JM Design Studio creates visually prominent trade show graphics that inform and educate your target audience on the benefits of your medical practice or facility.

Healthcare graphic design should utilize images and logos which are consistent with your field of medicine or the type of care that you want to present. They must attract and hold the attention of people who are interested in the health care that your provide. We design graphics and displays for both aesthetics and functionality. Once you have captured interest, you can present the information that will help them remember who you are and what you do long after the trade show has ended.

Trade Show Designs for Healthcare Providers

JM Design Studio creates free-standing graphics, table covers, banners, large format posters, and more. Our graphics feature a variety of lamination and mounting technologies in addition to photographic-quality printing that provides exactly the type of graphic you need.

Banners can be seen from across a trade show floor because they are prominently displayed and printed with high quality color and resolution. Table covers promote your healthcare facility and medical care services to those who pass by your trade show display. Free-standing graphics, such as banner stands as well as posters, make bold statements about what your medical facility can provide patients. Trade show videos can provide the dramatic imagery or footage along with graphics and animation that will set you apart from other exhibitors .

Healthcare Graphic Design & Medical Trade Show Display

The design of effective medical trade graphics and displays was once expensive and time-consuming. We work with our experienced digital photographers to create original artwork and advertising concepts. Because we pay careful attention to your marketing needs, our designs remain consistent with your corporate identity and present your medical facility or practice in the best light.

The result: Your trade show materials are ready to attract the right type of attention and are delivered in dramatic fashion. The superior quality of your tradeshow graphics will convince them to stop and obtain more information on your facility or practice.

JM Design Studio has over 14 years of print, publishing and corporate marketing experience. We are proud to provide the best healthcare graphic design that supports providers and their practices and facilities as they offer advanced patient care. Based in Metro Palm Beach County, Florida, we serve clients regionally in Florida and across the United States.

Related posts:

1. LinkedIn & Healthcare Marketing
2. Healthcare ‘Branding’, Prove You’re Different and You’ll Beat the Recession
3. What your successful healthcare competitors don’t want you to know

By Joshua Miller

A marketing or business goal is not clearly defined without establishing what needs to be done to achieve it. The broad concepts and specific action steps that support the goal need to be organized because they are the fundamental tools necessary to success in marketing. Here’s how to define how you’re going to get to where you want to go.

A relatively simple concept to produce traction for your marketing effort is to answer the “which-way-up?” questions that always follow when high-level goals have been decided, quantified and defined.

A lofty goal can look overwhelming until you chart a course of manageable and do-able action steps. This is a quick lesson for everyone (maybe a reminder for some) that’s useful for marketing in organizations of all types, including hospitals, manufacturers, individual and group practices, physicians and surgeons, dentists, pharmaceuticals and entrepreneurs.

Goals, Strategies, Tactics

The success process uses a hierarchy of Goals, Strategies and Tactics – and it’s important to know the marketing definition for each term.

Goals: Take a look at your goal or goals. Goals are specific, measurable, achievable and tangible business objectives. It’s expressing the goal in a concrete way that can be managed.

Strategies: This is the first level of “what’s next.” Strategies are the ideas and broad approaches that support the goal. There can be more than one strategic approach to achieving a goal.

Tactics: Think of these as the tools that give your plan traction and energy. Tactics are the specific action items, details and activities that must occur for the strategy to be successful. You’ll want to list several tactics under each strategy.

Selected strategies and tactics work synergistically to complement one another for exponential positive results. Here’s an illustration of the relationship between a goal, strategies and tactics.

Goal: Increase new patient volume by 20 percent in the next year

Strategy: Improve patient experience to inspire more patient referrals

Tactics:
• Institute quarterly patient satisfaction training sessions for staff
• Create incentive program for staff based on increased referral volume
• Devote one staff meeting per month to ideas for improving patient experience
• Create and display a framed poster defining our practice’s unwavering patient satisfaction commitment

Additional Strategies and Tactics follow to complete the plan; all are implemented in concert with each other. The synergy of several strategies and many tactics working together creates the best results.

Immediate and Daily Action

This detailed list of marketing strategies and tactics provides what’s needed to make decisions and start to take action right away. And I mean today. Marketing is a real-time exercise – it’s what you do every day. It’s not designed to be planned in one month and then implemented six months later. Break out each of the tactics in action plan with these headings:

• Timelines and Deadlines – how long will it take, and when will it be done?
• Tasks and Responsibilities – specifically who will be accountable for each task?

If this sounds academic, here’s how author Denis Waitley said it: “The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.”

