Back to the basics: Health Care Marketing Revisited

How do you know?

Last time we talked about the lingering question of the value of spending money on advertising. Clearing that hurdle can be a big step. And it creates a whole host of other questions. Prominent among them is asking whether or not the marketing communications materials you’re spending money to put out there are any good.

It’s a question that’s caused more than its share of heartburn and headaches. And it’s a question that isn’t easy to answer. That’s because, as much as it’s a business, advertising—especially the part of it that creates the messages—is an art. And that means things like creativity and quality and ingenuity and originality are measured subjectively rather than objectively.

In other words, it’s a matter of opinion.

The challenge arises when the opinions of the people who make the advertising and the people who pay for the advertising differ. Which they sometimes—no, often—no, usually—no, almost always—do.

If you’re the one paying the bills, your opinion is the one that will win out in the end. But it probably shouldn’t. That’s because your opinion is based on an entirely different set of perceptions and insights and viewpoints than the only people whose opinions really matter: the audience.

Keep in mind that the people who make advertising deal with audience opinions and actions all day, every day. And, with experience, they develop insight and understanding into what gets attention, arouses interest, engages, informs, persuades, and motivates.

Expect—no, demand—that the people who create your advertising defend their opinions with rational, logical reasons for their intuitive, artistic recommendations.

So, while you may never know for sure, you can learn to trust the opinions of those who have earned the right to their opinions.

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Next time: Who—and what—do you ask?