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If It Ain’t Broke, Break It!

AIM Marketing

By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)

In his book Good To Great, author Jim Collins explains that “Good is the enemy of great.” It is all too easy for us to grow complacent with things that seem ‘good enough.’ The consequences of this can range from a loss of market share to business failure. This has always been true, but never more so than it is today. Why? Because technology advances at an ever increasing rate, which means the period of time from ‘new and different’ to ‘old and boring’ shrinks with each passing year.

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This is not to say that such mainstays as best in class customer service and attention to the needs of your patients are no longer important. On the contrary, they are more important than ever. That’s because a consequence of this increased rate of technological advance is a higher standard of care when it comes to “customer service.” In other words, if you think your current level of attention to the needs of your patients, both current and prospective is ‘good enough,’ think again.

Another way to help ensure practice growth is to increase your willingness and ability to understand what motivates members of the demographic group known as Generation Y, and adapt your communications and compensation accordingly. This group, raised on the Internet, is better educated, less brand loyal and more focused on quality and speed of delivery. This spells both opportunity and challenge for your team management and motivation skills.

Our company is committed to what we term “I.C.A.N.” that is, Improvement that’s Continuous And Never-ending. A poignant example of this is in our work with social media for dentists. At this time, ‘the rules of the game’ and what constitutes an optimum social media presence are changing at an astounding rate. Case In Point: I was invited in September, to make a presentation to a group 4 months later on social media strategies and nearly drove myself crazy reworking the presentation to ensure it was ‘current.’  While the pace of change required to remain in the vanguard of dental patient service may not be quite that great, I do suggest as a worthwhile investment of time adding a “What’s New” section to your team meetings. You and your team then have an opportunity to share updates and suggestions on how to improve the patient experience in your practice.  And do not think that, once you’ve implemented a change, you are stuck with it.  Experimentation is a key ingredient of improvement and that elusive goal called perfection.  Just be sure to give each (hoped for) enhancement a fair chance to demonstrate its value.  If ninety nine people love it, and one does not, remember not to set or change policy on the exception, but rather, on the rule.

Lead or Be Left Behind

What this means for your practice is to be ever on the lookout for better ways of doing and packaging what you do. You need not be an ‘early adopter’ of technology. From your patient’s perspective, offering the ‘latest and greatest’ will probably not warrant the premium price you are likely to pay, as well as the ‘growing pains’ you’ll likely encounter, by being by the first to adopt a new technology. But you can and should keep yourself apprised of shifts in the preferences of your target audience(s). For example, are you communicating with current and prospective patients in ways in which they wish to be communicated? Is your service offering consistent with what patients value?

On the ‘back office’ side, are you learning about ways to reduce your cost of practice while maintaining high standards and perceptions of quality? Submission of online dental patient forms is an excellent way to simultaneously reduce the time and effort involved with enrolling new patients while providing a valuable benefit to your patients.

How To Know

One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to keep up with what your patients want is through the use of surveys. These can be mailed or distributed by your team to your patients, but why not save time and money, while simultaneously offering another technology-based convenience to your patients, namely, emailed and online patient surveys?

AIM MarketingIf It Ain’t Broke, Break It!
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Principles of Effective Dental Direct Mail III

AIM Marketing

By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)

This is the third of three issues on this topic.

In the previous two issues, we presented detail on the best audiences to target to promote your dental practice, as well as how to structure a successful campaign. In this final Issue, we present techniques for tracking, monitoring, and making reliable decisions, namely, continue, tweak, or trash.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

We’ve all heard this before, and likely understand it means that the output of anything, be it sausage, data analysis, or dental care, depends upon the quality of the input. In the case of analyzing the results of a direct mail (or any) marketing campaign, the means must be in place for collecting not only accurate but also complete, data. One of the simplest ways to do this is to assign a unique telephone tracking number on your direct mail piece. We also recommend a vanity URL (special website address extension), which, as with the telephone number, only appears on your mailer.

Armed with these two pieces of nifty technology, you are now able to evaluate not only the number of responses but also the quality of the response. What do we mean by quality??

Hint:
What happens after the telephone rings is just as important
as getting it to ring in the first place!