This is the kind of detail that gets the job done. If you need Marketing help, give us a call today at 561-596-9071 and we can answer your questions.

Related posts:

1. Social Media & Healthcare Marketing
2. LinkedIn & Healthcare Marketing
3. What your successful healthcare competitors don’t want you to know

Printed materials remain relevant in the integrated marketing communications mix for many reasons. Despite the endurance of the Internet, many people just don’t go online. Certain demographics simply prefer print collateral over digital options. Consumers use a variety of sources to gather information about a product or service; but research shows that they seek print when it’s time to buy. Having words and images in a touchable format provides reassurance that bit-and-byte media can’t match. Web technologies provide quick answers, but the responses are often contradictory. Print shows that you found your message to be important enough to commit it to paper and you stand behind what you’re saying. If you’ve abandoned print in favor of e-media, you’re missing out on new patients or big sales numbers.

Digital marketing techniques work best when you introduce them in coordination with print. You could post a banner ad and hope those who find it among the 100 million other Web sites click through to yours. But think how much more powerful it would be to use direct mail to drive targeted prospects to a personalized Web site, after which they receive a follow-up “thank you” card with a special offer. By combining print and digital, you produce an educational, engaging experience that speaks more directly and pertinently to your target audience.

Companies that utilize the full spectrum of marketing channels realize exponential increases in brand identity, prospects, new patients, sales and ROI, but this requires an upfront investment in sound strategic planning. You might replace one static message with many targeted variations delivered through multiple channels, all of which have to be consistent. Those who successfully bridge the digital and print marketing environments deliver a result that is greater than the sum of the individual marketing elements.

To learn more about how you can incorporate printed material along with your digital marketing, call us at (561) 596-9071

Related posts:

1. Healthcare Graphic Design
2. Do your Direct Mail, Website and Email Campaigns Work in Harmony?
3. Healthcare Marketing, How to Bring in New Patients

Color communicates. It can provide direction and clarity. When language fails color can offer valuable associations with people, places and things. Fire engine red. School bus yellow. Midnight black. Sky blue. Simply reading those color names evokes distinct feelings. Color induces subtle emotions, and elicits powerful responses. Because color’s impact is so profound, its role in design and branding is critical.

Over time, thoughtful and consistent use of color becomes emblematic of a brand and can be as powerful an identifier as the corporate name and logo. The effects are profound. Consider the iconic green and yellow of John Deere tractors and farm equipment that is so woven into the fabric and history of the heartland it’s almost as American as red, white and blue.

If color is communicating on behalf of your brand, what is it saying? The truth is, different things to different people. Though we all see the same colors, we interpret and remember them through the lens of our varying experiences. Plenty of people don’t like red for a car – even a Ferrari. Ultimately, color is subjective. So, what do you do when considering color options that will represent your business? Start by keeping these tips in mind:

Select a color you can own

Be it red, green or periwinkle, consider a color unique to your industry. Color associations increase brand recognition and build brand equity. A distinctive blue box confirms that it’s no ordinary item inside, but a Tiffany item. The difference in perception is significant, before the box is even opened, and the gift revealed.

Consistency is king

Whether in print, on screen or fabric, your palette should be consistent. Your logo should appear the same color on your business card as it does on your signage or the embroidery on a uniform. Coca Cola red is never Coca Cola reddish-orange.

Consider the impact of technology and production processes

Electronic file formats affect color in different ways. A CMYK .eps file set up for printing does not treat color the same way as an RGB .jpg file intended for onscreen graphics. Variations will also occur between process printing and spot color printing. Differences can be significant – and care must be taken.

Consider the costs

Distinctive colors, and color themes, can be had by utilizing commonly available resources. The Pantone Matching System (or PMS) is the industry standard for printing, and provides a broad spectrum of colors. Resources like Pantone offer economical options that are easy to reproduce consistently.

Go with a pro

When you need help developing a corporate color palette, and implementing those colors across your brand, call us for help. We can assist you with the complexities and nuance of visual communication – as well as navigate you through production obstacles to ensure accuracy and consistency.

To learn more about communicating with color in your design and branding call us at (561) 596-9071 today or contact us via email.

Related posts:

1. What your successful healthcare competitors don’t want you to know
2. 12 Techniques to Turn Ads into Great Ones

Social media is the new marketing phenomenon – how LinkedIn can help your marketing efforts.

Chances are someone has already invited you to join them on “LinkedIn.com.” This may include friends, colleagues, salespeople and maybe even some people you barely know.

