Yellow Pages, Internet Advertising, Newspapers,
Postcards…What Do I Do To Get More New Patients?
This is a common question asked by most dentists looking to grow their practice, especially as the economy tightens and kind of sort of tries to recover. There are ever-more ways of communicating with potential patients, especially given the wide-ranging reach of the Internet.
Can you attract new patients from Google®? Yes. But, I caution all of my clients nationwide to beware the lure of “easy patients” and companies that stack big promises without tracking and or guaranteeing satisfaction at the least and results in some cases.
What about the Yellow Pages? Yes. You still can attract new patients from this source. And, in fact, with many dentists abandoning the long-standing 800# gorilla, there’s more potential in that particular media than in years past. Having said that, eventually, the Yellow Pages may go away as an effective medium to capture the hearts and minds of new patients.
Are newspapers still viable? Yes. Absolutely. In fact, one local practice reported a very good response from a “niched” newspaper targeting a specific demographic of patient, seeing excellent results within a matter of days after the publication date. It’s done well enough they are running it a second time this month.
Postcards? Can you still really attract new patients with postcards? Yes. And, yes. In fact, postcards, mailed by themselves, are as effective now, as ever. With the economy souring many direct response marketers using postcards and letters to attract new business have halted or cut their marketing budgets, which means your mailed message is getting a lot more eyeballs than in the past 5 to 7 years due to nothing other than lack of competition in the mailbox.
Many of my clients have been mailing postcards for years – and coincidentally, they are some of my most successful clients – several with large, multi-location, multiple doctor and specialty offices. I myself mail postcards each and every month, having dropped about 5,000 this month alone with a very, very respectable ROI.
So, which one do you do?
My answer: As many of them as possible, with the caveat, that as long as the ROI (return-on-investment) is positive, you keep at it.
Before you embark on spending any money on attracting new patients from external marketing, take this quick quiz about what your practice is doing now for existing patients (Which have the power to double your practice in one year or less if properly managed and incented!):
1.) How many referrals are you receiving from existing patients, on average, each month, now?
2.) Have your referrals dropped off recently? If so, what staffing changes, if any, have you made? Yes or No
3.) Do you receive/benefit from referrals from other sources, outside your existing patients? Yes or No
4.) Do you reward your referrals in some fashion? Yes or No
5.) Do you recognize your referring patients and the referrals? Yes or No
6.) Do you recognize birthdays of your patients? Yes or No
7.) Do you communicate with your patients via written word, outside of billing statements? Yes or No
8.) Do you have a system in place to encourage referrals from existing patients? Yes or No
9.) Does your office have a culture that encourages referrals from existing patients?
Yes or No
10.) Do ALL of your team members refer friends, family and others to you? Yes or No
11.) Do you have signage in your office indicating referrals are welcome? Yes or No
I probably don’t have to tell you that the more times you answered “YES” to the above questions, the better your referral numbers probably are.
Surveys to my clients nationwide indicate that for every 1,000 active patients in your practice (‘Active’ means they have a “next” appointment scheduled with you.), you should have roughly 200 new patient referrals each year, or between 16 and 17 each month. If your numbers are higher, you’re doing a lot of things, right. If your numbers are lower, simply do what it takes to change your answers above from a ‘No’ to a ‘Yes.’ Right? Right.
The fastest, easiest way to increase patient referrals and change most of those Nos to Yesses is to send (good old regular US Mail) a regular monthly, patient newsletter.
To learn more, just call my office at 503-339-6000 to request a free information package about our News From The Office™ patient newsletter and referral program.
Or, click here.