For any small business, whether a local dry cleaner or asmall private practice, publicity is a necessity. The localmedical community is booming with doctors and medicalprofessionals, so consider taking the initiative to stand out topotential patients and your local referring community. Putsmart marketing materials to work for you by employing a setof core printed materials and design elements to establish yourpractice and create an attractive appearance representing whatyour practice has to offer.
Hire a professional. Whether an independentfreelancer or a full–service design shop,turn to an expert to help you establish themost important part of your marketing materials— your logo or brand image. Be sure theartist you work with spends some time gettingto know you, your specialty, your attitudeand your vision. Your logo should be the bestgraphic representation of you and your work.But keep in mind that less is usually more, andoften its better to avoid literal interpretationsof your specialty, when creating your logo.Let’s agree that we’d rather see an abstract imageused for a gastroenterology practice’s logothan a picture of the large intestines.
CORE MATERIALS
With your new logo in place, move aheadwith the basic set of materials you’ll need forday–to–day operation of your practice:
- Business card for you and all staff members. It’s generally most efficient to utilize the back side of your cards as appointment reminders for your patients.
- Letterhead
- Envelopes
- Rx pad, if you dispense prescriptions
- Excuse pad for writing patient notes
- Patient information, HIPPA and other forms
BEYOND THE BASICS
To generate new business and increase your patient pool,consider producing additional materials to help get your messagesout to your audiences.
- A brochure introduces your practice with tangible information that can be repeatedly distributed. Your name and practice will continue to resonate in the mind of potential patients and referral sources with an easy–to–read guide to your services and specialties.
- A panel card, one panel printed front and back, is simply a modified brochure, but is often more likely to be picked up and read, because less text is generally more attractive to the average consumer. Also, panel cards are usually less expensive to print than tri–fold brochures.
- A postcard can also be very effective in marketing new practices. They are cost–effective to produce and easy to carry around for distributing whenever an opportunity arises. Also, post cards can double as directmail pieces when you want to target a specific demographic or neighborhood in San Antonio.
BEYOND THE PRINTED PAGE
Leaping off the printed page and onto theInternet is another effective marketing practiceto generate new business, and truly anessential in today’s hi–tech world. Today, theweb is often the first place consumers lookfor information on a business. If you don’thave a website, many patients may not considervisiting your practice. A website offersthe opportunity to provide more detailedinformation and explanations that none ofyour printed materials will be large enoughto handle. Also, the benefit of using the webis that it generally offers the easiest and mostcost effective means of updating informationon a regular basis.
Expand your online offerings by adding a blog, interactivechat or other additional patient resources and links to your existingwebsite.
BRING THEM BACK
Finally, to get the most out of your marketing materials,both printed and electronic, be sure to include a call–to–actionfor your patients and other audiences. “For more information,please call or visit our website…” It should go without saying,but just in case — Your phone number, website, and email addressshould be clearly visible and easy to find on all of yourmarketing materials.
