Yesterday I drove past a recently cleared commercial lot and saw a neat row of cement blocks outlining a foundation but could not find a site sign to identify what the building was going to be when completed. An office complex? A homeless shelter? A Starbuck’s? I was left to ponder, but the builder surely knew what kind of structure those blocks were destined to be the foundation for. Before he even began, he had to know exactly what he was building, how it was to be used, how it would fit in with the buildings around it, as well as how much it would cost to construct.

Building a brand for your practice is not unlike constructing a building. You first have to understand exactly what it is that you’re building and for what purpose? How will you market your brand to your existing patients and future prospects? You’ll want to know how your brand will be different from your competitors, and of course, you’ll need to know how much all of this is going to cost.

After ensuring that your practice has a solid foundation by providing the highest quality services available, the next step in creating your brand should be the professional creation of a logo and tagline. This mark will uniquely identify your practice in all of the visual impressions you create with current and prospective patients. It should be used consistently, responsibly and often. Multiple impressions lead to long-term remembrance.

Like a strong building, your logo should be durable. It will be photocopied, faxed, stitched on t-shirts or hats, reduced, enlarged, printed in b&w, color and abused in various ways. It should be designed to last a long time — nothing too trendy.  And, finally, like your services, it should be of the highest quality design available. Expect to pay for quality.  Remember, everything in your practice reflects on your brand.

Kindly,

Candace Crowe
President, Creative Director

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.

www.CandaceCrowe.com

© 2009 Candace Crowe Design

This is part three of my four part series titled “SPONTANEOUS EFFORTS DON’T PRODUCE CONSISTENT RESULTS”.

In my last blog entry, I explained how to do a creative brief that describes your practice’s personality and identifies your goals. With your completed creative brief in hand, you are now ready to start writing your marketing plan. It is important to complete the following steps in order, as each step builds on the previous ones.

SEVEN-STEP MARKETING / BRANDING PLAN

1) Identify in writing who you are, your services and what makes you and your practice unique and high above the rest in 50 words or less. This and your tagline will become the email signature for all staff email correspondence. Ask your staff to memorize it so that when someone asks any of them about your practice, they will answer with one unified message. This is the cornerstone to a marketing plan that is integrated throughout your practice’s communications.

2) Identify your ideal target audience. Refer to the profile you have in your creative brief that describes the types of patients you see. Remember to focus on the audience you would most like to serve, not just the types you currently attract.

3) Decide on a budget. What are your revenue goals and what percentage of gross revenue do you want to devote to your marketing efforts? Advertising and marketing is a relatively new consideration to the medical field. Where retailers and manufacturers historically have allocated anywhere from 1% to 50% of their operating budget to marketing, up until 15 years ago, medical practices could basically rely on word of mouth referrals and phone directory listings. As you well know, this is certainly not the case today. As a general rule of thumb, I typically see 50% of a practice’s budget going to their website and search engine optimization and 50% going to some type of print or brand identity materials.

4) Have a marketing professional help you identify the right mix for you, and decide on a month-by-month plan to reach out to your target audience. This plan must be fluid to act on the input that you receive from your patients during its duration. Be sure to communicate this plan to the appropriate staff so they are ready to field calls and emails.

5) Have a professional design firm create an image for your practice that represents you perfectly. Every communication piece from your practice should be consistent and reflect the quality of the services you offer. Also, be sure this firm is aware of HIPAA and AMA marketing regulations.

6) Implement your plan and train your patients to look forward to your marketing efforts by updates to your website, e-campaigns, cards sent in the mail or a new loyalty program.

7) Track your progress, measure your success and constantly reevaluate your efforts based on feedback from your patients.

LONG-TERM SUCCESS. THE RIGHT MOTIVATION.

Following your plan will allow you to jump start your marketing efforts with a strategic eye on your practice’s long term goals instead of short term, fear-motivated fixes. While you may see immediate results from your marketing activities, achieving a balance in your marketing is really a long-term investment and like most investments, it requires patience, determination, consistency and commitment if you want to realize your desired goals. Let me encourage you to work towards creating a strategic, integrated marketing plan based on measurable goals that are right for your practice. Especially in today’s highly competitive marketplace, it’s well worth your time.

Watch for future posts where I’ll break down each step, covering the building blocks of a brand.

Kindest regards,

Candace Crowe, President, Creative Director
877.384.7676

© 2009 Candace Crowe Design

This last part of my three part series titled “Essential Marketing Tips: building a brand one step at a time.” It’s taken from a talk I’ll be giving in Las Vegas at the Facial Cosmetic Meeting next week.

This last section covers: “New trends in marketing”.

I understand that 15 years ago the medical industry did not even need to think about marketing. But times have changed and today’s marketplace requires more frequent and more genuine reaching out to patients then ever before. Understanding your patient is critical. So, with every interaction ask your patients, what do you need today?

I ask you to do this little exercise. Evaluate every piece of marketing material that a patients sees of yours and ask yourself the question, what do my patients need to see and what do I need to tell them. Too many times the quality of a surgeon’s marketing materials doesn’t match their surgical ability. This disconnect is then carried over to what their patients think about the surgeon and the quality of work they do.

