Knowing who your marketing messages should be aimed at (and tailoring your messages accordingly) is going to be critical to your marketing success. For example:
A client recently asked us for an assessment of his self-created print ad. This ad for vision care showed a cute kid in eyeglasses who was about 8 years old. The ad had an even cuter headline that contained no benefit to the reader, no unique sales proposition (USP) and no differentiation for the practice. But the biggest problem with the ad was that it was aimed at only a very small segment (maybe 5%) of the client’s actual TA. And the client was spending over $100,000 just on advertising space!
Knowing your TA means knowing the age ranges of patients you want to treat. It means knowing whether they are primarily male or female and whether they are primarily blue and pink collar working people, white-collar executives or some blend of lower class, middle-class and upper-class individuals. It also means knowing how well educated they are – and understanding the demographics and psychographics most prevalent in your area. Most importantly, it means knowing their wants and needs.
You Are Not Your Target Audience
This is one of the hardest lessons to learn for most health practitioners. If you create marketing messages that suit your own personal taste, you are likely to fail at marketing. Unless your patients earn your income, live the way you live and have the same level of education you have, they will not likely share your personal tastes and preferences. And they will not likely have the same wants and needs in life.
Your best bet: partner with a professional marketing company who already understands the most effective ways to reach virtually any TA with the right messaging. At Practice Builders, we help physicians and other healthcare practitioners market more effectively every day. Ask us how we can help you today.