I am a huge, and I mean GIANT fan of FSIs – you know, free standing inserts.

We’ve done really, really well using this strategy. One FSI alone, all by itself, has produced over $100,000 of dentistry this year.

However, there’s a big fat, ugly, disastrous pitfall you must watch out for.

In fact, I’ve been sort of waiting it out to see what kind of results we’d have on our latest insert, to verify my suspicions.

And…as of today, my suspicions are on target…and I won’t be making THIS mistake again:

At all costs, avoid having your FSI lumped in with other FSIs on the same day.

Today, in our newspaper here in Salem, our FSI was one of about 20. No joke.

Even though we hit 45,000 subscribers (entire circ) of the newspaper, our return so far has been dismal.

As I was eating lunch at a local favorite bakery of mine and wolfing down my “Jerry” sandwich (I eat there enough they named my favorite after me – a cool client/patient retention strategy I must say), I picked up the paper and started leafing through it. There, in the middle of about 20 other FSIs was our insert.

Incidentally, just one patient phone call today, so far, from it. You can imagine, I’m not happy. In fact, “pissed” would be more accurate.

So, we’ve got to extract a referral or two out of this patient, and maximize the possible revenue, so we’re not looking at a total loss. If we can get 1 referral and each of them are in for our current average revenue this insert typically produces, I’ll be just slightly ahead.

Bottom line: When the newspaper comes a callin’ and offers you a fantastic deal on your next FSI, just make sure you’re not lumped in with others – it will definitely have an effect on overall results…and not likely a positive one.

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