I'm hoping to get the opinion of Troy and many others on this.

To help encourage response I'm posting a copy of the most recent newsletter I've written for a naturopathic clinic. These 4-page print newsletters have helped increase revenue 169%, so I think you'll find it a valuable example. It indirectly weaves in a lot of sales and persuasion, in a way that they find very receptive.

newsleter_sample.pdf

January to March we mailed this out to all 500 patients. Basically every single patient who has every booked a consultation.

Only 200 of those patients have been by for an appointment (though some come into purchase supplements) in the last 12 months.

We got back about 50 patients with the newsletter alone.

Come March we included an insert which basically said, "Book or no more newsletters." (It was actually more positive and client-orientated, don't worry). That brought back another 50.

With the remaining 200 we've just started sending reactivation letters, offering to let them catch up on the newsletters.

The patients, on the whole, rave about the newsletter. It adds a new benefit to being a patient. Gives it more of a community feeling. It also makes them much more comfortable with the doctor.


For patients who are healthy, there's really no reason for them to see the doctor, other than for a six-month preventative check up. But as we all know, prevention's hard to sell.

If we stick to our guns, most of those 200 will remain off the mailing list, and when a real illness comes up, they might not think to book with this doctor.

I'm more in favour of keeping people on the list for as long as they remain in the area or until they die. My client prefers to kick them off the list if they don't book their six-month check up.

Most of these people aren't going to come in until something's wrong.

Here's what I think...

I think there's more value keeping them on the list, so that when the problem arises, they know where to turn. I also think profit will be made from them in the form of supplement sales and especially referrals. This type of meaningful contact makes them more apt to refer friends and family (which we've already seen).


1) Knock them off if they don't book their six-month followup? And save the $18 a year?

2) Keep them on 'til death do us part, and think in terms of making $40 or $60 or $100 from each of them in return (one referral is worth $275 in just the initial consultations alone).

3) Let these 200 go who don't rebook, but keep all future patients on the list forever (many of these 200 haven't been to the clinic in 2-4 years... some are seeing the competition).

4) Other idea...

Thanks for you help. Enjoy the newsletter and feel free to pass it around.

Cheers,

John

__________________
John C. A. Manley
www.RealityCopywriting.com

Hi John,

I use someone in the same field as your client.

To the best of my knowledge he (my guy) doesn't have a newsletter, although the first time I went I'm sure someone either purchased or was given a copy of an in-house magazine. I might be wrong, but I'll check it out and see what the deal is with it.

Getting more out of clients is the natural thing to look at and if you have multiple referral programs in place that may tip the balance. From what I can gather from the figures you provide it looks like your customer lifetime value warrants such a strategy.

However, I think you "hit the nail on the head" when you mentioned that getting those that aren't sick to come in, even for a preventative check-up, is tough. Growing your list and getting to those that are in immediate need might be a more effective option.

The guy I use previously had regular slots on prime-time morning TV and continues to do regional radio programs on BBC Radio. See link below (you'll need to scroll down to see the radio slots scheduled)

Jan de Vries Healthcare Ltd

Could Dr. Proctor get a slot on some local radio stations and conduct a health clinic phone in? I'm sure many stations would love to have him on the air.

Possibly, try and dedicate the phone in to something unconventional but entertaining like "embarassing illnesses". Many people either have an embarassing illness or know someone who has one e.g. flatulance, piles etc.

During the program you could urge people to pick up a newsletter dedicated to the topic of the radio program, or encourage listeners to come in for a free consultaion on a specific day.

When he's scheduled to appear he can put this in his newsletters and tell his clients when he's on air. This should go down well with readers (extra social proof).

Overall, I think it might be easier in this case to try and expand the list through new channels e.g. radio, rather than contiuing to mail the less responsive.

Although, measuring the progress of the referral program should tell if it's worth pursuing with the mailings.

Congratulations on getting so many patients back with the newsletter!

Best Wishes,

Tom

P.S. If you want to ask me any more questions, please feel free. I hope what I've said is helpful to you.

