Variety and frequency: The spices of advertising
By Michael Koch, DC

Wouldn’t it be great to have a nickel for every ad that Pepsi runs on your local television channel? It would be like winning a lottery, only it would go on forever!

The point is that Pepsi never stops advertising. Its name appears in newspapers and magazines, is heard on the radio, and seen on television. Pepsi — and all successful companies — pour money into advertising just to keep their name in front of the public.

As these companies can attest, continuous, repetitive advertising works. But you have to keep in mind that it takes time to see results; it takes a variety of ads to create interest; and it takes repetition for people to remember.

Here are some basic tenets for you to incorporate into your marketing plan:

• Advertising has a cumulative effect. It is not an immediate effect so therefore, the more you do, the better it works.

• An ad must be repeated several times before determining if it’s producing. One or two runs will rarely, if ever, deliver much of a return. In most cases an ad must run from three to six times to determine if and how much it’s producing.

• An effective ad yields a 3:1 ROI. The minimum ROI for an acceptable ad is 3:1. That is — the ad brings in $3 for every $1 it costs.

A 3:1 ROI is good; anything greater than 5:1 is excellent; and 10:1 or more is exceptional.

To find out if an ad is working, track results. Know exactly what attracted each new patient to your office.

• A variety of ads attracts attention. Variety is the spice of life, but too much spice can give you indigestion. In other words, change your ads, but change them wisely.

Allow each ad to work until it peaks and then ramp it down while you’re ramping up a new one. Track each ad’s results to reveal its growth in producing new patients, its plateau, and its inevitable decline.

• Marketing is an investment. Invest wisely. To grow your practice, invest from 10 percent to 15 percent of your gross income on marketing. Mixing media in a coordinated process is the best way to maximize your dollar.

In addition to print advertising, consider cable TV advertising — specifically commercials and infomercials. It may be one of the best values for the return on investment (10:1 or more) you can get.

Remember that practice growth is directly proportionate to how much and how long you are willing to market your practice and then how hard you and your staff are willing to work.

Marketing has no magic formula. There are guidelines and maybe even an algorithm or two, but much of advertising is studying the market, the competition, and the demographics of your area, and then making reasonable educated guesses.

SIDEBARS:
Little money for marketing? No problem
What about advertising agencies?

Michael Koch, DC, currently serves on the advisory board for Ingen Technologies and is director of technology and education for Secure Health, Inc. He may be reached at drmkoch@4securehealth.com, by calling Secure Health, Inc. at 260-492-9383, or at www.4securehealth.com.