Marketing and Communications Survey Results Summary 2013
The following summarizes the results of the 2013 Marketing and Communications Survey. The purpose of the survey was to evaluate CAPA’s marketing and communications goals, objectives and strategies for 2012-2013. The information collected from the participants will assist the association in tailoring our marketing and communications initiatives to better reflect our member’s wants and needs. The data gatheredis also used to create a benchmark forfuture years. We would like to thank our members who took the time to participate in the 2013 Marketing and Communications Survey.
Personal Information
Membership Satisfaction with Communication Initiatives
Overall the results were very positive with 72% of participants indicating they were satisfied with the communications from CAPA, 17% were very satisfied, only 10% were dissatisfied and 0.7%of participants were very dissatisfied.
The results indicated that CAPA is doing a fairly good job of keeping our members informed with 40.2% of respondents indicating that CAPA keeps me fairly well informed and only 2.3% indicating that CAPA does not tell me much at all about what is happening.
Memberships Knowledge of CAPA’s Mission and Vision
The majority of our members feel that they are well informed about the association’s mission, vision and accomplishments with 40.2% indicating that they were somewhat more knowledgeable, 38.6%indicating the same level of knowledge and 13% indicating they are much more knowledgeable. The survey indicated that 0%of participants responded that they were much less knowledgeable and only 2.3% indicated that they were somewhat less knowledgeable.
Membership’s Preference for Information
From the results above, legislation affecting PAs across Canada (95.3%), information about issues and trends affecting PAs in Canada (89.8.%) and the association’s strategies for the future (82.7%) are the most important items that our members want to receive communications about. Community interest and membership stories (38.6%) as well as business development and sponsorship opportunities (23.6%) faired the lowest. When asked “what other topics do you feel are important for you to know more about”, participants indicated employment and networking opportunities, CPD, as well as funding and regulation in the provinces to be the most important topics.
In an effort to respond to our members’ needs, CAPA will strive to include more information about CPD, funding, regulation, government advocacy, and legislation affecting PAs and the association’s strategies for the future in our newsletters and chapter updates.As employment opportunities werelisted as one of the most popular topics of interest among participants, CAPA has changed its policy to allow employers to post job advertisements gratuitously on the CAPA website. In addition we have included more information on CPD opportunities in the CAPA newsletters and in the events calendar. Lastly, CAPA has tried to share more with our members about various government meetings and advocacy initiatives that we are in involved in. This information can be found in the chapter updates and the monthly newsletter.
As indicated above,84.8 % of participants stated that they prefer to receive information from CAPA by email. Only 5.6% specified mail and 7.2% indicated the CAPA website. The results also show that 1.6% of participants chose Facebook as the preferred method to receive information. These results demonstrate that some of our other methods of communication such as Facebook and the CAPA website are gaining momentum considering that the 2012 survey results revealed that 0% of participants indicated Facebook and only 2.47% specified the CAPA website.
These results arevery telling of how our members want to receive information from CAPA. In an effort to cater to our membership’s preferences, CAPA continues to move towards more electronic methods of communications such as email, the CAPA website as well as Facebook.Understanding the percentage of members who retrieve their information from Facebook and the CAPA website is still quite low, it is our aim to try and improve these vehicles to make them more engaging for our members. In an effort to reach the maximum amount of members and to maintain a visible presence with stakeholders in the online community, CAPA feels that it is important to maintain these communication vehicles. The latest data tells us that our Facebook CAPA/ACAM page has a weekly reach ranging from 200 - 2000 depending on what is going on with the association or the health care system.The CAPA/ACAM group membership is 118;this isan increase of 10 members in one year. These results are not earth shattering; however, we are making progress in recruiting members to join the group.
CAPA also added a new Online Forum to our website in October 2012. To date it has had 160 members participate in this communication vehicle at least once. There is, however, limited activity from day to day on the Forum. The Online Forum is meant as a place for members to feel secure in engaging in discussion and to share information. In order for this vehicle to be more successful more members need to become involved and to initiate discussion.
Communications Vehicles
Overall, the data above indicates that CAPA’s communications vehicles are viewed favourably. The newsletter, CAPA website and email were rated the highest among the participants. The majority of the respondents feel that the CAPA website is very good or good, while 16% thought it was fair. This shows improvement considering last year 19.3% rated the CAPA website as fair.The CAPA Forum, Facebook group and chapter updates were among the lowest scores. A significant amount of members also deemed these communication vehicles as non-applicable. It is clear that the CAPA National Office has to do a better job of promoting these communication tools and engaging members to use them. With regards to Facebook, as mentioned previously, this vehicle has the ability to reach a larger audience as well as allow CAPA to remain visible in the online community.
