Modified Newtonian potentials have been proposed for the description of relativistic effects acting on particles and fluids in permanent orbital motion around black holes. Here we further discuss spherically symmetric potentials like the one proposed by Artemova, Bjornson & Novikov (1996, Astrophysical Journal, 461, 565), and we illustrate their virtues by studying the acceleration along circular trajectories. We compare the results with exact expressions in the spacetime of a rotating (Kerr) black hole.