What should you do? You already have plenty to do – do you really need to add something else to your plate? Since we have researched LinkedIn and used it effectively, we can give you some tips.

Generally yes, you should go ahead and join LinkedIn. However, to make it productive you’ll need to consider a few things:

1.) The first step is to define your objectives. Why do this? Do you want to get or share ideas with colleagues? Do you want to position yourself as a thought leader in a given area? Are you looking for new social opportunities? Are you looking to find new opportunities through networking? Or are you simply looking for an easy, non-obtrusive way to stay in touch with people you know?

2.) Your Profile. Don’t do what most people do, i.e., simply sign up for your free account and then forget it. Plan on investing an hour to get to know the LinkedIn arena and fill out your profile. You don’t need to list everything you’ve ever done when you are getting started, but the more relevant you look to your desired target audience and objectives, the better.

3.) Strictly business. Remember that LinkedIn is business oriented. Most Internet-savvy people put their social lives on Facebook, their business lives on LinkedIn. While there are exceptions, getting too casual on LinkedIn is not a good idea.

4.) You can reach nearly anyone. LinkedIn has a reputation for being a place for salespeople, recruiters and people looking for jobs. However, you would be making a mistake if you assumed that everyone on LinkedIn falls into those categories.

You can use LinkedIn to connect with many hard-to-reach VIPs including the press, government officials and executives at leading companies.

For example, Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s Founder and CEO, is also one of the Internet’s leading financiers and entrepreneurs. In March, 2009, Hoffman stated on the Charlie Rose Show that he won’t “take a meeting with a prospective entrepreneur if they don’t come referred. It’s actually one of the ways I use my own personal LinkedIn profile.”

Most of what LinkedIn offers is free, but they do offer several premium accounts that will increase its utility. Once you know your way around LinkedIn you can explore these options if appropriate. LinkedIn’s most important feature is “groups.” LinkedIn offers thousands of groups that you can join, based upon your interests and background. Some are open – anyone can join – and others require approval from the group’s creator. Some of the groups I have personally joined include the American Medical Association, Association of Medical Media and the AIGA (The professional Association for Design).

You can get updates weekly (or daily if you prefer), and some groups are better than others. The good news is that you can easily opt out of the ones that waste your time. Participate in the groups you join. Contribute useful comments, forward links, share content or ideas, answer or ask questions. Over time, people will begin to notice you and reach out to you with things that will directly benefit you. Beware, however, that overt self-promotion is a faux pas.

While LinkedIn advises its users to link solely with people they know, the dividing line can become fuzzy. You really need to use discretion, because if too many people say they don’t know you, LinkedIn will suspend your account.

You may find these new groups helpful:

At this stage, your best path to learning is experiential. You’ll have to get online and sign up to really understand it. So go get an account, fill out your profile, and make sure you do a search for groups that might be relevant to your interests. If you need help setting up online profiles for social networking sites, or if you think that you could incorporate social networking into your marketing plan, but need some advice, call us at 561 596.9071 or contact us via email.

Related posts:

1. Social Media & Healthcare Marketing
2. What your successful healthcare competitors don’t want you to know
3. Healthcare Marketing, How to Bring in New Patients

Social media is the new marketing phenomenon.

There’s a strong temptation to use these services beacuse they seem to be everywhere. LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube are some of the biggest, and chances are you may have already tested the waters. But you need to be careful doing so.

Some companies have tried to use social media and online marketing and had never done any other marketing at all. That can be a big mistake.

Social media is generally an advanced strategy. The results are only effective when first having a solid lineup of basic marketing materials. The baseline for healthcare organizations, hospitals and practices of all types is the fundamentals. These include a great website, ongoing patient generation systems, and a well-considered marketing plan before delving into social media.

That said, Twitter…one of the fastest growing of the social network sites, can be an effective way to communicate with your target market.

Twitter is a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices. Launched in 2006 as a free micro-blogging service, users can post and/or read brief text messages (known as “tweets”), limited to 140 characters.

The concept of Twitter is to build a community of followers. Messages or “tweets” are posted on the author’s profile page and are delivered to followers (subscribers). Users can also send and receive tweets or updates as phone text messages. You can follow others, and others can follow you.

Some people follow everyone who follows them, but we suggest you be selective about whom you follow because you simply don’t have time to follow hundreds or thousands of people. People should follow you because they are interested in what you have to say, and vice versa.

One of the great things about Twitter is that it is not like email. You won’t get a cluttered up in box with Twitter. There’s no obligation to respond.

