This article presents strategies for advertising the medical practice. The emphasis is on breaking out of the old rules of how one should advertise and delves into asking questions that lead to a true strategy unique to one’s medical practice and offerings. The article discusses the myriad ways to think about and create a patient-centered approach, turning from “here is what we offer” to instead “what you want we offer.”
Do you feel like you are throwing your money away on advertisements that just do not pay off?
How many times have the advertising sales representatives showed up in your office with a really great deal for this month’s edition and they were really excited so you were really excited and you went for it? Then you and your staff spent time deciding on what you were going to say in your advertisement, and you then gave it to the advertising representative who designed an advertisement that you thought was great.
You waited impatiently for your advertisement to come out and had your staff on alert so that they can handle the flood of telephone calls you most assuredly will get.
Instead, you ended up getting only 4 telephone calls: 2 of the callers just wanted to know how much it was going to cost and then hung up, 1 wanted to confirm their appointment that they already scheduled with you, and 1 was legitimately interested but needs to call you back when he or she has more time to consider the advertisement.
Huh? That was not supposed to happen.
Aesthetic advertising is growing and changing
The aesthetic patient is on an information overload.
These patients are being flooded with messages that are confusing and overwhelming. They do not know where to begin, who to believe, and how to respond.
This surge of aesthetic advertising, as well as advertising in general, means that it is getting more difficult to be heard. So, you need to think more strategically about your advertising efforts before investing another dime.
The Latest Trend is Media Fragmentation
Not long ago, you could put an advertisement in your local newspaper or be seen on your local news channel because that was where 85% of your patients went for their news. Not now! Patients today are consumers and go to hundreds of different places to get their news. They decide where they go for information.
Common advertising mistakes
The following sections discuss 9 of the worst advertising mistakes made when advertising your aesthetic services via direct mail, newspaper advertisements, banner advertisements on the Internet, your Web site home page, or any other message you craft to attract your preferred patients, which do not give you a good return on your investment.
Worst Advertising Mistake Number 1
Not being different
In this crazy world of endless and mind-numbing advertising coming at consumers at a relentless pace, you have to think outside the box.
This thinking is about watching what your colleagues are doing and then doing the opposite. Because if you do not and if you play it safe, you will get safe results, but is that what you want?
What you really want is for your advertisements to be effective and provide a return on your investment, which means that you will have to think creatively to break through the clutter.
Try something different. Do not, I repeat, do not do what you would instinctively do because that is probably the same as what everyone else is doing. That simply does not work.
Worst Advertising Mistake Number 2
Not targeting your audience with the right media outlets
There is no point in advertising the right message to the right audience in the wrong media channel.
First, define who your target patient base is. You need to know where they live, their age, their income, and their life style.
Now, be where they are.
Find out what they read and where they go for information about cosmetic enhancement. Most likely, the answers will be local social magazines, national magazines such as Vogue , local and cable television channels, and specific Internet Web sites catering to aesthetic patients.
National versus local magazines
What is more effective? To be seen in your local neighborhood magazine that has a circulation of 2000 people or a national magazine that is seen by 200,000?
Well, that depends on your objective.
If your objective is to build your credibility so that you are able to say, “as seen in…(national magazine),” then go for the national magazine.
If your objective is to get your telephone to ring with interested patients who would actually come to your office, think twice and go for the local magazine, because how many patients would actually travel across the country for a Botox treatment?
Worst Advertising Mistake Number 3
Not using a strong headline
The name of your practice is incidental to prospective patients because they only care about the benefits that they can personally obtain from your products and services.
Your audience is always asking themselves one question: “What’s In It for Me?”
The answer starts with your headline. The sole purpose of the headline in an advertisement is to attract the attention of patients who are interested in your services—period, and the headline equals 70% of the advertisement’s success.
Your patients pick what they want to read by looking at the headline. If it does not immediately hit the right note, they move on to the next headline that catches their eye. However, if the headline grabs them, they want to know more.
The following are some headlines that have been proven to work well:
Make your wrinkles disappear in minutes
Turn back the clock in as little as 10 minutes
You can have tighter, smoother, younger skin…without surgery
The truth about facial implants
Get rid of your tired eyes—once and for all!
If you can get your audience to ask, “Really, how do you do that?” then you have a good headline.
Worst Advertising Mistake Number 4
Not using strong emotional copy
You will never get the results you want if you do not add this missing ingredient in your messaging and that is human emotion.
There are emotions that drive your aesthetic patients to act or not to act. Every decision made in life is based on emotion, and patients rationalize those emotionally based decisions, later, with logic. It is not the other way around. Patients do not make decisions from a rational logical viewpoint; they cannot. It is impossible to think about anything without having a subconscious emotional stream of feelings enter into their conscious thoughts and reactions, and these emotions are the driving force when they make a decision about your services.
