Brazzell's Boiling Pot Model for Understanding Referral Source Behavior:
Conventional wisdom in the marketing industry holds that your advertising must reach customers 12 times before it will change their buying behavior. While this is largely true, home health and physical therapy providers who have conducted successful marketing plans know that many referral sources respond long before 12 advertising impressions. How can the conventional wisdom of 12 impressions be true when so many doctors seem to require just three good contacts? Understanding the answer to this question will help owners and administrators choose better marketing plans and more reliably predict results.
You have probably heard the phrase, “That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.” This old saying recognizes that people often receive several motivators over a long period of time before taking action. Customers and referral sources are no different. Everyone requires repeated pieces of persuasion or motivators before finally taking an action such as making a referral or calling for more information. Use the Brazzell's Boiling Pot Model of consumer motivation to help you understand referral source behavior.
Imagine a pot on a stove. It is boiling. It holds 11 cups of water. Each cup of water represents a marketing impression. When the pot boils over, you are getting a referral.
Bear in mind that a marketing impression need not be an announcement on the radio or some other traditional advertising impression. Receiving a well-written order for signature or a conversation with a current patient might serve as a marketing impression. Driving by your sign serves as a marketing impression. An unplanned conversation with a colleague might add a cup or two to the boiling pot. Even if a doctor does not know who you are, a consciously perceived need for your services counts as a marketing impression.
The boiling pot model demonstrates how and why active home health and physical therapy referral sources respond to marketing faster than prospective referral sources. Active referral sources already have their pots filled to the brim with regular communication and a history of good service. They usually only require one to three cups more before overflowing with a referral. On the other hand, referral sources who have no relationship with you require the deliberate pouring of all twelve cups before they will boil over.
Use the boiling pot model to think about active referral sources. The fact that they are actively sending you patients does not mean that they are referring all that they can or should. Providers who are planning an office-specific marketing effort such as a luncheon or seminar should give active referral sources consideration over prospective referral sources. Because active pots already contain plenty of boiling water, agencies and practices will find that marketing to active referral sources holds a greater likelihood of timely return on investment.
Why is the pot boiling? The minds of your referral sources boil with marketing messages from other providers, new treatment data from medical journals, new procedures from third-party payors, etc. With all this going on in the minds of your referral sources, your marketing impressions evaporate from their working memory. Some minds boil faster than others. Providers have only a limited time to pour all 12 marketing impressions before the first cup evaporates. If you use inadequate frequency, you will never cause the pot to boil over. Providers seeking to expand their referral base must also be consistent in their communications efforts.
Maximize the potential of current referral sources. Expand your referral base to its maximum limits. Brazzell Marketing Agency specializes in the marketing of referral-based healthcare providers, especially home health, physical therapy, and hospice. BMA can help you design and implement a communications strategy with optimal frequency and consistency. Start by obtaining and reviewing our Referral Doubling Strategy: Click Here.