Why not keep sending it indefinately, I wish I would have gotten a newsletter like this fifteen years ago, you see, it has been fourteen years ago the 18th of June my husband had a liver transplant. If we would have known about this maybe he wouldn't have to had one but only God knows that for sure. we waited almost a year from the day we found out he needed a transplant, i can't tell you how much we went through in that year, Did Mcdonald's have something to do with it, Who knows? But i can tell you, we no longer eat there,not because of this, it's that his body cannot tolerate the food anymore.anyways I just wanted to say in my opinion keep sending the newsletter,it's valuable information might be just helping someone in the long run.


Ginny erskine

I love your newsletter John. If only more people took the time to do that!

My thoughts? Keep sending them. I think about my own health - I will be fit as a fiddle for 9 months then WHAM! - good old Canadian winters kick me in the butt. At that point in time - when I feel like hell is knocking at my door and I am on the verge of opening it - I will do ANYTHING to feel better. And if you had been sending me a monthly newsletter reminding me of who you are and what you do - you'd be the first I call.

I look at it this way - I get 300+ emails a day. I am sick and tired of email. I have thought of completely outsourcing the entire thing. I rarely read them any more (except, of course, The Total Package).

Guess how many people send me print newsletters? (ones I don't pay for)

1.

The local automotive shop has been doing their marketing homework and have sent me a really good print piece on a regular basis.

Next time I need something done - guess who I will think of and go to?

And I honestly don't think this is any different than most people.

I started my own 4 pager (sometimes 8) in print, and it gets me my highest value leads and orders of anything I do.

Keep sending them! 1 visit a year and that $18 investment is MORE than paid for.

My thoughts anyhow. I am also going to be going through the print newsletter information and data at my Wild West Wealth Summit (in Canada this July with Ted Nicholas) - details can be found at Copywriting | Direct Marketing - Are You Getting Marketing Hate Mail Yet?

Great stuff - I promise to check back more often and help out! Troy

Could I showcase this newsletter - with full credit to you of course - at the Wild West Summit? It is the perfect example of how a 'professional' can use this type of thing - having fun along the way - and generating a HUGE response in return.

Let me know your thoughts. Troy

Hi Tom,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I like your TV/Radio spot idea. It's not something I have much experience in, but would be interested in moving in that direction. We are reorientating the clinic to specialize on gut problems, so that would work with your idea. "Do You Break Wind In Public Against Your Will?" would probably (secretly) get the attention of many listeners.

I think the real issue with this business, and any small business, is that there is probably no one way that brings in a massive amount of revenue. It's just a matter of building up and snowballing the effect of various channels patiently. As long as the ROI is breakeven on the shorterm, profitable on the backend, I think just one funnel after another has to be opened and maintained.

Thanks for your ideas. I think, like you said, the ROI ont he referral program warrants the monthly newsletter to ALL patients alone. When work in supplement sales and repeat visits it's a profit generator. I'll do the specs in a separate post.

John
John

__________________
John C. A. Manley
www.RealityCopywriting.com

Ginny, thanks so much for that story.

I'm wondering if I could quote it (we could make your name anonymous)? In the weekly broadcasts the clinic sends out we promote the newsletter (as many people on the email have yet to even book first appointment, so are not receiving it -- and extra incentive for them to become part of our community).

It's too bad, like you said, your husband didn't hear about it sooner. The liver really is the most "healable" organ in the body. It's ridiculous how many poeple are being directed towards transplants.

Please let me know if we can quote you.

John

__________________
John C. A. Manley
www.RealityCopywriting.com

Thanks so much for your feedback Troy. Getting confirmation from someone like you, whom I understand has had a lot of small business marketing experience, is fantastic.

I worked out some of the math and came up with these numbers, which I think is a fair argument...

$18/year for the newsletter.

Here's the three ways that investment can be returned:

Supplement Sales: Even though we include a $5.00 or 10-15% coupon for supplements in each issue, sales have increased 235%. Even if someone just comes in each month and purchases the $5.00 discounted bottle, for $20 and the clinic retains a $3.00 profit, that's a 200% return. Let's say 100 people do that and they've just paid for their newsletter plus given us $1.50 back.

