How To Develop A Physician Email Campaign

By the time you’re done reading this article, more than 122 million emails will have been received worldwide — almost 23 times as many Google and Facebook searches combined.

And because it takes relationships to build a successful medical practice, what better way to strengthen the doctor/patient rapport than through the most widely used form of online communication?

A physician email marketing campaign is a great way to engage current patients as well as attract new ones to your practice, but succeeding online isn’t as simple as it may seem. Certain strategies have been proven to work over others, and you don’t want to waste your time on a marketing endeavor that won’t produce results.

Strong Email Lists

In order to successfully connect with your audience, you have to build a strong email list with quality targets. In an online environment where anyone can post anything they want at any time, email is a great way to make sure your patients are directly receiving the information you want.
Begin by getting an email address from every patient and referring provider in your network. Let them know you’ll be sending useful and pertinent health information. Reassure contacts you won’t spam their inboxes. An easy way to grow your list is by adding a noticeable “subscribe” button on your website and social media pages.

Once you have a strong list of recipients, you can use a low-cost (or even free) email service provider like Mailchimp for delivery. After sending your email, these services provide you with a report of how many people opened, read and forwarded your message.

Clear Subject Lines

According to a Convince and Convert study, 33% of email recipients open emails solely based on the subject line.

The best subject lines are short, conversational and targeted. They tell the reader exactly what’s in the email. There’s no need for surprises. Like a good newspaper headline, an email subject line should let the reader know what’s inside.

For instance, “Can Reusing Water Bottles Cause Cancer?” will get more opens than “Cleveland Oncologist Newsletter.”

And last but not least, don’t be deceiving with your subject lines. This can turn off your readers and cause them to unsubscribe.

Informative Newsletters

An informative, consistent and visually appealing newsletter is one of the best ways a physician can market their practice online. There are just a few things to keep in mind when producing a profitable newsletter.

Aim to educate. Sending regularly scheduled updates on practice happenings, reactions to news headlines and timely reminders for things like flu shots can be a great way to get patients involved and serve as a reminder for rescheduling an appointment.

Instead of talking about yourself, educate your readers about health issues important to them. Your objective is to teach, not sell. A properly executed newsletter will convince readers that you’re the expert they want to go for treatment, as well as keep it interesting for even casual readers.

A final word of advice: keep mobile size dimensions in mind when designing an email. Approximately 40% of mobile users in the U.S. read email through their mobile device. In fact, mobile email open rates jumped 34% in the last six months of 2011 while desktop email opens dropped by 9.5%.

All in all, if you spend the time strategizing and producing an impactful email campaign, you want to make sure everyone in your audience can view your message the way you meant it to look. This is the kind of care that leads to success.

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How To Create Share-Worthy Website Content

 

In the world of business, competition is fierce. Getting an edge in your industry or niche is tough. Not only do you need to stand out from the crowd, but you also have to find new and relevant ways to set yourself above the competition. How can this be done? One viable way is content creation.

It’s an understatement to say content creation covers a wide spectrum. We could spend all day talking about copywriting, but the truth is the best marketing strategies on the net won’t do a bit of good if you aren’t crafting share-worthy content. Now, I’m sure you share your content. That’s great. But it isn’t enough. You have to create the kind of copy that screams two words to every person who reads or sees it: SHARE ME!

Why Share-Worthy Is Noteworthy

Let’s be honest; no matter how modest we are, we never build a website or blog with the intent of keeping it under wraps. We want the world to see it, hear it, and share it. We want TRAFFIC! If you’re not getting much, content could fix your traffic problem – especially if it’s share-worthy.

According to All Business Experts, one of the best ways to promote your content is through social media. However, this avenue cannot be successful if the content you’re sharing isn’t sharable in the first place. Share-worthy content is noteworthy because it compels your followers to share it. The more likes, re-tweets and +1s you get, the broader your exposure.

The noteworthiness of sharable content doesn’t stop at exposure. Crafting content with the potential to go viral involves the creation and establishment of credibility. The more readers trust you and your content, the more shares you’ll rack up.

We all want content worthy of sharing. So, how do we craft it?


Nailing Shares In 10 Simple Steps

Sharable content requires a secret ingredient: quality. Anyone can write, but it takes a special pen to use the special ingredient properly. Whether you’re a seasoned content creator or not, here are 10 simple steps for nailing share-worthy copy:

1. Find Your Mojo: The Content Marketing Institute says, “In person, it’s far easier to have a memorable personal characteristic that people will take away… Online is harder.” Are you going to go current and relevant, or super visual? Will you write from an actual persona or a specific point of view? What’s your niche? Hint: your mojo is likely fired by the passion behind your business.