Our next Issue will emphasize the importance of ‘breaking it, even if it ain’t broke”

Sincerely,

AIM DENTAL MARKETING
Daniel A. ‘Danny’ Bobrow,
President

AIM MarketingPrinciples of Effective Dental Direct Mail III
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Principles of Effective Dental Direct Mail II

AIM Marketing ,

By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)

This is the second of three issues on this topic.

In our last Issue, we introduced and discussed the components of a successful direct mail campaign, included a Planning Checklist, and shared some of the more profitable target audiences, going into some detail about the pros and cons of targeting new residents.

Now, let’s talk about a more aggressive and, therefore, exciting, approach, namely, demographically selected segments of the current population. Other ’boutique audiences,’ such as brides-to-be, employees where they work, and persons with specific medical conditions.

The times when only highly capitalized firms could afford to employ sophisticated marketing research and implementation technologies are thankfully behind us. The advent of the Internet, and the ability of companies like AIM to ‘bundle orders’ means any dental practice can, for a reasonable investment, have access to precision targeting, list acquisition, mailer design, print, fulfillment, and tracking services.

A Laser Beats A Shot Gun Every Time, Especially When It Saves Money!

For many years, we’ve advocated targeting at the carrier route, as opposed to zip code, level. A carrier route is a series of physically contiguous addresses used by the postal carrier to efficiently deliver the mail. It is, quite simply, and as the name implies, the mail carrier’s route. Targeting carrier routes has two distinct advantages over mailing to entire zip codes. First, it permits the practice to be far more precise in identifying and connecting with only those households that are a ‘fit,’ both in geographic and demographic terms, for the practice. Convenience continues to be the number one factor in someone’s decision to visit a dental office for the first time, so it is nearly always a waste of valuable resources when the practice is constrained by targeting entire zip codes instead of only those portions of zip codes that are a fit for the practice.

Second, because targeting at the carrier route level allows a competent fulfillment house to do much of the work for the Post Office (by sorting and bundling the mail), the per piece postage rate can be as little as half that of mailing to all, or even part, of a zip code. Because postage often accounts for more than half the cost of a mailing tactic, the savings really add up.

Design, Copy, and Offer(s) That Speak To Your Audience

In designing your mailer copy, selecting graphics, and choosing your offer(s), place yourself in the shoes of your intended audience. The mailer must ‘speak’ to them, that is, get them first to identify with the message, by answering the question “Is this (about) me?” in the affirmative. This requires that the imagery, be it a photograph or illustration, represents a person, group, or lifestyle to which your audience can relate. The offer should be likewise appealing to them.

What’s the Frequency (and interval) Kenneth?

As any good marketer will tell you, once is never enough, that is, repeat exposure of your memorable and compelling message is necessary to break through your audience’s protective barriers (if this does not yet resonate with you, ask how many times you see the same television commercial before you even know what the ad is about, and I think it will). Our experience dictates a minimum of three, and as many as twelve, identical, or highly similar, mailings to the same person within a twelve-month period to be optimum. We typically recommend an A, A/B, or A/B/C program, defined as follows:

‘A’ Program: mailing to the same Group each month for 12 consecutive months (total of twelve mailers per Audience Member)

‘A/B’ Program: divide the audience in half and mail to each Group in alternating months (total of six mailers per Audience Member)

‘A/B/C’ Program: divide the audience into thirds and mail to each group every third month (total of four mailers per Audience Member)

The decision as to which approach to employ is often based on budgetary considerations, but sometimes also on the volume of new patient inquiries the practice feels it can effectively handle over a given month (capacity), as well as the number of prospective patient households within a reasonable distance (because of the importance of convenience to the prospective patient’s decision) of the practice.

Issue III will delve into tracking, evaluation, and sound decision-making with respect to dental direct mail strategy.

Sincerely,

AIM DENTAL MARKETING
Daniel A. ‘Danny’ Bobrow,
President

AIM MarketingPrinciples of Effective Dental Direct Mail II
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Principles of Effective Dental Direct Mail I

AIM Marketing ,

By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)

This is the first of three issues on this topic.

