The very quiet dental clinic, part 4

So far we’ve discussed doing some leg work to talk face-to-face to prospects, looked at an advert in the local paper and employed social media to get prospects through the door.

Now let’s talk about a very powerful way of reaching people in the area around the clinic. It’s a method which many of today’s digital generation look down their noses at but, take it from me, done right it works gangbusters.

And what’s that?

It’s letterbox marketing… dropping a great flyer into letterboxes! And when we say “a great flyer” we mean one that obeys the AIDA rule (attention, interest, desire and action) to have the right prospect clamouring to see the dentists at the clinic.

So that means the clinic team absolutely must not do a name, rank and serial number, boring flyer all about them. There’s no way they should write it, design it using publisher (coz someone’s friend uses it), poorly reproduce a few hundred on the office photo copier, and desultorily drop a few into letterboxes once or twice. If they do, they’ll say, “Letter box dropping just doesn’t work for us.’

If this flyer is going to work it has to be a professional looking job focusing on the needs, interests and problems of the target market. It must offer solutions to problems they may have, be packed full of reasons why and easy to read information of value to the recipient who will be pulling it out of the letterbox. Above all it’s got to catch their eye before they toss it into the rubbish bin.

If you’re giving thought to letter box dropping then it’s worthwhile getting some ideas by looking at the newspaper advertisement in the first article. You’ll also see a typical flyer we produced for a client that keeps on working its little butt off!

Getting the flyer produced is one thing, getting it into letterboxes is another!

Don’t ever use a couple of kids or the local community group to deliver your flyers… sure, some will get delivered, but bulk lots will be found in trash bins.

The key rule is to use professionals. They employ “walkers” who are strictly monitored to ensure the job done gets done right. They get the flyer into every letter box (except no junk mail ones) when scheduled nearly every time.

Finally, your letter box shot shouldn’t be a “oncer” as so many businesses do. Regular dropping to the same area every 2-3 months is the key. If you’re in a suburban area you could drop 10,000 a month in the same area every three months. Have three different areas being dropped on different moths and it means you drop 30,000 homes around 4 times a year. By the way, try to avoid dropping over the Christmas and long summer holiday periods because people are focused on other things, not dentists!

And what response can you expect? Well, that’s from as little as 1%, up to 5% or more if you drop regularly. Do the maths based on the lifetime value of patients you attract and you’ll find that it’s really worthwhile.