This morning I’m going to give you a really quick but powerful
strategy to acquire more new patients in your area…and it’s
almost free!

Ready?

Look at your bills this month, and sort them according to local
vs. non-local vendors.  For this strategy it’s the LOCAL vendors
you want…anyone within 20 miles of your practice, give or take.

You’ve likely been doing business with most of these vendors for
several years, right?  Well, have you ever thought of asking THEM
to do business with YOU?

Here’s what you can do.  First, every time you send a payment or
correspondence to a local vendor, be sure to include new patient
offers from your practice.  Just stuff an offer right in the same
envelope you send to them.  Use a DIFFERENT envelope than the one
they send you so your offer will stand out.  On the outside of
the envelope write “Payment and Offers Enclosed”.  That should
peak their curiosity.

On the offer, make sure you indicate that it’s “exclusively” for
all the employees at that business.  Make it personal for them!

About 3-5 days after sending, call the businesses to make sure they
received the payment and the offers.  Get a contact’s name, and
also remind them about the DEADLINE for the offers.  If you can,
try to “climb the ladder” and reach someone with more influence
at that business…like a general manager or owner.

Lastly, be sure to let them know about your “Referral Rewards”
program, and how you reward your patients for referring other
patients/co-workers to the practice!  By foreshadowing your
expectation and rewarding of referrals, you’ll plant an important
seed in their brains.

That’s it…plain and simple.  Take advantage of the built in
relationship you have with your local vendors to stimulate
business FROM them.  Of course, if you know someone at that
business, approach them too.  But don’t waste the opportunity
that comes with promoting your practice to those with whom you’re
already working.

All my best,
Chris

PS: DIA members…I’m going to have even more detail about this
very strategy in the upcoming February newsletter!

Dr. Chris Bowman
Dental Insiders Alliance
www.DentalInsiders.com/patientattraction

Quick note:
Well, I was going to send you this on Wednesday, but I made a
really “nit wit” move and chose Friday’s (today’s) date instead of
Wednesday for the message delivery.  Oops…sorry about that.  If
you’ve been holding your breath for this sequel to Monday’s message,
you can exhale now!

“Follow that car”, Part 2: External strategy

If you remember, last time I introduced you to the “follow that car”
strategy of finding more DESIRED new patients for your practice.

While I focused on the internal implementation of this powerful
strategy last time, today I want to share the equally powerful
EXTERNAL application of “follow that car”.  It takes a little
homework, but you can do it…and again, it’s worth it.

In your market area you’ll first want to identify COMPLIMENTARY
businesses that are successful.  These can include other medical
and professional practices, upscale small businesses, and any
other local company that has clients/patients/customers that are
like the ones you’d love to have in your practice.

Here’s a small list of examples to get your creative juices going:

- Plastic surgeons                        - Upscale restaurants
- Massage therapists                     - Dermatologists
- Chiropractors                            - Lasik centers
- Upscale car dealers                    - Vein surgery centers
- High-end clothing boutiques       - Personal trainers

You’ll then want to examine your local print publications, including
newspapers, magazines, etc…also radio and TV stations…look
closely at your direct mail…and find out where those businesses
are currently marketing.  Be sure to pick the successful places
first, so you can only track them instead of everyone that has an
ad.  Otherwise you’ll go crazy and get distracted.

OK, now here’s the most important part.  You must then CALL at least
5 or 6 of these leading businesses in your area and ask to speak
to the office manager or whomever is in charge of marketing.  You
may need to call 12 businesses to speak with someone at 5 of them.
That’s fine, but don’t give up.

Once you get someone on the phone, tell them you want to compliment
them on their marketing…that you’re impressed by their efforts.
Be up front and explain that you’re analyzing local media for your
own marketing, and you’d appreciate it if they could share which
marketing sources are their “top 3-5″ that get the best returns.
You’re looking for Return On Investment (ROI) numbers, not number
of new customers!

One thing you’ll likely find is that very few are tracking their
marketing like they should.  However, when you find the 2 or 3
businesses that ARE tracking their results…AND you confirm that
their clients are the kind you’d like to have…now you’ve got
some great clues as to where you’ll want to start testing and
investing your marketing dollars!

Now…Follow that Car!

Keep in mind that you’re not looking for one answer.  You’ll want
3-5 top ROI marketing sources from the businesses that are doing
it right.  The worst number in business is “1″, and that includes
“1″ way to get new patients.

You could try to shortcut this and simply place ads where other
businesses are doing so…but this is a big mistake.  You need to
KNOW what their results are from each source first.  You’d never
follow another car if you didn’t know where it was going!

Now…you’ll still have no guarantees of success yourself without
proper testing, tracking, and following of proper direct response
marketing principles.  However, knowing what’s working well for
other complimentary businesses gives you great guidance and makes
successful investment of your marketing dollars more predictable.