Dental direct mail has long been an accepted means for image-consciously, yet cost-effectively promoting ones practice. Its popularity lies in the fact that it offers a focused and controlled method for sharing information about your practice with selected members of your community. Properly implemented, direct mail marketing can mean a steady inflow of new patients, which, by adding to your existing patient base, also increases the success of your internal marketing efforts.

There are a number of audiences to consider reaching with direct mail to grow your practice. These include new residents, existing residents, residents in need of treatment for headache, diabetes, and sleep disorder, families with children, business leaders, employees, and more.

Effectively reaching and receiving a response from these different audiences requires an understanding of the kind of services they find appealing. For example, if you want to increase your hygiene production, promote cleanings and preventive dentistry to New and Existing Residents. If you want to increase the number of patients choosing cosmetic procedures, market to the Brides to Be in your area promoting the idea of having “…that perfect smile for your special day,” and if you want to be the dentist in your area able to help diabetic patients, patients with sleep apnea, or TMD, be sure your initial communications clearly and concisely demonstrates that you have the skill and sensitivity to help them with their special needs.

As with any marketing program, success at direct mail requires that each program element be performed correctly. To help you with this, we offer below a Dental Direct Mail Program Checklist. Using this Checklist will assist you in identifying and tracking the performance of each element of your direct mail program.

To download your own Dental Direct Mail Program Checklist, click here.

Of the many different audiences for direct mail marketing, the one group which shows the highest percentage response rate is New Residents. The general appeal in targeting new residents stems from the fact that people who move a sufficient distance will likely want a new dentist for themselves and their family. Since all practices lose patients when people move out of town, this is an opportunity to “turn a negative into a positive” by targeting this continually renewing source of new patients. However, a practice desiring to do more than simply stem attrition will want to do more than simply market to new residents because, while the percentage response may be high, owing to the small number, relative to total population, of new movers, the volume is low.

Issues XV and XVI will delve into more aggressive practice growth techniques.

Sincerely,

AIM DENTAL MARKETING
Daniel A. ‘Danny’ Bobrow,
President

AIM MarketingPrinciples of Effective Dental Direct Mail I
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Manage and Communicate with Dental Patients of Record Using the Internet III

AIM Marketing

By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)

This is the third Issue concerned with Communicating With Patients of Record.

In this last in our series on Communicating with Patients of Record we focus on why and how to encourage your patients to post positive reviews on social media and service review sites to grow your practice.

There are two benefits your practice realizes from getting its patients to submit posts to customer review sites and your social media. First, people increasingly depend upon service review sites in forming their opinions about a product or service, which in turn, predisposes them to make their product or service selection.

Second, these posts, be they on service Review or your social media sites, help optimize your website, that is, make it more popular among search engines that are responsible for presenting your website on their results page when someone searches for a term like ‘dentist’ in your area.  It should be noted, however, that the degree of optimization benefit depends upon the extent to which what is posted is ‘keyword dense’ that is, contains words and phrases you want the search engines to recognize, and contains fully qualified URLs, that is, complete website addresses (when preceded by ‘http://’ website addresses are deemed to be ‘fully qualified’).

Some of the more relevant service review sites for dentists include:

Google, Facebook, Yelp, Angie’s, & Health Grades

Priming The Pump?

The two general ways to get patients to post to your social media pages, or submit a positive review are 1) having in-office display materials and ‘takeaways’ with instructions for doing so, and 2) utilizing an automated review generator platform that ideally ‘filters’ less than flattering reviews for remedial action by the practice.

Because these reviews are so valuable, you should consider offering a bit of incentive to yield the desired result. For example, you may wish to emulate what other establishments in your area have done for years only, instead of asking someone to “Drop your business card in the fishbowl to receive a chance to win [this or that],” invite them to interact with you online.  Explain that, in exchange for e.g. Liking your Facebook page, “Checking In” to your location through Facebook, posting to your Twitter feed, LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, or, even better, video recording and uploading a testimonial to Youtube, your patient will be entered to receive a valuable award.

Try it. It works!

Photo: Example of an in-office display inviting your patients to like, friend, and post to your social media sites.

Another way to ‘build your tribe’ is via email:

Photo: Example of email sent to your patients announcing your ascension to the world of social media.

