What exactly does each newsletter consist of?
To be clear, we write all the newsletters, so you technically don’t have to do anything. You CAN make changes as desired during your proof approval. Each newsletter consists of several parts:
1. A friendly, personalized letter from “you,” introducing that month’s topic of interest to the general dentists.
2. The information part of the newsletter. It might include clinical information about a new technique, a journal article, YouTube references where the dentist can see the practical application of this month’s tip, and so forth. In other months it might be some helpful information from knowledgeable sources dealing with administrative issues or practice growth tips.
3. Often, the newsletter will include a specific “TOOL” for the GP dentist to use in their OWN practice with their OWN patients. For example, if the newsletter that month is about silver diamine fluoride, the TOOL could be an informed consent form for silver diamine fluoride addressing the appearance of caries after treatment, the need for annual re-application, and so forth, personalized with the name and address information for the general dentist’s office, ready to be photocopied for use in his or her office.
WHY WOULD THIS LETTER NOT JUST get QUICKLY TOSSED IN THE TRASH LIKE OTHER THINGS I HAVE SENT OUT?
We all get junk mail that quickly finds its way to the trash. But we also all OCCASIONALLY get unsolicited mail that has something of value that we actually start looking FORWARD to when it arrives.
So what’s the difference?
The big difference is that the unsolicited mail YOU read and look forward to is NOT about the sender or their product, but it is about YOU or YOUR practice or YOUR life. The Referral Bridge newsletters are TOTALLY about the general dentist’s practice. We mention very little about you except in the warm, friendly introductory letter each month. If you want to toot your OWN horn, this may not be the program for you. But if you want to GROW your practice by talking about THEM, this is the perfect instrument to get attention, appreciation, and referrals!
How many dentists does this newsletter go out to every month?
That is entirely up to you! The minimum number of dentists you send your newsletter to is 50, which you can do for under $300 per month. If you would like to extend your reach further and grow to a greater degree, you can increase your mailing numbers (which also drops the per-letter cost dramatically!). The cost is so reasonable that ANY practice can easily afford this BRILLIANT marketing tool. The “lost opportunity cost” of NOT doing it is a very real expense many business owners don’t consider.
HOW DO WE GET THE NAMES OF THE DENTISTS THE letters ARE SENT TO EVERY MONTH? DO I HAVE TO SUPPLY THAT LIST?
Not at all! Making things easy is what we are about. We use a database mailing company, and we obtain the names and addresses of all the dentists in your area. We then compile these names and addresses, sort them by zip code and send them to you. You can select the dentists you want to contact each month. These now become YOUR dentists, and you will become very well acquainted with them. There is a one-time charge of $345 for this service. This one-time charge also includes the cost of our compilation and coordination of the data into a usable format to make it work as we need to throughout all our mailings.
You print and mail them. Within 48 hours after you approve the proof, you get a link that downloads the newsletter, now personalized for ALL your dentists. We ALSO supply the address label information that you easily print to address labels. We include easy-to-read information that allows your staff to perform all these tasks quickly and seamlessly! The letters then arrive at the dentists’ offices with a local postmark and a personalized signature from you. This doesn’t look like some slick marketing piece but rather a personalized and helpful letter from a friendly colleague looking to help his or her local GP dentists.
Do you mail these newsletters, or do we mail these newsletters?
Each month the newsletter will have a different topic or “theme.” One month you will have new clinical information or an update about the latest trend in general dentistry. The following month the newsletter may be about some administration or business topic that is useful. Unfortunately, when it comes to running a dental practice, there is more to know than just dentistry. Some of your dentists will prefer clinical updates. Some of your dentists will prefer the administration or practice growth ideas. Certainly, all of your dentists are different, and we want to reach out and pique the interest of as many of them as possible.
So how are these newsletters different from month to month?
As long as the person who signs up for the original newsletter advises us of this fact, specialist partners and associates CAN be included as signers of the newsletter, making it look like the newsletter is a “group effort,” so to speak.
All specialists need to be from the same single office location. If multiple office locations are to be used, each office must have its own separate subscription.
As a side note, you may want to consider having only partners as signers of the newsletter.
We have a specialty group practice. We want names of all the dentists to be on the newsletter. Can that be done?
What do I say if one of my dentists asks if i write the newsletters myself?
This is important!
As in every other situation, honesty is the best policy here too. However, strong verbal skills can turn a seeming negative into a positive situation. If asked if you compile and write the newsletters yourself, you might try to answer something like this:
“Thanks for asking. Actually, I work on the newsletters together with a general dentist colleague of mine in California to make sure the letters are topical and of interest to you and the other general dentists in town” [which is all true…they are written by a general dentist, we are colleagues, and we do work on them together since you proofread them and can make small changes as desired]. You can then add with a wink and a smile: “While I think I am a slightly better dentist than he is, he is usually a MUCH better writer than I am, so I leave most of the mundane writing to him, and I correct him where I need to” [which is also all true!]. If delivered well, that will usually end the question, and you can move on to another topic. You may even want to ask him or her for ideas for future newsletter topics to demonstrate your true involvement in the process! We are always open to ideas for future newsletters!
THIS SOUNDS TOO EASY! IS IT A STAND-ALONE PROGRAM OR IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE I CAN DO?
A bag or two of chocolate chip cookies, hand delivered with the first newsletter, is always a great door opener!
There is always something that you can do to take a great program like this, tweak it a bit, and make it your own. One thing that quickly comes to mind is taking the envelope with the newsletter and your referral slips and dropping it off IN PERSON, along with a couple of gift bags of chocolate chunk cookies or something similar. You or your staff member could warmly greet the receptionist and ask her to please place the envelope and a bag of cookies on the dentist’s desk. Then, offering the second bag of cookies, add, “Thank you so very much…and this bag is for you!” The dentist will obviously open and peruse your letter while enjoying their snack, and your office has now just made ANOTHER friend…at the front desk where all the referral calls are made from.
Certainly, there are many other things you can do to pin a rose on top of this great program and make your own.
Absolutely not! When you sign up for the referral bridge, you are not committing yourself to any long-term (or even short-term!) contracts.
Though we hope to have you as a client for years, that choice is totally up to you! In addition, if after the first newsletter, you decide you don’t want to keep reaching out to the GP community this way and would rather do it on your own, we will be glad to refund the first month’s payment so your out-of-pocket costs are next to nothing.
The only thing that ISN’T refundable is the one-time charge to get all the names and addresses of the dentists in your area. This payment goes directly to the marketing company we hire to obtain these names and addresses for you. Nevertheless, these names and addresses remain yours, so you can reach out to these dentists from this point forward however you see best.
You should understand that, as you can imagine, this program continues to bring in more referrals the longer you a part of it. After just a single newsletter, you may only see 1 or 2 new dentists reaching out to you. After 3-6 months, more and more start to reach out to thank you for the helpful tips and tools that you are providing them each month. The referrals start rolling in much faster now. And soon you start to become a topic of conversation among the GPs when they get together (hey, did you see that latest letter about the new anesthetic technique from Dr. Jones? Have you tried that yet?). Your reputation and respect soar among all the local GPs.
