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Introduction
Discover the
Benefits
Fit the Media to Your
Audience
Additional
Media to Tap
Measure
Your Success
Introduction
When healthcare providers ask, “What’s the best media
for my marketing dollars?” it is like asking, “What’s
the best prescription drug?” There is no magic
solution guaranteed to produce results. You can
determine what approach works best for you by defining
your message and what market you want to reach.
Discover the Benefits
Howard Gossage, advertising copywriter “guru,” states,
“People don’t read advertising! They read what
interests them…and sometimes that’s an ad.” If you
hope to get their attention, your message had better
be all about them and what they get, not about you and
what you’ve got.”
Terri Langhans, former CEO of a national ad agency and
marketing firm, now a professional speaker and
consultant, says, “Advertising isn’t about describing
your product. For instance, Coke ads don’t tell you
its product is a brown, sugar-filled carbonated
beverage that tastes good. A good ad makes you
thirsty.” If you are going to get anyone to pay
attention to the message, you’ve got to focus on them,
not you. Make them thirsty for more information.
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Fit the Media to Your Audience
Direct Sales. “I don’t have a sales person because all
of us are in sales.” Congratulations…and condolences!
While it is true that everyone plays a part, you have
a diluted sales effort. An audience of occupational
health clinic managers responsible for both sales and
operations indicated they budget 20% or less of their
time to sales.
Based on national research with employers and payers
the best return for your dollar is to hire a person
specifically for sales. If your budget doesn’t allow
this, carve out some dedicated time for your clinic
staff person to sell. For example, set aside three
half days each week to call on employers and manage
the accounts. Remember, there is more to sales than
the sales call.
Direct Mail. According to Langhans, there are four
critical success factors to any direct mail effort:
the list, the offer, the creative, and the
fulfillment. All four components must be right if the
direct mail campaign is to work.
• The list: “There is no junk mail, only irrelevant
mail,” she says. So make sure your list is targeting
the right group of people. You can purchase mailing
lists as specific as married females between 18–35
years of age within a specific income level.
• The offer: Get customers to react with a clear and
compelling offer. Your offer should have a deadline.
Offers with a deadline put your piece in the “direct
response” category. For example, $10 flu shots for the
week of November 20th, or the first ten companies to
call will get a free evaluation of their workstations.
• The creative: This is the look of the advertising
piece. It’s not about spending a lot of money, but it
IS about professional quality, creative message, tone,
personality, and the look of the piece. If you find
yourself saying, “this is good enough,” it probably
isn’t.
• The fulfillment: Let’s say everything works
perfectly—super list, great offer, and dynamite
creative. It’s critical to ensure the process for
follow through when the customer asks for more.
Langhans tells of a marketing person’s worst
nightmare: “When I called the phone number in the
direct mail piece just to test the campaign, I heard,
‘This is Mary, please leave a message.’ There was no
facility name or information about registering for the
class. Apparently, someone had forgotten to tell Mary
to gear up for the phone calls. So did the direct mail
work? Absolutely. It got people curious enough to
call. The failure was in not preparing for the
success.”
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Additional Media to Tap
Terri Langhans offers some helpful hints on how to use
different media. Keep in mind that most of these media
are directed toward the general public and not a
specific target audience.
• Newspaper: More than 80% of the newspaper is
advertising, so your competition is every single
advertiser in that paper that day. While most
healthcare decision-makers are women, the audience
least likely to read a daily paper is women 18–35
years of age. If you choose this medium, don’t fill
every inch with ink. You are more likely to be noticed
if you create a “hole” in the paper with white space.
• Radio: Since radio is often background while you do
something else, you need a breakthrough message to get
noticed. What matters is how many people are listening
to your spot at any given time. Use a media buyer who
purchases spots based on the number of people
listening at any given time and the number of times
the spot is going to be repeated. Remember drive time
isn’t the only way to reach a large audience.
• Television: The strength of TV is its ability to
appeal to all the senses. The downside is the expense
of both creating the spot and then buying the time to
run it. Cable TV can be immensely more affordable than
network TV since you purchase “neighborhoods.”
However, if you want to do TV well, use a professional
media planner and buyer, not the individual cable
reps, to plan your budget.
• Outdoor: Use outdoor advertising (billboards, bus
shelters, etc.) only to support messages that you are
running in other media like radio, TV, or newspaper.
• Web site/Internet: Statistics indicate that 40% of
consumers use the Internet for medical information. It
is a cost-effective way to communicate with your
customers. A recent study by e-Dialog said 32% of
respondents ranked e-mail as their most effective
marketing vehicle and 82% placed it in the top three.
Developing an electronic postcard or newsletter is a
cost-effective way to stay in touch.
Measure Your Success
How do you measure success? Here are several key
indicators:
Calls to conversions. For example, when evaluating a
direct mail piece for flu shots or school physicals,
determine if every inbound call converted to an
appointment.
Track how patients found you. If the majority of new
patients were referred by other patients, you may want
to save some money by purchasing a smaller, less
expensive yellow page ad.
Employer relationships. If you want to retain employer
relationships, track the visits and revenues by
company each month. This helps identify your key
accounts and quickly isolates when a client shifts its
business to another provider.
Marketing in today’s environment is challenging,
especially when you are looking for the biggest bang
for your buck. The one thing to remember about
marketing is the message should always be about the
benefits to the customer, not all about you.
[I would like to thank Terri Langhans for her
contribution and advertising expertise. For media
planning or advertising questions, she may be reached
by phone at 800.207.0015. – M. Flanagan]
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