Yet another simple way to get people to join your social media sites is by inviting them to do so from your website and email signature:

It’s easy to embed buttons and icons for your website visitors to click on to join, like, connect with, or follow you.

Responding to questionable reviews

To maximize your ability to respond to what is said about you by others, you will want to register with the more relevant review sites. The extent to which you are able to respond depends on the site. Some require a registration fee: most do not. Some allow you to respond to the review publicly, some only direct with the person posting the review, and some permit neither. In general, the best response is to have far more positive than negative reviews, then let the prospective patient decide for him or herself.

One argument in favor of directing people to post to your Facebook page is the ease with which to communicate and otherwise deal with anything that is posted to it.

So what’s best?

As with so many things, the optimum strategy for encouraging your patients to write nice things about you online depends upon your situation. If, for instance, you’ve yet to receive any Google reviews, that should probably be your first objective, so ask your patients to do so. Once you’ve received say, sixty or so 5 Star Google Reviews (average in the 4.8-5.0 range), ask your patients to post comments on Yelp, Health Grades and, if they’ve registered, Angie’s. I recommend you always encourage your patients to post to your social media pages, as well as agree to have their video-recorded testimonials uploaded to Youtube.

The final piece in the puzzle is being sure your team can effectively communicate to your patients what they must do to post on your behalf.  Be sure your Team knows the sites with which you want patients to interact, and also the names of your various pages.  If you’ve set up your pages correctly, they should be very similar to your practice name, so this should not pose a challenge.

Sincerely,
AIM DENTAL MARKETING
Daniel A. ‘Danny’ Bobrow,
President

AIM MarketingManage and Communicate with Dental Patients of Record Using the Internet III
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Manage and Communicate with Dental Patients of Record Using the Internet II

AIM Marketing

By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)

This is the second of three Issues concerned with Communicating With Patients of Record.

Of course, no self respecting discussion about communicating with patients of record would be complete without including social networking.

According to Socialnomics “Social media (is not) a fad. It is the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution.” Here are a few more statistical tid bits:

So, if you think social media is just a fad, think again.

As with any new endeavor, getting started can be a daunting proposition. Consider budgeting a certain amount of time per week, and possibly delegating some of the work to someone who is motivated and, with hope, already knowledgable about the subject.

The first social media sites with which to become involved are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and (possibly, if you are a specialist) LinkedIn. Instagram and Pinterest are also wildly popular, as is Tik Tok. The extent to which working with these to enhance a dental practice’s visibility, or how much attention is being paid to it by the search engines as part of social media marketing, is an ever-moving target (more on this soon).

Books and other resources are available on each of these, but the most direct, and lowest cost, way to get started is simply to visit each of them, then register for an account.

Facebook and Twitter are extremely popular sites and rather simple on which to create profiles.

YouTube allows you to upload your own videos, as well as link to them from your own website, and view other videos that might interest you.  Future communications will present a simple, nine-step process for creating extremely valuable patient video testimonials.

LinkedIn is used more for business than social interaction, but can be a useful way to get the word out to your patients (most of whom, after all, are involved in some form of business). As noted above If you are a specialist, LinkedIn can be an especially powerful tool for communicating with referring practices.

Here are step-by-step instructions, using Facebook as an example, for setting up your social networking site.

Then, you get connections, termed friends in Facebook. Facebook makes it easy for you to find and invite people to become friends with you (or at least, with your Facebook Profile). We can also thank Facebook for making the word friend a verb as well as a noun.

You are now, at last, ready to begin disseminating valuable information and opportunities to your patients. And here is where the art of effective social networking comes into play.

Our next Issue will conclude our discussion about Communicating With Patients of Record by focusing on how to use online review sites such as Yelp, Angie’s, City Search, and Health Grades to grow your practice.

Sincerely,
AIM DENTAL MARKETING
Daniel A. ‘Danny’ Bobrow,
President

AIM MarketingManage and Communicate with Dental Patients of Record Using the Internet II
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Manage and Communicate with Dental Patients of Record Using the Internet I

AIM Marketing ,

By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)

Below we present the first of three Issues concerned with Communicating With Patients of Record.

