Executive Letters From Physical Therapists Now Reach More Physicians
Thanks to technology, snail mail provides a better opportunity to be noticed
What Physicians Will Read And What Gets Tossed
What Gets Tossed: Letters that appear to have no clinical relevance, bury key ideas in the text, or come across as a self-serving sales pitch.
What They Will Read: Problem solving information (about their problem, not yours) that is easy to scan, clinically relevant, and holds the promise of something helpful to them, not simply another plea for referrals.
Physicians are no different than any other business person. They are constantly scanning their environment for solutions to everyday problems. Their problems create opportunities for you to be heard if you have something important to say. If your letter does not immediately seem to help solve one of their problems, then it gets tossed. It’s that simple – no need to over-think it.
Is it really true that the letter should be limited to just a paragraph or two, and no longer than one page?
NO! Don’t worry about the length of the letter, worry about the formatting, flow, and the total Power Level of your message following the results formula you will learn below.
A COMMON MISCONCEPTION is that anything more than a few paragraphs or a single page will not get read. But think of it this way, when you receive valuable information about a solution option to a problem you’ve been experiencing, do you really judge it by its length? Have you ever received that kind of “I’ve been looking for this” information and said to yourself, “Boy, that’s really timely and helpful stuff, but it’s more than a page, so I’ll just toss it away and wait for another letter that keeps it to one page.” Of course not. That would make no sense. But the point is this: If your good ideas and concepts don’t easily shine through without making the reader labor, then the letter will likely get tossed.
Consultants that recommend the “keep it short or it won’t get read” philosophy are correct in one sense: When your information is not that compelling or valuable, the reader will only invest a moment in reading before giving up. This common “keep it short” principle should be restated as follows: Your reader will give you an instant to start building a compelling problem solving case, so make sure you use that moment well.
Finally! A Way To Know If Your Physician Letters Will Get Results Before You Even Put Them In The Mail
The Results Formula –
3 Elements For Your Letters and Other Strategic Communications:
Element 1: Interrupt & Engage. Use powerful headlines and sub headlines to expose the problem and give the promise of more educational problem solving information to come. The most effective headlines tap into the emotion of curiosity and self interest, that’s why focusing on problems in your headline or subject line is so compelling. Everyone is interested in solving their problems, and they are curious about any solution. Good headlines suck the reader in. If you have read to this point, chances are our “Why letters from PTs are now read by more physicians” headline poked your brain on a practical, problem-solving level. You then scanned for additional clarifying information, and quickly found it with simple formatting techniques like bold text, underlines, and indents. Spend as much time or more on creating your feature headline as you do writing the letter.
Element 2: Educate By Case Building. Body copy, text, and other “showables” build a logical case that helps the reader draw a conclusion about your solution option. Physicians and staff are judging you like a jury judges an attorney’s case. Does your letter demonstrate special expertise? How does your information compare to that provided by other “similar” solution providers? Your reader can only compare based on what you teach them in your communication. Building a strong case using charts, graphs, tables, and other compelling information positions you as the expert. Use headings and formatting that helps the reader get the logical flow by simply scanning.
Element 3: Offer and Call To Action. In addition to your invitation for qualified referrals, give your readers other ways to take next steps in learning more about your particular problem-solving process. Most executive letters end by simply saying, “Give us a call with any questions.” This kind of offer is self evident, and lacks the power to spur immediate action. Your offer should include more resources for learning about what you do and how you do it. Your offers need to build confidence in your expertise. Your offer should be formatted and set off from the body copy so it will be scanned even if the body copy is not read. The exception to this would be a “concealed offer” designed to appeal only to the most highly qualified, eager readers.
Red Sharpie Time: See How We Apply The Results Formula To 2 Of The Crummiest Letters We’ve Ever Seen, And Then Try It Yourself On 2 More.
See the 4 Crummiest Letters Now and How We Rip 2 Of Them Apart With The Results Formula And Score Their Power Level (You Can Rip Apart The Other 2).
