Do doctors even read promotional pieces sent to them by mail? The success measures coming out of Brazzell's Referral Doubling Strategy answer, "Without a doubt, yes, doctors read promotional pieces sent by direct mail." Of course, this doesn't mean you can send any old self-serving piece of promotion and expect to get a response. Here are some tricks of the trade for getting doctors to read your promotional pieces sent by mail and by other media.

Differentiate Your Envelope from Junk Mail

When you send your mail to doctors in an envelope, the envelope itself instantly communicates that this may not be junk mail. Letters mailed without an envelope (called self-mailers) are always promotional pieces, magazines, or envelopes. Don't put promotional messaging all over the envelope unless you have that on every envelope leaving your office. When a doctor receives mail from a local healthcare provider, they are compelled to open the envelope because it may be patient correspondence. It must be important; it's in an envelope. 

Use a first class stamp. Junk mail uses discounted postage. Research shows first class stamps increase open rates. 

Mail to each specific person. Don't mail to just the business name.

Break the postal guidelines for addressing. Postal guidelines suggest addressing your envelopes in all caps. Therefore, mailing professionals tend to use all caps. When you use upper and lowercase, your mailing looks different from the junk mail. Don't use bar codes. Consider not using zip+4. In short, make your envelope look like someone at your front desk typed it as opposed to looking like it came out of a giant bulk mail factory. 

Mail in Volume

No matter how good your promotional material is, most doctors will not read it. The trick is to mail to 100 or more doctors at once. Figure that a third of them will open it. A third of those doctors will read it. A third of those doctors will respond after a sufficient number of advertising impressions. Mailing to hundreds of doctors at once ensures that some of your mail will get read and increases the likelihood of a positive return on investment.

Make It About Your Reader

If you are sending newsletters or bulletins, you have to provide some value. If self-promotion constantly takes up 100% of your piece, doctors have no reason to read each new piece. Instead, make content that speaks to their needs and challenges at work, give them objective information they can use, and then provide your self-promotion.

Design for Brief Reads

When mailing newsletters and bulletins, keep in mind two things. One, the person who screens the doctors' mail needs to see value in it in three seconds or less, or it won't be passed on. Two, many doctors may scan your piece without fully reading it. You have multiple solutions. When it's not too self-promotional, build your marketing message into the headline. For instance, "Your Ally in Diabetes Management," "Home Health Shown to Reduce Readmissions 30%," or "Experts Recommend Heart Failure Management Programs be Conducted at Home." Use highlighting and subtitles to call out your main points. Put main points in the captions of images. Some research shows that skimmers will read the captions on images before they read the text of pages. 

Skip the Gatekeeper

Direct mail has the extremely important advantage of being able to directly target exactly the people you want to address. That makes newsletter/bulletin programs a must-do for home health, hospice, physical therapy, and other healthcare providers relying on physician referrals. However, some mail never lands on its mark because of people screening the mail for the doctors. As a supplement or precursor to direct mail, referral-based healthcare providers can use Facebook Referral Source Marketing to bypass gatekeepers and advertise directly to referral sources. Doctors don't use staff nurses to screen their social media or to play online games for them. The Facebook advertising platform enables adept advertisers to make ads show only for discharge planners, the right types of doctors, and their staff. The ads show up in Facebook news feeds, Instagram, and other Facebook partner apps such as games and websites. With an average cost per impression of only 2 cents (all inclusive), this is an easy and affordable way to make sure your brand and message stays in front of the referral sources in your community.