Synopsis

Effective patient communication requires a simple-to-use content management system and automated means for delivering messages. Equally important are the chosen messages and interval of the communications. The final success component is effective response tracking and monitoring, without which one cannot determine the relative effectiveness of various communication components and strategies. The benefit is a more loyal and valuable patient base, and a more valuable patient means a higher ROI from strategies that generate new patients.

By The Numbers

If you’re investing, say, $1,000 in a new patient acquisition strategy, and you’re averaging 5 new patients for every $1,000 invested, your cost per patient is $200. Now, if the average annual value of a patient to your practice (AAVP) is $1500, your return on investment (ROI) is easily calculated to be 650% (($7500-$1000)/$1000). Not bad. But what if you could increase AAVP to, say $3,000? That’s right. Your dentistry marketing ROI more than doubles to 1400% (($15000-$1000)/$1000). For the same investment in external marketing, you just shot your ROI into the stratosphere. Clearly, this won’t happen by itself or overnight. But you may be pleasantly surprised to learn it’s not nearly as challenging as you might imagine. The reason is that most dental practices are nowhere near maximizing their average patient value.

Spread The Word

One of the simplest, most cost-effective ways to increase average dental patient value is by doing a better job of communicating (and considering adding to) the wonderful benefits your practice already offers its patients. There is a lot about you and your practice that your patients may forget, or not even know, about.

Make The Connection

The first step in cost-effectively communicating with your patients of record is to implement a policy of collecting valid email addresses from your patients. There are a number of tactics to help with this. For new patients, it’s simply a matter of incorporating the request into your patient enrollment form (or, preferably, having one of your team do it for your patient while they are in the office. Online appointment scheduling services automatically collect email addresses.  If you do not have an email address for a current patient, your Team Member should be proficient at explaining to the patient how the office will (and will not) use their email address, how it simplifies communications between practice and patient, and how it is ecologically responsible (no need for paper). Of course, if the patient prefers that he/she not receive communications via email, you want to respect and honor their preference.

To collect email addresses of your current patients as they present for treatment or hygiene, the Team should take a few moments to update their contact and health information, and simply request their “preferred email.” If the practice chooses to adopt paperless forms and online appointment requests, a mailing may be sent to, or a telephone call placed with, the patient advising them of these valuable new services that eliminate the need for paper forms and which simplify the appointment scheduling process for the patient.

Keep In Touch

Now that you’re well on your way to capturing patient email information, it’s time to decide what you’d like to share with your patients. Most email services provide the means to perform what are called Campaigns and Broadcasts. A Campaign is a schedule of predetermined communications that are delivered according to a schedule (that can be changed ‘on the fly’) starting from the date the patient is entered into the system. For instance, if I join your practice today, you might arrange for me to immediately receive an online patient satisfaction survey. Three weeks later, you might introduce me to laser-assisted dentistry. One month after that, you could let me know more about mini dental implants. And so on. Broadcast communications are sent to everyone (or a selected sub-grouping) on your contact list at the same time. For instance, you can send ‘Spring Cleaning,’ Back To School, Insurance “Use it or lose it”, Dental Health Month, or other date-dependent messages. Once the system is in place, you are in control!

Track It

The final success component involves measuring response to your Program in general, and specific communications in particular. The response may be further broken down into Open Rate, Click Through, and Conversion. Open Rate is the number and percent of total recipients who actually opened your email. Click Through refers to the number and percent of total recipients who clicked on one or more links embedded in your message. To ensure delivery past spam filters and to keep messages short, it is a good idea to ask recipients to click on a link to learn more, redeem an offer, etc. You should also use a unique telephone tracking number on your email communications so you are able to determine how many, and what type, of calls are generated as a result of your email campaign. Conversion is the number and percent of total recipients who actually took the requested action e.g. scheduled an end-of-year appointment to maximize benefits, came in for their ‘spring cleaning,’ scheduled their Back to School appointment, etc. (Click through are often considered to be conversions because it represents some form of action taken by the patient. In our view, this is merely an intermediate step toward the ultimate objective, the former being a ‘suspect’, the latter a ‘prospect’).