When asked how we could improve on these vehicles, participants provided the following feedback:
- Move to electronic communications and limit paper materials
- More frequent communications coming from chapters and increase the opportunity for region specific networking sessions and meetings
- Be more transparent in communications
In addition, many of the participants indicated that they were not aware that some of these communication vehicles existed. They also indicated that they would like to receive information in a timely fashion. We have moved to an electronic newsletter which limits the amount of paper communications that members are receiving. Your comments regarding chapter communications have been shared with the BOD. At the CAPA 2013 Conference, members will have the opportunity to discuss regional topics with their Chapter Presidents in specific chapter scheduled sessions. Now that we have moved to electronic email/web based communications, members are receiving information in a more timely manner than with traditional mail outs. In terms of being more transparent, CAPA has tried to be more detail oriented with their communications especially in terms of what government meetings have taken place and sharing information with members as soon as we receive it. This information is shared in the monthly newsletters and the chapter updates.
Marketing Tools
The results from the survey indicate that our members are overall pleased with the marketing tools offered by CAPA. Results show 26%of our members indicated that the PA and CAPA pamphlets were very good, while only 5.6 % rated them as poor. The National PA Day poster rated very high as well with 30% of members giving this marketing tool a very good score. Of the participants27% provided a good score for the Marketing and Communications PA Toolkit while 29% provided a good score for the PA presentation. The PA Fact Sheet was a welcome addition for most members, 31 % of participants rated this marketing tool as very good. It was noted however that there was a small percentage of our members who selected non-applicable for the above listed tools. This indicates that CAPA needs to improve its communications with members about the availability of marketing tools for use in their practice.
When we asked our members how we could improvethe responses varied. Some participants indicated that they wanted more visibility in terms of more newspaper, television and radio advertisements while others said they wanted CAPA to be more involved in speaking to MPPs and physicians to help move the profession forward. In response, CAPA will be investigating the possibility of outsourcing a national marketing and advertising campaign, with thegoal to raise awareness for the profession across Canada and attempt to educate stakeholders on what PAs can do for the health system. Before committing to this, as it will be a very costly undertaking, the BOD wants to ensure that we are fiscally responsible and that our limited resources are being utilized in the most beneficial way.
In terms of meetings with MPPs and speaking to physicians, CAPA continues to meet with provincial governments and political parties throughout Canada. Details regarding these meetings can be found in the monthly newsletters and chapter updates. An outreach initiativeis also being designedto have our PA members meet with their local MPPs and LHIN’s to deliver a presentation about their profession. It is always best to have a local constituent meet with the MPP in their region. We attempted to arrange this for National PA Day, however, had limited participation. Perhaps this year we will have better success.
A few members also noted that they would be interested in CAPA having a Twitter account and being more involved in social media. The CAPA Web Committee is in the process of developing a social media strategy which would offer PAs an opportunity to become further engaged and more active online. Currently CAPA has a Facebook page and group as well as the Online Web Forum. All members who wish to become involved online, have access to the Facebook page and group as well as the Online Forum.
Other suggestions from participants included: more recycled or green options for members and more timely access to information and marketing materials. In an effort to be “more green” in our marketing initiatives and to increase the speed in which these materials are received, CAPA has moved to more electronic methods for distribution. A good example is our electronic newsletter and National PA Toolkit. CAPA now creates the newsletter in an electronic format with links to the CAPA website where marketing and communications tools can be downloaded for members to use in their communities.
Other Comments
When we asked the membership if there were other communications and marketing resources which would be beneficial for PAs in their practice or community outreach efforts, our members stated the following:
-More television, print and radio advertising
-Marketing directly to physicians as oppose to the public
-Increased presence on social media sites such as Twitter
As stated earlier CAPA will be exploring the option of outsourcing a national marketing and advertising campaign. If fiscally feasible and appropriate as deemed by the BOD, the campaign may include some of these components.
CAPA attends approximately five health conferences per yearand chooses events where physicians are the primary target audience. Having a presence at these events allows us the opportunity to speak with physicians from across Canada and to educate them on the PA profession. During these discussions we are also able to offer advice on how they may benefit from a PA in their practice. In addition, CAPA has had the opportunity to attend various meetings held by the CMA, provincial governments and LHIN’s where physicians were a large proportion of the audience. Some of our members and BOD had the opportunity to deliver presentations to these groups and participate in discussions on issues which impact the health care system across Canada. We are continuing to seek out venues where we can have a presence and can further impact advancing the PA agenda in Canada through education and awareness.
CAPA’s 2013 Marketing and Communications Survey Results,May 2013Page 1 of 15