Written by Ross Bryant
Today I wanted to share a story that I heard about a few weeks ago. It's all about how a Chiropractor gets anywhere from 20-50 additional folks walking through his front doors and spending money on services (and how he does it every single month).
The Funny Part is how what he's doing is so simple but yet so effective.
"Now wait a minute," you say ... "I'm a Dentist." Just stay with me, I promise this works in all kinds of businesses, even yours!
I met Dr. Ben Adkins a few years back and he just recently told me the story of how he accidentally stumbled onto something he calls his "1 Email per Month Model" that worked so well for him (and has ended up working extremely well for everyone he's taught it to). Today, I'm going to walk you through his exact model so you can use it in your business. Trust me when I say that this is worth implementing in your business, even if you're not a Chiropractor.
The Story behind How Dr. Ben discovered the "1 email per month" model.
Dr. Ben tells me that he first stumbled onto his email method when he was first starting out in practice and was actually sending out Physical Letters in the mail.
I'll Let him Tell You About it in His Own Words:
"It was funny. The first few years as a Chiropractor I would write a short letter and send it out to all my patients via physical mail. We did this once a month and, as we grew, it got really expensive. Between the paper, envelopes, and stamps, it got to be something that would cost us quite a bit of money."
"We kept doing it with old fashioned mail because, even though it was expensive, it always worked and it accounted for a lot of patient visits and new business each month.
That said, I am always looking for ways to cut costs. And then, it just hit me like a bolt of lightning one day. I needed to kill the physical mailers and just start emailing my monthly newsletters to my patients."
"I didn't know if it would translate to email but I thought we would give it a shot. We sent out our first email and within a few minutes of hitting the send button, the phone rang. It was a patient of ours that hadn't been in for a while but had gotten our newsletter and decided it was time to come back in for an adjustment."
"During the next few days we kept getting calls like this. The person would say that they had "just been thinking they needed to come back in" and then our email reminded them that they needed to call and book an appointment."
Dr. Ben told me that this ended up accounting for an additional 34 patient visits that month and it averages between 20-50 patient visits every month that they send the newsletter out. He went on to tell me that it was so effective in his practice that he had to hire someone to help him write everything because he had gotten so busy from all the new patient visits.
The Psychology of Why The Model Works.
The super weird thing about the email newsletters that Dr. Ben sends out is that they never offer discounts or promotions and they rarely talk about Chiropractic stuff that you'll see most offices talk about all the time.
Dr. Ben went on to say that the secret to his emails was that the people he sent them out to were actually interested in the content. He always wrote about things that were relevant to the Season or month of the year and made sure that each topic positioned him as the expert in his field, without positioning him as boring and not worth reading.
The reason the email newsletters draw people reach out to you is because they serve as a sneaky excuse to remind folks that you still exist and that they love your service.
The list of people that you send these emails out to know you and they are already fans of the service you provide in your business. All you need to do is send them a subtle and entertaining reminder that you're still there and that you are ready to help them.
I don't care how cool your business is, people don't spend much time thinking about you as they battle their daily battles. The email newsletter is a neat little way to remind folks that you're around and that they should give you a call (without coming right out and telling them to come back in or offering a discount for your product or services.)
How to Write and Send out the same kind of 300-500 Word Newsletter that Dr. Adkins uses to Drive Business Each Month.
The trick to writing great email newsletters that your customers/leads will open and take action on is to make sure that what you're putting inside of the email is something that your audience actually wants to read.
There are 2 big mistakes that people make when sending out email newsletters to their customers and both of them can drastically affect your results.
- Email Newsletter Mistake #1 - Only Sending out Promotions.
One of the quickest ways to mess up your email newsletters is to only send out an email when you have a promotion. It may sound counterintuitive because people love getting great deals (especially from businesses that are local to them), but this happens a lot. When the only thing you email out is promotion, people actually get bored with that.
Unless your email always contains deals that "give away the farm" you'll end up having less and less opens over time. This is also a terrible tactic because you'll create a culture of "deal seekers" in your customer base. Folks will only come in with a coupon or will wait to come in when you offer a deal.
Promotional or Deal emails can be a great "every so often" tactic but it can hurt your business a lot if this is the kind of email you send out month after month.
