Traditional Dental and Medical Marketing & Emotionally Compelling Ads

Don’t Overlook Offline Media. Examples Outdoor Media, Print, and TV Still Can Have an Incredible Impact When Used Correctly.

Although digital marketing plays a significant role in promoting medical practices, outdoor media, print, and TV still can have an incredible impact when used correctly. People looking to make health care decisions are not going to exclusively use online sources to make their choice. A vast majority of people use online and offline sources to research their options. They will consume information from TV, radio, and print sources.

14 Examples of traditional advertising strategies for doctors and dental practices:

1. TV Infomercials with patient testimonials
2. Direct mailing to people living in a certain town, radius or locality
3. Local bus ads
4. Ads in local movie theaters
5. Billboard rentals
6. Discount coupons
7. Product sampling 
8. Frequent Buyer program
9. Hosting special events – for blood drive / AARP meeting
10. Radio advertising 
11. TV advertising 
12.  Advertising in local school’s publication targeted for parents
13. Co-advertising with another physician who compliments your services. 
14. Sidewalk Advertising – attention grabbing person stands with a sign of your service or clinic 

To be effective using offline media to promote your medical practice, you need to:

• Identify your target audience
• Highlight the medical issue they are having
• Present a solution with a positive outcome
• End with a clear call to action

In today’s highly competitive health care industry, you need to emotionally connect with your potential patients to capture their attention. Connecting with them will help build trust and rapport, leading to higher conversion rates. There are several ways you can emotionally connect with a potential patient when using offline media.

Tip No 1.  Try to speak directly to your target audience

Your offline media ad may be showing to many people, but it is meant for your target audience. So instead of speaking to everyone, talk directly to your target audience to connect with them. You want to express in words they understand in a pleasant, reassuring tone. You probably interact with your patients on a regular basis at your medical practice. Use positive encounters as a template on how to sound and what words to use when speaking to potential patients in your ad. You do not want to be standing on a soapbox yelling at a crowd to come to your medical practice. The most effective way to talk to someone is in an intimate one on one setting. Create ads that recreate that tone and context, and you’ll find them to be very effective.

Tip No 2.  Your ads should be useful and valuable, but also unique and difficult if not impossible, to be recreated by your competitors

You are going to get more attention to your medical practice if you have something that is one of a kind, not something that can be found at every other doctor’s office. Exclusivity is a powerful emotional motivator. If a target audience has access to a service or a product that they can not easily find somewhere else, you’ll hook their attention, and they will tell their friends about it. You do not want to fade into the background, but rather stand out among your competition. There are only so many different topics in healthcare, so try to give them your own unique take on it. The same goes for current events related to health. Try not to say what everyone else is saying, say it your own unique way that can not be replicated by anyone else.

Tip No 3. People gravitate towards the following: Empathy, Compassion, and Humor

Emotions are very powerful. If you get an emotional reaction from someone, you’ve made a powerful bond with them. Empathy, compassion, and humor are very powerful to use in marketing because they are emotions people enjoy relating to most frequently. When you market your medical practice to your target audience, tell an emotional story about how your services helped someone resolve their medical issue. Also, don’t be afraid to have some fun with your marketing to make it humorous. While you certainly should be respectful, look for a joke that only your target audience would “get” or “understand,” but the rest of the general public would not fully appreciate. Also, look to build on a connection with stories about the people who work at your medical practice. Putting a face on your business will help others relate to it and emotionally connect with the services you provide.

Tip No 4.  Make a case for why your medical practice is the best selection for their health care decision

More often than not, you will not be the only business in town offering your services. Instead of passively just saying what you do, go on the offensive and tell potential patients why you are the better choice. Provide insights on why you are more cost-effective, experienced, or have better results than others in the area. Your marketing should include data, sources, and powerful imagery to back up your statements. Be mindful not to be too aggressive, no one likes marketing material that is pushy. You can be passionate, but you also must be professional.

Tip No 5.  Ask questions that provoke a potential patient to think

Questions are the best way to engage someone. By asking a question, you are making them think and consider the information you’ve just presented them, embedding it into their minds. When medical practices ask people questions in their offline marketing, you are often asking them to recall past experiences with medical services at other health care facilities. The higher the contrast you can make between those past experiences and the services you offer, the more likely you are to make a connection with them. You’ll enter into their mind as a possible choice to get better results or experience then they are used to.

Another great way to connect with a target audience is to answer a question about a current health care topic. Pose the question, and then answer it yourself. Solicit their opinions after taking a stance on an issue and ask them to agree or disagree with you. The more conversations you have with a patient, the better the emotional connection you can make with them.

Tip No 6. Review your campaign every time you re-run it 

Engaging in emotionally compelling offline media is not as simple the point, click, and type in a zip code. You must work to create a persuasive ad that will connect with patients on an emotional level. This requires some time and research to develop the best message for your campaign. A mistake that many medical practices make is not updating their campaigns to reflect current events. If you have a particularly successful campaign for one year, don’t assume it will be just as good every year until you retire. You are preventing disappointment by reviewing your marketing materials to make sure they still have the same emotional connection with potential patients.

Conclusion: You will need a comprehensive digital marketing solution to attract new clients and patients every month to your practice. We recommend looking at PatientGain’s PLATINUM service. Here is an example of a dashboard of a PLATINUM customer.