Clinical Education Concepts

Happy New Year! What are you most looking forward to – marketing-wise for 2021?

It’s been a TOUGH year but the beginning of a new year is always a good time to reflect on the results of last year’s marketing plan and to consider what changes you’re going to want to implement for 2021.

I’m willing to bet that your 2020 marketing plan took a back seat to some of your other business-related plans. Not to worry. It’s a brand new year, there IS a light at the end of the tunnel and we can take what we learned last year and start making a new plan.

The keys are flexibility, adaptability, trend-spotting, and commitment – and a map. If we’re going to get where we want to go then we need a map.

Begin with the end

Oftentimes when it comes to a marketing plan some people don’t start with the final destination, where they want to be by December, in mind. Instead they start heading off “down the road” – destination to be determined.

I spent the weekend of March 7-8, 2020, at the Travel & Adventure Show in Washington, D.C. It is a convention for people who, obviously, like to travel but it also includes sessions for people who like learning about how miles and points can enhance their travel experience. It was perfect timing because all my travel and loyalty program calculators had reset to zero at the end of 2019 (just the calculators, not the accumulated points or miles). This is important because in order for me to achieve my travel-related goals for 2020 and beyond, I needed to know by the end of the year how to structure my travel plans.

Well, 2020 was a bust as far as business or leisure travel so whatever miles and points plan I had originally made based on traveling 10 out of 12 months a year was pretty much useless. (Same thing could be said for the face to face education-based marketing and in-person meeting & event marketing plans!)

If my original goal was to acquire a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass in 2020 so that I could bring a companion along for free in 2020 and 2021, then I would have needed to determine what strategy I would use to acquire the 110,000 Rapid Rewards points I needed to receive the pass. The final destination – 110,000 points. I could keep the same goal but I’d really need to re-think my strategy since it would’ve been really difficult to accumulate 110,000 without stepping foot on a plane, renting a car or staying in hotels or having a reason to use my Southwest Visa card. Probably wouldn’t have been impossible but, it made sense in March to take that “destination” off the map for 2020.

Know your starting point

A lot of things in the travel industry have changed since last March. Airlines have been hit hard and they’ve adapted and pivoted so what seemed like a very difficult destination last March might not be so difficult this year. You might think that there is only one route to get there – not true. Route 1 equals flying. Route 2 equals a mixture of flying and buying things through the Southwest Airlines online shopping portal. Route 3 equals getting a Southwest credit card that will give me 50,000 points after I spend a certain amount in a certain time frame, plus flying, plus shopping. Those are just three examples but there are a plethora of routes. Some that will take me all year to get there. Some that will take me a matter of months. Some that will be cost prohibitive and some that will be relatively inexpensive. The two things that I know for sure are where I am right now and where I want to go.

Know your route options

For example, you know that you have 27 newsletter subscribers as of today but that you want 2,499 subscribers by the end of the year which route are you going to take? Just like getting the Companion Pass, there are a lot of different routes with different time frames and different cost.

In our newsletter subscriber example, we have a clear goal of acquiring 2,472 new subscribers. We want to make sure that all of our new subscribers are people who are relevant to the success of our business and not just route “detours” for the sake of pumping up the numbers.

How can you get there? Which routes?

Incentives in your office waiting room or fitting rooms for signing up

Those are just a couple “routes” for you to take.

Where do you want to go? How do you want to get there? We’ll talk more about tools and budgets in the next post….

General, Marketing with Mansfield

Get Your ‘Gram On!

December 4, 2020December 4, 2020 Marketing with Mansfield

Instagram can be a tool to build brand awareness in O&P.
Instagram is (STILL) an underutilized marketing tool in orthotics and prosthetics. There, I said it. This morning, I logged in and searched “#prosthetics.” What came up? All kinds of cool – prosthetic makeup photos and animal prostheses. Unless there are a lot of zombie prosthetists, most photos with the hashtag “prosthetics,” are posted by people who create goiters or elf ears.

Uses
Why is Instagram so great? Or a better question, why is Instagram so popular? The top reasons are that it is fast, free, easy and visual. Let’s take a look.

Fast: It takes about 10 seconds to snap a photo and upload it to Instagram.
Free: That is self-explanatory.
Easy: See “Fast.” Also, anyone can do it. It is not overly complicated. It. Is. Simple. It does not require the effort of Facebook. It does not even require you to have a smart phone. If you want an Instagram account but do not have a smart phone or tablet, you can create an account on your desktop or laptop where you can view, follow or like photos without using a phone.
Visual: It is all about the pictures – and short videos, too. But mostly about pictures.

What’s your plan? You’re going to want to create a lot of content beforehand so that you make your ‘gramming even easier.

