Isn"t My Orthodontic Postcard Marketing Enough?
Today, I am going to answer question number seven, which is "Isn't my postcard marketing enough?" I love when I get that question.
It requires a couple of things in order to really get the right answer based on that question.
So, if you are currently doing a marketing campaign utilizing postcards, and you are getting a positive return on your investment, then certainly keep doing that.
What do I mean? If you are tracking the results of your campaing so that you know that every time you send out that postcard mailing you get X number of phone calls, and those phone calls turn into X number of visits, and those visits turn into X number of new patient starts, and you are getting a high number of new patient starts, then that's great.
Don't stop doing that.
But, do consider that it's not enough.
The reason that you want to really consider all of your marketing options and what you're doing to be effectively growing your practice, is because if all of your eggs are in one basket, and something happens to that basket, you're in trouble.
That even applies to referrals.
If 80 percent of your business is based on the referrals from dentists because you've cultivated these wonderful relationships over the years, you may feel that you don't have to do any of this outbound marketing.
However, if one of those, or two of those, top referring dentists should retire, sell their practice, move into another location, or just get upset with you for some reason, and all of those referrals go away, you're in trouble.
And it's going to take a lot more effort to try to rebuild that, than if you have another set of marketing techniques that are going to bring in new patients.
Obviously with referrals, you want to take all of those that you can get -- the more the better.
However, you still want to be able to use those postcards, and use them as long as they're working.
Now, if you don't have a good return on investment or you're not sure Stop! The moment that you don't know if there's a return on investment, or you're not sure what it is, or you can't even track it, stop doing it.
Don't ever let somebody tell you that marketing and advertising is all about spending the money and you don't need to know the specifics of how it's working.
If anyone says that, kick them out of your office.
That is not acceptable today, because today we can track everything.
So, let's say you have your referrals, you have your postcard marketing, and you know that it's working, it's bringing in new patients.
Then, add in online marketing and start taking advantage of that.
Now you have three different ways of bringing in new patients.
If any one of those methods should fail, fall apart, break, or something goes wrong, you're not in trouble because you have two back-ups.
Obviously, you will want to rebuild that third marketing leg, but losing it won't devastate your business.
Hopefully that gives you a little bit of information, and some food for thought.
That's my answer for number seven, which is, "Isn't my postcard marketing enough?" And the short answer is, "No," but make sure that you're getting a good return on investment, and if you are, don't stop.
I'll never tell you to stop doing something that's working.
It requires a couple of things in order to really get the right answer based on that question.
So, if you are currently doing a marketing campaign utilizing postcards, and you are getting a positive return on your investment, then certainly keep doing that.
What do I mean? If you are tracking the results of your campaing so that you know that every time you send out that postcard mailing you get X number of phone calls, and those phone calls turn into X number of visits, and those visits turn into X number of new patient starts, and you are getting a high number of new patient starts, then that's great.
Don't stop doing that.
But, do consider that it's not enough.
The reason that you want to really consider all of your marketing options and what you're doing to be effectively growing your practice, is because if all of your eggs are in one basket, and something happens to that basket, you're in trouble.
That even applies to referrals.
If 80 percent of your business is based on the referrals from dentists because you've cultivated these wonderful relationships over the years, you may feel that you don't have to do any of this outbound marketing.
However, if one of those, or two of those, top referring dentists should retire, sell their practice, move into another location, or just get upset with you for some reason, and all of those referrals go away, you're in trouble.
And it's going to take a lot more effort to try to rebuild that, than if you have another set of marketing techniques that are going to bring in new patients.
Obviously with referrals, you want to take all of those that you can get -- the more the better.
However, you still want to be able to use those postcards, and use them as long as they're working.
Now, if you don't have a good return on investment or you're not sure Stop! The moment that you don't know if there's a return on investment, or you're not sure what it is, or you can't even track it, stop doing it.
Don't ever let somebody tell you that marketing and advertising is all about spending the money and you don't need to know the specifics of how it's working.
If anyone says that, kick them out of your office.
That is not acceptable today, because today we can track everything.
So, let's say you have your referrals, you have your postcard marketing, and you know that it's working, it's bringing in new patients.
Then, add in online marketing and start taking advantage of that.
Now you have three different ways of bringing in new patients.
If any one of those methods should fail, fall apart, break, or something goes wrong, you're not in trouble because you have two back-ups.
Obviously, you will want to rebuild that third marketing leg, but losing it won't devastate your business.
Hopefully that gives you a little bit of information, and some food for thought.
That's my answer for number seven, which is, "Isn't my postcard marketing enough?" And the short answer is, "No," but make sure that you're getting a good return on investment, and if you are, don't stop.
I'll never tell you to stop doing something that's working.