2. Pick Catchy Headings: They’re the first thing readers see. They need to catch the eye, make a point, or perk curiosity. Your main headline has to be enticing enough to click. Your subheadings need to be engaging enough to keep the reader on the page.

3. Go Fish: Any good fisherman will tell you that bait matters. With every piece of content, you are fishing for shares. The best bait is a great hook. Craft such a hook by immediately piquing your reader’s curiosity or stirring something deep inside of them.

4. Use a Little Dynamite: Share-worthy content is like dynamite; it delivers a BANG! Content that goes viral usually has a shock value. It’s often edgy, even controversial. Throwing a stick of dynamite into your content will make it appealing to folks outside of the industry while keeping it fresh for those already interested in the subject material.

5. Break It Down: Digestible content is well formatted and easy to read. Break it down by using headings, crafting precise (and short) paragraphs, staying on topic, using proper grammar and spelling, and ensuring the content isn’t overly lengthy. Digestible content is often shared before the sharer finishes reading it.

6. Get Serious: Backing up your claims is important. Think about the experts in your industry. It’s likely you constantly see their claims backed up by hard evidence; it’s a contributing factor to why you consider them experts. Therefore, you should cite your sources and show relevant data. According to Moz, “citing a source is as simple as linking to the webpage from which you got the information.” Building citations and using hard evidence – such as data and statistics – to back up your claims increases your credibility. The higher your credibility, the more likely people are to share your content.

7. Offer Value: Don’t mistake entertainment for value. While catchy headings, a great hook, and a few sticks of dynamite provide entertainment, your readers also want hardcore value. In other words, they want solutions or answers regarding your subject matter.

8. Leverage the Troops: It’s no secret that guest blogging has come under fire. Moz speculates that this was the direct result of a lack of credibility and expertise. Moz went on to discuss using executives for guest posts. When creating content with a view toward what we’ll dub “sharability,” leverage your troops. Recruit if you have to! Build in links and point toward highly credible sources.

9. Make Some Noise: Share-worthy content is loud. It’s like jumping up and down, waving your arms, clapping your hands and stomping your feet. It DEMANDS attention. You can make noise by constantly creating differently. Apply steps 1 through 8 to presentations, infographics, webinars, podcasts, case studies, white papers, eBooks, and any other content type you select.

10. Hire a Pro: If you find yourself in a tough niche, investing in a professional writer is an obvious idea. Nevertheless, do you know how to pick a high quality pro? Search for a credentialed individual. Not only should they have experience tackling your niche, but they should also be ready and able to supply samples and/or references.

Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment
What is the one thing that almost all successful brands have in common? They are constantly evaluating what works and what doesn’t. They aren’t frightened of experimentation. They try everything, from different platforms to types of content. You need to do the same.

Use these 10 tips as guidelines for crafting shareable content. Don’t be afraid of stepping outside of your comfort zone. You will never know what will send your content viral until you give it a go.

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How To Create A Marketing Plan For Your Small Business

Does your small business have a marketing plan? A study by Marketo shows that companies with a documented marketing plan are more likely to be satisfied with their marketing efforts. As you might expect, however, smaller companies are less likely than large ones to have marketing plans. Overall, slightly more than one-third of the companies polled don’t have a marketing plan. But only 56 percent of small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) have one, while among companies with over 1,000 employees, 81 percent have one.

Marketing plans aren’t the only thing that some companies are missing. Although 71 percent of respondents say they sometimes or always meet their marketing goals, 23 percent admit they don't have specific marketing goals. As the saying goes, if you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to get there?

Clearly, creating a marketing plan makes a big difference in achieving your goals. Here’s what you should include in your marketing plan:

1. Who are your target customers? Do your market research to understand where your target customers live, their demographics (age, sex, marital status, income, etc.), their spending habits and anything else that makes them ideally suited for your product or service.

2. Who are your competitors? Which companies compete with you for your ideal customers? How do they market themselves, what are their Unique Selling Propositions (USP) and what differentiates your business from theirs? How will you need to market your business to stand out from the competition?

3. Where do your target customers get their information? To determine what marketing methods and channels will work best for you, you need to know, for example, if your target customers read newspapers or get news online, use social media or don’t even know what that is, watch TV or listen to the radio and what websites/publications/stations they read, watch and listen to.

