Why Your Practice Should Send a Newsletter to Referral Sources
While many of your patients and clients may find your practice based upon recommendations of friends, relatives and neighbors, chances are that a significant amount of your business comes from the recommendations of another professional. If you are an endodontist, you most likely receive many patients from other dentists. If you are a pain management specialist, your patients are probably referred to you by internists and other general practice physicians. If you are an attorney, you may receive clients from brokers, accountants or life insurance agents.
Bottom line: A significant portion of your marketing activities should focus on developing referral-generating relationships with fellow professionals.
The best marketers engage in a variety of activities, rather than depending on one or two. However, one method stands out that every professional should use: regularly sending a newsletter containing valuable information to referral sources:
Here are seven reasons why you should send a newsletter to your referral sources.
1. A well-written and well-designed newsletter that contains timely and relevant information from your specialized area will be perceived by referral sources as valuable.
Take periodontics as just one example. A steady flow of research is being performed on the relationship between gum disease and general wellness. Our extensive research clearly shows that sending summaries of these studies in the form of a newsletter to other dentists and physicians will be seen as having real value.
2. A newsletter is published on a regular basis, so it delivers a consistent message.
Repetition, continuity and sufficient frequency are all important factors in any practice-development program. Over and over, we have found that specialists have the best intentions. One example is the endodontist who decided it would be a great idea to invite another dentist to lunch every month. Great idea! However, after the first three months, this endodontist became too busy and dropped the meetings. A newsletter program (and even the mailing of the newsletters) can easily be outsourced.
3. A newsletter provides visibility.
Unfortunately, the axiom “out of sight, out of mind” applies when a dentist, physician, accountant or fellow attorney needs to make a referral. No matter how well trained you are, no matter how competent an estate attorney you might be, you stand virtually no chance of obtaining the referral if the professional who needs to make one does not know about you or you don’t come to mind. To develop a steady stream of referrals, you need a visible presence. If you are an accountant, you could mail your business card to all the potential referral sources in your practice area, but that can be seen as tacky. Regularly sending a newsletter to potential referral sources—from attorneys to brokers to financial planners—makes a far more professional impression.
4. A newsletter is subtle and professional.
If you are uneasy with the bluntness of advertising or directly asking others for referrals, publishing a newsletter may be a more comfortable option. If you want to position yourself as the area’s premier fertility specialist who is not only well trained but stays on top of the current literature and is willing to share his or her knowledge with referring physicians—especially ob-gyns—a newsletter helps position you and your practice in just that manner.
5. A newsletter program is cost-effective.
If you are an orthodontist, what is each new patient worth to you? While the number varies by region and the nature of your particular practice, for most medical and dental specialists, each new patient is probably worth several thousand dollars over a period of time. You can start a newsletter program for surprisingly little money. For many, one new patient or client a year would make the newsletter program cost-effective.
6. A newsletter program allows you to reach out and comfortably contact referral sources you don’t even know.
For example, a pediatric dentist opening a new practice or even a new office certainly wants to develop referral relationships with area pediatricians. For most, it is uncomfortable or even embarrassing to cold-call area pediatricians and to ask for referrals. However, sending a newsletter—accompanied by an appropriate cover letter—to local pediatricians would be comfortable. In fact, it will be seen by most recipients as a positive professional service. If you are a bit more aggressive, after sending a couple of issues of your newsletter, you might be more comfortable making that telephone call and striking up a personal relationship. Having sent your newsletter for a while gives you a legitimate reason to make the call, and it is less likely to look self-serving.
7. A newsletter program can be very easy to start and sustain.
Yes, you can write your own newsletter, hire a designer and printer, and mail it out yourself. However, there is a much easier way. Outsourcing a newsletter program to a knowledgeable and experienced company can make your life easy and ensure that you deliver a consistent quality message in a timely manner.
For more than 27 years, we have seen many practices announce they are going to self-publish a newsletter. Most, as well intentioned as they might be, never even get off the ground. Others find the process of creating the first issue challenging but invigorating. However, the second and third issues become hard work, which results in the newsletter program being dropped.
For more information, e-mail us or call 800-323-4995. We are happy to share with you our years of experience in publishing newsletters and generating referrals.
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