Are your ads falling flat? Try a different approach
Headlines are key to success in Yellow Pages ads
Read the following statements and see if any sound familiar:
"After years of paying outrageous rates with no returns, we dropped our display ads."
"Yellow Pages ads may be good for private-duty agencies, but not us."
"I don’t think we’ve received any referrals from Yellow Pages ads."
Advertising in the phone book isn’t cheap. For some agencies, it represents a major part of their marketing budget, but many home health agency managers still don’t believe it is an effective expenditure of money.
"Yellow Pages advertising can be effective for home health agencies," says Adam D. Bishop, MBA, partner in The ADAM Group, a marketing firm located in Franklin, TN. The problem with most home health agency ads is that they look like everyone else’s ad, he says.
"Look in the home health section of any Yellow Pages directory, and you’ll see a logo at the top, services listed as bullet points, and a telephone number at the bottom. There is no way for a consumer to differentiate between agencies or tell what is unique about your agency," he says.
One reason many ads look the same is that home health managers let the directory staff design the ad. "It’s important to remember that the directory employees are there to sell space, not design ads, so they will use the same, simple design whenever possible." Bishop recommends that agencies use their own ad designer and test the ad in local newspapers or magazines before running it in a Yellow Pages directory.
Test an ad by running it locally and making sure you have a "call to action" in the ad, he says. A call to action can be anything from calling the office to request a brochure, receive a free assessment for Medicare qualification, reach a prerecorded message with educational information about home health, or register for a seminar that presents information on a timely, home health-related topic. Without a "call to action," you never will know who is reading your ad, and you may not get a chance to interact with them, he points out.
Evaluate response to the ad by tracking the number of responses, Bishop says. The next time you run the ad, change one variable such as the headline, the call to action, or the description of services. Don’t change more than one variable at a time during your testing, or you won’t know what causes response to increase or decrease, he says.
Once you’ve found the right combination of the headline, body copy, and call to action, use that as your Yellow Pages ad, he advises.
When you’re designing your ad, remember that the headline is an ad within an ad, Bishop says. Use a headline that describes the unique benefit you offer consumers, and move your logo to another location, he adds.
In the body of the ad, don’t just list services that everyone offers, Bishop explains. "Talk about your uniqueness; tell readers that you have bilingual services, staff on call 24 hours, or specialty services such as pediatric or cardiac care."
The people looking through Yellow Pages for information about home health agencies are not just private-duty patients, he says. Elderly adults or their family members may be evaluating options if they anticipate the need for home health or want to change providers, he adds.
"It’s important to remember that 60% of the people who go to the Yellow Pages for information do not have a provider in mind. Of the 40% of the people who have a provider in mind, 20% can be swayed to make another choice." For this reason, your ad should contain useful, informative descriptions of the services that make your agency different, he points out.
Bishop recommends that home health clients have prerecorded information that consumers can call 24 hours a day. "If someone is looking through the Yellow Pages after business hours and sees that he or she can call a number and get more information about home health, [that person] will call. If at the end of the prerecorded message, the caller can leave a name or number or be connected to a staff person, you’ve gotten that much closer to [the caller] choosing your agency," he says.
For the same reason, be sure your web site is listed in your ad, Bishop continues. "Web sites are great resources for providing educational information to potential patients and for giving agency information to potential employees." Give web site visitors a chance to contact you with their names and telephone numbers, he says.
Bishop points out that size of ad and color are not going to increase your visibility as much as a good headline and copy that differentiates your agency. In-column ads are good if you can get your benefit headline in them, but you miss a chance to place a call to action. "Your ad should be self-serving to the patient. Point out why a call to your agency will offer him or her the most benefit," he says.
[For more information about Yellow Pages advertising and design, contact:
• Adam D. Bishop, MBA, Partner, The ADAM Group, 131 Third Ave. N., Franklin, TN 37064. Telephone: (866) 232-6477 or (615) 794-1436. Fax: (615) 791-5935. E-mail: [email protected]. Web site: www.theadamgrp.com.
Advertising in the phone book isnt cheap. For some agencies, it represents a major part of their marketing budget, but many home health agency managers still dont believe it is an effective expenditure of money.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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