Why Direct Response Marketing?
What Is The New Definition of Marketing? Marketing is anything that you would do or can do to get patients AND keep patients. Period.
Everything is marketing…and marketing is everything to your success.
Marketing is…
● Display ads
● Newsletters
● Websites
● Flyers
● Paid Ads
● Letterheads
● Practice Cards
● Signs
● Text messages
● Loyalty programs
● Every interactions with patients and prospects
EVERYTHING IS MARKETING!!!
Everything that you can do to either get patients or to keep them loyal to your practice is marketing!
The Light Comes On…
When you realize that “ everything is marketing ” your practice, and the opportunities to market your practice, looks totally different to you. You see obvious mistakes then you consider how your patients or potential patients might view situations, events, or documents. You will see missed opportunities and a ton of opportunities for improvement when you begin to look at this as everything has the potential to be a marketing message.
No Spray and Pray…
However, ALL marketing strategies MUST be held accountable to produce profits. This means that you must know the effectiveness of each ad, coupon, letter, flyer, postcard, etc. Your goal is to create a marketing system that's predictable and able to be duplicated. In order to reach that goal, you should be able to know the exact ad that brought every patient into your practice.
Bring Friends, Or Else…
Once you are able to create and duplicate a marketing system, your next focus should be on the return on investment. Every dollar that you spend must come back to your bank account with at least 5 new friends to join him. When done correctly, there is no better investment in your practice than marketing. Everything else is a cost. You must know your return on investment (ROI) at all times by using direct response marketing.
Direct Response Marketing
Direct Response Marketing is a marketing strategy designed to generate an immediate response or immediate action from a prospect, where each response (and purchase) can be measured, and attributed, and connected to individual advertisements.
Why Direct Response Marketing?
There are a lot of reasons why you should opt for direct response marketing. First, direct response marketing is personal, specific, clear, and simple. Secondly, it’s two-way communication because it gets your marketing message out but it also lets you know exactly what marketing message got people in to see you. In other words, direct response marketing allows you to know exactly what the value of a patient is, because you know exactly what marketing piece brought them in.
Make It Plain & Simple
You start transitioning to direct response marketing by understanding the benefits your patients want and offer them it in your ads. Communicate these benefits in an attention-grabbing, compelling, and motivating manner. Next, you need to make an offer that has a universal appeal to your defined target. Be sure to make a soft offer that is non-threatening for potential buyers to respond to. Make it easy and non-threatening for first-time patients to step into your practice and enjoy their first meal. Some physicians offer discounts or free coffee to break the ice and create the momentum. Then when you have the momentum, start to implement tracking mechanisms in your ads that you can test while tracking.
The Direct Response Difference
Using direct response marketing makes your ads and marketing messages much more effective. It starts with an attention-grabbing headline that makes a bold and simple to understand claim, promise, or offer. The headline qualifies who the remainder of the message/ad is written for. This kind of marketing has ONE clear and simple goal to get the prospective patients to step into your practice to get what they want and need. It also presents a clear call to action. For example, “Tell the person at the front desk this phrase”, “Show this coupon in on this date…” etc. Direct response marketing allows you to know the true value and worth of each and every patient.
Coming Up Short
One of the reasons why many physicians have problems with their marketing strategies is because they don’t know the value of their patients and therefore shy away from investing the needed amount of money into marketing to get that patient. When you use direct response marketing and keep an up to date and accurate database of your past patients, you can accurately measure the value of every patient for their lifetime. This is called the lifetime value of a patient. Lifetime value is how much revenue a patient will bring into your practice over a lifetime.
This is an excerpt from my new book titled "Patient Growth Accelerator" which will be released on May 7, 2020! I hope you enjoyed reading. Leave me your thoughts below!