Register for a 90 minute Writing Workshop, get expert advice, and see examples of KILLER letters that get results. Register here.
Tips For Getting Started Using The Results Formula On Your Own:
1) Pick an expertise to market where you excel. If you are good at what you do, and there is a market for your solution, running this formula gets outstanding, consistent results.
2) Create 50 headlines and sub-headlines that expose the problem and promise a solution from your reader’s perspective. You will need lots of headlines to form the basis of your strategic campaign.
3) Create several valuable “offers” for more ways to learn about the benefits of what you do. Make sure the offers have a memorable marketing “handle.”
4) Gather compelling evidence that can be used to build a case in your body copy.
5) Write the letter making sure to place and format each Element for optimum scanability and readability.
6) Test, Test, Test. Each element of the formula can be tested, but pay particular attention to the headlines and offers. Testing can be done effectively with little or no extra investment.
Finally! A Way To Know If Your Physician Letters Will Get Results Before You Even Put Them In The Mail
The Results Formula – 3 Elements For Your Letters and Other Strategic Communications:
Element 1: Interrupt & Engage. Use powerful headlines and sub headlines to expose the problem and give the promise of more educational problem solving information to come. The most effective headlines tap into the emotion of curiosity and self interest, that’s why focusing on problems in your headline or subject line is so compelling. Everyone is interested in solving their problems, and they are curious about any solution. Good headlines suck the reader in. If you have read to this point, chances are our “Why letters from PTs are now read by more physicians” headline poked your brain on a practical, problem-solving level. You then scanned for additional clarifying information, and quickly found it with simple formatting techniques like bold text, underlines, and indents. Spend as much time or more on creating your feature headline as you do writing the letter.
Element 2: Educate By Case Building. Body copy, text, and other “showables” build a logical case that helps the reader draw a conclusion about your solution option. Physicians and staff are judging you like a jury judges an attorney’s case. Does your letter demonstrate special expertise? How does your information compare to that provided by other “similar” solution providers? Your reader can only compare based on what you teach them in your communication. Building a strong case using charts, graphs, tables, and other compelling information positions you as the expert. Use headings and formatting that helps the reader get the logical flow by simply scanning.
Element 3: Offer and Call To Action. In addition to your invitation for qualified referrals, give your readers other ways to take next steps in learning more about your particular problem-solving process. Most executive letters end by simply saying, “Give us a call with any questions.” This kind of offer is self evident, and lacks the power to spur immediate action. Your offer should include more resources for learning about what you do and how you do it. Your offers need to build confidence in your expertise. Your offer should be formatted and set off from the body copy so it will be scanned even if the body copy is not read. The exception to this would be a “concealed offer” designed to appeal only to the most highly qualified, eager readers.
Red Sharpie Time: See How We Apply The Results Formula To 2 Of The Crummiest Letters We’ve Ever Seen, And Then Try It Yourself On 2 More.
See the 4 Crummiest Letters Now and How We Rip 2 Of Them Apart With The Results Formula And Score Their Power Level (You Can Rip Apart The Other 2).
Register for a 90 minute Writing Workshop, get expert advice, and see examples of KILLER letters that get results. Register here.
Tips For Getting Started Using The Results Formula On Your Own:
1) Pick an expertise to market where you excel. If you are good at what you do, and there is a market for your solution, running this formula gets outstanding, consistent results.
2) Create 50 headlines and sub-headlines that expose the problem and promise a solution from your reader’s perspective. You will need lots of headlines to form the basis of your strategic campaign.
3) Create several valuable “offers” for more ways to learn about the benefits of what you do. Make sure the offers have a memorable marketing “handle.”
4) Gather compelling evidence that can be used to build a case in your body copy.
5) Write the letter making sure to place and format each Element for optimum scanability and readability.
6) Test, Test, Test. Each element of the formula can be tested, but pay particular attention to the headlines and offers. Testing can be done effectively with little or no extra investment.
