In our information-oversaturated world, it’s admittedly
difficult to have your brand message stand out among the crowd.
Business-to-consumer companies spend billions on developing and deploying brand
marketing. While those sort of resources don’t exist in the behavioral
healthcare market, it is still possible—and, in fact, vital—to find a way to
distinguish your ad messages from your competitors’. In my review of hundreds
of ads over the years, I’ve identified several factors of memorable ads in our
market. (Many of these factors apply more to print ads than online ads. In a
future post I will discuss how online ads can stand out.)
Bold colors: I’m
no expert on color theory, but yellow, red, and orange clearly command
attention. Many, if not most, vendors in the behavioral healthcare market rely
on a palette of green, blue, purple, and grey in their ads. Although this combination may be
aesthetically pleasing, it’s much more difficult to distinguish one brand from
another. In the treatment center market,
orange is rarely used, but I think it not only attracts attention but also
communicates an active and dynamic recovery process. For examples, see the Web
sites of Rosecrance and Austin Recovery.
People: Twice a
year my advertisers receive a customized report on how our readers are reacting
to their print messages. Time and time again people notice and comment on ads
with people in them. Readers do appreciate seeing diversity and smiling faces. Credible
Behavioral Healthcare Software’s ads often feature CEO Matt Dorman, and many
readers have responded positively to this messaging.
Twists and turns:
Several of my clients occasionally position their ads horizontally instead of
the customary vertical orientation. The natural response is to turn the
magazine to better read the message, which increases readers’ engagement in the
ads.
Reverse ads:
Color ads, of course, better grab reader attention than black-and-white ads.
However, I strongly believe a black-and-white ad can be effective. My favorite
strategy is a reverse ad in which the background is black and the text is
white. Even a small reverse ad can jump off a page.
The wrong reasons:
Some ads get noticed for the wrong reasons, including offensive messaging,
poorly designed layouts, and obvious grammatical errors. I’ve seen all of these
mistakes in the behavioral healthcare field. While these ads may effectively
catch a reader’s attention, the impression will not be a good one. A related
problem I’ve noticed is that treatment centers often fail to target their
marketing to professionals. At industry conferences, in trade publications, and
on field Web sites messaging should be targeted toward professionals (e.g., “You
can trust us with your clients”) instead of consumers (e.g., “We’ll help you
get clean and sober”).
There are many different ways to stand out. I like to think
of it as being the blue balloon among a bunch of red balloons. The content of
the ad is undoubtedly important, but first you need to find a way to make
readers stop and take a look.
