Military Planning Procedure For Your Dental Practice Marketing

With 2008 half-way over, it is time to start planning for 2009. Planning in any business is an essential function that all too many times gets overlooked. Lack of planning leads to playing defense for a whole year and being reactive, not proactive in your success.

Think about it this way: When you go into a dental procedure, you have all your tools laid out on the tray ready to go. Why not start the year with all your marketing tools laid out ready to go, and knowing exactly when you want and need to use them?

In my four years as an active duty Marine, I learned time and time again that planning would lead to success. We even had a saying "proper prior planning prevents poor performance," and we were given an acronym, B.A.M.C.I.S., to help plan missions...

B.A.M.C.I.S. (pronounced bam-sis) has to do with leading Marines on the battlefield and is used to plan for every mission. B.A.M.C.I.S. stands for Begin the planning, Arrange for reconnaissance, Make reconnaissance, Complete the plan, Issue the order, and Supervise. These simple six steps apply to any task or operation you will take on...

Before you start the B.A.M.C.I.S. process, you will need a mission. For the sake of example, your goal or mission is to increase gross revenue by 10% in 2009. It's a little vague, but it will work for our purposes. Now, let's go step by step through the B.A.M.C.I.S. process...

1. Begin the planning: The first step is actually beginning the planning (duh). You will approach your goal, and figure out the methods to best accomplish it. In this case, to increase your gross revenues by 10%, you can either find new patients, or, you can do more dentistry on your current patients, or a combination of both...

Also, you need to do is take a quick inventory of your available resources like staff, equipment, and old marketing (brochures, business cards, etc). This will let you know what you can include in your plan, and will help in the next step...

2. Arrange For Reconnaissance: In the second step you arrange for your information gathering. In the Marines, this may include requesting maps, video surveillance, or even planning another mission to gather information on the terrain and enemy positions...

For your practice, it means taking an information inventory. Do you have production reports and patient reports by month for 2007 and 2008 to date? Where do you find marketing results? What do you need to do to get those reports? Gather as much information on the last 12 months as possible, and then move on to the next step. Check also with local government, competitors, and local media to see what events are coming (Wal-mart, parades, dentist down the street retiring)...

3. Make Reconnaissance: Now that you have all of your information, you have to sort through it. Figure out your worst month and your best month, what marketing was out those months, and how many new patients resulted from the marketing. What is coming up this next year (anniversaries, trade shows, community events)? This is an information finding step, not a planning step. If there are months where incomplete data was kept, recreate those months in this step...

Create your 2007-08 report with all the numbers you need for 2009. Include production by month, new patient flow, cancelled appointments, average production per patient, new and current, and completed treatment plans. These numbers will all be great when it comes to the next step. Many times your practice management software can pull these numbers just by clicking the mouse a few times...

4. Complete the Plan: Now, apply all of the information you have gathered and create your plan. Take your monthly reports and use them to figure out when to up your marketing. If you know July is slow, pump up the marketing in June. If there is a big anniversary for your practice in the summer, plan a patient event...

Hint: Use reverse planning. If you need patients calling by August 1st, subtract 3 days for mailing, 5 days for fulfillment, and 5 days for printing. If you want calls in your office on August 1st, you need to have the project to the printer by July 14th at the latest. Plan all marketing projects like this. If you need patients on August 1st, July 30th is not the time to start the project...

Don't forget a contingency plan for emergencies... flood, fire, theft, etc. These things happen, and it helps if there is a plan just in case they do...

5. Issue The Order: Have a meeting and lay out your plan to your team. This serves as an "order" for them, to let them know exactly who, what, when, where, and why you are doing this. Make sure to leave out no details. If Jane at the front desk needs to be in charge of postage purchasing, tell her how many stamps you need and when to get them. Lay out the year for them, so there will be no surprises when you announce the need to sign Thanksgiving cards for your patients...

Then, in your daily/weekly huddles, you can lay out what needs to happen that week/day. Who needs to call the marketing company? Who is working on the copy for the newsletter, and deadlines for each project? This goes back to reverse planning. Give yourself and your team notice of any problems, and what you need to do to get them handled. How do you know when there are problems? Check the next step...

Supervise: I cannot stress this enough. Supervising is the most important step to your planning since the plan is useless without implementation. This does not mean just supervising people, but also processes, situations, and external vendors. This allows you to know if things are going according to the plan, as well as when to take action steps to fix a problem. Look over your weekly plan and make sure things are on time, what needs to be ready for next week, and who is in charge of doing what. Do not micro-manage this step. Trust your staff and external vendors to get things done (they should be trustworthy, you hired them)...

If there is a problem, use another military acronym, OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act). As you supervise or observe the implementation of your plan, you will notice problems here and there. Orient yourself to these problems. What needs to be adjusted or changed? Make a swift, firm decision, keeping the mission in mind, and acting on that decision. The Marine saying is, the quicker you act, the less time the opposition has to prepare defense...

