share:  

Top 5 Reasons to Use Customized Marketing Materials for Your Practice

We live in a world where anything that is marketed to us as free is enticing, appealing and attention-grabbing. For an eye care provider, this can include generic marketing materials, like patient handouts and brochures, which are often provided to ophthalmologists and practices by large manufacturers to help promote practice technology and explain procedures. While obviously a money and time-saving initiative, there’s something important to remember about these types of materials: free doesn’t often equate to value or quality. By making room in your marketing budget and taking the time and effort to customize your marketing materials to fit your patients’ needs, you’ll not only increase your brand recognition but gain loyalty and confidence in your practice from current and prospective customers. Here are 5 reasons to consider customizing your marketing materials for your practice: 

1.     Free Does Not Equal Conversion
Marketing materials can be expensive and time-consuming to create so it’s understandable why having large companies offering them for free is attractive. While they can help promote your practice offerings, there’s an essential piece missing – personalization. The expectation of personalization in marketing is prevalent today across all platforms, from print to digital. A generic handout or brochure that has zero ties to your surgeon, local community or practice is much less likely to result in a new or repeat customer than messaging that is personalized to your target market. 

 2.     Creating Tailored Messaging Shows Authenticity and Increases Engagement
First and foremost, finding your practice’s voice is essential in creating genuine content for your materials. Evaluating who you are, what you stand for, to whom you’re marketing and how you want to convey your message, is necessary before you start rebuilding. This process takes time and is often a conversation between multiple members of the practice. While this may be a tedious task, the return can be immeasurable. In general, your target demographic will be members of the Baby Boomer Generation for cataract care and the Millennial Generation for LASIK procedures both of whom are known for their pickiness in how they receive marketing. Boomers and Millennials are looking for companies with a personality, those they can relate to, who are transparent and understand their wants and needs. 

3.     Premium Procedures and Providers Deserve Materials Specific to Them 
As previously mentioned, free marketing materials lean towards a generic, blanket strategy for all eye care providers. If you are offering services and procedures unique to the area or new to your practice, those free materials just won’t cut it! It’s important that your patients are aware of all your offerings, from basic to premium, and that it’s available for them before even meeting with an eye care provider as well as additional instructions and advice following a procedure or checkup. If you’re asking patients to make a large investment in your practice, let them know they are making a quality selection by investing in your marketing and using high-end printing services, quality materials, eye-catching graphics and excellent design. 

4.     You’ll Build Local Trust Through Compelling Content
By customizing and creating materials with a local and personal focus, you’ll gain the trust of your customers as the market leader in your area. Focusing on what the patients in your region are looking for as well as sharing specific facts, figures and information related to the practice and providers showcases your strengths, history and shows the reliability of the practice. This creates certainty in the consumer’s mind that you’re that perfect fit for their eye care needs!  

5.     The Average Patient Doesn’t Respond to Technical Jargon
The most common objections patients have for delaying procedures are price and fear. More often than not, free marketing materials provided from manufacturers and large corporations are filled with technical wording that is complex and confusing to patients trying to understand a new procedure or details on the equipment used. Breaking down wording into basic, layman’s terms will resonate much more with your audience than complicated phrasing. Materials that make a connection to your practice, detail doctor experience and include patient testimonials can help overcome excuses and alleviate stress. 

– By Lauren Bubser, Digital Marketing Associate for Sightpath Medical 

If evaluating and creating custom and practice-specific marketing materials is more than you want to take on, contact us today for more information on our comprehensive marketing solutions. All Sightpath Medical customers receive access to a full range of practice-building resources. From staff training and sample forms, to video tutorials and monthly webinars, we are here to help. Customers, click to access our Customer Resource library. Additionally, Sightpath Marketing Services can help create interactions and energize a referral network to drive procedures, with ongoing practice development support on a variety of levels. Sightpath Marketing Services would be glad to help assess, create and deploy messages for you all year long. Learn more about Sightpath Marketing Services.