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Implementing A “Zone Marketing” Strategy

By Shaya D. Jamieson

Management is often a challenging position. Many times, the manager’s job is not only to implement and make sure that the policies and procedures of the office are being followed, but also to develop and implement new ideas. After years of management, how do you continually come up with new ideas that actually work?

I discovered one new marketing idea that really works. When I was hired as chief operations officer for a chiropractic office, my first and foremost responsibility was to increase the four major office stats: new patients, production, collections/reimbursement and office visits. In other words, my aim was to take the office to a new level!

The irony was that the office was already one of the highest volume practices in the area. Since new patients are generally the driving force in expanding a practice, I chose to evaluate that area first. Upon evaluation, it seemed as though what was working before was not working now, and there was a high cost attached to the marketing practices being used.

My theory was “out with the old, in with the new.” The question was: How do I determine the exact location for my precise target audience? The problem with some advertising is that many dollars are spent on audiences not suited to your services.

I have an answer to this—“zone marketing.” What is zone marketing? It is marketing in the exact location of the precise audience you want to attract for your specific services. It is simple and takes very little time to accomplish.

What are the benefits of zone marketing?

When done correctly, it prevents market saturation;
It targets the exact location of the precise audience;
It ensures that marketing dollars are spent on only potential new patients suited to your services;
It requires a low expense but produces a high return; and
It is time-efficient and can be done in only five steps.

Step One: Raw Data Attainment
The first step is to contact your metropolitan newspaper representative and ask for a report of the population for each zip code, or geographical area, within a 45-mile radius. Other sources for this information may be the local Chamber of Commerce or the public library.

When requesting this report, ask that the information be broken down into categories by age groups of 10-year increments. This allows for targeting by age group. Most practices have services beneficial to certain age groups. The chart (Figure 1) illustrates examples of marketing your services to specific age groups.

Figure 1.

Condition	Age Group	Condition	Age Group
Menopause	45-plus	Esthetic Dentistry	45-plus
Headaches	30-45	High Blood Pressure	35-plus
ADD/ADHD	20-40 (parents of small children)	Fibromyalgia	45-65
Carpal Tunnel	30-45	PMS	20-40
Abdominal Plasty	30-50	Arthritis	55-plus
Audiology Services	55-plus	Low Back Pain	All ages

Now that you have an understanding of correlating your services to specific age groups, you’ll want the raw data from you newspaper in a specific form that correlates zip codes, age and populations (see example, Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Zip Code	Total Pop.	15-25	26-35	36-45	46-55	56-65	66+
11111	35,000	2,000	8,000	10,000	13,000	1,800	200
22222	25,000	500	4,000	6,500	10,000	2,000	1,000
33333	20,400	1,200	1,100	3,000	9,900	2,800	2,400
44444	28,000	3,000	6,000	5,000	4,000	5,500	4,500
55555	35,600	2,500	7,100	8,500	9,500	4,100	3,900

This is considered your raw data. (Warning: Utilizing the information as is, in the raw data state, is one of the biggest mistakes made in zone marketing.)

Step Two: Translation
Transforming the raw data into usable data is the single most important step. To do this, translate each age group into the percentage of the total population for that zip code/geographical area. See Figure 3 to understand what your report will now look like.

Figure 3.

Zip Code	Total Pop.	15-25	26-35	36-45	46-55	56-65	66+
11111	35,000	2,000 5.7%	8,000 22.9%	10,000 28.6%	13,000 37.1%	1,800 5.1%	200 0.6%
22222	25,000	500 2.05%	4,000 16.0%	6,500 26.0%	10,000 40.0%	2,000 8.0%	1,000 4.0%
33333	20,400	1,200 5.9%	1,100 5.4%	3,000 14.7%	9,900 48.5%	2,800 13.7%	2,400 11.8%
44444	28,000	3,000 10.7%	6,000 21.4%	5,000 17.9%	4,000 14.3%	5,500 19.6%	4,500 16.0%
55555	35,600	2,500 7.0%	7,100 19.9%	8,500 23.9%	9,500 26.7%	4,100 11.5%	3,900 11.0%

The following explains how raw data versus the transformed data affects marketing. If you were marketing for a menopause workshop, you would choose ages 46–55. The raw data would prove to market to 11111 primary, 22222 secondary and 33333 tertiary. However, after our conversion, the exact target audience is actually 33333 primary, 22222 secondary and 11111 tertiary. The raw data must be translated into proportionate ratios in regard to that particular area’s total population.

Step Three: Event/Topic Selection
Choose the event and/or seminar topic that you want to market. A decision must be made to either advertise only your services, or to advertise a future workshop on a particular topic.

My experience is that advertising a seminar/workshop on a particular topic is most beneficial for attracting qualified new patients to your event. This is due to the fact that, once at your event, the potential new patient has a chance to meet the doctors and staff and visit the office environment.

On the other hand, this gives the staff and doctor(s) a chance to gain a rapport with potential new patients to ensure they sign up for care. Once the topic is chosen, consider this question: What age group does this affect?

The answer to that question will determine the particular zip codes/areas to which you will market. After the topic and event have been decided, create a mockup of an ad, or outsource the project to a designer familiar with your health-care field.

Step Four: Logistics
Now that you have your strategy, implement it. Begin this planning three to four weeks before the event. Request the deadlines from the newspaper. Things to remember are: the deadline for notifying the newspaper of the zip code/area you are distributing; the deadline for the ad/insert at the newspaper so they may produce your copies for distribution; and the drop-off deadline at the newspaper if you choose to have another agency (or your office) produce the quantities of ad/inserts.

Choose your zip codes. (Tidbit: Do not limit your advertising to only your zip code/area. Market within a 20-mile radius. Many citizens are already in your area regularly for other business activities.)

Contact the newspaper with your zip codes/area for publication of your ad/insert. Experience has found that inserts for zone marketing work very well. Promoting events and/or services works best if the inserts are published in 5,000 or 10,000 quantities. Furthermore, inserts tend to be far less expensive than direct mail. Your newspaper representative may give you quotes on prices when requested.

Regarding the ad/insert color choice, generally selecting a brighter color is best, and a double-sided format gives you more exposure.

Step Five: Tracking
If zone marketing is performed correctly, you should receive a high return for low cost. The following information should be obtained and reviewed:

How much did the event cost?
How many new patients are needed to cover my cost?
How many people signed up for the event?
How many people actually attended the event?
How many scheduled an appointment?
How many people who scheduled, showed up for their appointment?
How many people became patients in your practice?

Tracking your marketing methods is very important. This will determine whether a topic was well received and if certain events are profitable.

There is a niche to zone marketing. However, once each step is completed, it becomes a simple process with a measurable return. Using this strategy, I increased the number of new patients by 40 percent and decreased advertising expenditures by 60 percent.

I hope this information will assist you in taking your practice to a new level.

About the author: Shaya D. Jamieson, who has been in the health-care field for over 12 years, is a certified medical manager with expertise in 18 different areas of practice management. She is the chief operations officer for Newquist Chiropractic Life Center, P.C. For more information, write to her at 3105 Broadmoor, S.E., Kentwood, MI 49512; or call (616) 956-9060.

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Implementing A “Zone Marketing” Strategy

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