If you supervise correctly, you will catch all problems early. This makes them easier to solve, and makes certain they have less effect on your mission. Rather than walls, they appear more as speed bumps. There are few problems that prior planning could not resolve...

Planning can and will help your practice run smoother. It is often ignored in business today, and comes to haunt many business owners. If you lay out a proper plan using the information you have gathered over the last year, you will surely create a smoother running practice. Remember, proper prior planning prevents poor performance.

About the Author

James Erickson is the President of EMC Dental Marketing which gives Dentists a resource for turn-key dental marketing programs and dental practice marketing education including new patient attraction, and internal marketing systems. Visit www.EMCdental.com and get a free practice
building kit sent directly to your home or office.<

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Personalized Stationery Makes a Great Gift for Teens and Children

Finding the right gift for a child or teenager is not always easy, especially since their tastes can vary wildly as they try to find their own way to express themselves.  Clothes are easily outgrown and may not be able to keep up with changing fashions, while toys might soon be considered childish by image-conscious pre-teens.  An alternative that many people might not think of but that can be a big hit with children, teens, and pre-teens is personalized stationary which can not only be in the child’s favorite colors or designs but will also be immediately identifiable as belonging to them.

Children and teenagers alike often enjoy having unique school supplies that they can show off to classmates, so buying personalized stationary can guarantee that your gift is something that no one else will have.Whether it is a set of personalized polka dot memos in a gift bag for a special young lady or a silly animals memo book complete with a matching sticker set for a younger child to show off, personalized stationery makes a great and memorable gift.Not only will the stationery that you buy for them be stylish and feature designs that they like, but having their name printed on every sheet will give them a sense of importance that they might not find with other gifts.

In addition to basic memo pads and stationery items that a child or teen can take to school or keep on their homework desk, a number of personalized stationery sets are available which can serve a broader purpose.  Buying a set of personalized sports-themed cards can let a young athlete send invitations to upcoming games to favorite friends or relatives, or can let them send personal notes and thank-you cards showing off their favorite sports.  Similar card sets can be found and personalized according to the child’s tastes if they are not a sports fan or athlete, letting them use a twin hearts design or an artist’s palette motif on correspondence cards for any invitations or notes that they might want to send.

If the child or teen that you want to buy personalized stationery for has a pen pal or writes a lot of letters, you might even consider buying them a set of personalized address labels in order to let them give their letters a more “grown up” look which better fits their interests.  You can give floral address labels that match personalized floral stationery, or personalized blue stickers which can be used to seal envelopes as an alternative way of putting a return address on letters while giving them an entirely new look.Younger children might enjoy animal stickers or personalized dump truck stickers instead, featuring more cartoon-like characters but serving the same purpose.

One advantage of buying personalized stationery for children and teens is that it can give them a greater appreciation for letter-writing, and writing in general.  Since the stationery is personalized with their name they will be more likely to want to use it, and this can lead to activities such as finding a pen pal or creative writing, both of which can lead to a better grasp of language and grammar as well as an increase in overall creativity.  Unlike some educational toys that many children and a number of teens balk at, encouraging writing by giving personalized stationery can have a definite effect without the child shying away from it because they perceive it as being educational.

When deciding to give personalized stationery to children or teens, take the time to consider your options so that you can find just the right type of stationery to match their interests and personality.  There are a number of different options available from stores and shops that sell personalized stationery, with a number of designs that have been created specifically with children and teens in mind.  This will let you choose a stationery pattern that the child or teenager will be happy with, letting them express themselves a bit more through the look of their paper and other stationery instead of just having regular undecorated paper to use.

Though it might not seem like an ideal gift at first, you will find that many children and teens will get as much if not more use out of personalized stationery than they would from many other gift ideas.  Not only will it see a lot of use, but it may inspire a passion for writing and creativity in the years to come which few other gifts can match.  This way you will be able to not only give a gift that they will enjoy now, but also a gift that can influence them in a number of creative ways for years to come.

About the Author

Shawn Thomas is a freelance writer who writes about style, etiquette and gift giving.

Mr.Thomas often discusses specific ideas for gift giving such as personalized stationery and other kinds of stationery in general.

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Yes, You Really Need Internet Marking Education

How long did it take you to learn your current job?How about your previous job?Did they give you a manual and say, "Here's your training?" More than likely your answer is "no." Well, if it didn't work then, how do you think it will work now?I'll answer the question you've been asking yourself: Yes, you really do need Internet marketing education to become successful.That doesn't mean that you can't earn a few bucks here and there just by doing what you're doing now, nor does it mean that you have to take a four-year college course to gain the experience needed to be a serious Internet marketer, but I will tell you that if you think you can do it without any instruction or with the help of a 10-page e-book, you're dead wrong!

