Happy Monday to you. We’re all getting over almost 2 weeks of
one-kid-after-the-other illness, which Elizabeth just caught
Sunday night…ugh! Am I next?
We also had an awful but beautiful ice/snow storm this past
weekend, and we’re still digging out from it. We’ve got pretty
wimpy shovels down here in North Carolina.
At least we all got to go on a rare Charlotte sledding outing
yesterday. We hardly ever get “sledding snow”, and this was
a first for the kids. We all had a blast, which brings me to
today’s message for you:
“Follow that car!”
The hill where we were sledding was packed with kids and parents,
almost all of whom were taking their turns zooming along on the
hard packed snow.
Reid (6) looked at me and said, “Daddy, where’s the FASTEST way
down?” Pretty cool I thought. He didn’t want to ‘just’ go
sledding. He wanted the BEST sledding experience he could get!
I looked across the hill for the sleds going the fastest and/or
the longest, along the same path. Then I said to Reid,
“Follow that car!”
Call me crazy, but that moment immediately reminded me of one
of the most savvy marketing strategies you can employ to find
the best quality new patients for your practice. It’s actually
called “follow that car”. Dan Kennedy speaks of this approach
often. Here’s how it works, internally, today. On Wednesday I’ll
cover an external approach.
Internally, you’ll want to first identify your absolute best
patients…perhaps your “Top 50″ or so. Then analyze that small
list for any similarities they may have, either demographically
or behaviorally.
Once you’ve found several commonalities among this small sample
group, now you can “follow that car” to find more people just
like them. Besides asking for referrals from this group, you
can literally select an ultra-targeted mailing list including
many of the desired traits as filters. This list will cost more,
but it’ll be WORTH IT.
Then you can send direct mail to this smaller group with a more
targeted message that matches their characteristics and
preferences. Not sure exactly what those preferences are?
Well, ask your “Top 50″!
What are their likes? Their dislikes? What’s most important to
them? What caused them to choose you in the first place? The
answers to these questions becomes the language of your marketing
messages to this group, as you seek to attract more of your
“ideal” patients.
When you can zoom in on a specific group of people and speak
their language, you’ll likely connect with a higher percentage
of that smaller group. More importantly, you won’t have the
“waste” involved in shotgunning your marketing message out to
the masses and connecting with very few.
The more you can focus your message on one market segment…
IF you can match the message with that market…the more
successful your marketing campaigns will be, period. And
you’ll get the types of patients you want too.
Yes, there’s some work involved, but it sure is worth it!
All my best,
Chris
Dr. Chris Bowman
Dental Insiders Alliance
www.DentalInsiders.com/patientattraction
PS: I’m pulling the “Patient Attraction” Collection offer off
the table very soon. If you haven’t joined Dental Insiders
Alliance but you’ve been thinking about it, now is the time to
go to the above link and test drive your Preferred Membership!