You dress for success, you hire an interior designer to make your facilities look warm, inviting, and comfortable, you purchase the finest quality of instruments, and go to the premier industry conferences to learn and better your skill – so why shouldn’t your marketing materials demand the same time and attention?

It’s true, you only have one chance to make a good first impression. Often times your marketing is the front door for a patient. With competition for patients at an all time high, you can’t afford to loose a potential patient with a poor first impression.

There is no better time than now to work on your brand and marketing strategy to be sure that it represents the quality of service you offer. Listen to your patients, pay close attention to what they want and deliver the best outcome you possibly can every time.

I hope this three part series on “How to build a brand one step at a time.” has inspired you to take a serious look at how your practice looks through the eyes of a patient. I truly believe, that in marketing as in life, the cream rises to the top. Get up and be the best you can be every day and especially LISTEN to your patients, they will tell you how to be great.

Candace Crowe, President

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.

www.CandaceCrowe.com

This is the first of a three part series titled “Essential Marketing Tips: building a brand one step at a time.” It’s taken from a talk I’ll be giving in Las Vegas at the Facial Cosmetic Meeting next week.

This first part covers: “What is a brand and why does it matter?” The next two parts will cover: “How does marketing play a role in branding?” and “New trends in marketing”.

Let’s start by having a little fun. I’m going to start by saying (typing) the most successful jingle in the history of advertising. When I stop I want you to say the rest. Let’s see how you do. Here goes! My bologna has a first name it’s OSCAR, my bologna has a second name it’s _ _ _ _ _. Oh I love to eat it everyday, and if you ask me why I’ll say, cause Oscar Mayer has a way with bologna. You did great!

Now, I’m going to say a tag line for a major company and leave one word out. The second you know what word’s missing I want you to fill it in!

1. Fly the friendly skies of ____.    United, United Airlines
2. What’s in your ____ ?    wallet, Capital One
3. Don’t leave ____ without it.    home, American Express
4. Can you ____ me now?     hear, Verizon
5. Just ____ it!    do, Nike
6. Nothing comes between me and my____.    Calvins, Calvins Klein Jeans
7. Flick my ____.    Bic, Bic Pens
8. Like a ____.    Rock, Chevy

Isn’t it amazing how quickly a word, image, and an emotional reaction came to mind? Branding is what comes to mind when people think of you.

A brand can 1) attract patients, 2) increase staff and patient moral and loyalty and 3) create equity in your practice.

Here’s an example of a great invention that didn’t take off until it was marketed in a pretty package. The story of sliced bread.

People have been slicing bread for eons, pre-sliced, packaged bread has only been available since 1928, when Otto Rohwedder introduced the world’s first mechanical bread slicer. Looking back you’d think it would have been an immediate success. But it wasn’t until Wonder Bread came out in 1930 with a colorful package and advertising strategy that people began to buy it. Sales were slow at first as suspicious consumers were slow to accept a pre-sliced bread, but convenience overruled apprehension and soon everyone wanted sliced Wonder Bread on their dinner table!

Let’s take a look at another well known brand — Starbucks and how it adds value to coffee. Take a regular cup of coffee, add personalization, great graphics, a well thought out experience, and Starbucks can can charge significantly more for that cup of coffee and at the same time attract a loyal following.

Let me ask you, when you purchase a cup of Starbucks coffee do you know precisely what you can expect? You see a good brand adds trust and confidence in knowing what you’ll get.

Everyone has a brand. Every experience a patient has with you creates an impression, good or bad. If you don’t define who you are, others will. The question becomes: is it the image you want? No one has direct control over what people think about you, but how you interact with others influences how they perceive you. They judge you based on all of their points of contact with you, what they see on your website, how the person who answered the phone took care of them, what you look like, how you dress, how comfortable they feel in your office, and whether their questions were answered.

A good brand is emotional and affects how we think, feel and behave. Have you ever made a decision based on how something looks? Do you spend more time looking at things that are beautiful and well designed? Does being a plastic surgeon make the look of your marketing materials more important to your success? The answer is yes.

In starting your quest for a brand you need to know what your services are, what makes them unique and the profile of your  “typical” patient. In the marketing world we call this your “target audience”.

This recent study by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, describes a general target audience but you will want to identify one more specific for your practice and your goals. But typically 92% of all plastic surgery patients are women — 8% are men; 75% chose to have a procedure to improve their physical appearance — 25% to advance their career.

This study also validated that women want to feel good rapport, listened to and comfortable sharing their concerns. Other factors include skill, experience, and recommendations by others.

So in order to relate to this target audience, a good brand for a plastic surgeon would include images that reflect self confidence and professional success. It would also present a physician that has the ability to connect with and listen to patient cares and concerns. One that’s trustworthy, credentialed, and experienced.

In most plastic surgery practices, the doctor becomes the primary brand – your education and years of experience, your involvement with the community, your professional affiliations, and what your marketing materials look like are all pieces of your brand.

Thanks for reading this far… Part TWO will pick up tomorrow with “How does marketing play a role in branding?”

Till then, wishing you a wonderful day!

Candace Crowe, President

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.