- Email Newsletter Mistake #2 - Writing Boring Content.
This should be a no-brainer but we've found that a lot of business owners mess this up because they just get too busy and the process of writing great content for their monthly newsletter just becomes a task to complete because they know they should. This usually results in the content of the newsletter being bad and the folks reading it to not want to ever open up an email from that business again.
The secret to creating an email newsletter that actually bring people through the front door is to create something that is topic and that teaches (all while branding you as the expert.
An Example of the Kind of Email Newsletter that Works for Dentists:
SUBJECT LINE: 5 Braces-Friendly Treats Kids Love.
BODY: Happy October!
For those of you who don’t know, I’m basically a giant candy addicted child. I know, I know, I’m a dentist, that’s crazy! But seriously, I LOVE CANDY, especially chocolate. So naturally, October is one of my favorite months with Halloween creeping up on us.
Unfortunately, for some of my little patients, October is a total bummer because they can’t enjoy all the goodies everyone else gets to enjoy. No matter how good it tastes, some candies and treats are just terrible for their teeth. Some candy can even damage your child’s braces which is painful and costly to repair.
However, all is not lost! Your little monsters can still enjoy the festivities with their friends. Below are my recommended (and kid approved) sweet treats for kiddos with braces. Disclaimer: I have to say that I don’t recommend eating any candy year round. All the sugar is terrible for your teeth. But a few times a year it’s ok to indulge as long as it doesn’t damage your dental gear.)
4 Braces-Friendly Treats Kids Love
TREAT #1: Plain Chocolate Any plain chocolate or candy bar that melts in your mouth such as Hershey’s is definitely a safe option to enjoy this Halloween. Just stay far away from those that have crispy or gooey centers.
TREAT #2: Soft Candy Bars (without nuts) While anyone wearing braces should steer clear of eating any candy with caramel or nuts, such as Milky Way or Snickers, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat candy bars. 3 Musketeers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups aren’t going to cause damage to your braces.
TREAT #3: Suckers (without chewy centers) Suckers or lollipops are a staple for Halloween, and are usually ok for kids to have without damaging their gear, as long as they are sucking them and not biting / chewing them. Remember to keep away from the ones with gum or chewy centers and ALWAYS brush your teeth afterward. Zollipops are a tooth friendly option for kiddos.
TREAT #4: Soft Fruit If you really want to keep your kiddo away from all the candy and sugar, you can always opt for soft fresh fruits such as oranges, bananas, berries and peaches.
Our entire staff wants all of our patients to enjoy a fun and safe Halloween. Make sure to brush teeth after meals AND after eating all those yummy treats, to keep teeth and braces in great shape!
Do you think your kiddo may need braces? We can help!
Give our office a call at 423-555-1234 to schedule an exam after they enjoy the holiday.
The above email newsletter works because:
- It's something that is topical (this was sent out right around the beginning of October, Holiday celebrations, and last-minute cook-outs were getting into Full Swing.)
- It has actionable information.
- It's about helping the Reader... not about educating them about the business.
- The "Call to Action" at the end is topical without being pushy.
When you build out content like this, people will open it and immediately have a "good feeling" about the person who sent it (who they already like because they know you and have used your service or will sometime in the future). This leads to them wanting to come back in and do business with you.
How to get the Same Kind of Results without having to wrestle with the tech or write any of the Content for your Email Newsletters.
Let Us Do It For You!
You might be like a lot of my clients that I write monthly newsletters for. You're a Dentist that realizes how profitable it is to send out a monthly newsletter every single month, but you don't have the time and/or desire to do it yourself.
If you'd like to have us do everything for you, just click the button below or call us at 423-564-5960 to get started.
We can do everything for you for starting at $99.95 a month and help you get the same kind of benefits that sending out a monthly newsletter has gotten our other clients.
Meet Your Author:
Ross Bryant, President of HealthBeat Online, has spent hundreds of hours studying and learning digital marketing during his career and is on the way to becoming one of the leading consultants in the local area.
If you'd like to learn more, or just have questions about something you'd like to do, give him a call at 423-564-5960, or drop him an email at [email protected], he'd love to hear from you!
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