Truth is, most people will buy the one discounted supplement, plus a month supply or two or three other supplement, creating a profit of $20-30 per person.

Consultations: Like you said Troy, if they EVEN came in only every 2 years, that's still $36 for 2 years of newsletters, minus a $75 appointment = $39 profit. I'm using that as an extreme example. Most would come in at least once a year, and buy supplements while they are there. And many will come in several times a year, to make up for those don't come at all.

Referrals This is a big one. Let's say some one on the list is seeing another doctor. Traitor! Fine. But they keep on getting th enewsletter. For TEN years. Their doctor sends them nothing. Now a co-worker is sick, and he almost feels obliged to recommend our doc. So he got $180 worth of newsletter mailings for ten years, and then referrs ONE person, and we get $270 just for the initial consultations with that ONE person, and already have $90 profit, ignoring the lifetime value of that ONE extra patient (and the referrals he'll bring).

The way I see it it's pretty hard not to make money with this. It's seems like over the course of 12 months a 1:2 ROI is almost the minimal. Why not spend $1.5/per 1000 patients = $1500/month x 12 months = $18,000 a year sure. But if you're going to get back $36,000 minimal, probably $50,000, for a profit of $22,000. What's the problem?

I think most business owners just see the $1,500/month bill and shrivel up into a complacent little ball of idleness and credit card ebt.


I'm looking at the sales stats we have from Jan-Mar when all 500 patients were on the newsletter list. And then Apr/May when we took 250 of them off for being inactive.

From Feb to March we saw a jump of 169% in sales. I don't have exact stats for Jan to Feb, but I think it's similar.

So by the end of March, with 500 mailings going out, things had never been better.

Then we try knocking off 250 of the people who hadn't booked a 6-month appointment (even though some of them were coming in and buying supplements and giving referrals).

What happened? April, sales dropped 17%.

By the end of May another 12%.

So a 31% drop in sales since we started restricting who was "worthy" enough to get the newsletter. Sure maybe 5-10% of that was seasonal... but not all 31%.

I think the main problem for me was that I was thinking of the newsletter more as a bonus for being an active patient, than as a strict marketing tool.

My client, I feel, was too concerned about the expense, and ignoring the return.

Now it looks like we got fairly reliable data to say, let's get everybody back on the mailing list. Maybe send them their two missing issues with some note from the receptionist to the effect of "I'm sneaking these past Dr. Proctor and putting you back ont he list. It's not that the doc is mean, he's just concerned about peple's health and knows a six-month check is the best way to prevent..." Or Maybe something from the doc saying, "It's just too improtant you get these newsletter, whether you come for your check up or not."

Anyways, since I talked the clinic out of printing/stuffing the mailing themselves they've been enjoying it more. They don't have the free time/staff. I've been having it handled by a local print shop. They do everything from fold, stamp and mail. It's great.

I just send a PDF, and then drop by the next day to look at the proofs. If it's okay, 2 days later they have them in the mail. Total cost is less than $1.50 for stamp, coupon, newsletter, and envelope (I have them print the address right on the envelope plus teaser copy... in fact both the envelope and the coupon are are key marketing tools).

Anyways, I hope this has helped some other business owners reading this, and it's certainly helped getting the feedback/confirmation from others.

Now I just have to talk my client back into mailing to all.

John

__________________
John C. A. Manley
www.RealityCopywriting.com

Hi Troy,

I'm honoured. (Honoured with a Canadian "u", at that!)

What's the crowd like at the summit? Is it mainly business owners or is mainly copywriters/marketers?

If it's business owners, I'd like to send you a different PDF, with my phone number and email. I really have no time on my schedule to do copy for any other businesses, but I do have consult time. Also looking to get a few naturopath (or at least alternative health) clinics onto monthly mastermind teleconference.

I could also send you a copy of the envelope with it's copy and the coupon.

I also did a 16-page how-to nfo-product on writing newsletters for alternative health businesses, based on the first newsletter for Dr. Proctor.

John

__________________
John C. A. Manley
www.RealityCopywriting.com

__________________
John C. A. Manley
www.RealityCopywriting.com