3 Ways To Make 2015 Your BEST Year In Practice
Many practices leave the planning and organisation of their new year marketing strategies till the last minute. Now is the time to determine whether 2015 will be your best year in business, or if it will be a repeat of this year.
Most practice owners start out with big, ambitious goals for the New Year. They want to get more business, build better relationships, increase patient loyalty and, hopefully, create sustainable growth.
Why do some practices almost ALWAYS achieve these goals, while others start the year strong, just to fall back into old habits by February? It all depends on two things:
- The Goals You Set
- Your Plan for Achieving Them
Here are three simple, yet powerful things you can do to set better goals, make better plans and to make 2015 your best year in business.
Goal #1: Do What Works, Not What’s Popular
Following the crowd is a direct path into mediocrity. This is truer in marketing than almost anything else. For example, in 2014, many business owners stopped investing money into “traditional” marketing channels like direct mail. Their plans were to invest the money into email marketing and Social Media instead.
But did you know that direct mail is still the most trustworthy channel for reaching new clients? This is especially true when your competitors are all scrambling onto the internet, trying to take advantage of “cheaper” alternatives.
So when you see those marketing statistics about how businesses are investing MORE money into this media or that media, stop and look at the numbers that really matter. In many cases, the consumer behaviour statistics tell a completely different story.
Goal #2: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
They say magic happens outside of your comfort zone, so don’t be afraid to take a few risks and try something new – after all, this way of thinking will get you noticed.
Consider working on creating a video for your practice. The brain absorbs visual stimuli faster and video has a way of embedding itself into the memory much longer than text. This powerful and effective marking tool can be efficiently leveraged via a wide range of platforms, shared across multiple social media channels and boost your visibility in Search Engines.
Make sure you are systematically tracking the source of each new patient enquiry to know what is working and what is not. More importantly, with accurate tracking numbers you can caluculate the actual monetary Return On Investment from your marketing efforts. Healthcare competition is increasingly fierce and medical practices that don’t step out of their comfort zones are likely to be lost in the crowd.
Goal #3: Create a Simple Follow-up System
Hire a professional copywriter to create 12 short follow up emails. Create six for people who filled in your online lead form but who haven’t come in yet. Create the other six for welcoming brand new patients, thanking them for business and asking for a review and a referral after their first visit. If you can’t hire a writer, have someone in your office write them. You can have them write one email a week and probably have all 12 ready by the time January 1st, 2015 rolls around.
That’s a small amount of work considering that businesses that follow up on leads generate an average of 50% more sales within 90 days of starting the follow up campaigns. Using this follow up system, you could easily make 2015 a year to remember.
Now is the time to start thinking about your marketing strategy for 2015. Vividus can do the legwork for you. We have the experience, the talent and the expertise to give your marketing strategy the edge it needs in 2015. This way, you can focus on wowing your patients. Contact us, and let’s make 2015 your best year ever.