Where are those new patients you so wish would call in or walk into your practice? There are usually many thousands of potential public who need to know that you are THERE and available. Ever had someone walk in your front door and ask if you just moved in when in fact you’ve been there for 5, 10 or 20 years? How could you have reached that person sooner?
Whether your advertising is done by print or electronic media (i.e. radio, TV, internet, blog, Facebook, etc.), the name of the game is to bring new people into your practice. Here is a tool to help you increase the flow of new patients into your practice.
The AIDA Principle
When you are working on an ad of any kind, there are 4 Steps called the AIDA Principle that are mandatory parts of any ad in order to make it most effective.
Attract ATTENTION
Create INTEREST
DELIVER the message
Call to ACTION
- Attract Attention: Grabbing a person’s attention with an ad can be done in many ways, such as impactful graphics, photos, use of colour – whatever it takes to catch the eye of the reader.
- Creating interest in the person reading your ad is usually achieved by using buttons which are statements or words or questions that you know are the concerns of patients. Take a minute to list out some of the most common symptoms presented by your patients or clients … these will give you the points you can use that will relate similarly to potential new patients or clients.
- Once you have the prospect’s attention and interest in hearing what you have to say, deliver your message. This is the “content marketing” that you may have read about. It could be a special offer, an introductory offer, a statement of benefits, etc.
- Now that you have delivered your message and hopefully increased the person’s desire for your service, you need to give them a “Call to Action” and this simply means telling the person to DO something, for example: CALL TODAY AND MAKE YOUR APPOINTMENT or CALL TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION (and give the phone number).
Another technique: The Eye Trail
The Eye Trail is how your eye travels over an ad and this is from the top left to the bottom right of the ad. So be sure to arrange your ad content appropriately with the AIDA principle (above).
Because of this factor, the practice logo, name, address, and website address should all be at the bottom of the ad and should be small. They are neither the ad content nor why someone would choose your practice over another. They should be relegated to a small area at the bottom. If someone is interested and the ad works, the person’s eye will be drawn down to the end and they will look for this final bit of information in order to take the Call to Action. If the ad was not well designed and written and therefore isn’t working, it doesn’t matter HOW big your logo is. So don’t waste space on these items.
Do something with this
Get creative and design a new flier, new page on your website, make an email newsletter, fix up your Facebook page, create a blog, etc. and use your new tools to increase your chances of attracting more new patients!
