Promote Your Health Care Quality Report to Consumers

For years, sponsors did little or nothing to promote their comparative quality reports to the public. Lack of promotion is a major contributor to the low level of public awareness of these reports. Surveys indicate that most consumers don’t know that quality reports even exist, let alone where to find them or their benefits.^[1]

Promoting your report means using the tools of marketing, media relations, advertising, and outreach to make sure that people know about your report and are motivated to find it, look at it, and actually use it. Remember, even though you hope providers and plans will use your report to guide improvement, your primary audience is the consumer. You cannot take for granted that consumers will access your report. Given all the time, energy, and money that go into creating an effective quality report, it is critical to take the next step of designing and implementing an effective promotional campaign.

This section discusses the following topics:

• Why You Must Promote Your Report
• Understanding and Using the Lessons of Social Marketing
• Clarifying Your Objectives for Promotion
• Acting Early to Ensure Effective Promotion
• Timing Promotion for Maximum Impact
• Using Multiple Promotion Strategies