FREE Marketing Tool Helps Maximize Revenue in the Next 12 Months
By Tom Rich, MBA, GG12 Senior Practice Analyst
One topic that tends to make most practice owners squirm is their marketing plan. A disturbing number of dentists run their practice off the “If you build it, they will come” philosophy, meaning they rely on drive-by traffic, word-of-mouth advertising, or — worst of all — insurance to attract new patients. The challenge with every one of these marketing methods is that they’re unpredictable. In other words, if you’re only marketing using these methods, where you’re allowing something to happen rather than making something happen, you’re leaving opportunities on the table. What does that mean for you? It means all the patients who could be coming to you end up going to someone else. Someone who is actually doing these things … is doing so because they planned it in advance.
Planning your marketing this way will also prevent missing important deadlines … because if you want to work on a New Year’s promotion, you have to mail it out the week of Christmas, which means it has to be printed at least a week before, which means it has to be designed the week before that, which means you have to decide on the promotion before that … Essentially, to have an effective New Year’s promotion, you have to be planning it in October. That’s what a marketing calendar does for you.
Today you’re going to discover a tool to change that. It may just be the most revolutionary planning tool ever created.
The part you’ll love most about Google Calendar is that it’s 100 percent free.
Now that you know about the tool … your next question is what do you do with it?
It’s called a calendar.
There are multiple options, from the low-tech wall calendar to the latest high-tech marketing planning software. We tend to recommend something in the middle.
You sit down and plan on at least one theme, one activity, and one promotion each month.
1. Decide on a theme: February is the month of love. March has St. Patrick’s Day and Mardi Gras. April has April Fool’s Day and Easter. May brings Cinco de Mayo and Memorial Day … the list goes on and on. 2. Now focus on the activity: During the spring, summer, and early fall, you’ll want to look for street fairs. Seriously, they’re one of the most effective and least expensive ways of attracting patients. Then there’s back to school, senior picture promotions, etc. 3. Finally, the promotion ties it all together: For February, offer teeth whitening. For street fairs, raffle off a barbecue set or big screen TV. Your options are endless … but you have to do something. So, if you need help with your promotional calendar, whether you’re just starting off or need some tweaks, schedule a call with your Personal Gems Concierge or Gems Coach to do a screen share and to help you get started right away … because we all know if you don’t plan it, it won’t happen.
Our solution of choice is the Google Calendar.
There are several reasons for this … you can create events, send email invitations and reminders, create and keep track of assignments and tasks, and schedule follow-ups. There are also several free productivity plug-ins (like Boomerang, a FREE extension for Gmail) that will help you keep 100 percent on top of everything the year throws at you while preventing things from falling through the cracks and will help you maximize the major (and lesser known) holidays — like National Flossing Day (Nov. 23). Another great feature of Google Calendar is the ability to set an event as “recurring,” meaning if you have something that works this year, you can schedule to repeat it again year after year … and then email you one or more reminders a day, a week, or however long you want prior to the date.
3 InsidersCircle.com | 1-888-880-GEMS (4367)
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