Below are some Twitter DO and DON’T Recommendations for Healthcare Marketing

• DO – register your name so that you own it. If you plan to use it now or later; it’s free.

• DO – personalize your Twitter page. There are hundreds of social sites and millions of users, so move beyond the free customization that comes with Twitter. If you are serious about this, call us and we can design a branded page for you.

• DO – provide great thoughtful useful content. At 140 characters, it can be challenging. Many of our Tweets include interesting headlines, with links to content.

• DO – Monitor Twitter chatter about your organization and or services. Respond when it is appropriate.

• DO – include important keywords in your Twitter bio so that people looking for you or your subject can find you.

• DON’T – share anecdotes about your cat’s adorable new kittens. Unless you are a rock star or celebrity, other people don’t care.

• DON’T – try to follow thousands of people. Start with a handful of leaders in your field…maybe up to 100. This is a great way to get a lot of value out of Twitter.

• DON’T – use the automated services (bots) that follow thousands of others in the hope they will follow you. It’s not a popularity contest, and besides, what are you gaining when your robot follows their robot?

• DO – use helpful applications like Twellow.com (to look up people), TweetDeck.com (instead of twitters clumsy interface), maybe TweetLater.com if you want to spread tweets over time. To shorten URLs so that you can safely stay within 140 characters, use www.bit.ly.

• DON’T – start or expect much too fast. Commit to doing a little bit every day for a couple of weeks. Then, once you’re familiar, you’ll be able to better evaluate your experience.

• DO – tell patients and colleagues that you are on Twitter, and promote your Twitter address so people can easily follow you.

Twitter can be strictly personal, entirely business or something of a cross-over; in short bursts of text. It’s a network of user-generated pages that can be promoted within the network. Twitter (and social media) are advanced marketing strategies and may not be for everyone. You shouldn’t attempt it except as an adjunct to the basics, like a sound marketing plan and a solid website.

Check with us before you jump into the social media phenomenon, and watch for additional articles about Facebook and other services in the future. For now, you can follow Josh at @JMDesign_Studio. Or you can reach out to us by email or just pickup the phone. It may be old school, but it’s still highly effective to simply call us at: 561.596.9071.

Related posts:

1. LinkedIn & Healthcare Marketing
2. What your successful healthcare competitors don’t want you to know
3. A Marketing Roadmap for Success

The truth is that everyone’s situation is different. But I do know that when economic anxiety goes up, some professional organizations think it’s a signal to pull down the marketing flag and quickly head for the sidelines.

What’s not well known is that your marketing-savvy competitors actually want you to be scared off the field. The better course, although counterintuitive, is to stay in the game.

It’s the secret that successful healthcare businesses don’t want you to know. Here’s why… The most productive and cost-effective marketing opportunity is when there’s little or no competition. It’s a rich opening to reach and attract the patients who are still seeking healthcare services, to protect your patient base and to build a larger market share overall.

Things to consider under a “falling sky:”

Healthcare needs are not economy-driven.
The demand for healthcare services is based mainly on personal need, and regardless of the economy there are always people who require your services. This market exists and it’s a good time to be delivering value in the community.

Marketing is communicating with the community. The healthcare business that abruptly silences its voice is totally and suddenly invisible to people in need. Marketing works best with consistency and reliability.

Be alert to new opportunity. Economic change can also mean social change. Some procedures or services may be in greater demand, so consider marketing messages that adjust your patient mix.

Maintain or increase the budget. Although cutting or eliminating the budge “feels” like you’re preserving resources, you are likely giving up more in lost revenue and opportunity. Advertisers who increase their budget in a soft economy increase their market share. And as an added bonus, media costs might be available at bargain rates. There’s a good possibility that media rates and services are negotiable.

Have and use your marketing plan. If you don’t have a marketing plan, let’s talk about creating one for you. If you have a plan, we can guide you on how adjustments can boost the results. A hard-working marketing plan is your most valuable defense if economic times are soft.

The practice that stops marketing at the sound of discouraging economic news gains nothing. Period. Assuming a “defensive” posture on the sidelines is empty silence that allows your patient base to erode.

Instead of throwing in the towel, let’s talk about ways to maintain or increase your marketing efforts. It’s an opportunity for you to stand out and capture the market share. Turn off the news, and call us today at (561) 596-9071

Related posts:

1. LinkedIn & Healthcare Marketing
2. Social Media & Healthcare Marketing
3. Color Yourself Successful

A busy ad ruins response. It’s tempting to appeal to a wide range of readers with a variety of photos or images… But the ads that best attract and hold attention — have only one photo. The worst? Many competing images. And photos nearly always outscore illustrations or drawings.

