The 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs are underway and as a hockey fan this is a very exciting time of year!  Hockey is a game of strategy and timing.  In order for a team to be successful in the NHL they need to bring these elements together.

A successful playoff run is much like a successful marketing campaign for your practice or business.  In hockey, the coach must decide which players to put on the ice during key points in the game and in your practice or business you must decide what messages to send your patients or clients at key points in the year.

If a coach plays his best players too often they may become ineffective in the later stages of a game.  On the other hand, if he doesn’t utilize his best players enough, the team may miss scoring chances and opportunities to win the game.  Your direct mail campaigns work in very much the same way.  Sending out annual appointment reminder postcards to your patients or clients one week after their last visit may not be the optimal time to do so.  Your campaign will be more effective if you send out the appointment reminder postcards closer to the appointment date.

Every business and practice goes through cycles of busy and slow times and it should be your goal to maximize profits during busy times and promote growth during slower times.  Take a look at your marketing and direct mail strategies and look for patterns in patient or client behavior to uncover opportunities.

Some proven techniques to try are:

1) Patient or client referral program
2) Welcome program for new patients or clients
3) Reminder, recall or recare for upcoming appointments
4) Thank you program that expresses your gratitude to loyal patients or clients

Like NHL coaches competing to win this year’s Stanley cup, you need to think about your strategy and timing.

It’s now time for you to implement your plan and for me to watch some hockey!

Business Thank you cards make a long lasting impression on patients and clients. Thank yous and your welcomes are taught at such an early age but it seems as the times change and the world moves at a faster pace we often forget to say these words as much as we should.

How can you get your patients to remember you and appreciate the business that you provide them with? How about sending any one of our business thank you cards.

Sharper™ has a variety of designs to choose from.

There are many languages in which you can say ‘Thank You’ in, however the meaning always comes across the same way. Tell your patients today that you appreciate them and thank them for choosing you as their health care provider.

These words were all to familiar to me as a child growing up. But its a lesson that holds true throughout our lives, not just when we’re young and getting spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa.

It’s the simplest of gestures that can mean so much to a patient or client because it tells them that they are important. And let’s face it… it’s not just good manners; its another step in building and maintaining a strong relationship with them.

Sharper™ offers a variety of business thank you cards to choose from. Whether you’re looking for something specific to your market (ie Dental, Pet Care, Contemporary Health, Vision & Hearing, etc) or perhaps more general, there are many beautiful designs available in both postcards and folding card formats to tell your patients or clients what their visit means to you.

Here are a few examples of some popular Sharper

Every day I speak with dozens of customers and process their orders via phone, fax, email and website.  I see everything from simple Dental Hygiene Cards to Financial Holiday Cards to Personalized Leashes! It’s interesting to think back on all these orders and ask…

My favorite orders are the ones where the customer has created something truly unique for themselves with the personalization on their cards.  Something like adding a discount coupon and warm greeting to Massage Therapy Postcards, making clients feel special.  Or designing a frequent purchaser layout to add to the back of Business Cards, rewarding customer loyalty.  Even a friendly message introducing yourself on Dental Welcome Postcards can make a great impression!

Let us know if you have any special ideas for your personalization and we can make it happen.

Your patients and clients will remember it!

I have worked in advertising and graphic design for over 15 years, and there is one trend that i have always found to be very interesting… regardless of what your business is, continuing to advertise during slow economic times is essential to long term recovery. Studies by McGraw-Hill Research and  Meldrum & Fewsmith have indicated that companies who continued or grew their advertising during economic slumps recovered much more quickly and grew their sales by as much as 265% over those companies who did little to no advertising.

A personal and convenient way to advertise your services can be as simple as sending out financial greeting cards such as:

• Welcome Cards to new clients
• Thank You Cards for referrals
• Financial Birthday Cards
• Financial Holiday Greetings

This simple act tells your clients that you care about them and that you value their business, and as a bonus… it helps to build loyalty! With my busy schedule, I always appreciate it when my financial planner sends me personalized reminder cards for my appointments or upcoming events.

Further personalize your financial greeting cards by printing your signature and the signatures of your staff on the card. You can also increase your brand awareness by adding your logo.

