Why Direct Mail?

For the typical, busy office, "big splash" advertising means big headaches and low return on investment. It's difficult to predict response, and impossible to regulate the flow of new patient appointments. The result? An overburdened office staff—as well as time and money wasted on poorly qualified prospective patients.

When it comes to ROI, precision targeting (demographic and geographic), low cost and controlled appointment flow, no other advertising medium can match direct mail. Response rates are relatively predictable, which allows for a surprisingly accurate and regulated appointment flow. Too many calls? Reduce the amount of mail sent. Direct mail also brings an interesting side benefit to the table: stealth. Your efforts contact only those local residents with the highest likelihood of hearing impairment, and each recipient is aware of only the letter they received. Competing firms have no way of knowing your strategy, costs, areas or quantities. There are no billboards, display ads, neon lights or fireworks—just the most low-key, under-the-radar method of building relationships within your local community.

 

The Science of Direct Mail

In order to meet ENTmail’s standard of success, each mailing must meet two key objectives:

1) Timely + Accurate Delivery.

The U.S. Postal delivery system consists of approximately 35,000 post offices servicing more than 40,000 zip codes, through which over 550 million pieces of mail are processed each DAY! Most mail passes through 2–5 different facilities en route to its destination address. It’s a daunting logistical challenge for those of us who need a few thousand letters delivered on time! But in our 25+ years in business, we’ve refined our process down to a science. Each campaign relies on a key deadline: the “In-Home” date. We ship directly to large regional processing facilities (SCF) with specific arrival times, allowing us to circumvent most of the bottlenecks in the system. Each piece of mail is tracked through the postal system with a direct data feed to our servers, providing us with clear picture of delivery statistics for each campaign. These systems enable us to predict delivery times with 98% accuracy.

2) Predictable + profitable response.

With another direct mail service, you may bet everything on an untested mailer design that doesn’t perform well with your target demographic. ENTmail eliminates this risk by using reliable designs with a history of proven success. This advantage is also crucial to our ability to help our clients control the number of calls or appointments desired each week. Understandably, your first concern is likely you’re your campaign won’t get enough response. But too much response runs a close second—a poorly planned campaign that generates an unmanageable level of calls can virtually paralyze an office. Direct mail is the only marketing method that allows the fine-tuning required to precisely control response. You’re in control of your new patient “flow”; just turn the faucet to make the stream larger or smaller.