To craft a successful marketing campaign for your practice you must first do some basic research actions that will start to isolate what your marketing plan and your promotional pieces will look like and what message they should deliver. The first step in your research is to work out what general mind-set and styles dominate your particular geographic area. Every state, city, town or area has its own mindset and styles that are unique to that place. If you have lived in the area where you practice, chances are you know the mind-set and general styles well. Additionally it is smart to check with others from the area to make sure your opinion coincides with the general consensus. If you are new to the area, ask locals as they generally have a good idea.

Some examples have been given below to give you an idea of what one might list as the mind-set and styles for their area.

Example #1:

Mind-set: “Slow and steady pace”
“Friendly”
“Easy going”
Style: Earthy.
Lots of greens and whites used in colors.
Old fashioned.

Example #2:

Mind-set: “Efficient and Professional”
“Friendly”
“Straight to the point”
Style: Modern and Edgy.
Lots of blues used in colors.
High-tech.

Next, find out what the top three practices are in your area and find out how they market themselves. Doing this will enable you to see what marketing approaches have been successful for your area. Looking at your three competitors’ websites is a good start, as well as looking in the Yellow Pages, local newspapers, Valpak/ADVO, etc. to see how they are marketing. Look for what words they are using to sell people, what offers they are putting forward and what their designs look like.

The next step is to isolate what successful campaigns or promotional pieces you have created and used thus far. You want to look for any promotional pieces, slogans, brochures, ads, internal marketing campaigns, discounts, and word of mouth success that resulted in notable increases in delivery. Again, look at what words were used, what offers were being put forward and what the design looked like. It is also good to look at the general demographics of your area. A good website that provides this for free is: http://www.city-data.com Gathering this data should enable you to get a good idea both of what worked for you and what works for other similar professionals in your area. It also provides you with a general idea of what people in your area like and will respond to.

This basic homework will provide you a foundation of information that can be used as you work out new marketing campaigns whether internal or external.

A Marketing And Promotional Calendar

Have you ever noticed that you have all sorts of great marketing and promotional ideas that just never seem to get put into action? At the staff meeting, do you realize that those brilliant ideas that came up at the last meeting hadn’t even been thought of again until just now? Have you ever come to the end of a month and realized that you didn’t get around to doing much marketing or promotion at all? These things can be symptomatic of a number of things, but most simply may be due to failure to write these things down on a calendar designed to pinpoint what and when actions will be taken.

A Marketing and Promotional calendar is an uncomplicated yet potent tool. It designates and specifies those agreed-upon activities which, when performed by the staff, will bolster the flow of new patient/clients into the practice.

When an idea is conceived, by logging it on the calendar, it becomes concrete, agreed-upon, predicted, planned for, etc. It helps to maintain control and structure in the promotional department, and acts as a communication tool for the rest of the staff, as it is there in writing for all to see.

The Promotional Secretary (if you don’t have one, get one) would be in charge of seeing to it that all pertinent information is written on the promotional calendar. She would bring it to the staff meeting each week where she would review with the staff those activities and events that are either in progress or being planned. The marketing and promotion of the practice is an ongoing affair. The calendar should be kept full for at least 6 months ahead so that the practice always has some type of promotional activity occurring.

The items on the calendar could include, but would not be limited to things such as:

Open Houses
Client/Patient Appreciation day, week or month
Direct Mail-out projects
Newsletter preparation and distribution
Special days and PR functions for that day (e.g. Valentine’s Day, Grandparents Day, Secretaries Day, etc.)
Dental Health Month (and associated plans, projects)
National Pet Month
Educational letter series production and distribution schedule
Reminders to the staff to stimulate referrals
Staff games for things such as prospecting and referrals

It is particularly important when planning a major event, that all of the subproducts or steps are well thought out and defined on the calendar so that each project or activity remains on schedule. This will help to avoid overlooking important actions that need to be taken. For example, if you are planning to produce a newsletter, the calendar should reflect specific dates for things such as:

• when all articles are due for submission;
• when the newsletter is to be typeset;
• when the newsletter will be prepared for mailing;
• when the postage should be purchased;
• when the actual mailing is to go out.

The same would hold true for any activity or event. Certainly, if you are planning a patient/client appreciation day or an open house, you would need to plan very specifically when each important step needs to be done (and who will do it). By writing that information on your calendar, you will make your job much easier, as you will not lose track of the many things that must be done.

Update this calendar at least every month. Use it as a tool and look at it every day.

As mentioned earlier, the Promotional Secretary will bring this calendar to the staff meeting. She should come to the meeting prepared to issue to the staff anything that will be expected of them in order to execute promotional and marketing projects and plans.

Since the marketing and promotion area is an ongoing function which involves each and every person in the practice, the Promotional Secretary would work closely with the Office Manager and/or Doctor to gain approval on activities and expenditures. She would also need to acquire the authority to issue any needed assignments to the staff.

TYPE OF CALENDAR

The best type of calendar to use for this purpose would be either a desk or wall calendar which measures 22″ X 17″ with daily squares measuring approximately 3″ X 2 ½”. This type of calendar can be purchased at any office supply store. Such a calendar provides for something large enough to be visually effective at the staff meetings, and furnishes plenty of space to make notes in each daily square.

The calendar would be clearly marked “Marketing and Promotion Calendar” and would not be used for notations of any nature other than projects relevant to that area.