Adding your signature to financial greeting cards is easy:

• Use a black, Sharpie felt pen (or similar) and sign your name on white paper
• Scan it at 300 dpi and email it to  logos@e-sharper.com
• or Fax it to us a 1-888-251-4454

Some tips for greater quality of your signatures:

• Avoid ball-point pens or felt pens that have a very fine point
• Avoid blue or other colored ink
• Avoid writing on  colored or textured paper
• Sign a little larger than normal (no more than 2x your normal signature size)

Adding your logo to your financial greeting cards is also easy:

• Choose the highest quality digital format that you have available
• email it to logos@e-sharper.com

Some suggestions for successful logo reproduction

• Review the Logo Specifications PDF here
• Using a vector format like Adobe Illustrator (.ai or .eps) will give you the greatest range of options
• Avoid logos that are used on your website, instead send logos that were created at 300 dpi (TIF, JPGs)

Some of my favorite Financial Greeting Cards:

When I get dental hygiene cards in the mail, I normally put them on my fridge and make a note to call and schedule my checkup.

There are 2 benefits I get from these postcards:
~ A dependable reminder service for my busy schedule
~ A reminder that my dentist and/or hygienist values my business as well as my health

Patients like to feel valued. Personally, I am much more loyal when I know my business is appreciated – for me, that comes in two forms:
~ a genuine thank you when I patronize a business (Try: business thank you cards)
~ the idea that I’m not forgotten when I haven’t been there for a while (Try: personalized reminder cards)

I always appreciate the dental hygiene cards that tell me it’s time to schedule a teeth cleaning.

Here are a couple of my favorite designs:

With today’s economic climate it can be difficult for small businesses and practices to build and maintain a loyal client base. Many of them are cutting back on vital initiatives such as direct mail, print advertising and promotions because these initiatives are sometimes viewed as ‘optional’.

The truth is, cutting back on these types of retention tools may save you money in the short term but can potentially cost you much more in the long term via loss of patient and client loyalty.

Attracting and retaining loyal patients and clients doesn’t have to cost a lot. A great example of a strategy that will help build loyalty is the use of welcome cards. I’m going to use a dental office as an example to show you how easy and affordable it is to implement and utilize welcome cards to help stimulate patient loyalty.

Step 1 – Select dental welcome postcards that help portray the overall ‘feeling’ of your dental office.

Step 2 - Choose a standard welcome message or write your own custom message to be printed on the cards.

Step 3 - Send the dental welcome postcards to all of your new patients telling them how you value their business and look forward to providing them service again in the near future.  This is also a great opportunity to encourage them to refer their friends and family.  You can also offer a promotion or incentive that will motivate them to book their next appointment with you.

As you can see, building loyalty doesn’t have to be difficult or cost you a lot of money.  Something as simple as sending dental welcome postcards can provide enough motivation to patients or clients that will bring them back to your office on a regular basis.

I can still remember my first appointment with my orthodontist. I remember being terrified, not knowing what to expect and scowling at my parents for thinking they tricked me into this. Walking into the office, I remember holding back tears and preparing myself for the worst.

When I entered, it was a different story. I saw drawings posted on the wall, a huge pile of toys in the corner of the room, and a tall, wide-grinned woman behind a counter, holding a book and a big box of crayons. When I was called in to meet the doctor, he shook my hand and starting asking me questions about school, boys and my favorite movies. He explained each tool to me before we began and assured me that I was going to be alright. After my appointment was over they gave me one of their dental tote bags with a welcome card, dental floss, a toothbrush and a bunch of stickers. After that, I wasn’t too worried to have to return to be fitted for a retainer.

With many orthodontic patients being children, marketing tools with a personal touch can make all the difference in the world. When choosing your orthodontic cards, whether it be orthodontic recall cards, orthodontic birthday cards and even your orthodontic business cards try to have an aspect of fun with positive imagery and messaging for your patients. When their treatment is finished, remember to congratulate them on their new smile! It will make a word of difference to them while parents will appreciate your attention to detail. And that can only be a good thing when it comes to patient loyalty and new referrals!

