Avoid Expensive Spaghetti Marketing

By Betty Sosnin

Marketing, like other business services, is most effective when it’s carefully planned and linked to strategic business objectives. 

Yet when physicians decide to market their practices, they often  place a generic ad, support a local arts or charitable organization or take other hit-or-miss steps.

This haphazard approach is known as “spaghetti marketing,” or the spending of marketing dollars in an unorganized and unplanned way. The slang term is derived from cooks "throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks."

Strategic marketing is just the opposite. It is built around a systematic plan designed to identify your target audiences and create actions items that let you reach them with carefully planned and crafted  projects that will maximize the returns on your investments.

The strategy behind your plan will depend on your individual practice and target audience. If you get most of your patients from referring physicians, don’t place an ad in a consumer magazine. Go straight to the source by creating and distributing a physician referral brochure. If you’re a primary care physician or pediatrician, you might benefit from a practice brochure, e-newsletter and patient-ambassador program, whereby you ask your existing patients to refer their friends and relatives to your practice. If you’re a neurologist sponsoring a balance and gait program, you might want to advertise in carefully selected publications, submit a press release on your program and create professional referral materials. 

Effective marketing is not random and sporadic. It is customized, strategic and on-going. Indeed,  marketing professionals know that repetition is critical to success. Consumers generally begin to identify with an organization after they’ve seen or heard the name three or more times. 

Spaghetti marketing rarely generates patients and referrals. Don’t waste your time and money on it. Take the initiative by partnering with an experienced medical marketing team that can help you make the most of your marketing budget.