I’m reminded, all too vividly this morning, about the importance of “PLACE” in direct mail.

To be clear, I’m not talking about “Don’s Place,” down the street, where you go have a cool refreshing libation.

For my work here, PLACE is can be considered geography. Or, to be more precise, where your practice is located in relationship to where your patients come from.

Your PLACE in their world (prospective and current pts), is as important as message, market and media.

Geographically speaking, there are reasons why your patients end up choosing you. In fact, in a recent DVD I watched, presented by Howie Horrocks, a gent I greatly respect for his long-term PLACE in dental marketing and promotion (he’s been at it a few years longer than I, but few, if any, can compare to his, or to my experience set, for sure), suggested, based on results from a study he commissioned, that LOCATION (PLACE) was the number one factor for patients choosing dentists.

Is that ALL patients?

No.

But, it is the for the vast majority of patients. (Marketing for the minority of the patients is expensive and far more difficult. Do that when you’ve money to burn and hope enough to spare.)

So, PLACE, or where you are in relationship to where your prospects are, matters greatly.

In trolling for patients via direct mail, PLACE, to me, is defined as the “list” you rent to mail your direct mail piece/campaign.

There is no other single factor in direct mail, that is more important than the list.

You can have the best marketing piece in the world (like mine), you can have perfect timing (like right after January 1st), you can have the most amazing FREE offer ever, but if PLACE isn’t correct, your mailing piece is doomed, results non-existent.

You’ll feel as though you’ve shoved your money down a rat hole, never to see it again.

Truly, this is the #1 most important piece to the direct mail puzzle. This red-headed step child is certainly one you’ll want to pay careful attention to.

If PLACE and PROPERTY strategy are concepts of interest to you, I’d suggest my friend Stephen Roulac’s comprehensive and exhaustive research and his book at Amazon.com. You can get it here:

Stephen Roulac on Place and Property Strategy