4. What are your marketing goals? If you’re launching a brand-new product, your goal might simply be to raise awareness of what you sell and build your brand name. If you’ve got a long-standing business with a well-established brand, your goal could be to sell more to existing customers. Be sure your goals are measurable—not just “to sell more” but “to increase sales to existing customers by 10 percent per quarter” or other specific numbers.

5. How will you market the business? Based on your understanding of point #3, your marketing plan should list the different marketing and advertising methods you’ll use, such as social media, print advertising, online advertising, event marketing, etc.

6. What’s your marketing budget? It’s important to set a budget for your marketing plan. Measure what you actually spend against your budget forecast.

7. How will you measure success and how often? Marketing takes time to work, so don’t assume that a campaign isn’t worth the money if you don’t see immediate results. However, it’s a good idea to measure results quarterly and see which marketing tactics are working best (or not working at all). That way you can redistribute your budget as needed.

Review your overall marketing plan at least once a year. Today, the world of marketing is changing at lightning speed, and your business needs to keep up.

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How To Use Postcard Marketing for Direct Mail Success

What type of marketing produces a measurable, accountable and data-rich transaction that can help your business assess its marketing ROI with accuracy – and provide a viable list of interested customers for future marketing? Direct mail remains a viable marketing tactic, especially for small businesses marketing to a local area.

Figures released by the Direct Marketing Association in 2012 indicate that postcard marketing is second only to oversized envelopes in terms of response rate. In 2012, postcards achieved an average response rate of 2.47% when mailed to a house file (a file of current customers or customers who have personally chosen to be on a firm’s mailing list) versus 1.12% of a prospect file (a file of names and addresses rented to acquire customers.)

Let’s take a look at the data that the United States Post Office, probably the single best experts in direct mail for businesses, released in their 2012 Household Study report.


Source: Marketing Real Estate

In this study, consumers were asked which shape of mail would elicit a response. Note that postcards were the top choice among respondents with 23.4% indicating they would respond to an advertisement or request for donation if it was mailed via postcard.

 

Why do customers like postcards so much?

• It’s easy to see at a glance what it is about.
• It isn’t perceived as ‘wasteful’ like a lengthy or elaborate direct mail piece.
• It doesn’t take up too much time for customers to read it.
• It’s easy to keep handy if a customer wants to respond.

Business owners love postcard marketing for similar reasons. Postcards are an effective marketing investment, and one of the lowest-cost methods of direct marketing available to a small business owner.

 

Key Take-Aways

• Use postcard marketing to promote sales, store events or special occasions at your small business. Keep the message short and sweet, and use eye-catching images that you take yourself or have legal permission to use to make the card attractive.
• If you’re all thumbs when it comes to design, hire a professional, or use an internet-based printing company that offers free templates you can customize. You only have a few seconds to make a great first impression with your postcard.
• Don’t forget to include obvious information on your card such as the street address, a telephone number and a website address. Make sure that any sales information on the card matches what you have on your website. Have someone else double check the key information for typos; you’d be surprised at how easy it is to mix up digits in a phone number, for instance.
• Build your own mailing list (house file) of names and addresses. Keep a notebook next to the cash register or on the reception desk and invite customers to sign up for your mailing list. A house file almost always performs better than rented or prospecting mailing lists.
• Track response rates to your postcard mailings by offering a special that is only available to customers who bring in the card or provide a special code only printed on the postcard. Keep track of the responses and divide the number of responses by the total number of cards mailed. This figure is the response rate to your mailing. Use it as a benchmark for future mailings and test different designs or offers to see which ones generate the best response.
• Talk to your local post office business office or visit the post office website to read the guidelines for post card mailings. Depending on how you group your mail, you may be able to obtain better discounts on postage.
• Need to rent a mailing list? Mailing lists aren’t sold – they are rented or leased for one or multiple mailings. If you want to reach customers just in your local town, a list company can generate mailing lists based on zip codes. There are also more sophisticated methods of generating lists by customer likes and dislikes, shopping behavior and more. Talk to your list broker (company or individual who rents mailing lists) for assistance.
• You can print your postcards on your office printer, but you’ll quickly run out of ink. Instead, visit your local printer and compare prices for local printers versus the many internet-based printers. Internet printing companies print and ship postcards after you upload the design to their website, and some even provide templates that you fill in with your company information and message. Several also mail the cards for you for an extra fee if you provide the mailing list.
• Don’t forget to use extra postcards as bag stuffers and counter cards! Get additional cards printed and tuck them into shopping bags or a card holder for the countertop.

For more on postcard marketing, see our Ultimate Guide To Real Estate Postcards here.

