Happy Monday.
It’s sure nice having a packed schedule, eh?
This week continues my 2-week marketing blitz at SofTouch™ Dental. I’ve literally re-vamped the focus, look, feel and offers of our marketing and the media we’re using.
Last week, I created one new postcard (based in part on a very, very successful formula I created a few years back that resulted in Jerry Jones Direct mailing close to a million postcards), a new Free Standing Insert (FSI) which will hit next week (trolling for new denture patients), a stand-alone, single-page letter mailed to residents within a mile or so of the office, and another FSI re-done, and improved for a smaller, local paper in one of the outlying towns where no dentist practices (so far, that one FSI is about a 5:1 ROI – I like fishing in a pond where there’s no other bait being thrown at the fish – they’re real hungy.).
So why the re-vamp on all this marketing?
Here’s a dirty little secret most in dentistry or any other industry will not likely share with you:
MARKETING GETS STALE.
Yes, it does. In fact, most advertising pieces can be used a couple of times, even to the same audience even, but eventually, that piece will wear out its welcome and become “stale.” In other words, the response rates will drop and you’ll wonder why instead of 10 new patients from 1500 postcards, you’re only getting 1.
So, I recognized that about three weeks ago and ever since, I have taken every piece we’ve used or I had planned on using, and freshened up the look, the offer, the headline, the color of paper, the media (we’re experimenting with a new one this month – a Senior News Newspaper), and the timing of our offers.
If your marketing suddenly stops producing the results you were anticipating or depending on, don’t panic.
Hit the re-start button, freshen it up and start experimenting again. Hence, my “blitz.” I’m trying about 4 different campaigns all at once.
Ideally, all will kick butt. And, from my experience, one will work well enough that if the other three fail (or fall short of my high expectations), that one winner will carry the rest and then I can simply “wash and repeat” in as many places as possible.
Now, I know I said above, marketing gets stale. It’s a fact of life. However, what I failed to mention is that MOST advertising pieces you use or create (or if you use mine that I provide to ClearPath® members – info @ clearpathsociety.com) can in fact, become “evergreen” in some fashion.
What does EVERGREEN mean?
It means that I can shelf or put the ad away for a period of time, then, re-introduce it when I’m ready again.
This can be true with postcards, too. I often times will use a postcard, mail it two, three, four times in a year to the same group. During that time, I might switch up the color of the paper, but that’s about it.
After it’s been mailed a few times, I can then “shelf it” and pull it out again a year or two later.
Then there are “holiday” type ads I’ve created. For instance, one I just finished has a “tax day” theme to it. Well, that’s good every year around tax time (April 15th). It’s a good excuse to advertise (as are most occasions or holidays). These ads are good once a year and every year thereafter.
Anyway…I hope to have some stellar results to report in the next few weeks from these pieces. Whatever works well, ClearPath® members will get to use for their own areas. It’s really cool having someone else test market new ads and you get the benefits of increased patient flow without expensive, risky testing.
I’m coming up on the 1-year anniversary of my ClearPath® Society. If you’re at all interested in attracting more new patients and keeping the patients you have, IN your office (and not someone else’s), this is a perfect time to join. Members will also be getting an entirely new Denture Marketing System, worth well over $5,000, as soon as it’s ready. More info available at www.ClearPathSociety.com.
::: One last thing: The cost to hit those 10,000 Seniors with an FSI in the Northwest Senior Boomer News? Just 12 cents each! That includes copy charges AND insertion! SWEET!!!