No wonder patients leave a DPC practice. They get so much love and attention being herded into your new DPC model. You actually spend time getting to know them. You give them more than a 15 minute office visit. A real relationship is beginning. Their experience in your exam room is fantastic. Then…
Nothing.
Everything is fine with them so you wait until their next visit. But can you hear the crickets starting to croak between you two?
The cornerstone of DPC is more time between you and your patients so that you actually have a real relationship with them. You get to know them. Personally. But how do you continue to build on that relationship after your patient leaves your office?
Do you call them? Each and every one of your patients? That's not practical. Patients don't expect much because they've experienced the healthcare cartel's service standards. You have too. That's why you escaped. To provide an alternative.
Besides the extra time you spend with patients and your monthly billing, how do your patients know you are different?
Extra More time with you.
Now you may say that is enough of a difference. Sure it is...for you. And it probably is for your patients, initially.
But every month that your membership fee comes out of their bank account, they ask, what am I getting for this? This really means, what have you done for me lately? And if they haven't been sick, the answer is nothing, really. But if you have a problem, I'm here. Nice marketing. No wonder DPC patients feel over promised and under delivered.
Talk to them. Do you have your own radio station? You could broadcast your message out to all your patients. Hopefully, they would tune in. If not, you’ve spent a lot of time (and money) spinning your wheels for not.
I hear the digital darlings. And yes you could create your own podcast. It is less expensive than having your own radio station. You can even tell how many listeners hear your show. However, not everyone will listen. Your patients are busy.
More than that, your patients are in control of when they engage with you. That means you are competing for their attention against everything else in their lives. They will call you if it's an emergency, but how do you stay in contact with them to develop a stronger relationship?
You could have your own TV show or Web TV show? But again, you are competing for attention against everything else in their lives and TV is expensive. Plus, you have to think of visuals in addition to gathering and curating your content. It's more work for you. TV isn't practical.
If it's not telephone, radio, or video, then it is print. I'm not talking about sending them a magazine or newspaper. You don't want that. You want it to be between you and your patient, like a letter between friends.
Nothing builds relationships better than monthly newsletters.
I can hear the doubts. Newsletters, really?
Yes.
Newsletters are the most effective marketing tool, dollar for dollar.
Newsletters are not seen as advertising. This is because they are NOT advertising. Sure, you could advertise in them. But not when you first start sending them out. Strengthening your relationship should be priority number one when you begin.
You need a system to continually and constantly reassure your patients that they are important.
Show your patient you really do care about them, send them a newsletter. Everyone knows how busy doctors are. To get a newsletter every month from you is impressive! Your patients can see, feel, and know you take time out of your hectic schedule to write to them.
Why would anyone do that these days? The reason you would is because you value their relationship. DPC physicians are different. You want to stay in touch.
This is different than the PCP's in the insurance driven healthcare cartel. Those PCP's are like the big box gyms that try to get as many members signed up at the beginning of every year. Big box gyms profit from the fact that most people will quit going by Valentine's Day, but take much longer to cancel their membership. DPC physicians would be the boutique gyms like CrossFit and Iron Tribe. You seek to create engagement that produces actual results.
Costs.
Well, there is also the fact that most physicians don't think they should have to market. The profession of medicine should be above business. But it's not. Especially if you are a DPC physician or an independent practice of any sort, you need a marketing budget.
Back to costs, yes there is a cost to create your newsletter and a cost to mail your newsletter. Let's deal with the cost to create your newsletter first, then discuss why a print newsletter beats an e-newsletter.
How much time every month would it take you to create your newsletter? Several hours. Now how much is your time worth? Ask yourself is this the best use of your time? If you're being honest with yourself, the answer will be no.
Then ask yourself, is this something you enjoy doing? Are you good at it? If you answered no to either one of those questions, you need our monthly newsletter service.
Now let's turn to the mailing costs. Everyone always asks...
First, email is cheap. It costs almost nothing to send an email. You know this. Your patients know this. Cheap is the perception of using an email newsletter rather than a printed one. Do you want your paying patients to perceive you as cheap?