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Vacation Planning for You and Your Staff

 

I’m taking my own advice and planning a vacation for myself this summer. Doing this had led me to understand some of the challenges that business owners face when taking time off. This is especially true for owners who don’t want to be tethered to the office by mobile devices. Here are some lessons I’ve learned:

Schedule vacation days in advance

As the owner, you may have first dibs on the days you’ll be away, but you need to coordinate with your staff. Some employees may want to use their days in one stretch; others prefer to take time off here and there. For small businesses, coordinating time off is critical for having sufficient staff throughout the summer vacation period.

Set company policy about how much advance is needed for an employee to request time off. Decide whether decisions about granting time off will be based on seniority, first-come, a lottery, or some other way.

Organize

Determine what will need to be done during the time when you/employees are off. Do what’s possible in advance. For me, this always means working double time for weeks in advance to satisfy the work deadlines that fall during my vacation. Discuss with customers and clients about scheduling work after your/your employees’ vacations.

Arrange for backup

Make sure you’re covered for any problems that need to be addressed while you are away. This can be done by giving an employee these responsibilities.

Also see that employees can cover for each other when needed. If necessary, hire temporary workers to fill in gaps in your staffing. With temporary workers, you pay the agency a fee for their services; they remain the employees of the agency.

Looking ahead to next year

How many vacation days do you offer? Federal law does not mandate that you give any paid time off, but you’d be hard-pressed to hire and retain good workers without a paid vacation policy. According to InfoPlease, the average in the U.S. is only 13 days, far fewer than vacation days in other developed countries (Italy (42), France (37), Germany (35), Brazil (34), Britain (28), Canada (26), and Japan and Korea (25)).

Caution: Check your state’s law about vacation days. If you offer them, there are certain rules governing how vacation days accumulate and whether unused days must be paid when employment terminates. For example, in California, earned vacation time is considered wages (and vacation time is earned or vests) as labor is performed (e.g., 10 vacation days a year would mean 5 have been earned after 6 months).

Conclusion

Relax! Enjoy your time off. Studies show you’ll live longer. Certainly, the time off can help you relieve stress, rethink, and refocus on your business when you return.

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How To Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes

It’s a slippery slope that employers try to navigate when it comes to having certain physical standards for a job applicant. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) bans employment discrimination based on a physical, mental, or emotional disability and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for those with disabilities. But what’s a disability? Are physical requirements for job performance permissible? Some recent developments:

Using past medical history
How much past medical history is an employer entitled to know about and can it be used against a job applicant? In one case, a pre-employment physical turned up evidence of prior back surgery. Because the applicant’s doctors couldn’t assure the company that there would be any back problems, he had his job offer withdrawn. A federal district court said the employer violated the ADA (EEOC v. American Tool & Mold, Inc.) The court said that the company could not rely on “myths and fears” about back surgery in general to make a determination about job fitness.

Using physicals
Requiring all job applicants offered a position to take a physical before starting employment seems harmless. It may uncover drug use or other conditions that would make it uncertain at best whether the person could do the job. However, using some findings to reverse a job offer is not permissible.
One company found out through the pre-employment physical that an applicant was diagnosed with prostate cancer and withdrew the job offer. A federal district court upheld the EEOC’s challenge to this action (EEOC v. Professional Freezing Services, LLC). This violated the ADA and the applicant recovered $80,000.

In order to rely on the findings in a medical examination and not be in violation of the ADA, a doctor must certify that the person is unable to perform the duties of the job. It’s not up to the company to make this determination based on information from the medical examination.

Other examples
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) can bring an action against an employer when there is a claim of an ADA violation. Here are some recent pending actions; you can play judge and decide which way they should go:

• A construction company wouldn’t hire a carpenter with dyslexia that prevented him from reading. The carpenter had 10 years of experience as a carpenter.
• A cleaning company fired a worker who suffered from pregnancy-related health issues. The worker had a two-year unblemished work record and the pregnancy did not prevent her from doing her job.
• An applicant with end-stage renal disease had a job offer as a store associate withdrawn because she needed a reasonable accommodation during the application process (she needed an alternate test to the usual urine analysis for drug testing).

Conclusion
Before making any adverse job-related decisions, consult an employment attorney to make sure you aren’t violating the law and exposing your company to possible litigation.

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Time-Management Strategies: 6 Keys to Small Business Success

As the saying goes, “We all have just 24 hours a day.”

How are you supposed to get the kids to school, put in your 8 hour work day, pay the bills, clean the house, make dinner, and actually get a good night’s sleep?

