How great would it be to send one email and have thirty appointments scheduled? That's exactly what one of our Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind members experienced.
Here's exactly how she put it:
Hey, everyone. I just want to share my experience about a marketing gem from Platinum Mastermind. This morning, we sent an “Use Or Lose” email blast. This is much earlier than when we normally send it out. The email stated that today marks 100 days until January 1, 2020 and don’t wait until the last minute to use your dental insurance. My front desk scheduled about 30 appointments afterwards from the online link and phone calls.
How awesome is that! A week before she sent this email, we trained all of our Platinum Practices on how to run effective end-of-year campaigns. One week later, she was celebrating her success with hundreds of other dental professionals! So how did she do it? Here are the steps we suggest taking to run an effective end-of-year campaign.
Start Early
We highly recommend sending out the email at least 100 days before the year ends. This is earlier than many practices typically send end-of-year campaigns. But it's so important to get the email out early. Sometimes, it takes multiple emails to catch people's attention, even if the first email gets 30 appointments, as this member experienced.
Sending early also gives you 100 full days to get patients in. You can spread out end-of-year appointments so you're not in a big rush in December.
Choose the Right Patients to Email
Although many practices assume it's easier to email all their patients than choosing a subset, it's not. I highly recommend emailing only the right patients for all your email communications. This is so important because it makes it much more likely that patients will open your emails.
If you consistently send emails to your entire patient list, it's likely that the vast majority of emails will be irrelevant to most of your patients. Over time, your patients will see your emails as not worth paying attention to and ignore even the relevant ones.
With end-of-year campaigns, this means only sending your campaign to your active patients with unscheduled treatment and insurance remaining.
Make a Plan and Set Goals
Once you know when you're going to start and who will be included in your campaign, take some time to plan and set goals for your campaign.
In the Platinum Mastermind, we walked members through every step of the process so implementing the plan would be seamless, successful, and fun.
We helped them:
- identify the total revenue opportunities if all were rescheduled;
- set a specific goal for the percentage of patients they targeted to reschedule;
- identify the total revenue that would come in once they hit their goal;
- determine how their team would celebrate once their goal was met;
- identify the most effective campaigns to use to get predictable results; and
- use software to identify the patients and send out the campaigns with ease.
With end-of-year campaigns, we showed them how to use newsletters, letters, and social communications to reach the right patients. This multimedia approach increases the likelihood that your overall campaign will achieve your goals, even if your email is successful on its own. With our Platinum Mastermind members, we also gave them all the email, newsletter and Facebook ad copy and graphics to use.
Having a solid plan and exciting goals for what you'll do and how you'll celebrate makes it much easier to implement. It also motivates your entire team to help ensure your campaign will be a success.
Take Action
No matter how good your ad copy and graphics are if you don't send them you won't get results. If you want results, you have to take action. Start early. Identify the right patients to target with your campaign. Set exciting goals and know how you'll celebrate. And send those emails. That's exactly what this member did and after her first email, she had 30 new appointments schedules.
Do you send end-of-year campaigns?
When's the last time you sent an end-of-year marketing campaign? When done well, they can be very effective. So, take some time to plan and execute your campaign. And, remember, early is key. We suggest sending at least 100 days before the end of the year to maximize the time patients have to use their benefits. If you missed that deadline, don't worry. Send it as soon as you can and mark your calendar for next year!
If you want help, join the Delivering WOW Platinum Coaching Program today. There, you'll get access to all the copy and creative assets this member used to get 30 appointments from one email. You'll also get access to top training and coaching from experts in all facets of running a practice.
This article originally appeared on DeliveringWOW.com.