The lesson here is that your patients will only respond to your advertisement that hits an emotional hot button.
So, rather than advertising your skills and expertise, a better approach is to use emotions to generate interested prospective patients. Here is a hint: write the advertisement as if you were standing in front and speaking face-to-face with a patient.
Your aesthetic patient’s emotional needs
Aesthetic patients have needs you want to address. They want to look good, be approved of by others, be recognized as someone special, still matter, get revenge, make someone jealous, continue to win in the sibling rivalry, and so on.
An aesthetic patient can be thinking all sorts of things such as:
If I looked younger, I would be more competitive at work and make more money.
I love this doctor. She treats me like I am her only patient.
Once I get this facelift, he will wish he never left…
How can I celebrate my birthday when I feel so old?
Using the above emotional hot buttons, your strong headline hooks a prospective patient into your message to learn more, but this is not enough. You now need strong emotional copy to keep them.
You cannot bore people into using your services; you can only interest them. Educate the readers on the benefits they will get when they use your services, especially the emotional and intangible benefits that everyone craves (happiness, success, youth, energy, and so forth).
Worst Advertising Mistake Number 5
Not offering proof
You hooked them with the headline and confirmed their desires with the emotional copy, and now your prospective patient needs the logic to justify their decision.
Skepticism runs rampant in today’s world thanks to politicians, shifty Internet marketers, and swarmy sales people. Your prospective aesthetic patients are looking for clues on why you are the perfect choice for them. You are the perfect choice when you show them how credible you are through social proof that includes patient testimonials, logos of associations you are a member of, special certifications, and public relation mentions.
Testimonials make the copy more credible because readers find the endorsements of your other patients more persuasive. It is always more compelling when a patient tells another patient how great you are (rather than you tell them how great you are).
Note: Check with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that outline strict rules for the use of testimonials.
Photographs
Photographs represent reality. Use photographs whenever you can because a picture really does say 1000 words.
Research has shown that advertisements showing before and after photographs have a better response than advertisements that did not show any, because the photograph helps catch the audience’s attention.
Your advertisement should show the end result of using your services (if permissible in your state). Use photos that depict your preferred patient target, or, better yet, use your actual patients as the model. So, if you are attempting to attract younger girls for liposuction, be sure to use a patient in that age group.
Note: Check with new FTC regulations that outline strict rules for the use of patient photos.
Worst Advertising Mistake Number 6
Not including an irresistible reason to respond
Your audience needs a reason to stop what they are doing to respond to your advertisement. The point of the “call to action” is to get the reader to immediately respond. Your advertisement should prompt them to raise their hand to say that they are interested in aesthetic enhancement. The following are strategies that work:
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Offer a free book, e-book, or special report that educates the prospective patient on a particular aesthetic procedure or treatment so that they can make an informed decision. This strategy is more compelling, and it sets you up as the authority and sets you apart from your competitors.
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Educating readers about solutions to their particular face, skin, and body concerns is how you get them to respond to your advertising efforts and get them excited to learn more from you. As you are going to mail or e-mail the information to them, this is a great way to collect their contact information so you can follow up.
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You can also offer a free gift with purchase when, for example, they schedule a signature facial from your aesthetician, and/or you can offer free patient financing so that they can have what they want now rather than wait.
Worst Advertising Mistake Number 7
No sense of urgency
You want to instill a sense of urgency so that the prospective patient acts immediately rather than waits and forgets to act at all, because even though interested aesthetic patients have good intentions, life gets in the way; so help make it a priority.
Examples of a sense of urgency include:
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Stating when your special offer expires
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Limiting the offer until supplies last
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Limiting the offer to the first 10 respondents.
Worst Advertising Mistake Number 8
Not tracking your results
You will never know if you are wasting your money or getting a good return on your investment if you do not track your results. Use a special 800 number, a code, or something the patient must present to you at the time of their appointment. Here are the numbers you would want to follow:
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How many inquiries did you get?
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Of those inquiries, how many were you able to book for appointments?
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Of those appointments, how many actually came in for a consultation?
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Of those consultations, how many signed up for procedures?
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What did the advertising cost?
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What were the revenues collected?
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Did you make money, lose money, or break even?
A Different Approach to Advertising
Rather than advertising everything you offer, you will get a better response when you are more focused on and strategic using the following strategies:
Invite
Invite the public to your event such as a fundraiser or patient appreciation night that is open to your patients as well as the public.
Build a theme around it, and have a local celebrity on hand for photo opportunities and autographs at the event ( Fig. 1 ). Make it a fun event that your patients will not want to miss and will not soon forget.
