helping healthcare organizations grow

Welcome to The Healthcare Marketing Connection! Let's spend some time this week discussing the purpose of every single marketing piece you create. Your piece should get your prospect to take an action to move them forward in your sales process. This week's feature article digs in and discusses why you should develop your marketing material. If it's going to be effective you need to know the piece's purpose before you start.

If you missed my interview with Philippa Kennealy of www.entrepreneurialmd.com on marketing 101 for physicians you can still listen to the recorded interview here: www.kellyrobbinsllc.com/PhilippaKennealy8-07.mp3. We covered a lot of material and answered some great questions in that short hour.

Saturday I had my 20 year class reunion. Troy and I actually started dating in high school (WOW - has it been that long!?) and had a good time seeing friends that we've lost touched with. It was great to see how they had grown and changed over the years. One friend of mine is "Mulan" at Disney World; another had spent time in prison. Some folks looked exactly the same and hadn't aged a day, while others we barely recognized (there was some major balding going on). The reunion was at a bar in Denver that we rented until 11:00 pm or so. Towards the end of the evening I looked around and assessed how we'd aged. None of us looked old at all - in fact we looked young! And then they opened the bar and let the 20 year olds in…

To your success!

Kelly

Are You A Smart Communicator?

Before redoing or beginning any new marketing piece it's important you take the time to think about what role it's going to play in your sales process.

Always remember every marketing piece, from your business card to a simple flyer you hand out at events, should move a prospect forward in your sales cycle.

Let's look at a few ways you may be "moving a prospect forward" and some marketing tools that may help you do that...

1. Introducing yourself - Business cards, advertisements, yellow page ads, post cards
2. Understanding what you do and how you help people - Brochure, Web site
3. Getting permission to market to them - any of these
4. Buying something - Web site, sales letter
5. Earning their trust - Web site, brochure
6. Creating/strengthening a relationship - Ezine, post card
7. Getting their attention - Flyer, advertisement, classified ad
8. Provide information - Brochure, ezine, free report, post card

Your sales cycle may be long or short depending on what you do. You may also use the same medium, like your web site, to move people forward in different places of the sales cycle. The bottom line is you have to move people closer to buying from you.

Understand that eliminating them as prospects is moving them forward too. You may get a no for an answer and that is ok. The point is you know where you stand and can move on to another prospect.

Let's look at an example.

Let's say your boss decides you need a new brochure. The one you have is old and she knows you are running low on supplies so now is a good time to redo them.

Before you jump in and decide to simply redecorate the piece, look at what you've been using these brochures for. Have you been handing then out at speaking events or dropping them in the mail when leads come in?

If you ask the question "what action do I want the prospect to take" and "are my current methods working?" you will end up with a more productive piece. Also ask yourself "Is this the best way to get the prospect to take that action?" Are people doing what you want them to do?

Maybe redoing your brochure is a fine idea, but you find that placing them in like minded businesses in a plastic box and asking for a business card to get a free report is a better way to accomplish that goal.

Smart marketers don't just make a brochure to have one. It has a purpose. If you find you are having a hard time knowing what to put in your brochure you may not be totally clear on its purpose. Ask yourself these smart questions...

• When will (or do I) use this?
• What information do people need to know to move forward? In other words, what do people need to take away from this piece to come closer to working with me? It could be a sense of security. A feeling of trust. Information about how they can learn more about you.
• Who will benefit from this piece? (the sales force, marketing, etc)
• What do I want people to do next? (don't forget to ask them to do it)

Once you are clear about what you are trying to do, you can make an informed decision about if this is the right piece for that purpose.

Taking a few minutes to evaluate your goals of the piece and analyzing if what you've done fits the goals you've decided on are important if you want your piece to work.

(c) 2007, A Marketing Connection

Want to use this article in your e-zine or web site? No problem! Just let me know at info@KellyRobbinsLLC.com. I'll send you a short bio to include at the end of the article.

This week Kelly recommends HealthSphere.net. HealthSphere.net is a health care-specific search engine that returns only relevant health care information from sites all across the Internet, presented in a categorized, easy to navigate format. There is also a video search and online discussion boards.

If you have any other great resources you'd like me to share with everyone, let me know and I'll check it out. kelly@KellyRobbinsLLC.com

Annual SHSMD conference in Washington DC - October 3rd - Kelly will be presenting a 3 hour workshop, entitled It's Lonely Out Here...How to Connect with Customers When You're on a Limited Budget.

To learn more about healthcare copywriting and marketing, visit my Web site at www.KellyRobbinsLLC.com/article_archives.shtml. There are tons of fr ee articles on a variety of helpful topics.