The Worst Number in Advertising
A while ago, I had a conversation with a private client recently about different patient attraction/acquisition strategies. There was only one problem:
His concern centered around a dwindling number of prospects reacting to his postcard.
And that was the problem.
What I mean is this: He relies ONLY on postcards for new patients.
Postcards can be a very lucrative and affordable method for attracting new patients and I wholeheartedly endorse their use and USE them almost weekly in the SofTouch Practices. (But, there’s a secret to this – read on.)
The good news is he sees 25 to 30 new pts every month. The bad news is they are ALL (or about 95% of them) from one postcard. My prediction is that this one postcard is very close to “playing out.”
Playing out is a dirty little phrase even I hate. Why? Well, after a period of time, an offer, a color, an approach, etc. to get new patients will eventually just wear out. It happens with every ad campaign known to man. That’s just the way it is! They fizzle out.
I was reminded of it from the phone call with the client and also with the statistics I rec’d Friday from the Salem SofTouch office – we had DIVERSITY in where new patients are coming from – referrals (not just from pts but from team members), postcards, newspaper ads and even, get this, a LOCAL BAR! To me, businesses OUGHT to be sending you new patients! Especially if someone you know works there or goes there. Those folks gotta get to a dentist sometime, right?
This week, nah, TODAY, examine where the last 30 patients came from. If the stats are lopsided in any way, from one source or even TWO sources, DO SOMETHING to fix it and diversify where patients come from, where they find you.
“WHY” you ask? Because, you never know when one source will go away, then, you’re left wondering, “What do I do now?”
[Incidentally, that goes for relying on one Internet strategy or JUST the Internet when it comes to SEO, Yahoo!, Google, Twitter, Facebook, whatever.]