Posts Tagged: Target Audience

Look at Yourself Through a Patient’s Eyes.

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

It’s easier to define yourself in the eyes of your audience when you know who your target audience is. In marketing for plastic surgery practices, the target audience is the “typical” patient. A recent study by the **American Board of Plastic Surgery shows that 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. You can use this as a general guideline, but you will want to identify a more specific target audience based on your own practice.

This study also validated that women want to have good rapport, be listened to, and feel comfortable sharing their concerns. Other factors include the doctor’s skills, 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.

Take some time to think about how you look through the eyes of your typical patient. Here’s a little exercise I’d like for you to do. Gather together all of your marketing materials. Look through them and ask yourself these three questions: what do my patients need to see; what do I need to tell them; and does the appearance of my marketing materials represent the quality of service I offer?

Wishing you time to consider these questions,
Candace Crowe

President, Creative Director

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.
www.CandaceCrowe.com

** ASPS: Influences on Decision-Making for Undergoing Plastic Surgery: A Mental Models and Quantitative Assessment, March 1, 2005

Copyright © 2010 | Candace Crowe Design | All Rights Reserved

Does your marketing show you understand…

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

MARKETING TIP. Think for a minute, does your marketing show that you understand your patient’s cares and concerns?

Wishing you marketing success,

Candace Crowe
President, Creative Director

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.

www.CandaceCrowe.com
Copyright © 2010 | Candace Crowe Design | All Rights Reserved

Does my marketing have personality?

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

MARKETING TIP- Does my marketing have personality? Your marketing should “pull” people towards you not shout at them, “This is what we do!”

Wishing you marketing success,

Candace Crowe
President, Creative Director

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.

www.CandaceCrowe.com
Copyright © 2010 | Candace Crowe Design | All Rights Reserved

You have to hit a nerve with your marketing…

Monday, January 18th, 2010

MARKETING TIP. You have to hit a nerve with your marketing message for them to take notice. It needs to be emotional to be contagious.

Wishing you marketing success,

Candace Crowe
President, Creative Director

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.

www.CandaceCrowe.com
Copyright © 2010 | Candace Crowe Design | All Rights Reserved

With each marketing effort…

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

MARKETING TIP. With each marketing effort; are you doing it with a predefined purpose, such as to get the phone to ring?

Wishing you marketing success,

Candace Crowe
President, Creative Director

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.

www.CandaceCrowe.com
Copyright © 2010 | Candace Crowe Design | All Rights Reserved

This is the second of a four part series…

Monday, August 24th, 2009

This is the second of a four part series titled “SPONTANEOUS EFFORTS DON’T PRODUCE CONSISTENT RESULTS”.

This second part covers “Know who you are and where you want to take your practice” and provides you with an excellent worksheet to go through to help strengthen your marketing.

Last time, I talked about the importance of having a well-thought out, strategic marketing plan for your plastic surgery practice — NOT giving in to fear with knee-jerk reactions when it comes to your marketing efforts.

“Begin with the end in mind,” says Franklin Covey. Where do you want your practice to be in three years, five years, ten years or more? What makes your practice unique? What’s a qualified lead for your practice?

I suggest setting aside one hour to go through the following creative brief worksheet. A creative brief is a document created from simple questions whose answers form a roadmap for creating your marketing plan. Your answers will help you spend your time, energy and marketing budget attracting the patients you want to serve.

CREATIVE BRIEF WORKSHEET

TARGET AUDIENCE
⁃    What is the age range of the patients you want to serve?
⁃    What is your most popular procedure? Followed by…
⁃    What are your most popular procedures by month or season?
⁃    What is your most profitable procedure?
⁃    What percentage of patients is male, what percentage is female?
⁃    What types of jobs, education, income, and entertainment do your patients enjoy?
⁃    What cities do people drive from to come see you? How far away are they?

UNIQUE SELLING POINT, STAFF, AND FACILITY

⁃    How are you different from other plastic surgeons?
⁃    What is your FULL list of services, including any lasers or skin care?
⁃    How do your patients benefit by using you as opposed to another physician?
⁃    List evidence supporting these benefits. This information should consist of facts i.e., testimonials, awards, reports, articles, etc., not opinions.
⁃    Do you have an onsite surgical facility?
⁃    What overall impression do you want your patients to leave with?
⁃    What are the future goals for your practice? Where do you see your practice in five years and more?
⁃    If you could choose only one thing you would like the patient to remember, what would it be?
⁃    If a patient were to describe your practice in five words or less, what would they say?

CREATIVE CONSIDERATIONS
⁃    Do you have an existing corporate color palette? If not, what colors do you like/dislike?
⁃    What type of font do you like/dislike? Script/non-script, capital/lowercase…?
⁃    What is the tone you would like to convey? Subtle elegance, professional, approachable…?

Now that you have identified your target audience, your core message and your design preferences, you can begin to develop a plan to market that message.

In my next entry, I’ll outline a simple Seven-Step Marketing Plan you can implement for your practice.

Till then!

Candace Crowe, President, Creative Director

Candace Crowe Design
Educating Patients. Marketing You.

www.CandaceCrowe.com

© 2009 Candace Crowe Design