Why Can't I Get the Information From an E-Book
E-books are great.
They're informative, some show you step-by-step instructions, and some even offer free CD as a bonus.If that's all the information you need to get going, and if your dream was to run affiliate ads on the free advertising sites, you're all set.

However, many times people think they have the knowledge to succeed until they get stuck.It's when they dig themselves into a deep hole of frustration that they realize they need help, and Steps 1 and 2 of the e-book probably won't tell you anything about what to do if you've made a mistake.

The problem with e-books is that they do just want the author wants them to do, leave you wanting, or in some cases, needing more e-books to fill in the areas that were missed from the first one.

Learn from the Best How to Be the Best

If you want a solid Internet marketing education, turn to people who can offer it.

Now, I'm not saying that you can't learn anything from an e-book, who hasn't purchased at least one or two of them, but when I say a solid education, I mean you want to learn the right ways to do things so you don't make the common mistakes and have to backtrack; losing time and in some cases money.If you want to learn from experienced marketers, consider getting a mentor or a business coach.They do charge for their services, but how much have you spent on "get rich quick" schemes or DVDs filled with broken promises?

I Can't Afford to Hire Someone

If you're starting out on a shoestring budget, that's okay.

There are other options available to you, a few of which I will list here:

1.

Free tutorials, Google Adsense, Pay pay click, free website builders...All of these have free tutorials, so take advantage of them.Google provides an excellent source of information in terms that you can understand, and many of the free website builders offer step-by-step instructions to make building a website a breeze even if you have no experience.

2.Forums, A great place to meet people, build relationships, and seek advice.One of the great things about forums is that people don't mind sharing information, and most are willing to help their fellow Internet marketers get started.You can also share your products, offer your services, and get some extra work if you have a sought-after skill.

3.Free Research Centers, Many of these websites offer keyword tools, tutorials, and marketing strategies at no cost to you.You can certainly benefit from learning about the many marketing tools available today.

The world of Internet marketing has made it possible for stay-at-home moms to make some extra money, even allowing some working folks to quit their day jobs.It doesn't happen overnight, and you certainly can't get everything you need to know from an e-book, so stop waste your money and start investing your time in getting your Internet marketing education.

About the Author

Turnkey Mentors is an online marketing course taught by proven leaders in the internet marketing and online business community at a fraction of the price of all the other guru courses on the net.

www.turnkeymentors.com

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Understanding Affiliate Marketing To Make Money On The Internet

Making money on the Internet can be achieved by using unique techniques that many online business owners have not yet learned about and applied to their own business plans. There are many techniques that people do not know about but can make your online site very successful and also increase the amount of traffic flow that it encounters. One of the best ways to make money on the Internet and also accomplish all of these variant objects is by evaluating the concept of affiliate advertisement and also forming a mix of employees that will cope with all of the marketing plans and strategies.

Affiliate advertisement is mainly when you publicize for variegated browse cyberspace corporations on your own zone so that people who seek advice from your location will go to these esoteric heavier sites. This technique may seem sacrificial to the victory of your own district, but in authenticity it can be exceptionally apposite. By publicizing goods for varied web places on your own locality, recruits will come to your district first to learn around what on earth sorts of goods that assorted recruits are providing.

A couple browse cyberspace affair owners think that you experience to assign a lot of epoch and money on advertisement so that it is successful and bring accomplishment to your location. They still consider that revealing fulfilled and links as well as variegated locales will without difficulty hurt your district and subsided the figure of guests that come to use your spot. These opinions are not completely factual and can be weigh down and the vigilant requests of affiliate marketing by a blend of helpful thinkers.

There is a few essential in the assertion that change pulls off not at once traumatize the triumph of the promote research group of the online affair. Capital riches completes in fact aid, but the true plan and strategies come enjoys the helpful manners and acumen of the mix. In make a request to be prosperous, the bureau must engage recruits who are outstandingly gifted and positive, who will help augment the effectiveness of the advertise experiment mix.

The recruits indoor the promote examination blend should not be frightened to do new items and come up plus new ways of regulating the bureau. Steadily times, these revolutionary scheme shift the finish route of the firm and make it extraordinarily thriving. And the help of social media sales promotion, blog location owners can establish awareness as regards to their spot on media services that other web places award.

An extra way to do market scrutiny without the use of a lot of currency is by the helpful use of link baiting. Link baiting is a exceptionally helpful allocation of social media advertisement and can help raise a blogs popularity in a vastly prompt way. You should try to zone link baits in key places on the World wide web so that they are basically nearby and viewable to a number of surf the net users.

A couple of the principal and most ordinary social media web locales on the Web are Myspace and Digg, which can assist display links to your zone in a categorical deeds. As a blog owner, you can hint up for both social media web spots and label your blog not up to a accurate issue. This system will help you to target a accurate World wide web eavesdropper and increase the odds of a larger traffic waft.


Close to the Creator

Court is an counsel on how

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