Editor's note: Richard Geller's column, Marketing Madness, appears regularly on the DrBicuspid.com advice and opinion page, Second Opinion.
If you are not already collecting your patients' e-mail addresses, start now. You have been missing the best marketing opportunity on the planet.
And don't just collect e-mails, work them.
This column focuses on how often you should e-mail. In future columns, I will discuss how to gather e-mail addresses and how to compose e-mails that get results.
First, what makes e-mail so wonderful?
It is inexpensive and intimate. A letter goes to a house. An e-mail goes right to the reader, right to the prospective patient's eyeballs.
E-mail can be very personal. There is no such thing as you communicating with an audience. There is only you communicating with a person. E-mail is very close to the ideal way to communicate with a person.
How often should you e-mail a patient? Every week? Every month?
The answer will surprise you. The more often you e-mail, the better your results. I e-mail many lists every day.
Yes, every day.
Doesn't this wear out, and don't many people hate my e-mailing them every day?
That brings up the second rule of e-mail: Don't be bland. Use your personality. Remember that e-mail is very personal, right? So use it that way.
Don't worry about turning off those folks who don't care for you. Many people will like your e-mail. Many won't. Let the ones who don't like to get your e-mail, or who don't like a daily e-mail, get off the bus.
Many folks won't read your e-mails. Most won't. But by e-mailing every day, a different batch of folks will start to read over a few days. And some will stop reading them for a few weeks or months.
There is a natural rotation of people reading your e-mails for a while, then stopping, and other folks starting to read them every day.
Someone's interest level in switching dentists will peak, and they will start to read avidly. Someone else's interest level will fall off.
It is a fact that most people think of getting dentistry done months before they pull the trigger. By e-mailing them every day, you are able to capture the maximum number of people's attention when they are most interested in making a switch.
And please join my e-mail list. I don't usually e-mail dentists every day but when I do, you will be grateful because I only e-mail original thoughts, videos, and information. Visit Cases4Dentists.com and get a free $59.95 case acceptance and dental marketing book -- along with e-mails from me you will appreciate.
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
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