Color makes a difference. If color is available try using high contrasting colors, and use colors that are in harmony — dark blue with golden yellow, for example.

No headline, no link. No matter how great an ad or image, don’t omit the headline. It’s the “bridge” that takes the reader into the copy. Without it, they drown and response falls.

Keep that bridge short. Because headlines sell, there’s often a temptation to make them longer. Like any bridge, interest falls off after a while. The best? Nine words or fewer and two lines long.

Make it easy to read

No blurry photos/images. Again, anything that makes an ad or photo hard to see or read cools response.

Watch the justification. Justifying the left margins helps the reader find the beginning of your copy. But copy that’s centered or justified on both sides is harder to read.

Be wary of funky fonts. Weird typeface, including stuff that looks like a ransom note, or copy at an angle, also deters readers.

Capitalize lightly. Try this: Read a paragraph of copy where every word’s been capitalized. It slows you down. The choice: Use capitals sparingly in your body copy or see response fall.

Negatives hurt response

Be kind to your models. Have you seen ads where the layout severs an arm or amputates the model’s head? Well, anything like this lowers response. The best response? Photos of smiling people looking squarely at the camera.

Avoid negative stimuli. Showing angry people or using copy that inflames can depress response. It’s human nature; people prefer pleasant images and ideas.

Follow the eyes. Before you hit the print button on your next ad or layout, watch a few people read it and follow their eyes. A photo of a soaring tower above the body copy may take the readers’ eyes up the page, away from the copy, where they may fly away to the next page.

No related posts.

Direct mail
A well-optimized web site
Coupon marketing
Print advertising

But remember, there are three keys to effectively implementing this process:

1. First, you need a solid brand developed for your practice which will allow the marketing to tell the story of “Why You”. External advertising fails when you develop a “Name Recognition Ad” that just lists your services, without telling prospects what sets your practice apart.
2. Try this test: If you can remove your name from your ad and insert another physicians name and the ad works just as well for his/her practice, then you have not told potential patients anything unique to attract patients to your practice.
3. Second, all advertising should have a “Why Now” mechanism in the ad or a reason for the patient to call now. You could offer a discount with a time limit, or no-charge consultations with time limits. Even if you already offer these incentives to all patients anyway, by adding an expiration date on your offers you’ll drive more responses and customer buying behavior.

Related posts:

1. Healthcare ‘Branding’, Prove You’re Different and You’ll Beat the Recession
2. LinkedIn & Healthcare Marketing
3. What your successful healthcare competitors don’t want you to know

Why should I choose your practice?
What makes you different from the others?

Here is how to begin setting your practice apart from your competitors…

1) Promote your unique benefits. What brands your practice? (That is, what sets your practice apart from your competitors?) Brand your practice based on your gateways:

a. What you do well
b. There is a need
c. You like to do it

Do you have expertise in a specialized area? A caring staff? (If so, play it up. Believe me, it’s rare.) Which cases do you really enjoy? And which are most profitable? Make sure your marketing tells these specific prospects all the benefits they’ll gain by coming to you. Tell them in your brochures, your posters, on your website, and especially on the phone during inquiry calls. Make sure you and your staff are ready to answer the question, “Why you?” and you will have established your brand – what makes you different from all your competitors.

2) Offer free services that are “bite-size” tastes of your practice. This is a great way to show prospects the high level of care you offer. If you are a dermatologist, you might offer a discount on microderm abrasions, one or two free IPL sessions when the patient purchases an IPL treatment package, or 50% off on Botox or any of the injectables (Sculptra, Radiesse®, Restylane, etc.)

Physical Therapists might offer complimentary pain/sports injury consults, free pregnancy back pain consults, gift certificates toward a massage or a free round of golf (for your patients to enjoy once they’re back on their feet).

There’s a bonus, too: You can target the specific types of cases you really want.

Many of these “freebies” will turn into loyal, paying patients if they like their experience in your practice. And they will tell their family and friends about you. Offering free services can set you apart — and boost your bottom line.

3) Provide more than what people expect.  This is the basic key ingredient to great Word-of-Mouth. It’s what makes people happy and makes them think you’re special, and it’s rare. That’s why it will help set your practice apart from your less-motivated competitors.

Follow these basic guidelines and your practice will be well on the way to standing out even in the most competitive market.

Related posts:

1. Healthcare Marketing, How to Bring in New Patients
2. Healthcare Graphic Design
3. LinkedIn & Healthcare Marketing