From The Trenches

If your idea of how to track marketing results is to instruct your receptionist to ask each caller, “How did you hear about us,” then this article may be for you…

The devil is in the details, but when the devil is your poorly equipped and poorly trained receptionist, you might not get any details, never mind accurate ones. Even if the “where heard” information gathered is correct, the source of the information (your patient) is frequently WRONG.  They forget and just tell you whatever pops into their head. For example, they may have received your direct mail piece, and a few days later searched for you on Google, and Google is what they report.

Some clinics spend a lot of money on marketing and advertising, and still have no idea if it is producing a return on investment.  It’s like the old advertiser’s adage, “I think one half of our advertising budget is working, I just don’t know which half…” Is that really the best you can expect, just a guess as to what expenditures produce results? We say heck no!

In fact, if you implement a disciplined system for tracking, you’ll always know what works best to produce results. In addition to making your advertising work better, a disciplined tracking system will provide an even bigger business benefit – a window into what may be holding your practice back from exciting, satisfying growth. Well planned tracking systems with disciplined implementation will uncover and document the following key strategic elements:

1. What headlines and selling slants have broadest appeal, and which ones are duds.
2. What “need to know/want to know” information is most important to the prospects in your area.
3. Which offers for more information and calls to action are most effective.
4. What points of contact in your business have the most potential to drive the top line, and which ones are driving away prospects.

A quick example of a basic tracking system-
You run a postcard campaign with the tracking elements below in place:

• A website landing page – a unique website page that can only be viewed by knowing the address. Visitors to these pages can only be from the postcard.
• A website “tracking” URL – a unique domain name that is reserved for the marketing campaign.
• Website tracking code – lines of code placed in your site pages that track visitors, which pages they view, length of visit, in which order, and what links they click on.
• A variety of actionable offers – each “offer” requires a specific action from the prospect that can be measured and compared.
• Tracking phone numbers – unique phone numbers and/or extensions reserved for specific ads or campaigns. These numbers should be equipped with reporting and call recording features. The incoming call volume is measured, and the caller experience is captured. In addition to measuring response, the insights gained from these recordings should lead to other business innovations and staff training opportunities.

These tracking mechanisms create a complete picture with real data – details even the devil can’t dispute.

Want to see a live tracking system  and learn to set one up for your practice? Join us on one of our webinars to see tested concepts and a live (not a demo) tracking system in action.

Thanks for reading.

We hope you don’t fall for this one…

If your marketing guru tells you that direct mail is dead and that you should focus most of your attention on internet strategies, you may want to read on.

Sure, internet marketing is important, but direct mail is far from dead. In fact, the National Mail Order Association projects spending in direct mail to rise 3.6% annually between 2010 and 2014. Why? Many experts write about the increasing difficulty with reaching prospects online, and suggest that direct mail is still one of the most effective and efficient ways to reach your target audience. For example, we are currently running a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign for a manual therapy provider that started at $1.52 per click, and now, less than 120 days later, the average bid for the same search terms has climbed to more than $5.00 per click. We also know from our experience tracking internet and direct mail leads that a direct mail lead is 5-10 times more likely to convert.

Here are a few more reasons why direct mail continues to be an important part of any physical therapy (and healthcare) provider’s marketing mix:

1. Gaining access to prospects online is becoming increasingly difficult.
2. With the deluge of electronic information getting dumped on us every day, prospects you do reach have difficulty sorting through the pile.
3. Many of your competitors have abandoned direct mail, putting your message at the forefront.
4. New technologies like QR-Codes* are making it easier and easier for prospects to respond to your print messages with their mobile devices. Your website or landing pages are just a click away – no more typing in those long URL’s.
5. Search engine marketing has become the modern day “Yellow Pages” where people only find you if they know what service they are looking for, and then you’re at the mercy of the online advertising service to place you near the top of the list. Have you ever paid for an online advertising package and then discovered you are buried near the bottom of an endless list of local competitors?

Direct mail gives you more influence over both online and offline buying decisions while delivering highly qualified, more valuable leads.

Here is what a couple of our clients are saying:

“When we stop our direct mail we have a noticeable decline in new patients, when we start it up again the new patient flow goes back up.  We like to keep something going out every 2 weeks or we get spikes in business when the postcards go out and dead times about 2 weeks later” – S. Strang

“I would never cut out direct mail – that is where the majority of our patient flow comes from” – M. Ulmer

So, one way to supercharge your online presence, is to broaden your reach by including traditional direct mail with a technological twist in your marketing toolbox.

If you are contemplating putting all of your marketing budget into some SEO expert’s pocket maybe you should think again.

Sincerely,

David C. Steinberg & Trent Wehrhahn

The PT Referral Machine

• List: Instead of sending to everyone, define who your ideal patient is and then send to that type of person. You can get lists based on many different criteria.
• Headlines: The headline is the “ad for the ad” – messing up here means no one will read your message.
• Offer: This does not have to be expensive. Be sure to include offers for more information as well as incentive offers.
• Testing: Before you blow your entire budget on a concept you are “sure” will work, test and track the results.
• Set goals that are appropriate: Everything depends on the average value of a patient.  Determine your break-even point based on this value.
• Postage: with postage running about 40%- 50% of your direct mail costs you should be aware of 2 key factors
  • The size and weight of your mail can have a major impact on your costs.
  • Choosing the right bulk mail program can save 50% or more.

NEW! Direct Mail Trial Package.
It only takes 5 to 6 new patients each mailing to double your money.

Here’s What You Get:

• 3 Mailings – 4 weeks apart
• 5000 Jumbo postcards – full color both sides – printing and mail service
• Complete graphic design, copy, and customization for your facility
• List – 5000 targeted prospects from areas around your clinic
• Tracking phone number to measure response
• QR code inserted for your website URL
• Postage not included. (Please allow 19 to 26 cents depending upon list selection)
• Total price per mailing before postage: $995

To get started, email us at info@ptreferralmachine.com or
call 508-444-0056.