We would all like to believe that our existing patients are happy and that others are lined up at the door for an appointment, however this may not always be the case. 70 percent of patients leave a dental practice because of poor customer service.

Winning them over and improving your conversion rate can be much easier than you realize if you begin to focus on their needs and concerns on a personal level, starting with their first appointment. Wow them with better customer service and followup. Make their initial experience with you and your staff the best it can be, and start off on the right foot by sending  a personalized dental  welcome card right after their first visit. Show them that you really appreciate the fact that they have considered you as their dentist of choice.

Take the time to let them get to know your practice a little better by choosing the right welcome card for your dental practice marketing. What are you and your staff like?

• casual/fun

• family oriented

• serious & professional

Whatever dental welcome card you choose will set the tone. Plus, all of our Sharper postcards are available as wall art as well, and can give you even more branding power. Choose from any of our welcome card designs, and have it transformed into beautiful artwork for your dental reception area.  Also, choose a design with a matching personalized peel & stick dental appointment card for even more coordinated visual impact.

Mix and match your products and save at the same time.

My dentist runs a very successful practice so while visiting recently, I asked him what his greatest business challenge was.  Like many practices, he indicated dental patient acquisition so we started talking about the techniques he uses with his front office staff and patients to encourage referrals.

Listed below are his easy (and cost-affordable) ideas which may help your dental patient acquisition program:

- Train staff to openly ask patients for referrals
- Send personalized business thank you and welcome cards
- Reward patients that send referrals to your practice – a movie pass or gift card to Starbucks
- Make it easier for patients to refer your practice with a personalized practice brochure or custom business cards
- Post a couple of wall art signs in the office that reminds patients your office welcomes referrals

My dentist says these ideas work great for him - and considering how busy his practice is (and his luxury Lexus in the parking lot), I believe him!

After completing a quick on-line search to see what $45 could buy, here’s what I discovered:

• A book called ‘Dancing in Peanut Butter’
• 6 miniature saxophone ornaments
• Former Saturday Night Live star – Molly Shannon’s autograph
• 1 of 5 easy payments for a piece of as seen on TV workout equipment

Based on this on-line exercise it’s obvious that there are many ways to spend $45, but when it comes to your practice or business, the number one goal is to stretch those dollars as far as possible.

Here’s a great tip to help you attract more business and grow your patient or client base.  Add a black and white photo of you or your staff to business thank you cards, personalized reminder cards, and welcome postcards for a one-time fee of $45.  Once your photo is on file you can use it again at no additional charge.  The more you use your photo, the better value you get.

Benefits of adding a photo to your Sharper™ products:

• Creates an added level of familiarity between you and your patients or clients
• Helps you stand out from the competitors
• Gives your products an enhanced level of personalization
• With your photo on file it can be added to the personalization of future orders at no additional cost to you

The next time you’re shopping at Sharper™ don’t forget to ask about adding your photo.

A referral program is a great way to build relationships with existing patients or clients, while generating new business. A successful referral plan does not have to be complicated.  Follow the simple steps below to create your own plan to obtaining new patients or clients.

Step 1: Determining your offer

• What are you trying to achieve?

1. Are you a new practice or business looking to quickly grow your patient or client base?
2. Are you an established practice or business that would like to maintain a consistent, yet smaller number of clients?

• What should you offer?

1. A highly motivational incentive would be an offer for a free service or free gift
2. A targeted motivational incentive would be to offer a free upgrade or ‘add on’ to their next service.

Step 2: Get your cards or gift certificates ready

• Now that you’ve established what you will be offering, make sure you have the materials in place send out your acknowledgments.  Sharper™ has a wide range of business thank you cards, as well as personalized gift certificates. This gesture will strengthen your relationship with your clients and ensure they feel appreciated.

Step 3: Tell your patient’s or clients about your referral program

• This is the most crucial element to the success of your referral program. The reality is that most patients or clients do not realize the importance of referrals and need to be informed that you do appreciate new business.
• Send business greeting cards or personalized reminder cards to communicate the details of your referral program.

The most important thing to remember is, be proud of your practice or business and don’t shy away from actively seeking referrals.  Implementing a referral program is one of the easiest and cost-effective ways to grow your practice or business.