And to top it off, squeeze in time for marketing as well? It may seem impossible .
But, here’s the deal, if you want to get the word out about your small business, then you can’t throw your hands up in the air because you don’t have the time.

Believe me, you need to make time for marketing.

Like most things in life, it’s easier said than done.

But, along the way, I’ve picked up a few time-management strategies that have helped me balance all of my varying marketing platforms (without going too crazy)!
Here are 5 marketing time-management strategies to help you work smarter, faster, and more efficiently:

1. Focus on your marketing strengths.

Marketing is simply about finding ways to effectively communicate with your prospects and customers.

And, at the end of the day, there are only 4 ways that you can communicate your marketing message to your audience:

1. You can write to them.
2. You can talk to them.
3. You can create a video for them.
4. You can create a picture or graphic for them.

Most small business owners are naturally drawn to 1 or 2 communication methods.
If you love to write, then create blog posts, write articles, and craft press releases.
On the other hand, if writing makes you cringe, perhaps you’d prefer to talk to your prospects.
You could host teleseminars, create podcasts, or attend networking events. It’s not so important which way you choose to communicate with your prospects. The important factor is to focus on your communication strength.

2. Choose your marketing platforms.

Once you’ve identified your marketing method, (how you will communicate to your prospects) decide on how you will bring your communications to your target market.
In other words, which marketing platforms will you use to get the word out about your small business? Of course, there are thousands of marketing platforms from which to choose.

To get the most bang for your buck, you’re interested in 3 factors:

1. Free marketing platforms.
2. Platforms that your target market uses.
3. No more than 5 platforms to start.

Obviously, your marketing platforms should be free and a place where your audience is involved. But, in addition, it’s important to narrow your focus and become incredibly proficient on just 5 platforms.

These platforms could include: blog posts, press release distribution sites, social media sites, video sharing sites, or graphic sharing sites.

Pick 5 platforms and master those first. You’ll never succeed if you try to become a “Jack of all Trades, Master of None.”

You can always add more platforms once you become proficient on your first 5.

3. Create a small business time-management plan.

Most small business owners understand the importance of a marketing plan.

But, did you know that you should also have a small business time-management plan?

If your plan is to “start marketing” without any sense of how much time you will devote, you’re destined for extreme non-productivity.

Once you select your communication method and your marketing platforms, determine exactly how much time you will devote to each of them on a daily basis.

As an example, if you’re able to devote 2 hours a day to your marketing efforts, you may decide to spend 1 hour on creating content and 1 hour on distributing your content across 5 marketing platforms.

4. Repurpose your content.

If you’re creating brand new content every day, you’re not being very savvy when it comes to time-management.

Let’s imagine that you’re using the following small business marketing platforms to get the word out about your small business: blogging, video marketing, podcasting, social media marketing, and press release distribution.

Here’s a great time-management strategy:

On Monday, create “brand new” content. For instance, write a blog post and post it to your blog. The remainder of the week you tweak the blog post to meet the requirements of your remaining 4 marketing platforms.

• Tuesday, create a video based on the blog post.
• Wednesday, create a podcast based on the blog post.
• Thursday, rework the blog post into a press release and distribute it.
• Throughout the week post to your social networks with links pointing back to your content.

5. Use a timer.

This tip might sound a little silly, but it works for some crazy reason.
Plus, it’s based on a study from Princeton.

The study states that you should “think of your day in terms of time, not the tasks you have to do. It’s hard to predict how long a task will take, so it’s hard to schedule with great precision. But you can reliably schedule regular intervals of time and get into a routine.”
Here’s a simple 3 step formula to focus on time vs. task:

1. Decide exactly how long you will spend on a marketing activity.
2. Set a timer and get writing.
3. Once the timer beeps, you’re done writing (even if you’re not finished).

A fantastic (and free) online timer to download to your computer is Toggl.

6. Track what works, and focus your marketing efforts there.

Many small business owners don’t take the time to effectively track the results from their free marketing platforms.

That’s a huge mistake. You might not be spending money, but you’re certainly spending time.
There are many ways to evaluate if your marketing is working for you. One simple, free tool is ClickMeter, a link tracking service. It tracks how many clicks and conversions your marketing platforms are producing for you.

You may be surprised to find out that Twitter doesn’t do a thing for your small business while LinkedIn brings you dozens of leads a day.

Eliminate the marketing platforms that aren’t working, and focus on those that are bringing you results.

Once you’ve implemented a few time-management strategies, you may suddenly feel like there are 36 hours in your day!

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