Advertising and Patience Make Patients
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 8:43AM 
Lisa Holmes, MBA, MHA
Lisa Holmes is president of Holmes & Co., a health-care-specialty marketing communications firm.
We live in an “I want it now” culture. Patience may still be a virtue, but it’s an increasingly uncommon one. Look at correspondence: letters gave way to faxes, which were pushed aside by e-mails, which lost ground to instant messaging. Now “tweets” seem to be the order of the day. We send someone a question or request, then teeter on the edge of a panic attack if the response is not immediate.
Like it or not, this “want it now” attitude affects all of us to some degree. And it bleeds into every area of our lives, including business.
And advertising.
Many people in business, unfamiliar with advertising and its ways, expect to place an ad and instantly be overwhelmed with customers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. At least not often.
That said, advertising does work. It remains an important tool in building a business. But it takes purpose. Planning. Proficiency. Persistence. And patience.
Look at it from the consumer’s perspective (which is essential anytime you’re talking about advertising). Every one of us (we’re all consumers) is exposed to thousands—literally—of commercial messages of one kind or another every day. Online, on signs and billboards, on television and radio, in newspapers and magazines—in short, on almost any surface our eyes encounter.
Add to all this clutter the fact that we’re busy. We’ve got more important things on our mind than paying attention to everyone who’s trying to sell us something. So, the chance of any single advertising message being noticed—let alone paid attention to and remembered—are infinitesimal.
Overcoming those barriers is possible. Let’s start with the basics. In preparing advertising strategies for our clients (all of whom are in health care, by the way), we start with three basic questions: Who are we talking to? What do we want them to believe? Why should they believe us?
Simple questions, but the answers aren’t always simple or easily arrived at. Often, we rely on market research, but not always. Critical thinking and simple logic can work, too.
Knowing “who” you’re talking to is crucial, not only in devising your appeal, but also in developing you voice and selecting the advertising media that will carry your message. And “who” may not be who you think. For instance, we know that when it comes to health-care decisions, women either make or are the primary influence in those decisions some 80% of the time.
“What” you want prospects to believe simplifies and clarifies your sales message. For example, the new advertising campaign for whiplash treatment available to all CBP-trained chiropractors seeks to persuade people that CBP techniques can provide relief from whiplash pain even when other treatments fail.
But consumers are skeptical. They know you’re trying to sell them something, and they won’t believe what you say just because you say so. So, you have to support your sales message with convincing proof—facts, figures, endorsements, and the like.
Now that you’ve answered all the questions and used the answers to create effective advertisements (which often requires professional help), patience comes into play. Repeated exposure is necessary. Years ago—long before the clutter we face today—research found a prospect must be exposed to a message seven times before being noticed. More often to make an impression. Still more often to be remembered.
But, like chiropractic, advertising works. And the better the advertising, the better it works. Ad campaigns create awareness of you and your practice, which is the first step in attracting new patients. After all, they can’t come to you if they don’t know about you.
Put advertising to work for your practice. The CBP whiplash campaign might be a good place to start. Start now.
And be patient. The patients will come.
