There is a famous statement that goes “Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.” However, that’s such a negative statement. It lacks positivity and direction. Perhaps we should scratch it and go with this one instead:
“Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn.”
– James Maxwell
This puts a whole new spin on life and livingness and business. You can’t really lose in the bigger scheme of things. Let’s look at how you could use this in your practice for your marketing:
Marketing
Perhaps you have tried marketing ideas that worked like crazy and then, there may have been others that didn’t. How do you know what worked and why something didn’t? Hint: Do not go by gut feelings or opinions – use statistics instead because they are more accurate. For instance, perhaps you did a flier to 15,000 people in your area. A couple of new patients result from this you “think”. But do you really know for a fact?
An ideal way to be accurate with marketing strategies as far as what worked and what you can learn is to ask each and every patient or client, “What are all the different ways you had heard or known about our practice before coming here today?” Not: “How did you hear about us?” That will only get the last thing they saw or who referred them. Yet they may have seen your signage out front, or a flier you sent out, or a newspaper article about you, or your website, or your Facebook, or the board in the ice rink you pay for, or a blog you wrote, and so on.
So make a spreadsheet in the computer (or keep a log book beside the computer) with a column for every possible marketing method a person could have seen or heard about your practice. Ensure that your staff ask every single new patient or client the question above. They need to put the new patient’s name in the log, and a tick under every column that applies.
At the end of the month, you can add up the ticks in each column and then you can evaluate whether the dollars spent on that marketing idea were worth it. Ditch what got little response, or at least, don’t put any more money into it.
Real, factual data allows you to learn accurately and win.
