Last week, I shared my reflections from the talk I delivered at the Best Practice Show in Birmingham. Along with delivering the talk, we are one of their content partners.
I chair the theatre, have input into the agenda, and we put our content machine to work in promoting the event. In return, we get exposure to those beyond our regular audience.
We meet throughout the year and have built up an excellent working relationship, which has lasted 4 years to date.
Here is our approach to leveraging our content and the relationship we have with the Best Practice Show to let them know how partnering supports their objectives.
One of the ways we measure our impact is through earned media, which is the unpaid promotion that happens when our content and partnership get shared, mentioned, or amplified by others.
Unlike paid advertising, earned media is perceived as more authentic because it’s not directly controlled by Best Practice or us. It builds trust, extends reach, and demonstrates genuine engagement with our audience.
So when we partner with an organisation, we track not just what we post, but how that content spreads, who engages with it, and the broader conversations it sparks.
Our Approach
We know we have to work the content from different angles because even with a reach of thousands, only a small percentage of our audience sees any single post.
Here is a snapshot of what our amplification approach looks like in practice
What We’ve Learned
I did a degree in business and marketing management about 15 years ago, and honestly, it’s still paying dividends. The good old fashioned marketing mix principles still hold up.
As a small consultancy competing for attention in primary care, we’ve learned a few things about making our content work harder:
Different formats reach different people. Some people watch videos. Others read blogs. Some only open newsletters. We can’t afford to pick just one, so we adapt the same core content across all of them.
We share the same message in different ways. We won’t just do one post about attending Best Practice. We approach it from multiple angles: a Best Practice survival guide, teasers about what I’d be talking about at the event, the team sharing pictures of our stand, a post about conference merchandise (which generated quite a lot of conversation). Each piece of content gives us another touch point with the audience about the same core partnership.
Only a fraction see any single post. Even with thousands of followers or subscribers, typical organic reach means 10-30% see any given piece of content. So if we only post once about something important, 70-90% of our audience missed it entirely. We’re not being repetitive, we’re giving different people different chances to see it.
However, this isn’t about being everywhere or having unlimited resources. It’s about being strategic with the content moments we’ve already invested time in creating. And these stats arent static. There are increasing every day despite the event having taken place.
This year t Best Practice, I saw so many companies, capturing content so I’m sharing this because this may be something you want to consider if you do not already use this approach.
If you have a healthcare event coming up and would like the THC Primary Care team as part of your content strategy. We would love to help. Just DM me.
