Targeting Medical Professionals with Non-Traditional Tactics

Background:  Currently, Oklahoma ranks among the nation’s unhealthiest states. However, steps toward a tobacco-free Oklahoma can help shift this position. Smoking cessation programs like the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline (OTH), funded by TSET, are helping thousands of Oklahomans quit tobacco. TSET partners with the Oklahoma Health Care Authority each year to support the SoonerQuit campaign. This year, we chose to include a flighted social media campaign from January to June 2017, The overarching goal of this campaign is to educate physicians, dentists and nurses living in Oklahoma about the SoonerQuit program and the free materials available through downloads and orders at OKhelpline.com. The medical community are often the first to deliver personal health implications to our target audience, so OTH needed to ensure they were aware of OTH services and resources to help their patients. 

Program background:  We posited that if we created messages and imagery that appealed to those in the medical field, those persons would retain the information and pass it along to their patients, leading to more Oklahomans quitting tobacco use. A series of website click ads were executed to increase traffic to the OTH landing page and encourage downloads and orders of Helpline materials at OKhelpline.com/free-promotional-materials/. The multiple promoted posts were executed to not only increase traffic to the landing page, but to highlight the need for physicians to share OTH resources with their patients. The content was targeted to physicians, dentists, physician assistants and nurse practitioners practicing in Oklahoma. 

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Key performance indicators (KPIs) were set in the creation of the campaign strategy/tactics and were used to measure and evaluate results. Data was gathered through website visits, ad clicks, website downloads or orders, and engagement on promoted posts. The first campaign flight started Jan. 2, 2017 and data was gathered after one month and compared to the same time period from last year. We outperformed on all of our KPI’s.

• Social PDF downloads were up 57% compared to the previous time period
• On promoted posts - KPI = average 1% engagement rate. Currently averaging a 1.89% engagement rate
• Website click ads - KPI = average 2% of traffic downloading or ordering materials. Currently averaging 2.22% of traffic “converting” by downloading / clicking to order
• Bonus: 0.60% of SQ Social traffic actually clicked to sign up for the Helpline
• Website visits from campaign traffic: 498
• Time on site: 1:01 (45% longer than the overall social traffic average that spent 42 seconds on site)
• Total engagements on all ads: 884 or 5.6% engagement rate

Conclusions:  Social media messages focused on educating about the SoonerQuit program and the free resources available through OKhelpline.com were effective in engaging health practitioners with the resources. The medical community carries a great influence in helping Oklahomans become healthier by learning about quitting tobacco. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  By targeting this niche market and providing them actionable steps to take, we were able to ensure they were aware of the FREE services available to help their patients quit tobacco and can encourage them to communicate this information regularly.