All my best,
Chris

PS: My “Patient Attraction Collection” offer is ending soon.  This
is the final time I’ll be giving out as much stuff as I have been.
Why?  Because my own coaches and mentors have been telling me I’m
giving away too much! So take advantage while you can, because this
offer will be gone one day in the near future:
www.DentalInsiders.com/patientattraction

Dr. Chris Bowman
Dental Insiders Alliance

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!

I hope you had a great weekend.  Congrats to the Saints and Colts,
who both advanced to the Super Bowl yesterday in a couple of
great games.  My “dogs” (Carolina Panthers) have been out of the
hunt all season, so I’m just anticipating a Super match-up.

I’ve got a few things for you this morning:

1. Last week’s Google webinar with Certified Google Adwords Specialist
Kelly Muldoon was very well attended, and the content she shared
was superb.  This is admittedly “dry” material, but Kelly did her
best to make it understandable and useful for those who want to
be on the first page of Google within days.

For those of you who didn’t make it, or if you want to view the
webinar again, we’ll have it posted online this week for you.  I’ll
let you know when it’s ready. (This webinar was open to non-members)

Kelly has been running my Google Adwords campaigns for about 5 years
now, and Google is my #1 external source of new patients!  She also
operates Adwords campaigns for a limited number dentists on an
“area exclusive” basis (one dentist per market area).  Her fees are
extremely reasonable, and the results she gets have been my best ROI
of any marketing I’ve ever done.

If you want more new patients from Google, you need to watch the
webinar when it gets posted.

2. On Friday I had my monthly Dental Insiders Alliance “Members
Only” 1-on-1 consult calls…and they were UBER-productive!  If
you’re not familiar with this, each month I make time available
for DIA members to spend 25 minutes with me on the phone.  Key
team members are welcome too.  During each call we cover the doctor’s
chosen topics, overcoming problems and finding solutions.

Each of these calls results in at least one big “breakthrough” for
the participating doctor.  I’ve always felt that this benefits is
perhaps the most valuable for the members who take advantage of it.

If you want to become a member and take advantage of my “Patient
Attraction Collection” offer, which is being pulled off the table
on January 30th, go to:
www.DentalInsiders.com/patientattraction

3. DIA members, be on the lookout for another email from me
today outlining this Wednesday night’s “Executive Insider”
teleseminar.  As usual you can attend live, and you’ll also
get a complete digital CD recording of the event.

4. Last but not least, I want to make sure you really went through
the 3-part series I posted the week before last about “doing things
differently” to get better results and growth for your practice in
2010.  If you haven’t already, go back and dig in to that material.
Share it with your team, and spend one complete team meeting PER
part…brainstorming about what you can do differently in your
practice this year.  Then get to implementing and make things
happen!

You and your team can overcome the challenges you’ll be facing
this year and beyond.  All it takes is “different” thinking and
action!

All my best,
Chris

Dr. Chris Bowman
Dental Insiders Alliance
www.DentalInsiders.com/patientattraction

This is your LAST CHANCE to register…here’s a copy of the message
below in case you missed it.  If you’ve already read it and you just
want to register, click this link:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/598202515

Would you like more new patients…now?  I can’t think of many
doctors that would say no to that!  Well, tonight
at 8:30pm EST (7:30pm CST; 6:30pm MST; 5:30pm PST) I’m
hosting a webinar that can help to deliver new patients to your
office within days.

I’ll be interviewing Certified Google Adwords Specialist
Kelly Muldoon, as she reveals how you can get more new
patients that are searching for specific targeted procedures
faster than you think!

The latest market research shows that Google now controls
79% of ALL internet search traffic.  Despite the competitive
pushes made by Yahoo, Bing, and others, Google is still the
800-pound gorilla.  Solve the Google puzzle and you’ll get
more traffic to your website than you can handle.

That said, Google’s tricky algorithms and protocols dictate
that you must know what you’re doing in order to be successful.
Otherwise you could lose money fast.  But you’ll lose MORE
if you don’t take advantage of what Google has to offer!
That’s why I’ve had Kelly Muldoon handling my Google
marketing for 5 years.

During this webinar Kelly will not only cover what you need
to know to successfully market your practice through Google…
we both will also review the most important steps that must occur
AFTER people click on your Google listing for them to actually
end up sitting in your dental chair.  This is critical information!

Join us on Wednesday, January 20th at 8:30pm EST.
You’ll be glad you did!

Space is limited!  Here’s the link to REGISTER NOW:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/598202515

We’ll “see” you then.

All my best,
Chris

Dr. Chris Bowman
Dental Insiders Alliance