Don’t Let Your Marketing Become a Monster

October has a way of making everything a little more fun.

There are pumpkins on porches, Halloween decorations in stores, candy everywhere you turn and probably at least one person in your office who has already started planning their costume.

But there are some things that aren’t nearly as much fun when they become a monster.

Your marketing, for example.

And I’m not talking about a scary website or a creepy Halloween ad.

I’m talking about what happens when all of the little marketing problems a practice ignores start piling up.

One outdated photograph.

One broken link.

One staff member who left two years ago but is still on the website.

One social media account nobody remembers the password to.

One Google listing with the wrong hours.

One advertising campaign that nobody has looked at in months.

One phone call that didn’t get answered.

None of those things seems like a crisis by itself.

But put them all together and you’ve got a marketing monster.

Meet the Website Monster

This one is easy to create.

A practice builds a beautiful website, everybody is excited about it and then life gets busy.

A new provider joins.

Someone leaves.

A new service is added.

Office hours change.

New photographs are taken.

And six months later, the website isn’t really telling the story of the practice anymore.

The problem isn’t necessarily that the website is ugly.

It’s that it isn’t accurate.

Patients notice.

Imagine you’re looking for a new healthcare provider and you visit a website that lists three providers.

Then you call and discover one of them left a year ago.

Or you see a service listed that the practice no longer offers.

Or the website says the office closes at 5:00, but Google says 4:30.

Which one do you believe?

And more importantly, what does that tell you about the practice?

Your website doesn’t have to be constantly redesigned.

It does need to be maintained.

A website is not a brochure you print once and put on a shelf.

It is part of your practice’s living marketing system.

Meet the Google Monster

Google has changed dramatically.

Patients can search in different ways. They can ask longer questions. They can use AI-powered search features to research services, providers and health-related topics.

Google says AI Overviews now have more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, while AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users. Google has also been adding tools and reporting for website owners to understand how their content appears in these newer search experiences.

That sounds like a reason to panic.

It isn’t.

It’s a reason to make sure the information about your practice is clear and consistent.

Your practice name.

Your address.

Your phone number.

Your hours.

Your services.

Your providers.

Your website.

Your reviews.

Your photographs.

Those things should agree with each other.

You don’t need to chase every new search buzzword.

You need to make sure you’re giving people the right information to begin with.

That’s good marketing whether the person searching is using Google, an AI search feature or asking a friend.

Meet the Review Monster

Reviews can be wonderful.

They can also be uncomfortable.

Especially when you get one that you don’t agree with.

But here’s something worth remembering:

Don’t just look at reviews as something that helps your star rating.

Look at them as feedback.

If five patients mention that your staff is friendly, that’s valuable.

If patients consistently mention that your doctor takes time to explain things, that’s valuable.

If several people complain about difficulty getting through on the phone, that’s valuable, too.

Maybe the problem isn’t your advertising.

Maybe your marketing is doing its job.

Maybe the patient called.

Maybe the problem happened after the marketing did its job.

That’s an important distinction.

Your reviews can sometimes show you exactly where the patient experience and your marketing promise aren’t matching.

Meet the Social Media Monster

This monster usually starts with a sentence:

“We need to post something.”

So someone grabs a stock photograph, finds a quote, adds the logo and puts it on Facebook.

Then they do it again next week.

And again the week after that.

Pretty soon the practice has a social media account full of generic information that could belong to practically any healthcare practice in the country.

That’s not necessarily marketing.

That’s filling space.

Your social media should have a reason for being there.

Teach something.

Answer a common patient question.

Introduce your staff.

Show your personality.

Celebrate something happening in the practice.

Share a community event.

Let people see the people behind the logo.

And no, your provider doesn’t need to become a social media celebrity.

Please don’t start dancing on TikTok because somebody told you that’s what marketing requires.

The point is to find the right way to communicate with your patients.

People want information.

But they also want to know who they’re trusting.

Meet the Phone Monster

This one may be the scariest.

Because it doesn’t live online.

It lives in your office.

Your marketing works.

Someone searches for your practice.

They visit your website.

They read your reviews.

They decide to call.

And then…

Nobody answers.

Or the person answering sounds irritated.

Or the patient gets transferred three times.

Or they ask a question and nobody knows the answer.

Or they’re told, “You can go online and request an appointment.”

That may be convenient for the office.

It may not be convenient for the patient.

Your front desk is part of your marketing.

The person answering your phone is part of your marketing.

The way your team greets someone who walks through the door is part of your marketing.

You can spend thousands of dollars getting someone to pick up that phone.

Don’t forget about the person who answers it.

Meet the Brand Monster

This one doesn’t get talked about enough.

A practice can have good marketing and still have a confusing brand.

The logo on the website looks one way.

The social media looks another.

The direct mail piece uses completely different colors.

The office signage doesn’t look anything like the website.

The provider photographs are ten years old.

And the messaging changes every time someone has a new idea.

Patients may not consciously identify all of these things.

But they feel the inconsistency.

Branding is not just a logo.

It’s the overall impression people develop of your practice.

It is how you look.

How you sound.

How you communicate.

What you promise.

And whether the experience matches the promise.

Consistency creates familiarity.

Familiarity creates confidence.

And confidence matters when someone is choosing a healthcare provider.

Meet the AI Monster

This one is new.

And it has gotten big very quickly.

AI is useful.

There is no question about that.

We use AI-powered tools ourselves because they can help with research, organization, ideas, data and efficiency.

But there is a big difference between using AI and letting AI run your marketing.

A practice can ask an AI tool for 20 social media posts.

It can ask for a blog.

It can ask for an SEO strategy.

It can ask for advertising ideas.

And it can produce all of those things.

But who decides whether they’re right for your practice?

Who knows whether they’re accurate?

Who knows your patients?

Who knows your community?

Who knows what your competitors are doing locally?

Who knows what happened with last month’s campaign?

Who knows why the practice lost 15 new patient calls?

Who makes sure everything sounds like your practice instead of sounding like every other practice using the same tool?

That’s the part people sometimes forget.

AI is a tool. It isn’t a relationship.

And marketing is still about relationships.

So How Do You Get Rid of the Monsters?

You don’t need to tear everything apart.

Start small.

Pick one day this month and do a marketing walk-through.

Look at your website.

Google your practice.

Read your reviews.

Look at your social media.

Call your office.

Ask your staff what patients have been asking about lately.

Look at your marketing numbers.

Then ask one simple question:

What’s working, and what’s not?

Don’t change something just because it’s old.

Don’t keep something just because you’ve always done it.

And don’t jump to something new simply because everyone is talking about it.

Good marketing isn’t about being the newest.

It’s about being effective.

The Best Marketing Doesn’t Need a Costume

October is a good reminder that we don’t need to be scared of marketing.

We just need to pay attention to it.

Your marketing doesn’t have to chase every new platform.

It doesn’t have to use every new technology.

It doesn’t have to look like your competitor’s marketing.

It needs to represent your practice honestly and consistently.

Because when a patient is choosing someone to trust with their health, they’re not looking for the practice with the cleverest Halloween graphic.

They’re looking for a practice that feels professional, knowledgeable, trustworthy and welcoming.

That’s the kind of marketing worth building.

And unlike a Halloween decoration, you don’t put it away on November 1.

Marketing is something you build, maintain and improve throughout the year.

At Ai Healthcare Marketing, we believe good marketing is built over time. Trends will change. Technology will change. Search will change.

The fundamentals don’t.

Know your audience.
Know your practice.
Build trust.
Be consistent.

And give people a reason to choose you.

That’s how you keep the marketing monsters under control.