No, of course not. And don't think that their cheap perception of you ends at the e-newsletter. No. Your patients will have that in the back of their minds every time they visit your office. And it's not a stretch for them to begin thinking they are not getting value every month for what they pay. As they say in the HR department, perception is reality.
It is so much easier to keep a patient, than it is to add a new patient. You spend more trying to attract and get new patients, than in retaining the ones you already have.
If sending a printed newsletter was the only thing you did to nourish the relationship between you and your patients, the cost would be around $48 a year (~$2 to print and mail a month per patient). And how much does that patient pay you in a year, $600 to $1,100? On top of that if you have a family, the percentage you spend on each family member goes down. Why? Because it would be redundant to mail a newsletter to each family member.
The second reason you don't want to just send an e-newsletter is...
Seeing your newsletter reminds them of you. Every time your patients see it they think of you, regardless of if they even read it or not.
When your newsletter arrives at your patient's home, it can easily stay on the kitchen counter for days until it is read. The longer it remains in their home, the longer they are reminded of you. It is much, much harder to ignore your newsletter on their counter than an un-read email in the cloud. With email, if they read it (big if there), it gets deleted. No one else will see it.
Your newsletter and articles can be passed to family and friends. You should encourage this. It is critical to getting your existing patients to refer friends and family to your practice. Now people do forward email. The print skeptics are right. But, the perception of getting a physical newsletter given to you, something you can hold in your hands, compared to a forwarded email is different. It is much harder to ignore the physical than the ethereal. And ask yourself this, how many forwarded emails do you really read, especially if they are from the same person who constantly forwards you things?
Third reason, newsletters are a welcome surprise to the typical pile of bills and junk mail. In the age of the internet, not many people get any mail they actually enjoy. You want your patients to think of you as different, as better than they are use to. And with the experience of the average patient with their PCP, this should be easy for you.
Stay in touch with them.
So now you know that printed newsletters are the best use of your marketing budget. It is ultra targeted, going to only your patients. It continues developing the relationship you started in your office. And the physical feeling combined with the staying power is incomparable to email.
Hopefully, you are starting to see why you need to publish your own newsletter. Now let's talk about the two main reasons DPC practices don't produce effective newsletters. They are:
Newsletters are a commitment. And as you know, anything worth doing takes time. To create, curate, and layout your newsletter takes time. Every month it will take time. You need to keep this in mind. It is worse to begin and then suddenly stop. Your patients will wonder what happened.
You can get your staff to produce your newsletter. They are there to help you. However, as time goes on there is a tendency to tell your staff to stop putting your newsletter together because there are other urgent things that must get done ASAP. Your newsletters can wait (or so you think).
The problem with putting out office fires is that it takes your focus away from the important stuff and focuses it on the urgent stuff. Urgent stuff has to get done. Then the important stuff gets pushed back and back and back and back until...it never gets done. Sound right?
For practices that commit to regular monthly print newsletters, the next big problem is what to put in your newsletter. Content matters.
All the fun and entertaining content that isn't relevant to your actual practice mostly.
Yes, you do need some content about your practice. But there is really only so much to tell patients about your practice. And do they really care? No. Your patients are like most people, they want to be entertained. Fun, entertaining content every month is most likely outside your area of expertise. Which is not a bad thing, but it is a thing you need to account for and overcome.
Newsletters that are entertaining have a much higher probability of actually getting read. You want your reader to read your newsletter. In the consumption of your content is where the bonding takes place. So keep it fun, not boring.
Now here is a question for you. Are you really committed to your DPC practice long term or are you just trying it out? If you're just trying it out, save yourself the money and just take a sabbatical. Then once you've had your R & R, go back to the cartel and get your paycheck for being a good doctor.
But if you never, ever want to go back to the cartel, then you need to get serious about a patient relationship system. You need a way to continue developing your relationship outside your office. Your patients need to know constantly that you really do care about them.
Try our done for you newsletter system today!