If you are reading this column, you probably fit one of these descriptions: physician, advance practice registered nurse, physician assistant, hospital administrator, practice administrator, Medical Group Management Association member, corporate healthcare executive or healthcare association leader. At least, that is the subscriber list detailed on the Memphis Medical News webpage that solicits advertisers.

With that group in mind, I recently profiled the advertisers over five issues of Memphis Medical News to get a feel for whether those advertising make sense given the people who read the MMN – those the ads are targeting.

The breakdown is pretty interesting. Fifty-five percent of the ads are for medical practices. Nineteen percent of the ads are for medical services (services within the medical realm that a medical practice can use); financial services ads make up nine percent of the ads. Ads for cars, entertainment and real estate each account for 4.5 percent of the ads. And rounding out the list are ads for special events, personnel ads and law firm ads. Nothing seems out of line. In fact, I can make an argument for every one of those categories trying to reach one or more of the readership groups listed by the publication.

The first half of one of the most basic rules of marketing is to go where your potential customers are. That applies to where you advertise, what kind of community events you get involved with, where you try to get stories placed in the media and which bloggers you might want on your side. Social media has a little different twist to it, because in that case, the goal is to post/discuss/share things that keep customers coming back to your posts. That might mean your social channels need to be divided between target audiences, because what an end-user patient might be interested in is different from what a referring doctor might be interested in.

Back to the ads. While the advertisers didn’t surprise me, the tone of quite a few of the ads did. Many of the ads offered by medical practices give a basic message about what the practice does and could just as easily been in any other kind of publication. Those ads are more consumer awareness oriented than anything else: come to Practice A/Hospital B for your specific ailment. Trouble is; average consumers looking for treatment are not in the reader profile of the publication. I would guess the leap of faith is that other medical practices will see these ads and brand awareness will be developed in a way that referrals and references might be generated. Orthopedic doctors learn about cancer practices, cardiologists learn about eye care, family physicians learn about neurology groups, and so on.

The second half of that basic rule of marketing about “go where your customers are” is to “give them a call to action.”

My point is that brand awareness is good. Brand awareness with a target audience who can do something with that awareness is even better. Brand awareness with a direct call to action as to what the target audience should do is best. Business-to-Business advertising is different than consumer advertising. The awareness you are trying to raise in a B-to-B publication is different than in a consumer publication. The difference can be subtle or the message can be very direct, but it does need to be different. “Fellow doctors, if your oncology patient needs an orthopedist, have them call us because we can help.” Maybe not that direct, but you get the idea.

As for the 45 percent of advertisers in this publication who are selling cars, theater tickets, banking services, legal services, office space and medical support services; well done. The readers here are your direct business or personal consumers. You know where your customers are, and the call to action is clear.

— Ralph Berry, Executive Vice President, Public Relations,Sullivan Branding,rberry@sullivanbranding.com

To learn more about Ralph Berry or Sullivan Branding, visit www.sullivanbranding.com