Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Branding Yourself

I want to talk about a marketing effort that is incredibly important, yet, few of you ever put a lot of time, energy, or effort into it. It's called “branding”.

In fact, very few of you ever think of yourself, your practice or your business as a brand that you want to make famous in the community. With the absence of a brand initiative, you actually fail to position yourself and your business/practice (make an impression) in the minds of the people who live and work in your community.

The goal is to have people think of you, your business, your brand, and your logo in a split second. This is actually the dream!

If I mention Coca-Cola to you, you can quickly recall their red logo. And, I bet you still remember "Coke is the real thing". If you think about FedEx, you can quickly recall their logo and that they will absolutely, positively get your package there overnight.

Nike, you can think of their swoosh logo and their "Just do it".

Even though slogans may change, you can see the kind of impact that a consistent branding campaign can have on the mind of a consumer. You want the people who live and/or work in your community to think of you when they need you…in 3 seconds or less…and this is accomplished with consistent marketing that includes branding so you maintain that “top of mind awareness”.

My advice is to make sure that your logo and your slogan, or your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) absolutely penetrates the mind of the people who live and/or work in your community so that when they think of your product or service - they think of you.

Depending on what you do (product and/or service you sell), this process can take months or years. BUT, the great news is that 99% of your competitiors do not focus much on their brand.

You will start to see the effects of your branding campaigns/initiatives when people call you/come in to see you and say, "You know, I thought of a dry cleaner and I immediately thought of you because of your ads, or because of your logo". Pay attention to this.

Ask your customers how they found you. Track you marketing efforts to evaluate their success. And, watch what happens when you become the most recognized, most utilized business of your kind in town simply because you made everyone aware of you.

Action Steps:

1.Think of yourself as a brand
2.Get a logo, slogan, etc.
3.Become memorable
4.Penetrate the community with your marketing efforts.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Client Referral Systems

Hi, this is Dr. Len Schwartz and today we're talking about client referral systems. It’s one of the most cost effective (it costs you nothing) new client referral generating initiatives you can have in place. We're talking about 4 different things you can do today, right now, to get your clients to start to refer more people to you.

The first thing I want to talk about is client education systems. We all know that a consistent client education system and referral strategy needs to be in place, not monthly, not bi-monthly, but every single day with every single client. Not only to get your client to understand the value of what you do, but to have them refer people to you. Because, they want to help someone they know and care about with a particular problem. So, you need to commit to a daily client education system and referral program in your practice. Make sure you use research, because research resonates at the highest level with people. Besides, that takes you out of the picture. You become an objective communicator by using third party or cited research.

Number 2, let's talk about monthly events. How many of you give your clients a reason to bring other people to your office to introduce you to their friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors? If you’re not having monthly events in your office, you’re leaving a lot of new clients, a lot of money, and a lot of referrals on the table. So, make sure you commit, plan out your entire year in advance. Maybe, have Valentines Day parties in February, a back to spring in March, have an April fools in April…you get the idea. Think about what you can do through out the course of the year, and by the way, a monthly event may also be an internal lecture. Give your clients an opportunity to bring people to your office and introduce them to you.

Number 3, referral cards that you can send to their friends and family on their behalf, right from your office. Research and referral packets that you can mail or e-mail to your prospective clients or your existing clients that want you to send them to their friends or family members. These are all things you have to have in play, if you want to have a consistent new client / referral generating system in your practice.

Finally, phone calls! Have any of you ever talk to your clients about allocating certain amount of time during the week to communicate or get in touch with, or call their friends and family members on their behalf to educate them on how you might be able to help them with their problem? Something you might want to consider is putting this on paper, putting this in your office, educating or informing your clients that you do this on a weekly basis. Just opening up the door may give your clients a reason to tell you about a friend or family member that they have in mind that has a particular problem. Just putting that out their may generate a nice stream of referrals for you, and of course new clients.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Direct Mail/Postcard Campaign

Hi, this is Dr. Len Schwartz. This week I'm going to talk to you about postcards. Not only do most professionals not utilize a direct mail or postcard campaign, but most don't realize how incredibly cost effective a direct mail or postcard campaign can be. A direct mail or postcard campaign can build your name, build your brand, build your fame, and most importantly, generate new clients. So, let's get started with the top 10 reasons why to use a direct mail / postcard campaign.

First, it is incredibly affordable and that's going to partner up with number 6, which is you can test a direct mail campaign, especially with postcards for an incredibly low amount of money. You can send out 100 postcards just to find out what kind of response you get. By the way, that's going to tap into the ability to test. Once you start testing for your direct mail campaign and you start to see the results you get, whether it’s from sending to a specific neighborhood or a specific section of your town, you can start to become really strategic with whom you send the direct mail campaign to. Plus, based on the response, you can decide to roll it out big or cut it out all together.

Number 2, your competitors have no idea that you are actually facilitating a marketing initiative know as a direct mail / postcard campaign. That may or may not matter to you, but it's one of the top 10 reasons.

Number 3, you get a chance to track, as I mentioned. But, know we are revisiting the whole tracking system, because most great marketers test and track all of the different components of the specific marketing initiative. I challenge you to do the same thing with a direct mail / postcard campaign.

Number 4, it's versatile. You can really use a direct mail / postcard campaign for everything from a special event happening in your office, to getting a chance to check you out, to becoming a new client.