In the last Business Corner post, we talked about how to turn your special physical therapy knowledge and training into a competitive advantage by communicating your special approach to assessment and treatment in the marketplace. We looked at a quick example, and introduced the idea of featuring offers for additional educational information through your website and information packets. In today’s post, we will take another example, the physician’s waiting room, and show how to make it a continuous source of potential new patients.
To begin with, it’s helpful to think about the typical conversation between physician and patient. How does that “private” conversation go, and how does it impact YOU? Will the physician recommend physical therapy, and if so, what kind of information will the physician offer on the fly?
For the physician, taking as much time as you would want to explain the benefit of physical therapy to each patient is probably not going to happen. Physicians will be short on time, and explanations about treatment options or how to select the right Physical Therapist are routinely reduced to, “Where do you work, and where do you live?” No new insights there, but how do you as a PT turn this age-old problem into an opportunity?
A good place to start is to do what you’re supposed to do, and provide educational materials (marketing) that patients actuallywant, and physicians actually use. If you can accomplish that, then you can be in hundreds of waiting rooms all at the same time, and capture the attention of prospective patients via your marketing materials. When done properly, these materials will position YOU as the expert as well as the standard bearer. These materials should:
- Educate about the basics,
- Review treatment options, and
- Provide standards for comparison.
The idea is to teach prospective patients enough so that they feel more in control of their choices. Once prospects feel more in control, then they seek a way to take the next step in the process, YOUR PROCESS. This is no different than what the drug companies do. They detailed information on how their drugs work, when to use them, when not to use them, and cap it off with free samples. As a physical therapist, when you understand how powerful this strategy is, you can use your EXPERT knowledge as a solid foundation to make this happen.
Take a minute now to look at a set of sample materials on our sample set page, www.PTreferralMachine.com/SampleSet. When offered in a compelling way to the physician, these kinds of materials will become a welcome fixture in many physician waiting rooms. We’ve all been in waiting rooms that have displays of literature on various topics. The waiting room is the perfect point of contact to place your material, but remember, first you must have something physicians actually want to hand out, and that prospective patients actually want to use.
Here’s an example of what I mean from one of my last doctor visits. I was picking out a magazine to read in the waiting room, and while sifting through the pile, I noticed a brochure about acne treatment. Since I have four teenagers, and acne was part of our current set of problems, I picked it up and learned about a special light therapy used for acne. As a health care marketer, I was reminded how really simple and effective this is. Almost every prospective patient will wait around at their doctor’s office, looking for something to read, and that’s a perfect opportunity to provide helpful information on treatment options. If they trust their doctor (which most people do), then the fact that the physician selected that material and placed it in his or her waiting room means they probably endorse it. Now, do you think a significant percentage of people LOOKING for something to read at the doctor’s office will have, or know someone who has, back, neck, or leg pain? OF COURSE! It doesn’t get much easier than that, does it?
But the marketing job isn’t done yet. You still have the job of “closing the deal.” Good marketing spurs the audience to take some action. Once we’ve done the hard work of getting the material into waiting rooms, then what? The informational brochure or booklet needs an obvious call to action. With my acne experience, there was only one brochure laid out, it didn’t say TAKE ME I’M FREE, it had no coupon to offer a FREE screening or trial, no website resources, and no free ANYTHING I could just take and stuff in my pocket. So I just left the brochure on the table. The point here is that after getting your material into the waiting room, you still have the job of capturing prospective patients into YOUR marketing and booking system. In the acne brochure, the chances of me taking the next step would have increased EXPONENTIALLY if I was offered an appropriate call to action. Crafting effective offers or calls to action takes experience. Take this article for example; can you spot all the different calls to action (offers)?
That “call to action” can be the critical tool that keeps the education and trial process going. In addition, your call to action provides you with a way to measure direct response along with the appeal of your message. After seeing the sample set at www.PTreferralMachine.com/SampleSet, you should get a better idea of how your marketing material can be set up to include a variety of attractive offers. Usually, as the sample set shows, this requires a series of materials that all tie together as a system.