As a kid, I never understood “old people” when they talked about how time flies.
But since turning 40 (gasp!) this year, and having a packed house of 4 active, amazing children, I’m definitely starting to get it.
It makes logical sense if you think about our experience of “time” as relative.
Meaning when you’re 5 years old, a year is 20% of your entire existence. But when you’re 40, a year is just 2.5% of your life. (And gets less as every year passes)
“Time” is a funny thing that gets a bad rap in sales/marketing. You’ll hear things like…
“People have a shorter attention span than goldfish.”
“No one reads long amounts of content. It has to be SHORT!”
“No one reads copy at ALL. They ONLY read the headlines…”
And while I have no clue how scientists can draw an accurate comparison between a human’s “attention span” (whatever that even means) and a goldfish’s, I know from experience that “keep it short” is not a tried-and-true requirement in marketing or sales (and can actually hurt you).
Take this email for example. You’ve read this far. You’ll probably read the rest. You’ve read longer messages I’ve sent. And you’ll probably read future messages that hit your inbox.
Why did you take the time to do it? Because I definitely don’t keep my messages short.
You took the time in part because the information I provide has proven useful to you. And in part because it’s somewhat entertaining.
My most profitable word, and a concept that can be highly beneficial to your practice as we move through the new year – “Infotainment.”
I did not coin this term. But I have espoused it to grow my business. And it’s time more practices embraced infotainment as a way to court and convert new patients.
Information is key to helping your patients make the right decision. Uninformed patients may choose a sub-par provider, or choose not to move forward with a life-changing procedure at all.
You have good information to share. Top docs, great technology, produce amazing results, customized approach for your patients, the whole bag.
The challenge with information is that it needs nice wrapping. And I’m not just talking about pretty design. (Heck you read my emails and the most “design” you ever get is a photo of my kids or a meme if I’m feeling feisty).
Tone, energy, words, angles, hooks, analogies. This is what I mean by “wrapping.”
This is where the entertainment part comes in. Information wrapped in entertainment gets consumed, engaged with, acknowledged, adopted and influential.
Because you must capture attention before you deliver information. And that’s what infotainment does.
While the prospect of chocolate covered broccoli doesn’t sound appetizing in the literal sense, that’s the basic analogy for infotainment. It’s attractive, looks tasty and also delivers your vitamins.
Limited attention spans don’t stand a chance against quality entertainment. For example:
During the Christmas break, my boys and I watched 6 of the 9 Star Wars movies. They’re all 2+ hours long. Somehow our sub-goldfish attention spans managed to become engrossed in each epic film, start to finish. How is that possible? They’re entertaining.
When you combine entertainment with information, you have an attention-stealing 1-2 punch that allows you to CONNECT with your prospects in a way that other practices could never dream of.
You gotta think about this – 40% of Gen-Z are using TikTok as their search engine instead of Google. Why? Their search results are infotaining.
Meaning infotainment is not a nice-to-have feature in your communications. In 2024, it’s a prerequisite if you want your marketing dollars to be spent efficiently, and for your ads to do the heavy lifting you need them to do.
If you want some infotainment examples, look at the most popular podcasts. Joe Rogan is a great example. Theo Von. Shawn Ryan. All get on with interesting guests who share good info, and it’s wrapped in the container of the hosts entertainment skills.
Check out some of the people you follow on Instagram that you consider to be the most useful. They’re likely infotaining you.
Fox News and CNN are both examples of infotainment. And while I’m a fan of neither network, they do decent business with their own infotainment style.
“But Troy, we’re a medical practice, not podcast hosts!”
Yeah I know. The way I’m talking about infotainment, you:
- Don’t have to be a trained actor
- Don’t need to look like Brad Pitt
- Don’t have to do TikTok dances
- Don’t need thousands of dollars worth of equipment or staff
I am none of those things and still manage to info-tain the market on a quasi-regular basis.
The infotainment bar is low in this industry because most practices aren’t consistently doing it (if at all). Huge opportunity for you when you know how to do it right.
Once you know how to infotain your prospective patients, you’ll be in a league of your own.
I mentioned in my last message that we’re doing a coaching masterclass on how to write story-based emails. During that training, we’ll dive more into the infotainment approach, along with the proper ways to apply infotainment to your marketing.
If you’d like to be part of the exclusive group of marketers discovering these advanced secrets to elevate your practice in the new year, reply with “2024!” and I’ll get you more details.
T-Cole