Number 5, one of my favorite things: building your name, building your brand, and building your fame. You can use postcards, specifically the copies on the postcard, to not only invite someone to a special event in your office, but also to continue to perpetuate the brand that is you and your office.

We talked about Number 6 which was testing.

Number 7. You’re not going to waste people’s time. They have a chance to respond to a special offer on your postcard and you can have a special code on the postcard that they can call or reference, where they can get something from you.

Number 8, you’re not going to take up a lot of space and they always get read. Unlike a typical envelope, where they have to tear open and find out what’s inside, with a nice colorful postcard, you have a real good 60-75% chance they're going to take a look at that postcard (front and back) and find out more about what you're offering.

Number 9, again as mentioned with the testing campaign, it's inexpensive to print. You can really test with 100, you can test with 1000, or you can test with 5000 postcards and it's still relatively inexpensive, compared to other marketing campaigns.

Finally, Number 10, it's easy to hand in or redeem for special services, which again partners with the whole concept of having a redemption code. All of these things are married together to make for a super successful direct mail campaign using postcards.

Have a great day and I'll talk to you next time!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

What is your Competition Doing?

Hi, this is Dr. Len Schwartz and I have a really important question for you: "What is your competition doing?" My next question for you is, "Who Cares?"

So many of you call every week and the first thing you start to talk to me about is, how the other professionals in your area does this and how the other professionals in your neighborhood are doing that. Who cares? If all of you would put in as much time, energy, and focus in putting your own marketing initiatives in place, your own internal/external systems, strategies, concepts, tactics, and techniques in place; Then you wouldn't have to worry about what the other professionals are doing, because frankly there are so many people out there that don't go to a professional.

There are more then enough for all of you. Do yourself a favor; make a commitment to spending time and energy, in addition to money, in your own marketing on building your name, your brand, and your fame in your own community. Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing, because what they’re doing is of no interest to you.

It's all about you!

It's all about your practice and all about your ability to grow this year. If you need solutions, if you need answers, and you need some strategies that will really increase the size of your practice and number of new clients/referrals, give us a call 866-655-8502.

Until next time, have a great day and we'll talk to you soon!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Systems...

I've got a predictably successfully way to insure that your business grows every week, every month, throughout the year for as long as your in business. What can possibly be so simplistic as to insure such a predictably successful outcome?

Well, it's systems.

When you have client education systems, referral systems, and advertising systems in place, together, in a layered effect every single day, you can't help but grow. So, my advice to you is pretty short and simple and very easy. Find yourself a marketing system that you could put into place, more importantly that your staff can put into place, run and manage for you, so your business consistently spits out new clients, customers and referrals. Again, I'm making this sound really simple, but why most professionals fail is because they don't have a system in place. Instead they have a "let's throw as much crap against the wall to see what sticks" marketing plan. In fact, that's no marketing plan at all. Do yourself a favor, embrace the value of systems and find yourself with a predictably successful outcome, new clients, and new referrals.

Also, this week I have a really special announcement! I want to send you to our brand new website, www.chiropracticemarketingsolutions.com. It's revamped, it's got lots of product package discounts for you, and to all of you reading this, simply put in the code NEWSITE and that will give you an automatic additional 20% off that particular product package. Now you have no excuse to put a system in place, right now! Put a client education and referral system in place and start to generate 10-20 referral leads per week. Put a lay lecture in place in your office and generate 10-20 new clients a month. There’s a lot for you to see, go check it out at: http://www.chiropracticemarketingsolutions.com

Have a great week and I'll talk to you next time!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

New Clients

Hi, this is your business building tip of the week and this week I want to talk about getting new clients, but not in the traditional sense. Before you get new clients, you have to do 2 very important things.

First, create an environment in your office that is accepting of new clients. Now what does that mean? You should always have 10 files made, 10 new client files made for your regular cash clients. If you don't have files made and ready to go in case 10 new clients walk in at any time, you’re sending a message out to the universe that you’re not ready.

Second, is your staff ready to handle an influx of new clients? By staff I mean systems, processors, and procedures in your practice or business that are executed, implemented, or incorporated by your staff so you can do what you do best.

Then of course, once you’ve created an environment, office setting, all the materials, and a staff that is ready/prepared for new clients, then you can go out. You've now created a fertile environment that can accept and attract new clients to your office.

I hope this helps!

Please don't look over this, this is a really important step in attracting new clients to your door and building your name, your brand, and fame because you’re creating an entire action plan around generating new clients that starts with you, your staff, and your business. Have a great week and I'll talk to you next time!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Online and Print Directories

I’m back to talk to you about directories, both online and print directories. You know if you did a search online for your type of profession, business or industry, you’ll probably find several different directories that host lots of different names of professionals or business. This is in place so that when people search for you they know where to go based on what the directory tells them about you, of course your location is extremely important. So, if you haven’t taken the time to go online and find directories that host professionals like you, or people who own your type of business, do so right now! Add yourself to as many online directories, and of course print directories as you possibly can, so that you can provide some direction for all those people that are searching for someone like you. Again, your location is extremely important. They’ll probably ask for details about you, your practice/business, services, and credentials. It’s extremely important, especially since so much business is done through the internet and even the print directory searches. Do this. It works, and it’s part of the entire collective marketing campaign. Have a great day; I’ll see you next time.

Action Steps:

1.Do an online search of your profession to find directories
2.Add yourself to as many print/online directories as possible
3.Remember, location is extremely important