Raise your visibility to the public with an outdoor message center.
Raise your visibility to the public with an outdoor message center.The sales representative every practice needs is bright, informative, and never complains about long hours. This indispensable marketing tool comes in the form of an electronic message center (EMC), and is a programmable, visual form of communication to connect with existing and future patients.
The sign you place outside your business is as important as the building and the staff it represents. Think of an EMC not as an expense, but as an investment and a customized advertising system that works to constantly further your practice through marketing, recruiting, and retaining patients as well as increasing profitability. It serves as the gateway, a billboard in motion drawing force that no business can afford to be without in this viable, growing market.
Word on the street
EMCs such as digital LED displays provide a direct, cost-effective way to promote your business, products, and services and stay connected with your community. No other business tool or marketing device can provide constant advertising services or direct marketing results like an EMC. The graphics and information displayed on this wireless system can be changed as often as desired with a few strokes of a keyboard from the comfort of your office.
To readily capture the attention of those passing by, you can use your versatile EMC to promote specials, new products, upcoming workshops or events, business hour changes, new staff members or services, and general information about your business or profession.
In comparison
Not getting the return on investment you’d like from newspaper, radio, or TV ads? EMCs are more cost effective according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), which reports the average marketing cost per 1,000 exposures is
- $7.39 for newspaper ads,
- $6.26 for TV ads,
- $5.47 for radio ads, and
- $0.15 for EMCs.
In addition, the SBA indicates that owners can typically see a 15 to 150 percent increase in business with the implementation of an EMC. This can amount to enormous practice growth.
For example: A small business generating $1,000 per day in revenue adds an electronic message center; business soon increases by 15 percent, adding another $150 per day in revenue. Assuming the business is open six days a week, you’d see $900 in additional revenue each week, totaling $46,800 in a year.
Now assume your business increased sales by only 5 percent—how long would it take to realize your return on investment? Say your average monthly sales total $26,000. You spend $15,000 on a sign, and with the five percent increase you gain $1,300 more per month. You’d recoup your investment in only 12 months.
Marketing research also supports the EMC as a powerful tool. A survey of business owners who had installed a programmable LED sign sought to reveal what attracted new customers to their doors. Initially, most business owners thought that word-of-mouth was the driving force. But of the 12,000 surveyed, 46 percent of new customers indicated that LED signs were the primary cause. The other advertising categories ranked as follows:
- word-of-mouth: 37 percent
- newspaper: 8 percent
- Yellow Pages: 6 percent
- radio: 2 percent
- TV: 1 percent
Population turnover
The public—your existing and potential customer base—is in motion. Approximately 18 percent of Americans move every year. Whether it’s a short or long distance, they usually change their basic trade area. Add to that the 15 to 25 percent of traffic on a given street that’s just passing through, and you can see the great potential for single stops by those unfamiliar with the area or what your practice has to offer.
So, if you think everyone knows about you and your location, at best this is only partially true. An EMC offers a method of capturing the attention of both newcomers and people on the go.
One of the advantages of an EMC is its ability to offer variable messages and controls, allowing for greater flexibility in your communications. You can connect with consumers more effectively by changing the message and graphic of your sign to match the profile on the street.
Do you have a few gaps in your schedule you’d like to fill? Convert local traffic to today’s patient list. Display your own effective EMC promotions to sell products, services, and recruit new clients. EMCs give you the power to reach all the people who pass your business every day and impart how your practice can benefit them. Nothing beats advertising in real time.
Deborah Tukua composes “Meet Your Chiropractor Professional Profiles” for those in the chiropractic field. She is the author of Marketing Strategies for Chiropractic Success and 77 Chiropractic Social Media Wellness Posts, a freelance writer for Chiropractic Economics magazine, and the editor of Journey to Natural Living. She can be reached at debtukua@journeytonatliv.com or through journeytonatliv.com.
