When marketing meets the Medical Board

New Ahpra guidelines offer a timely opportunity to develop a point of difference in your media and marketing material, says Elizabeth Heusler of Heusler Public Relations.

In an increasingly competitive and commercial environment, marketing your practice with flippant promises wrapped in hackneyed homilies won’t cut it with the medical regulators, nor will the informed and educated patient cross your door.

Developing that point of difference is indeed a challenge for the most seasoned marketer; it’s the elusive holy grail that influences first impressions and persuades patients.

Meaningless missives such as ‘a range of treatments tailored to meet the specific needs and goals of our patients by our world-renowned cosmetic surgeon and team of specialist experts’ have no place in the marketing lexicon. Undermine credibility with copy that talks of an offering to make someone more natural, genital areas prettier, a mummy made over, confidence boosted or the elimination of bingo wings with a bonus two-for-one revagination, and your visitor is more likely to be the regulator.

Manage your risks and reputation

Managing your marketing and your repuation has become an artform; a hybrid of communication, negotiation, digital and media skills, underpinned with a solid knowledge of guidelines, regulations and laws.

The new regulations are not a tick and flick exercise, nor should the interpretation or execution be delegated. Ultimately, it’s you, the medical practitioner, with your reputation on the line – and the one who will bear the fine and the suspension.

If your marketing methodology is along the lines of ‘we have Tiffany from publicity and Karsten from the agency handling our website copy and social media posts’, you’re at risk.

Anyone who works with me, or indeed has ever met me, will tell you my most used phrase is ‘the risk is at your front line’.

You can’t put Karsten, your cool brand manager, up at the Tribunal, saying ‘he said I was compliant’. (You can probably sue him, but that’s a different jurisdiction.)

The tribunal is a different jurisdiction. It’s not a court. It has a unique view, a unique way of making judgments and a unique method of communication.

Getting across the wording of the regulations is not straightforward. I operate in this environment every day and have well-thumbed hard copies and digital copies of five sets of regulations, at my fingertips, and it can still be a challenging exercise. Here’s my take on how to navigate the new rules.

Copywriting for compliance

1. Reconsider using the ER and EST words: quicker, faster, gentler, simpler, healthier, happier, younger, designer, shorter recovery, best, smallest, safest, highest (eg highest level of expertise), lowest, latest.
2. Strike out these words: gentle, simple, safe, easy, natural, restore, youthful, natural, and more natural.
3. Delete these terms: mummy makeover, bikini body, designer vagina, summer-ready,
   forever young.
4. Forget the following without also using the medical term: boob job, tummy tuck, Brazilian butt lift.
5. Never use: innovative or unique.
6. Don’t talk about characteristics: Improve self-esteem or body image; change your life; unhappy with your natural breast size; less attractive after childbirth, the body you deserve.
7. Remove reference to the practitioner’s abilities in a manner that may be misleading or create unrealistic expectations: magic hands, sculptor, god, king, queen, world’s best, world-renowned, taking the world by storm.
8. Cut exploitative and disapproving statements or ones that imply that a normal change, post- pregnancy body, body shape or bodily feature is abnormal or undesirable or is not aesthetically pleasing and can be fixed or created by cosmetic surgery.
9. Edit out phrases that imply wellbeing will suffer without cosmetic surgery, such as healthier, happier you, restore, youthful, best version of yourself, body goals.
10. Scratch advertising that glamorises cosmetic procedures or implies unrealistic outcomes.

It’s only words, and words are all we have

Ahpra and the media will pounce on poor images and copy.

Compliance whilst understanding and meeting the diverse needs of your patients is both a robust discipline and an art. So, too, is getting your point across without being dull or boring and avoiding toxic language or being quoted out of context. There’s no template or text books.

To be fair, it’s not easy to see yourself or your practice objectively as they’re often intertwined. Managing your reputation and brand, online and off, becomes all the more important.

Choose words and images with care. By developing points of difference that set your clinic apart, it will be patients ringing your bell, not the regulator. AMP

For more information, contact Heusler Public Relations on 02 8354 1131, email heuslerpr@spin.net.au or visit www.heuslerpublicrelations.com