Our next Issue will be the second of three concerned with Communicating With Dental Patients of Record.

Sincerely,
AIM DENTAL MARKETING
Daniel A. ‘Danny’ Bobrow,
President

AIM MarketingManage and Communicate with Dental Patients of Record Using the Internet I
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Do Well By Doing Good: what a concept!

Do Well By Doing Good: what a concept!

AIM Marketing
AIM MarketingDo Well By Doing Good: what a concept!
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Do Well By Doing Good: what a concept!

Do Well By Doing Good: what a concept!

AIM Marketing ,

Do more for your cause while growing your business. What a concept!

What if there is a practice-building technique which involves: no selling, costs little (or nothing) to implement, is an especially terrific value during lean economic times, attracts new patients, encourages referrals, builds team camaraderie, positions you as a coveted media source, leverages your giving, and is a lot of fun?

Would you want to learn more? If not, you may stop reading now.

The technique goes by various names: I will refer to it here as cause-related event marketing (CREM).

The What and Why of CREM

I like to define cause marketing as the process by which an individual or business seeks to achieve one or more business objectives as a consequence of supporting some form of philanthropy.

“Cause marketing is often sidelined because the impact can be hard to measure.” Says Todd Wilson in his Mediapost.com article Bringing Cause Marketing Forward

*www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237895/

bringing-0cause-marketing-forward

Bringing-cause-marketing-forward

Yet, a Nielsen Study** found that: fifty percent of those surveyed had a more positive impression; eighty percent would pay more; and eighty-five percent would actually switch allegiances if the product or service in question were sold by a company with a demonstrated commitment to social responsibility. These numbers are even higher for so-called Millennials; further evidence that ‘this ain’t no fad’: it’s a trend!

Strength In Numbers

The power of CREM lies in its ability to encourage stakeholders to ‘do well by doing good.’ Each person or business, by virtue of its willingness to help support your event, receives the direct benefit – as with any sale, there are elements of science and art: the art in CREM is in helping prospective supporters visualize how they will benefit.

Following are examples of how various potential partners in your event stand to gain by their participation:

Attendees at your event have a good time, meet new people, learn about the cause you’ve chosen to support, and appreciate that your practice not only good at what it does: it also has a heart.

Merchants, by agreeing to donate or offer at deeply discounted rates, food, entertainment, facilities, decorations, prizes, etc., gain exposure to a new group of prospective customers.

The Media get a ‘feel good’ story to share with their readers, listeners, or viewers.

Your chosen charity receives far more in donations than if you simply wrote them a check out of your own pocket – there is strength in numbers!

You and your practice benefit, not only because of the ‘good feeling’ and heightened appreciation participants have for you and your Team, you also have the chance to spend non-clinical ‘quality time’ with current and prospective patients. That’s really when the magic happens.

All of this adds up to that elusive but desirable phenomenon known as leverage.
That’s why CREM does not simply make sense: it also makes dollars.

And How!

The first step is to gain ‘buy-in’ from your Team concerning the event. You’ll want to ‘paint the picture’ that is …….choose your cause.

Doing well by doing good is a time-honored practice. Unlike Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand,
which holds that society benefits as a consequence of pursuing one’s own personal interests,
cause marketing assumes the opposite. Engaging in an activity whose primary intention is to help others unavoidably helps grow your practice.

That’s why I hope you will choose to embrace cause-related event marketing and leave your world that much better than you found it.

HuB Institute http://sarasotaday.com

AIM MarketingDo Well By Doing Good: what a concept!
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Dental Website Visitors Follow-Up Campaigns

AIM Marketing

By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)

Success with Web-Based Dental Marketing

This is the third and final of three Issues devoted to success with web-based marketing.

Synopsis of Three Issue Series
Success at web-based marketing means implementing strategies, both conventional and Internet-based, which direct qualified prospective patients to your website. It also means having a website that encourages visitors to willingly share with you their contact information. Finally, it means giving the market segment we call Caterpillars and Tire Kickers the means and motivation to remain in communication with your practice. This represents an especially fertile opportunity for practice growth because few of your colleagues bother to keep in touch with this market segment. By capturing visitor information and communicating with them over time, you are, in essence bringing your website to them, and it means you have the potential to dominate this highly profitable market segment.

