marketing follow-up

The First (of 3) Snooze-You-Lose Strategies That Eliminate Panic and Propel Your Dental Marketing

http://pixabay.com/en/family-tree-genealogy-295298/If you’ve ever attended a family reunion you understand. I’ll explain.

At the core, it’s the same principle that connects your dental marketing to the big-picture strategy.

My dad made a statement at our most recent family reunion. I can’t get it out of my mind.

It answers the question, “Why am I here?” And I’m not talking some existential, meaning of life idea.

The essence of his statement to our gathering of nephews, nieces, cousins, spouses, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren defines what it means to be family.

We were circling up prior to our reunion meal. My dad (the current family patriarch) pointed to the displayed, vintage portraits of my grandmother and grandfather.

Then, tearfully gesturing to our gathering, said, “They caused all this…”

Cause and effect

Everything starts somewhere. Before a tree, family or otherwise, extends its branches, there’s a simple seed (the cause).

And your dental marketing impact (the effect) is no different.

What seeds are you planting? And going a step further, do you have a strategy that’s easy to implement?

Reacting isn’t a strategy

You’re accustomed to it. For example, as a dental provider, you react to the pain a patient presents with.

Your education, training, and experience teaches you to diagnose the situation and prescribe a treatment plan. I realize it’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get the imagery.

Reaction can grip you too when there’s a need to market your services.

  • New patient scheduling is down
  • Recare has stalled
  • Web search analytics are showing downward traffic trends

And the dentist down the street is your community’s new rock star with their state-of-the-art…cutting-edge this or that (and if they use “state-of-the-art” or “cutting edge” to describe whatever in their latest postcard mailer or on their newly designed website, you should stop worrying…because no one cares…seriously, nothing says boring, “numbing,” marketing copy than those two phrases…but I digress).

Meanwhile, back to your challenge at hand…

Your marketing dilemma is a different cause for reaction than you’re typically educated, trained, and experienced to handle. You know when a tooth has erupted and what to do to fix it.

Now your marketing presents with pain. What to do?

A road paved with “good intentions” that leads you nowhere

Well intentioned dental professionals do what they know best to do when marketing challenges arise. Right?

You leave a Post-it® note on the desk of your office manager or designated front-office team member that reads, “See me about an email blast…” (or something related to a panic-driven “marketing” blitz).

Is that the best you can do?

Your dental marketing deserves better than a random, reactively conceived, out-of-their-depth (with all due respect reference to the person tasked) email blast. You’re panicked. I get it.

Take a deep breath.

Better…?

Now let’s assess the problem and nail down a more effective solution to your ongoing marketing dilemma.

You WILL be in panic mode again. That is, unless you readjust your perspective and realign your approach.

The first (of 3) marketing content resources you’ll ever need to build your dental practice or dental industry business (and stop burdening an already focused and busy business assistant).

1-Your Platform Content (PC)

Consider your website your office’s front door. Before a new patient or anyone else walks through the door of your dental practice they’ve probably invested a portion of their time hanging around in your digital “lobby.”

This assumes you have a website. If you don’t…well…we need to talk (and we should have that conversation, like, NOW).

Having a website is only the beginning. These days there’s more to an established, effective, useful, search friendly online presence than a mere website.

Home page-check! About us page-check! Services pages-check! Contact us page-check! Social media buttons-check!

I’ll even go so far to say Blog-check! You’d be surprised (perhaps) how few can check that one off the list these days.

And if you do have a blog page, how fresh and/or recent and useful is your content?

More on that later.

How to make your dental website a solid, home-base platform

Consider it the “cause” of your intended “effect” (to borrow from my earlier family reunion story).

If you want to avoid reactionary, panic-stricken marketing make certain your website platform is solid.

  • Visit your website as if you’re searching for a dental provider. How informative is it? Do you know where to go next from page to page? Does it communicate relevant, benefit focused information (rather than “hey, look how great, equipped, educated, etc we are…”)? Are there clear calls to action page to page? Does the content ultimately lead to scheduling an appointment or consultation?
  • Clean up your language. Make sure your entire site is “you” (reader/patient/client) focused. It should read as if you’re having a personal conversation with the person reading your content.
  • Stop talking so much. Reduce your page word count if necessary. You should be able to inform and compel a response with 250 to 500 words per page on average.
  • Keep it real. Evaluate your page header images. If your images look cookie-cutter, your site can appear that way.
    You want to avoid having the reader feel like, “oh, I’ve been here before…just another dental website…” Imagine them feeling instead that your practice story, culture, and voice is different than most…and unique to yours.

Your dental marketing starts somewhere. And your website platform is the most strategic place to begin if you want to solve the panic mode problem in your marketing.

Process and act on this for now. Stay tuned…there’s more to come in an upcoming post.

