Mar 4, 2007

Re-Invent Yourself

A dentist friend told me some time ago: You must re-invent yourself every six months or so.

This sounds like pretty short time frame, and it doesn't mean an "extreme make-over," but it should mean that every six months you sit back and ask, "What's working? What isn't?" and consider your marketing options.


Here are some examples :

Take a look at your web page. Does it need refreshed? Do you need to add new material?

What have you done lately to tell your patients that you appreciate them? Should you get a focus group together to get input from patients?

What have you done for your staff? Have they lost the excitement of working there? If you want them to stay, you might consider a fun day to plan some new activities or events or a new marketing look.

Do you run ads in a local "shopper" or the high school newspaper? If they have been running more than six months, they probably need re-freshed, since people stop looking after a while.

While you may still get new patients from referrals, if you don't do a "re-invention" every so often, I'll bet your patient numbers will gradually diminish as people lose interest. Think about it this way: If you don't care enough about your practice to keep things interesting, why should they keep coming back?

Find new advertising venues, find new places to present yourself to the public, new ways to excite your staff and your patients. Don't sit on the old; look toward the new.

Re-invent yourself!

For more ideas, check out this blog, and a great new marketing book: Beyond Niche Marketing
The author, Kathy Hendershot-Hurd, has many years of experience in marketing, and her book makes it easy to get energized.

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