Have you ever sent out a big mailing at great expense only to be frustrated by the lack of response or Return On Investment (ROI)? Did you feel a lack of certainty as to what should be sent out or what will work? Do you hate the idea of wasting money on useless marketing or fliers?
Well no wonder!! There are very few well trained promotion designers around, yet so many that say they are “experts” and have “a lot of healthcare professionals as clients” (if you believe them). We have seen doctors waste 10’s of thousands of dollars on direct mail that didn’t work.
Why didn’t the mailings get a good response? Because they failed to follow the 10 important elements of a well designed promotional piece, which are as follows:
10 Elements of a Great Promo Piece:
- Have a clear and bold headline to grab attention. (Do not use terminology that the general public doesn’t know.)
- Use a graphic that supports the message. (Do not choose a graphic and make a headline to support the graphic.)
- Use colours that pop! Boring, lack luster promotion will get no response.
- Use a subheadline that supports the main headline and leads into the main message.
- Benefits, benefits, benefits. Do NOT list all your services or features of your practice. Instead, list out the benefits to your patients or clients.
- Make an offer that captures their interest. A New Patient special or a contest they can enter. What can you give to the prospect that you can afford to give.
- Then your practice or clinic name and logo. This should be down to the lower right on the card or flier. Do not put this information at the top.
- Have a “Call to Action”, in other words something that motivates the prospect to call NOW.
- Put your website name and your phone # big and bold.
- Include your return address for their convenience.
Additional information:
You must send mailings repetitively to the same people because it takes about 5 or more contacts with them in order to improve your response rate. One mailing does not mean a big response.
