It is important for any hospital, medical office or clinic to stand out…to appear to be something more than just another place to go when you're ill or injured. Competition is stiff, and people are beginning to "shop around" when they are looking for health care. The average citizen is probably not able to gauge which location or medical group is better than the others, so they will choose where to go according to which one seems more appealing to them, or go to the facility that they have seen or heard about in various advertisements. It may not be the ideal method for choosing health care, but facts are facts. That's the way people do it.

The Advantage

Take advantage of this fact and promote your health care facility so potential patients will think of YOUR office or clinic instead of a different one. That is easily done with advertising. Electronic media is expensive, and print media is losing readers all the time. Billboards aren't cheap, either. The recommended path to take for effective and inexpensive marketing is the good ol' direct mail campaign. Direct mail has been a successful marketing ploy for many years. Why? Because it works! Period. Your return on investment is superb compared to alternate advertising avenues.

Believe the Facts

Studies have indicated that humans require repeated exposure to advertisements before it becomes fixed in their minds. Why do you think that those expensive radio ads are played over and over all day? Standard direct mail products are generally a paper postcard with the businesses information, services or products, and contact information printed on it. Even though the old style has been working for a long time, there is one problem with it. Many - if not most - of the postcards get tossed in the trash very soon after the recipient sees it. That is because it is "just a piece of paper." The few paper mailers that are saved do get viewed a number of times and the desired effect is realized.

The New Product

Expounding on that phenomenon is a new product for direct mail. It consists of a postcard with a refrigerator style magnet glued to it. The person receiving it peels the magnet off, but instead of trashing it because it is "just a piece of paper," the magnet gets stuck to the fridge or computer case at work or hundreds of other spots. The magnet seems to have some intrinsic value, and people naturally don't want to throw out something like that.

Now that the magnet has a home, entire families and workforces see it on a regular basis. Human nature takes over and the facility begins to become familiar to the people. The name, the logo, the phone number…are all etched into their minds, and when they require some medical service they will more than likely remember the magnet and give them a call. Presto! A new patient.