What is drip marketing? Drip marketing is a direct marketing strategy that involves sending out several promotional pieces over a period of time to a subset of patients or Prospex.
Is this process effective and how can you begin planning your drip marketing campaign?
The phrase drip marketing comes from the common phrase used in agriculture and gardening called “drip irrigation.” This is the process of watering plants or crops using small amounts of water over long periods of time.
Drip or spaced repetition marketing was developed in response to the “Law of 29″ in which many marketers believe that an average Prospex will not turn into a patient until they’ve viewed their marketing message at least 29 times.
Whether the Law of 29 is true or not, I do believe in the need to stay in touch with your current and prospective patients in order for them to respond and act on your message. There are way too many competitive colleagues in your marketplace, not to.
This method of repetitive marketing can help you avoid the advertise-market curve. An effective way to use drip marketing is to consistently do something each month to keep your brand of chiropractic in front of your current Patients and Prospex.
By doing this, you diminish the advertise-market curve and will find that you will have a steady amount of business coming in the door.
The best thing about drip marketing is it requires a structured plan of action. By creating this plan and following it throughout the year you can guarantee that you will be consistent with your marketing all year long. I suggest that you incorporate this form of marketing, when planning your yearly marketing calendar.
It all sounds great, but where do you start? To help you I’ve listed a plan of action to get you well on your way to developing a productive drip marketing initiative:
Step 1: Develop your Plan (Plan something EVERY month)
Step 2: Strategize the Execution of Your Plan
Step 3: Decide who your Target is.
Step 4: Create consistency by developing your slogan or phrase. Then place it on every promotional and marketing piece.
What methods can you use for your marketing initiative? Here are a few that will get you started:
Postcards
Newsletters
Email Newsletter (You’ll have to be careful of spam filters)
Promotional or Sales Brochures
Self-Mailers
Drip marketing does require a financial commitment. If you have 1,000 patients and Prospex in your database, and it cost fifty cents to communicate with each person on your list, each month, you would have a monthly drip marketing budget of $500.00 or $6,000 per year.
Now, out of 1,000 patients and Prospex, what results would you need tin terms of increased PVA with current patients and conversion of Prospex to Patients? Use your own numbers and make the calculation.
Next, calculate your R.O.I., return on investment, and if it is 10% or higher, then you should implement a drip marketing campaign into your marketing mix!
Think of your drip marketing campaign as a way to nurture your current and potential Patients. You campaign should keep them aware of your brand of chiropractic.
With this thought in mind your campaign will succeed.
Small Bussiness UN
