Establishing an outreach plan can help you structure and evaluate your outreach efforts. This plan can be used as a tool to ensure you stay focused and on target with all of your activities.
Here is a checklist to start your outreach plan:
Target Audience
- Who is your target audience?
- Uninsured consumers
- Families
- Young Adults
- Specific racial, ethnic, religious, or cultural groups
- Internal Audience (staff, board members, etc.)
- Community Partners (schools/colleges, unemployment offices, public health departments, libraries, local businesses, etc.)
- Uninsured consumers
Goals and Objectives
- What goals are we trying to achieve?
- Define your goals, strategies, and activities based on your target audience
- Apply the SMART framework when developing your goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound
Strategies
- Develop an “outreach master plan” which includes all the outreach activities
- Establish a tracking process to track your progress and document your contacts and any follow-up conversations
- Setup a calendar with community events that could be opportunities for outreach
- Find the best setting where your target audience would be more likely to be willing to engage in a conversation about health coverage.
- Have a plan in place to follow up with those interested in health coverage (appointment reminders, phone calls, direct mail, emails, etc.)
Materials
- Make sure to have extra printed materials on-hand for events
- All materials should be relevant, appealing, and contain up-to-date information
- Try using culturally appropriate and messaging for your target audience
- Keep information short and simple
Here are great reads about creating an outreach plan with examples : Enroll America: How to Create an Outreach Work Plan and Enroll America: Outreach Planning 101.
