Marketing, Public Relations, and Advertising are three big misunderstood words for most of all business people and people in general.
Who am I, Helmut Flasch, to say that?
Simple, 98% of all people in this country retire broke at age 65.
Sure, you say, that is because of the government, taxes, the economy, etc. Maybe you even say, “Well, that is life and only the crooks survive well.”
I agree, after all “success is a matter of luck, just ask any failure”.
So I hope I got your attention. Let’s talk about marketing.
It is not a question whether marketing at one time was not necessary. It always was. It is not a question whether your prospects will think ill of you if you advertise. They don’t—it’s in your head only.
It is a question of how much business you want to do!
In fact, if you do NOT market, you give a message just the same — a message that you are small, that you don’t have what the others who market have, that you don’t care since after all “marketing and selling” are the means of educating people about good products or services.
I look at this in this way: the amount of money you make reflects directly how much of your good service you delivered. How many people did you help? That is if you have a valuable service – do you?
What is the purpose of your practice? Do you believe you help people? If you do, then market the hell out of it. If not, then get the hell out of what you are doing –NOW.
80% of people don’t get the regular dental, chiropractic, dietary, and general health care they should get. Most of you doctors are concentrating on the 20% of the chronically ill who go to a doctor because it hurts.
You have, so it seems, forgotten to do preventive care. At least the individual practice is not promoting to those 80%. You are not educating the population in large enough quantities.
Most of you are not promoting at all or in quantities which could be considered a “drop in the ocean”.
Do you know about one of the definitions of “Doctor” in the Webster dictionary?
Doctor: noun [derived from old french or latin doctor, teacher. Derived from past participle of docere, to teach] 1. Origin, a teacher or learned man …
“Teacher”. Yes, a teacher. Does it make sense?
So when are you going to start teaching in numbers which count?
Who did you think was supposed to do it – the government, the schools? They do what they can, why should they do all of your teaching?
Or should I say why should they do YOUR MARKETING?
Let me ask you how did you find out about some brand new equipment and technology, let’s say ‘laser dentistry’? From some advertising or a salesman maybe? I bet if you have not been one of the developers of this, then the answer is 100% YES.
How would you feel about your neighbor who is a heart surgeon, not telling you about a new cure for a heart disease because you did not come to him and asked and your loved one is dying from it? You see, he only did what is “professional”– don’t advertise! “If you are good, people will come to you by word of mouth”.
Balderdash!
How can you expect people to look for things they don’t even know exists?
So, you must do marketing, advertising, and public relations, or you will do a disservice to the people, the profession and to yourself.
How much marketing is needed?
About 500 times more than you think in your wildest nightmare.
Advertising and marketing does cost, and it makes, if done ethically (don’t promise things you can’t deliver), money always — always, always!!
The trick in making yourself known is only modified by your ability to reach as many people as you can, and using not only your own money and resources, but using the money and resources of other entities to help you.
To reach a great amount of people you better bring the cost of reaching those people way down.
I know that most advertising companies tell you to do the “best quality marketing” (good printing, etc.) and spend enormous amount of money getting the “best” mailing list. Once you have all that high quality stuff then usually you, of course, have no more money to actually mail them out.
Over and over again, I see doctors putting promotional material together which cost 50 cents to two dollars per piece, —not including the postage. Considering the high price, they sent 200 – 2000 pieces per month and hope there are returns.
Why does nothing happen? After all it is such a ‘nice’ brochure!
Balderdash, first of all, you properly described you and your practice perfectly which was the first mistake, a real big mistake! Then you expect some magic 5 or even 10% return. Or you say, well, even at 1% something should have happened.
Not so!
I say, a percentage of one (or ten) can never really be averaged out without minimally having sent 20,000 mailings minimally three to five times. That makes 60,000 — 100,000 sent in a one to two months period. Remember what I said: minimally three to five times to the same people or you waste your money!!
And by the way, 1% is high for your service! There is not a marketing expert who will not tell you that if you don’t hit the same population five to ten times, every two to four weeks, you might as well not do it and go to Las Vegas with your money.
In marketing you are always better off hitting a small segment many, many times rather than a large segment once.
Here is another thought: most people ponder about all the money they lost and might lose when yet the real money you lose is the money you neglect ever getting.
Could you see this? It’s the millions you never make which are hurting you!!
Set aside everything you “know” about marketing and about “how people react to marketing”, and stop being penny-wise and dollar-foolish.
Start making noise. Start making noise, in a way you never did before.
Keep in mind that if you change nothing, discredit everything I and other marketing experts are teaching as “not workable”, “not functioning”, “not in my area”, “not over my dead body”, — then of course nothing will change in your practice.
There is a world out there waiting for good service and products, — tell this world loudly that you have them!
If you have not already done so, speak to us about the latest automated internet marketing tools that will reach out to approximately 100,000 to 200,000 people, at only pennies on the dollar.
Helmut G. Flasch
CEO
Doctor Relations
Whether you are running a dental practice or running a restaurant, it is easy to concentrate on problems and forget to see the thing you wanted in the first place.