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How to Pump-Up the Slumps in Your Dental Business & Life

I scrolled through some archived e-newsletter content I published three years ago (wow). Amazed that as a freelance copywriter, and (adding to the mix) now a blogger, social media content writer/strategist, and soon to be info-publisher, I’m – to the week – experiencing similar thoughts and challenges about life and business building.

Labor Day weekend is in the rear-view mirror. This annual holiday marks the official transition from summer to fall and the final stretch of the year.

Summer’s laid-back, lazy attitude (I’m missing it already) gets exchanged for the more reflective the-year’s-almost-over-how-am-I-doing attitude of the fall season.

This seasonal transition is one I personally grieve – in a weird sort of way. Though I enjoy fall’s colors and the crisp, cool temps, football, and the approaching holidays…I’m a summer-dude at heart.

Seasonal transitions and their momentum are an effective way to evaluate where you stand in life and business. Build on summer’s renewing qualities (vacations, recreation, etc.) and head into the year’s fourth and final quarter – as fall approaches – pumping up the volume.

In sports, relationships, business, sales, your attitude, or life in general – slumps happen. Think about it – no one or nothing is immune from the inevitable “funk.”

Be prepared for slumps and willing to take action to overcome them. I discovered the following points from Harvey Mackay* (NY Times best-selling author and businessman).

Consider these essential “slump-gear.”

1–Get back to the basics.

Start by looking at your goals. Are you following your game-plan to achieve them? If not, fix what’s broken – if so, create new plans. Do the basics well – marketing, prospecting, lead development, follow-up, customer service, etc.

2–Evaluate your own performance first.

Before you place blame remember, this is your slump. Commit to hard work until you get out of it.

3–Seek trusted advice.

After you’ve exhausted your own resources get the input of friends, colleagues – even a business/life coach. Check your ego. Prepare for honesty.

4–Stay focused on the desired outcome.

Distractions clutter thinking. Don’t let them. Work upward. Take simple steps without starting from scratch.

5–Keep a positive outlook.

Prior success can lead to more. Confidence flows from your skill sets. Be fearless to apply them differently or develop them further.

Mackay also quotes copywriter and prolific author, Robert (Bob) Bly. Here’s his three-part strategy for overcoming slumps:

1–Do something.

2–Do more.

3–Keep doing it.

Beat the slumps with some good, old-fashioned action!

What challenges do you face in life and business as the year moves into the fourth quarter?

*Source: Tulsa World, 08.12.07

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3 Fundamentals for Publishing an Enewsletter as a Follow-up Tool

The problem may not be your lack of follow-up but how consistently you lack it.

Think about it! You have good intentions when it comes to following up on prospects and potential leads in your dental marketing.

But how many times can you draft an email or hand-written note and keep doing it over and over. At some point you must somewhat “automate” the marketing follow-up process.

An effective way to “automate” your follow-up is through consistently publishing an enewsletter. And it can be as simple as repurposing a blog post.

In fact, that’s a good place to begin as a I offer a few tips to get started with publishing an enewsletter.

1) Start blogging

Your blog is the blank canvas to explore, explain, and, express your expertise (how do you like that “ex” theme I have going there?). It’s a place to log insights.

Lead with a blog. Many posts will “seed” other ideas and topics. These deeper explorations form the content that can be expanded through a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly enewsletter.

2) Show up regularly

Speaking of follow-up frequency…how often should you publish an enewsletter? Preferences vary. Some say weekly is best, others bi-weekly or monthly. I previously published weekly. Now (as I’m planning the 2.0 version of my enewsletter) I’m leaning toward monthly.

The advantage of monthly is you can use your enewsletter as a way to aggregate the numerous blog posts published over the course of a month into one issue.

You can expand a thought that a blog post simply introduced. You can incorporate the wisdom gained from comments to a particular post. Even social media feedback from retweets, likes and post comments (Facebook page) can improve upon a topic blogged about weeks before.

Bottom-line: consistency. Whether you promote your enewsletter as a weekly or monthly – stay with it. Your subscribers will drift (unsubscribe) if you lack consistency.

3) Open the window

I’m talking about letting people see into your life, practice/company culture, product/service stories, etc. One thing social media has taught us is that getting personal is okay.

If you want your enewsletter read and shared be unafraid to open up the windows a bit. Don’t be a life-voyeur or a verbal flasher. TMI (Too Much Info) applies here too.

If you’ve taken a trip, been on vacation, achieved a milestone, celebrated the milestone of a child or loved one, purchased a new gadget…you get the picture! And that’s what I’m talking about – give your readers a “picture” of who you are in addition to your expertise.

Authenticity opens the door to better business connections. It’s the basis for effective marketing follow-up – what we call “engagement” these days.

An enewsletter is a perfect follow-up companion alongside a blog and any other business communication you share.

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