With Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in March, it is the optimal time to publicize screenings for those who need it (and that may be covered by Medicare). Take advantage of all the buzz to reach folks who typically would turn a blind eye and deaf ear to your outreach. It really works.

If you have our Colorectal Cancer health risk assessment at your health system, you already know they are a great way to identify folks who should be screened, motivate them to schedule a screening, and enable them to actually schedule an appointment quickly and easily.

THREE IMPORTANT FACTS

1. Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed form of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
2. Colorectal cancer is highly treatable if discovered early and deadly when it’s not.
3. Our HRAs are very good at the critical task of identifying who should be screened and motivating and facilitating appointment scheduling.

You probably also know that the health risk assessments require promotion for discovery or they will not be used. This wrinkle increases your responsibility to promote the Colorectal Cancer HRAs in March, especially.  Remember, you are ABSOLUTELY saving additional lives with every completion you generate. And we are here to help you with this task!

PROMOTIONAL MESSAGING

The “story” you need to lay out for health care consumers is simple and pretty much the same as the bullet points above:

• Colorectal cancer is prevalent and often deadly.
• When caught early by a screening it is very treatable.
• Take this 5-minute health quiz to know if you should be screened.

That’s it. As you can see this messaging is concise enough that there are lots of ways to get it out to promote the Colorectal Cancer HRAs in March. We showcase some humorous examples here.

You can spin this a lot of ways, including framing it as a patient success story – maybe someone who caught their cancer early with an HRA completion. Coud be a blog post, video, etc.

PROMOTIONAL TARGETING

Want to know the type of people you should be focusing on? Take a look at our Follow-Up Guide for this HRA for 7 different personas, relevant calls-to-action, etc.

PROMOTIONAL IDEAS (FREE OR CHEAP)

• Brand your Colorectal Cancer Month campaign (like Go Red for Women)
  • Example: “Go Blue for You to Defeat Number Two!” (Second leading cancer killer…)
• Dedicated landing page for lower-funnel conversion tools like the HRAs
• Email blast for targeted groups
• Pop-up messages in your patient portals
• Facebook, Facebook, Facebook!
• Add a link in the footer of newsletters, March blogs, any and all regular DTC communications.
• Tap a local news channel to feature you during awareness segments on local TV
• Laser-printed table tents or letter-size posters anywhere patients have to spend time
  • Elevators, waiting rooms, cafeterias, coffee carts, billing windows, etc.

PROMOTIONAL IDEAS (PAID)

• Utilize giveaways, gift cards, promotions & drawings to encourage HRA participation
• Include a promotional insert in patient billing
• Targeted SEM of paid Facebook campaigns for health info seekers

If you’re interested, talk to a member of our team about how to engage with more consumers, schedule more colon screenings, and use the data points collected to cross market other assessments and services.