As a consumer, you’re all too familiar with information overload. You’re constantly hit by messages intended to capture your attention, pull on your emotions and lead you to buy whatever they’re selling.
The messages are all too familiar, touting claims of superiority, popularity and a must need for everyone. The majority of these messages never have a chance of hooking their prospect, but nonetheless continue to appear in different forms of media in hopes that increased frequency will equate to purchases.
As a marketer and copywriter, I tend to dissect these messages, at least the ones that capture my attention.
And by capturing my attention, I’m not referring to being interested in their product or service, but intrigued by their ad. I appreciate a good marketing piece and the artist behind it. It’s fascinating to see how creative these writers are and how well they follow marketing rules to ensure a maximized return on investment.
On the other hand, it amazes me just how pathetic the majority of marketing messages are, whether hard copy, radio, billboard, internet, etc. It’s easy to conclude that the creator focused on the look rather than message and totally disregarded the rules of good copy or content.
Let’s take a look at the typical mistakes that go unnoticed, except for the absolute waste of marketing dollars.
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Poor headline or no headline at all.
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Promoting the name of business over and above the service or product.
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Wasting real estate on pointless images, maps, non-relevant information.
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Nothing saying, “What’s in it for me?” the consumer.
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Weak “Call To Action” or none at all. PS. a phone number or website is not a CTA.
In the future, by simply avoiding these 5 common mistakes, you can help ensure a much better outcome of pulling your prospects in and taking the action you’re requesting.
Now, let’s say you go back to your previous lessons and review “Copy Writing,” you recreate your piece (post card, email, short video or digital, print or radio ad) following the template and rules and Bingo!, you get the responses. Now, rather than allowing this to run for a few weeks, then changing it up or rotating it out with a completely different message or niche, you just keep it running until it’s totally burned out and virtually no responses are coming in.
This is madness and very tough on the marketing budget. No one likes the roller coaster effect of good month, bad month. It’s stressful to go through for both you and your team, so stop.
Keep your community intrigued by standing out against the crowd, and don’t be afraid to shake things up and rock the boat.
Do not try to be the “professional doctor” and stick with the pretty, professional look and feel or you’ll have your butt handed to you. It ain’t gonna work! And besides, who are you trying to impress?
Are your colleagues really interested in your success, your personal needs and responsibilities? Are they going to be putting food on your table when your “professional approach” doesn’t work? Didn’t think so. Your purpose in marketing is to get the correct message across to those who need you – period. Mess this up, and not only do you lose, your patients do, as well.
Lastly, maintain at least 4 types of marketing at all times. Never, ever rely on one source. If you do, I promise you will eventually get burned.
P.S. If you dive into this stuff and really get a feel for it, you’ll find it’s a blast. We are all creative and each of you needs to allow this to come out without the fear of failure. Follow the rules, test and retest until you get it right. You always have us to help you get it right.
Written by Dr. Charles Webb
Always a doctor at heart, Dr. Webb understands the challenges that practitioners face more than anyone else. After discovering a practice model that was 10X better for both patients and practitioners, he transitioned from helping patients 1-on-1 to helping doctors be more impactful and profitable through their practice.
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