Instagram Post Types You Should Know

Single-image posts: self-explanatory, right?

Carousel posts: Multiple images (up to 10). Viewers can scroll from left to right to view each photo in the post.

Video posts: Appear in your profile grid and are shared in your feed. They must be less than 60 seconds long.

Video carousels: An easy way to get past the 60 second video time limit. If you have three minutes of video content you can break it into three one minute videos, then post a video carousel to showcase all three videos. Viewers scroll through the videos just like with carousel photos.

Boomerang: A short, looping video created in the Boomerang app. Boomerangs are created by taking a burst of photos and using them to create a video that loops in the main feed.

Ready, Set, Get Gramming!

If you’re on instagram, let me know so I can follow you!

General, Kentucky Orthotic Prosthetic, Michigan Orthotic Prosthetic, Ohio Orthotic Prosthetic, Orthotic Prosthetic Continuing Education, Orthotics and Prosthetics State Meetings, West Virginia Orthotic Prosthetic

Ohio Chapter AAOP and CEC

August 19, 2020August 19, 2020 CEC Admin

The Ohio Chapter AAOP has faced many changes this year. One of those changes is that Rich Butchko, the executive director, has retired. Please join us in thanking Rich for his many years of service to the Chapter. He has been a huge part of the Chapter for many years, and we wish him well as he moves on to this next stage of life.

Financial constraints have caused some organizational changes to the Ohio Chapter AAOP Board. We have elected to eliminate the executive director position and to distribute the responsibilities of that position to board members. We have also voted to hire a third party to help organize and assist with our spring meetings. We have enlisted Clinical Education Concepts (CEC) to help coordinate our meetings and to oversee and update our new website. Over the years Elizabeth Mansfield and Tom McGovern at CEC have helped other chapters and O&P state associations organize and run their annual meetings. They have been involved with our industry for many years and have much experience in marketing and event planning.

Obviously, COVID has affected all of us and caused the cancellation of the 2020 spring meeting. Because of the uncertainty surrounding this pandemic, the board has decided to have a virtual spring 2021 meeting instead of the normal in-person meeting. This will allow us to begin planning for that meeting in the midst of unpredictable times.
Going forward, we will continue to develop a virtual education platform in conjunction with regular in-person meetings. We will provide excellent educational and CEU opportunities through top-notch speakers. We will promote collaboration of like-minded professionals in the O&P community and provide networking opportunities with our peers, interdisciplinary healthcare partners, and manufacturers as they share new products, ideas and techniques. Our goal is to keep the Ohio Chapter AAOP strong for years to come by being an organization that provides value to our members and encourages others to join.

Challenge and change are part of our profession. The Ohio AAOP stands ready to navigate those changes and rise to the challenge in ways that continue to support our membership as we all continue to serve our patients.
Sincerely,

John Brandt, CPO
President
Ohio Chapter AAOP

General, Marketing with Mansfield

Time to “Fall Forward” and Freshen Up!

August 19, 2020August 19, 2020 Marketing with Mansfield

Summer is over.

“Back in the day” (aka last year) this is the time of year that I would avoid Staples, Walmart, Office Depot and Target at all costs. That’s because it was back to school time and because everyone needed new items for school. A+B=insane, Black Friday-esque, crowded stores.

You can’t take notes in an old, used-up notebook. The locker might not even be the same size as last year so you couldn’t use the same old stuff. Your markers were probably dried out. You needed new binders. But you wanted to make sure you went through old school supplies first. Maybe there were a couple markers you never used. There was probably a mirror or a locker shelf you could’ve used again.

The outlet mall was just as bad if not worse. You needed new clothes for back to school. New dress code or you might have grown or old clothes were just plain worn out. If you needed new clothes, then you probably needed new shoes for all the same reasons. It would have been silly, however, to have gotten rid of everything and just gotten all new clothes and shoes. It would’ve been a good idea to try everything on so you could’ve decided what to keep and what to toss.

Freshen up

What can we learn from this back in the day, back to school frenzy?

Clearing out, cleaning up and freshening up your resources are exactly what you should be doing with your marketing materials!

By marketing materials, I mean your online materials, digital tools and social media marketing platforms.While you’re at it, you might as well take a gander at your print materials, too.

As far as brochures and other print materials go, you want to make sure the information contained is up to date and accurate.

Have you changed your logo?

Did the area code change?

Are the people listed still employed?

Have you added people?

What about your services?

Sometimes when I am working on a customer’s email newsletter, I will send a draft to the client and I receive an email in return that reads “We haven’t done mastectomy since 1998. Can you take that off the list of services?” Of course I can, but guess what, I got the list of services from the website so you should probably update it there, too.