Remember: today’s Tire Kickers are tomorrow’s Trigger Pullers!

Generating the Qualified Patient Lead (QPL) And Converting them into a Patient
As we have discussed, a good-looking website and qualified visitors are certainly necessary, but insufficient, to guarantee success. Even if your Internet Marketing Performance Assessment confirms your site is doing a good job attracting and impressing the visitor with its content, it must also generate Qualified Patient Leads, that is, motivate them to contact you, or at least initially, request to be contacted by you.

Of Tire Kickers and Trigger Pullers
Website inquiries may be classified as follows:

– 20% will take action immediately (we call these the ‘Trigger Pullers’)
– 20% will not buy at all (the DNRs for ‘do not resuscitate)
and
– The remaining 60% will buy from someone within 12 months. We call this group the ‘Tire Kickers.’

Many people are surprised to learn that this third category is potentially as important as the first because, if they are communicated with correctly, they represent a highly profitable source of new patients. The key is to run the race at the prospective patient’s pace.

More on QPLs
The home page of your website needs to cater to both the Trigger Puller as well as the Tire Kicker. For those visitors who are ready to appoint, be sure you have a Request an Appointment Form on your Home Page, and a Unique Telephone Tracking Number. Both allow you to track the new patient as originating from your website, which aids in evaluating your dental website marketing investment, as well as your Team’s batting average (learn more about mastering the Art of First Impressions).

Converting Tire Kickers into Trigger Pullers
To capitalize on this segment of your market, your website must offer opportunities for the visitor to learn about your practice without having to commit to a visit. Offer special content, which results in a high perception of value to your website visitors. In so doing, you convert anonymous surfers on your website into valuable QPLs. Below are some examples of how to achieve this:

Use Sign-Up Forms And Graphics On Your Home Page and Throughout Your Website

New Patient Special:
Free Consultation When You Come In For A Cleaning
and Full X-Rays
Call Now!
123-456-7890
Cosmetic Dentistry – Crowns – Bridges –
Veneers – Dentures – Whitening

Beautiful Smiles Begin Here

domainname.com

 

Next Steps
Now that you have delivered on your first promise to the QPL, that is, the Special Report, continue to deliver timely, valuable, and frequent (but not too frequent!) communications. Here’s a sample Schedule:

Day One – E-mail Special Report
Day Five – Audio Post Card
Day Fourteen – Email Smile Secret #1
Day Twenty-Eight – Video Postcard
Day Forty-Two – E-mail Smile Secret #2
Day Fifty-Six – Email Smile Secret #3
Day Seventy – Mail Invitation for Free Consultation
Day Eighty-Four – Email Smile Secret #4
Day Ninety-Eight – Email Smile Secret #5
Day One Hundred Twelve – Video Postcard

And so on for the rest of the year…

And here are examples of possible communications:

Direct Mail Sample

We recommend a combination of invitation and post card style mailings. The design should be similar, so you reinforce your practice brand in the mind of the QPL. The key to success with this is memorable simplicity.

Email Sample

Emails should include links to your photo gallery, testimonial pages, and other compelling reasons to keep in contact with you, such as attractive Special Offers.

Audio Postcard Sample:

Audio postcards are colorful emails that also include a recording of your or a staff member’s voice. This is another way to subtly create a sense of familiarity and comfort in the mind (and emotions) of your QPL.

Communications should continue for up to a year, which is what our research shows can be the ‘gestation period’ during which the Tire Kicker metamorphoses into a Trigger Puller.

By regularly and professionally following up with your website visitors, you have positioned yourself as a trusted expert in the field so, when they do decide the time is right, it’s you they’ll call.

By the way, if you already have a website, all you need to do is add the forms to your existing site, and be sure the visitors who complete them are automatically fed into your communication campaign.

Our next Issue is the first of three concerned with Communicating With Patients of Record.

Sincerely,
AIM DENTAL MARKETING
Daniel A. ‘Danny’ Bobrow,
President

AIM MarketingDental Website Visitors Follow-Up Campaigns
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