valuable knowledge, but getting healthcare professionals to sign up is another challenge entirely.
The issue isn’t necessarily your content—it’s how you’re marketing it. Many medical education teams aren’t trained in marketing strategy, but small adjustments can make a big difference in attendance and engagement.
Here are three common marketing mistakes that might be limiting your reach and simple fixes to improve your results.
Mistake #1: Lack of Emphasis on Building Awareness
"We ran a campaign but it didn’t convert very highly"
A common misconception is that as soon as someone opens an email or sees an invite they will jump to register. The truth is, the majority of people, healthcare professionals included, take more time to make a decision. These individuals need more touchpoints with you. But healthcare professionals, like any audience, need multiple touchpoints before making a decision.
📌 The Fix: Use a Multi-Touchpoint Strategy
Rather than making a single push for conversion (a purchase, sign-up, registration), use a structured approach:
To expand your reach and move away from the one-off conversion strategy, consider the following: social media, blogs, email (yes more than one email is important), and search engine optimization.
Consideration Phase: Share key learning objectives, create snippets highlighting what people will learn, quotes or messages from the speaker to generate interest and build familiarity.
Conversion Phase: Trust that the steps you took in the last two phases made your audience ready to convert. Keep your strategy consistent, make sure you have optimized landing page (registration page) experience, and gather data (page visits, click-through-rates, bounce rates, etc.) to help with optimization.
Mistake #2: Only Using Email + The Sales Team to Promote Your CME
"We sent an email but we aren’t hitting our targets"
Many organizations within the healthcare space rely solely on email marketing as the only additional channel. But inboxes are crowded, and sometimes messages get overlooked.
📌 The Fix: Diversify Your Marketing Channels
Maximize your reach by promoting your CME program through multiple channels:
✔ Email Marketing – We stand by the newsletter approach. Giving them multiple options of value in a single email goes a long way to establishing brand loyalty.
✔ Social Media – Post Share testimonials, learning objectives, snippets, quotes, and highlights to keep fueling an engaged email list, and attract more people to your landing pages.
✔ SEO-Optimized Blog Posts + Landing Pages – Write about key topics covered in the program to attract organic search traffic, and so your audience can have a sample of what you want them to convert on. Create pathways that are easy to follow and knowledge-building.
Mistake #3: Not Offering On-Demand CME Content
"If they missed the live event, they missed out."
Many medical education programs focus solely on live attendance, missing a huge opportunity to engage more professionals over time.
📌 The Fix: Repurpose Your Medical Education into On-Demand Content
Your education shouldn’t disappear after the live session ends. Keep it accessible with:
Recorded Sessions – Provide replays for those who couldn’t attend live.
Podcast-Style Audio Clips – Break down key insights into short, easy-to-consume segments that drive people back to the on demand content.
Summaries or Key Takeaways – Turn your presentations into multiformat written content to help you highlight your warm leads.
On-demand content increases long-term visibility and engagement, ensuring more professionals can benefit from your program—even after it has ended.
Final Thoughts: Small Changes Can Lead to Big Results
Marketing your CME program doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By implementing these small but effective changes—building awareness before asking for conversion, using multiple marketing channels, and repurposing content for on-demand access—you can increase attendance and engagement.
📌 Want more expert insights? Read our latest blog posts here: https://www.icimedical.com/blog