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Still advertise in the Yellow Pages? Is your marketing strategy using the right medium?
Long gone are print, radio and TV. They are obsolete. The only means of advertising other than the Internet is….a billboard.
It’s your choice! You either meet the needs of your patients, or you don’t.
The Yellow Pages
This long time favorite can still be found in some areas of the country, but all too often this bright yellow bag goes right from the end of our driveway to the recycling bin. There just isn’t any reason to keep 10 pounds of bound newsprint in the house. Even if it comes in color.
Still, many medical practices still pay hundreds and thousands of dollars a years to maintain the same 1/4 page ad they’ve had for years. I suppose it’s tradition. For the same money you’d spend for a quarter page ad, you could create a marketing strategy for the next few years.
BTW – Verizon just stopped publishing the “white” pages in many parts of the country offering a digital version instead.
Radio and TV
Advertising on radio and TV is just not cost effective. It has always been expensive and impossible to track. Moreover, with MP3, iPod, YouTube, DVR, there are countless ways to avoid marketing efforts over radio and tv.
We choose to listen to our own stuff; music, podcasts, satellite and rarely listen to the radio. We are no longer forced to listen to someone else’s programming….we do our own, and commercial free.
We can watch our favorite TV programs over the Internet (Hulu, Netflix, OnDemand, Slingbox), at any time, usually free and without commercials. About the only demographic left to watch TV commercials are the sports fans, but even then, DVR let’s us skip through commercials.
Billboards
Billboards still exist in most places of the country. Every once in a while, you actually do see a medical practice advertising along the highway. Billboard advertising is still a possibility…if it appeals to you.
The Internet
It’s not that the Internet is the only medium left, but it’s also the best medium. It’s where our patients are flocking and spending most of their time. The Internet differs in so many way than conventional/uni-directional means of advertising and marketing.
The Internet offers more than convenience. The Internet gives your patients the chance to customize the way in which they learn and conduct research.
Patients have become pro-active. Taking responsibility for their own health. The Internet has allowed this responsibility to develop. Creating a web presence allows you to be found by those patients that are looking for you.
It is the only medium where they can contribute, share and express ideas. It is the only medium where they can participate and select the type of information that appeals to them.
The Internet lets patient become educated consumers that don’t necessarily succumb to traditional advertising. Traditional advertising is gone…obsolete.
As you plan for your marketing strategy for next year, make sure you have a web page, make sure it’s a blog and make sure to keep it up to date.
No more Yellow Pages, radio or TV….or even a billboard.