Is your marketing painful?

We live  in such a Politically Correct (PC) world now don't we? 

We live in an age where competitiveness at school is often discouraged and non-competitive games are the norm...'it's the taking part that counts you know!'

But you know what....I believe this fear of upsetting someone filters through to our marketing, diluting it and making it so unappealing that it becomes ineffective.

Let me explain. With our marketing we are often trying to attract new customers (prospects) to our business...agreed? Well when a prospect decides they want to use the services of a dentist, chiropractor, optometrist etc they have a problem that needs solving...it could be an ugly smile, or a tooth missing, or a bad lower back..agreed? Good we are all agreeing so far then!

Now we know our prospects have a problem that needs solving, let's define a problem. 

A problem exists when there is a gap between 'what is' and 'what ought to be'

This gap may not be well defined for the prospective patient, for a dentist they may just be unhappy with their smile but not know what the exact problem is. For a Podiatrist they may not be able to walk long distances but not know exactly what the problem is. So the 'what is' is the patients current situation and it is their 'pain' that needs solving by your professional services.

Now, the role of marketing in my opinion is to work on that gap. To highlight the 'pain' (not physical pain, but emotionlal pain) and to highlight your unique solution to that pain. In other words you are making the gap between the 'what is' i.e. their 'pain' and the 'what ought to be' i.e. your unique solution to be as big as possible.

The bigger the gap, the more compelling the need to solve the problem. The more compelling the need to solve the problem, the more likley the prospect is to contact you surgery/clinic.

So, is your marketing painful? You need to be prepared to highlight to the prospects their pain, it kind of goes against political correctness slightly, but it IS necessary. When highlighting the pain concerntrate on the emotional attachment to the consequences of that pain.

Some examples are:

You wish to attract patients to a dental surgery for tooth whitening.

Highlight the pain = dark teeth

Highlight the emotional consequence = embarassed to go out 

Now this is what you need to highlight in you marketing...

'Embarassed to go out?'

'Embarrased about the colour of your teeth?"

Next give your unique solution to this pain.

Did you answer yes to the questions above? Then come down to XYZ surgery and experience the amazing results of the 'XYZ surgery super tooth whitening system' so you can go out at night and smile with confidence

 

So in your maketing you have highlighted the pain, given your unique solution (the XYZ surgery super tooth whitenign system) AND made the 'what ought to be' as obvious as possible with some emotional attachement.

Now clearly the marketing needs FAR more that this, we need a compelling reason for them to contact you, it needs to be more focused, there need to be many more mechanisms for conversions etc etc 

But you get my point huh? Don' be afraid of reminding your prospects of their pain, and remember to give them your unique solutions to their pain.

Here are some resources.

Marketing PAIN blog 

Marketing PAIN BLOG 2

Both of these give really great examples of Pain, and how it can and should be used in marketing

Marketing pain for a law firm another great article on pain point marketing, read this and look for ways to convert this to your own business

If you would like any further advice or guidance on your own marketing simply give me a call - details at the end of this post,

Speak soon,

Mark

This BLOG is part of my health care marketing consultancy to dentists, chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists and osteopaths. Please contact me directly to see a dramatic increase in the number of new patient enquiries at your practice. info@markoborn.com or 07769 898798