Update online resources

It is easier to go “back to school” on your online materials and digital tools, but it still takes time and energy to keep these updated. Here is a tip. When you are putting together your website, Facebook page, instagram, LinkedIn or other online portal, don’t use a photo of your entire staff. Rather, use photos of individual people. It is a nice touch to have pictures and bios on a website, but there are many O&P websites with photos that include people who no longer work there. It is tough enough to get photos of individuals, try taking a new whole staff photo every time you add or subtract staff!

Do all the links still work on your website?

Do the contact us forms work?

Test all the actionable content on every page.

Check every link.

If you have a “click here to email us” button, then make sure users can actually send an email by using that button AND make sure the person who is supposed to receive it is still receiving it.

The end of the year is fast approaching. Why wait until the holidays to go “back to school” on your marketing materials? Do it now.

Need help? elizabeth@cecpo.com

General, Marketing with Mansfield

It’s the little things…right, Cher?

August 18, 2020August 18, 2020 Marketing with Mansfield

As Sonny and Cher used to sing, “It’s the little things.”

Why are the little things such an integral part of your overall marketing effort? People don’t look for reasons to do business with you. They look for reasons NOT to do business with you. And, they’ll do that faster than you read this sentence.

Every SINGLE Point of Contact with our patients, clients and potential employees makes an impression. And first impressions COUNT.

Each impression—good or bad—helps someone decide in a heartbeat if you’re worthy of their time and money. People do business with people they like and trust. First impressions set the tone.

Take a step back

Don’t think that first impressions matter?

Google “secret shopper.”

Everything from the U.S. Army to Walmart uses “secret shopper” or “mystery shopper” programs to provide feedback to their employees and to improve customer satisfaction.

But, to see for yourself, step out of your owner or employer shoes and into your patients’ shoes to conduct your own “secret shopper” test.

Office attitudes

“Shop” your employees. Your receptionist. What do people hear when calling your office? Someone who is positive and helpful? Or, are they greeted by a tone that says, “You’re bothering me. Call someone who cares.”?

“Shop” your technicians or assistants. Does their attitude say they’d rather not repair or adjust devices? Are they rude? Sarcastic? Does their response make patients wish someone else was providing the care?

DEFINITELY “Shop” your accounts receivable. Do your billing clerks listen, or are they always in an aggressive, “You owe us money” mode? Would you do business with your vendors if they had your bookkeeping staff?

From the top down

Management also leaves an impression. Your employees watch how you treat patients and customers and are likely to treat them the same way.

Remember, your practitioners make more of an impression on your patients than anyone in your company. What are your patients’ perceptions of your clinical staff?

Is your staff knowledgeable?
Are they on time for appointments?
Do they follow up and return calls?
Do they dress appropriately?

BE AWARE that you’re making an impression when someone sitting in your waiting room watches the interaction between you and your employees or listens to how someone answers the phone.

Many other potential first impressions are within management’s control: business cards, letterhead, misspellings and poor grammar in emails, on your website, in your social media platforms.

Use your six senses

“Shop” your office, fitting rooms, patient waiting areas and furniture, too.

To test yourself, “secret shop” your own facility one morning before your first patient arrives. Turn on the lights, put on the music, then turn around and walk back outside.

Look around you.

Are the windows clean?

Do the doors need to be painted?

Are the entrances handicap-accessible? Or, are the doors too heavy for someone to open with one hand?

Is there a lip that wheelchairs might get caught on or an awkward turn once you’re inside?

Walk through the front door.

What is the first thing you see? A table half filled with old magazines or brochures? The lights are on, but are the rooms still dark?

Look up.

Are the ceiling tiles stained or dusty? Are there burned out bulbs or dead insects in the lights?

Look down.

Is the carpet clean? Does the overall appearance look old or freshly painted and designed? Does the office look inviting?

Don’t forget your other senses as well. What do you SMELL and hear?

If music is playing, is it too loud or too soft, and is it acceptable to all ages? Do you hear any distracting noises? Can you hear the grinder or the vacuum system?

How does the office smell? Is there an odor of epoxy, resins or burning plastic? Does the plaster trap need to be cleaned?

Finally, walk slowly through your facility and try to imagine that you are seeing it for the first time. What needs to be improved?

Want to earn your Mystery Shopper Merit Badge??

Go through in a wheelchair and see everything from wheelchair eye level. You’ll be amazed and surprised at the things you’ve overlooked.

Make the time

If you are wearing many hats in your business, you will only be able to see the details when you make it your focus.

It’s important to have another person “secret shop.” Get perspectives from different people.

Remember, you always have the opportunity to use first impressions to impress.