Top Practices Blog

Don't Send the Wrong Message

Most marketing doesn't work because we are sending out the wrong message. People don't care about us, they care about them. They are too busy to focus on anything except what's important to them. So if you want to attract heel pain patients focus your marketing message on the problems and concerns that heel pain patients have. Good marketing always "Enters the conversation that is already going on in the mind of the person you want to attract."

The Most Important Thing You Can Do

The most successful people in every profession have one characteristic in common. They are goal driven. Truly successful, high performing people have written down their goals and they review them at least twice a month. You should write goals in the following categories: Lifetime, 3 Year, 1 Year, Quarterly. You should have goals for your Business, Personal Life, Financial, Health, and Fun. One of the greatest competitive secrets in life is that almost no one takes the time to do this. But those that do achieve more than everyone else combined. Remember: A Goal, not reduced to writing and reviewed often, is a mere wish.

How to Motivate Your Staff

Stephen Covey wrote in "The Seven Habits of Highly Motivated People" that Trust is the highest form of human motivation. People respond when they know that you believe that they are the absolute best person for the job and that you trust them to get the job done right and on time. This trust doesn't preclude the fact that you need to train and inspect work until they rise to the level of that trust, but nothing will motivate people more than to simply know that you believe in them.

How to Recession Proof Your Practice

How To Recession Proof Your Practice

In his book No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits marketing guru Dan Kennedy states that there are two steps to take to thrive in business during economic downturns or what he calls "crisis opportunities".  The first step is to "provide an ever escalating, exceptional, even phenomenal level of customer service, delivered by exceptionally competent, highly trained, highly incentivized, and highly policed humans."  While all of the other masses of businesses in your field and in general are doing the opposite and cutting costs by cutting level of service you will be able to distinguish yourself by providing exceptional service.  The second step is to "design your business and aim your marketing at the affluent consumers who are least affected by overall economy ups and downs, who do not use price as a decision factor, who have demonstrated preference for exceptional service and a willingness to pay for it."  While at first glance this may not seem like very practical advice for a medical practice, members of the Top Practices Mastermind group know that there are all kinds of ways for podiatrists to up sell and cross-sell to their patients who are not limited by cost and health insurance restraints.

Yellow Pages Near Extinction

Yellow-pages industry hit hard by economic downturn

According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal online last month, the yellow pages industry is facing near extinction. Customers have migrated to the Web in recent years and have left print directories like the Yellow Pages behind.  The industry tried to keep up by offering online directories, but that strategy has not worked out for them, mostly because the audience for online directories remains small and traffic growth is slowing.  Print and online ad spending on yellow pages is expected to drop by 6.3% next year, more than double the rate of decline expected for other media.  Within the next four years, ad spending on print directories will decline by 39%. 

It is no longer practical (or economical) to rely solely on the Yellow Pages for your marketing. They are going the way of the dinosaur.  It' s now more important than ever to build a marketing machine that will continue you to provide a steady stream of new patients that need the services you provide!

Marketing Mindsets

Mindset Number ONE: The true purpose of your practice or business is to serve YOU and to fund your IDEAL LIFESTYLE – not the other way around. YOU MUST BEGIN BY PUTTING YOUR PERSONAL LIFE FIRST AND GETTING YOUR PRACTICE PRIORITIZED CORRECTLY.

Database Marketing

Postage increase causes some business owners to cut back on mailings.

According to this survey, the recent postage increase will affect the amount of mailing done by 43% of your competitors.  This is not the time to cut back on your mailing - it's the time to mail more to take advantage of this competitive edge!

August 1, 2008 — infoUSAPoll.com surveyed thousands of small-business executives across the country on June 30th about whether the increase in postage will change business practices, in particular advertising spends.  In the poll, regarding the question, “Will the postage increase affect your advertising?” the results were relatively close, however, 7 percent more of businesses surveyed said the additional costs would impact business versus those who responded the costs would not have an impact.

 The results:

 ·         43  percent (451 respondents) said yes, it would affect advertising. 

·         36 percent (372 respondents) said no it would not affect advertising. 

·         21 percent (214 respondents) said it does not apply. 

 The margin of error for this week’s poll is plus or minus 3 percent.  infoUSAPoll.com emailed the survey question to small business executives across the country.