“Message to Market Match”

(A Key Marketing and Advertising Strategy)

By Chip Kessler, Nursing and Assisted Living Facility Census Building & Customer Service Consultant

This time around, I want to drill down to the very core of your marketing and advertising efforts, and give you the one big key to make sure all of your advertising pieces and marketing efforts give you the results you’re after.  In fact, what I’m about to share with you is so important that if not followed, it will guarantee failure.  The basic principle is simple; yet I see far too many advertisers and marketers stray off course.  I call this core principle: “Message to Market Match.”

It means directing your advertising and marketing to an audience that is geared to what your message says.  Here’s an example of what “Message to Market Match” isn’t … placing a radio commercial on a station that attracts teenagers and people in the 20’s as listeners.   Are teenagers and people in their early 20’s interested in assisted living or nursing facility care?  Sure, in some cases there’s a reason to know what’s out there for a grandparent or an aging parent, however, generally this isn’t an age group listening to your message.  That’s also the trouble with television advertising in a basic sense because many times your commercial appears before a great many people that have no interest.

This is why doing some research, when buying ads or commercials, on local media is key!  You need to know your demographics; in other words what’s the target range of people watching the television program as your commercial appears; what age range is listening to that radio station; what age group is reading that local newspaper, etc.

The sales representative attempting to sell you an advertising package should be able to give you this data … and if you get a song and dance around the issue, show said sales rep the door!  A quick tip: never buy what’s called “run-of-schedule” ads on television because then your commercial get played all over the place during the day, and you have no control as to when it shows up and who sees it.  For example- do you want four, five and, six year olds as your audience because your TV commercial was shown during the morning kids program?  Radio gives you a more targeted opportunity based on a particular station’s format so you want to select those places on the dial where audience falls in line with the age and group (i.e. female or male) you want to reach.

Remember this fact: you must be in charge of who gets your advertising and marketing dollars.  Because of this, it’s important that you know everything possible before deciding where you’re investing your money.

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 Chip Kessler is the nation’s leading consultant to nursing facilities nationwide, with over two dozen staff training and development programs, products and services available. He can be reached at chip@extendedcareproducts.com with any of your comments and questions.