Turn $6,000 into $85,000?

“I’m happy to pay $6,000 for an exchange of $85,000 ...” That’s what one of our clients, Dr. Shawn Murray of Johnstown, Colo., had to say when we were following up on ROI (return on investment) on his postcard marketing campaign.

He went on to say: “Let me also mention the indirect benefit of postcards. I happen to know that I have gotten about 10 referrals from patients who started treatment because their friends who got the postcard started in treatment, then told them about us. And then consider the chain of them referring their friends and so forth.”

That is the lifespan of a quality postcard marketing campaign. When executed properly, it can be the driving force behind the growth of your orthodontic practice. But therein lies the secret: It must be executed properly. That consists of several key factors:

• A strong offer: After all, we see the value of that first initial response — they get treatment, they tell friends and so on.
• Visual impact: Balance of images and text presented on a high-quality card that doesn’t just get lost in the shuffle.
• A targeted mailing list: This is built around the needs of your practice.
• Timely repetition: In marketing, all the experts agree that repetition is key.
• Personal connection: Once prospective patients respond, make sure they feel welcome and heard. That will give them the confidence they need to start treatment. This goes from the moment they make the first call to finishing treatment, and must be emphasized amongst your staff every step of the way. This is where the word-of-mouth marketing takes over.

Now, with all of that considered, let’s focus on the fact that in any successful marketing effort, repetition is key. That is what drives ROI more than any other factor. You have to build a presence in the marketplace. You have to build your brand.

There is too much competition out there to dabble in marketing. You need a plan. It doesn’t have to be complicated; it just has to be consistent. Otherwise it falls by the way of general image advertising, and there is little ROI in that unless you have an enormous budget to shout your name from every rooftop.

But for most orthodontists who are, in fact, small-business owners, ROI is key to your success, and that means you must focus on repetition. Although there are many variables, such as economic conditions, design, offer and mailing list demographics to name a few, the one thing we see is that the clients who do repeat mailings continue to mail with us year after year because they have come to experience that postcard marketing works.

Many orthodontists start with our basic postcard marketing plan, which is a series of three mailings spread across 90 days, targeting the closest 5,000 or 10,000 homes with children ages 7 to 17 and income more than $50,000 or so, depending on the local market.

We usually mail the same card, or at least the same base design with minor tweaks, to keep the message and your brand consistent.

Then we allow the campaign to tell an ongoing story and continue to draw more interest over the course of time as we customize to the changes throughout the year.

Although some could say repeat postcard mailings aren’t cheap, we’ve worked hard to get our prices down to around 43 cents per card without compromising on quality or service. (And, yes, postage is included.) You get full ad agency service, designed with the orthodontist in mind. You are very busy and need for us to be the marketing experts so you can focus on your patients.

Murray found that to be the case as he stated: “From my tracking in my Johnstown office, I can tell you that last year the postcards brought in 27 new patients, and 17 of those have started treatment at an average fee of $5,000.

“I don’t know off the top of my head what I spent in Johnstown alone, but I imagine it was around $6,000 to $7,000, but the ROI is, then, quite awesome. So I’m happy to pay $6,000 for an exchange of $85,000, with little to no effort on my part.”

Of course, results can’t be guaranteed, but we see similar response rates from our clients all over the country.

Tamara Hobbs is creative director of Yourtown Direct.