Should An OD Advertise During Slow Times?
Dear Jerry,
May and June tend to be slow months in my practice. This year, I am considering spending some money on an ad campaign in effort to stimulate business. Does that make sense?
Or, would you recommend that I take some vacation time during my traditionally slow periods?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Megan Sumrall, OD
Hi Megan,
Good to hear from you again!
Does It Matter When You Advertise?
Yes. Most marketing experts will tell you that advertising is like fishing.
There are prime times when the fish are active. Sure, you might get lucky and get a few bites outside of prime time. But for the most part, you won’t catch much during slow times, no matter what bait you use.
By the same token, if economic activity is seasonally slow in your community due to weather, school vacations, harvest, factory slow downs, etc., patients are not coming in for a reason. And, that reason means they won’t be overly responsive to even good promotions during slow times.
My advice is to save your advertising dollars and go some place interesting during those slow times.
Best Regards,
Jerry Hayes, OD
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Advertising during slow months
Advertising you do today will not bring patients at your door immediately. I like to look at marketing as a long term plan to brand my practice and keep its name in front of as many people for as long as I can. That said, as long as there are no extraneous factors as discussed by Dr. Hayes accounting for the slow down, go ahead with your marketing plan with the understanding that it will help with May and June of 2011 not 2010.
Your plan should include a budget, message you wish to convey, method of advertising, frequency and a call to action. In this modern world you must understand that a larger proportion of the population is using digital media rather than traditional media such as radio, television and newspaper. Your plan should include referral incentives to current patients, e-blasts, Superpages.com , marketing of your office website, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Although we have minimal presence in the last two, we will be increasing that in the future. I wish your all the best in achieving your goals.
response ads versus branding ads...
Dr. Phillips raises an important point...
I took Dr. Sumrall's question to be about response ads. IE, advertising designed to be bring patients in the door now.
But as Dr. Phillips correctly points out, brand advertising should also factor into your marketing strategy.
Example: a Budweiser TV ad showing Clydesdale horses pulling a beer wagon is a brand ad designed to build name recognition.
Your local grocery store advertising '$1 off on a six pack of Bud Lite with the purchase of a large package of Dorita's' is a response ad designed to get you the store now.