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Magnetic Marketing

What do you have on your fridge?

It used to be that a refrigerator was used for keeping things cold. Nowadays, it's command central. A typical fridge usually has lots of pictures, kid's artwork, to do lists and notes, and maybe a calendar.

How do all those things stay on the fridge? Fridge magnets, of course.

This high visibility fastener makes the humble fridge magnet a promotional giant in disguise.

Why use fridge magnets?

There are so many good reasons to use fridge magnets:

Repeated exposure

The kitchen is the central point in most homes and probably has the most traffic of any room. And what's at the most important item in this busy room? The refrigerator. It's probably the most heavily used appliance in the house.

As a result, people see your name in front of them multiple times a day, every day of the week. How often do they see it? According to the American Association of Advertising Specialties (AAAS), the average refrigerator magnet is viewed 23.4 times per day.

Fridge Magnets are the ONLY advertisement that no one ever seems to throw away. As a matter of fact, I'll bet you can't think of another product that someone would pick up, (even off the street) and display for YEARS, on a prominent place in their home or office without any enticement or reward whatsoever. The cost per unit is far less expensive than most other giveaways, and the simple fact that people collect and keep them for years, makes a magnet the most economical, longest lasting form of advertising there is.

One magnet manufacturer reported that magnets stay on the fridge for an average of two years. However, they can have a much longer life than that. In one marketing newsletter I receive, I read about a bicycle store is still getting calls as a result of magnets it distributed 14 years earlier. They know this because they've had a redirection on that phone number and can monitor the number of calls on the old line.

Compare the costs of magnets to other marketing or promotional activities. You can have magnets printed in quantity for as little as 20-30 cents. You could distribute these via bulk mail, directing the post office to deliver them to homes directly around your clinic. With this kind of distribution you could have your magnets in the hands of 1,000 people for a total cost of only $300-$400.

I have several magnets from professionals on my own fridge - my podiatrist and a doctor that does house calls. I don't use these services every day. It's likely I would forget about them and eventually misplace or lose their number. But because they've given me magnets, their phone numbers will be at my fingertips as long as I have pictures of my child (and his artwork) on my fridge.

It's made it easy for me to refer others as well. I was talking to a friend one weekend. She was experiencing some abdominal pain and was hesitant about going into emergency. I just happened to be standing in my kitchen and looked over to my fridge and gave her the number of this doctor who did house calls. It might not have occurred to me if it wasn't right there in front of my face.

Oftentimes, prospects don't always do their research to find out who they should see. Sometimes the number they can find first is the one they will call first. There's the magnet again, right in front of them.

Let's say you have friends over. You're preparing supper and they are hanging out in the kitchen with you. They always check out what's on the fridge. After all, that's where all the latest pictures are. Then they notice your magnet.

"Oh, is this the massage therapist you see?"

It's a perfect opportunity for your client to talk about you and recommend your services. And your number is right there for the taking.

Magnets can be ideal for new businesses not yet in the phone book. Another advantage over directories: When you look in the Yellow Pages customers and prospects will see all your competitors' names as well. When your customer looks at their fridge they see only yours!

There is also a novelty factor. A magnet is seen as a small gift. This creates a sense of perceived value and causes your clients to hold onto the magnet for a longer period of time.

Do they get results?

It's a little difficult to measure a return on investment on this kind of marketing tool. I've used magnets in my clinics - we gave them to customers only. Although I don't know how much return I've gotten, I know that some clients have returned as a result of those magnets and I occasionally get comments from clients who tell me that they see my magnet on a daily basis.

I stumbled across a couple of reports by a magnet producer in Australia:

	A pool care company mailed 10,000 pool owners magnets and picked up about 700 new customers.
	A carpet care company sent out 5,000 magnets via bulk mail and got a 12.5% inquiry rate over the next three months.

Will you have this kind of response to a magnet? Probably not. But even if you get a fraction of that response you'd be using a tool that provides an excellent return for the money.

How to use magnets

	If you are interested in using magnets, I'd suggest sending one to each of your clients for starters. Make sure that every new client gets one as well. I would send them in the mail simply because the person is going to open the letter at home (likely in the kitchen) and the fridge is just a few steps away. If you give them away in the clinic, they may go missing before they hit the fridge.
	At any networking or promotional event, bring magnetic business cards instead of your standard cards.
	Try distributing them by mail. You can have them distributed through bulk (unaddressed) mail to areas immediately around your office. The post office pretty much will allow you to distribute as many (or as few) as you like. Here in Canada you can also target just homes, apartments or businesses.
	If you have a very specific target market, then arrange to buy, rent, barter, or negotiate the use of a mailing list. Send a letter along with your magnet to the members of your market.

Here's an unusual use of fridge magnets reported by Dianna Ratliff of bizcardguru.com: I recently saw one of the most IMAGINATIVE ways to distribute business cards I've ever seen. I was cruising around Kansas City when I pulled alongside a shiny-clean white pickup truck with a large magnetic sign on the driver-side door. Perfectly ordinary, nothing unusual in that. Lots of vehicles carry magnetic signs to promote their businesses. I idly read the sign. It had a business name (a plumbing service, I believe), a phone number, and then, in large letters "TAKE MY CARD". Take my CARD? What were they talking about? Then I noticed that around the large magnetic sign - scattered all around the door - were MAGNETIC BUSINESS CARDS. What a great idea! If I could remember the company, I'd call them and congratulate them. (I couldn't get out in the middle of the intersection and grab a card, of course.) But I'll bet that driver always positioned his truck in parking lots so his door was easy to see. That clever business owner, knowing that his service was one people need on an emergency basis, wanted to make sure a large pool of people had a readily-accessible reminder of his service. And what's more accessible in your home than a magnet on the refrigerator? Sure, this is a little more expensive than a traditional business card, but I'll bet this business was REMEMBERED. Both for the unusual card presentation, and for the magnetic card itself.

You can find magnet manufacturers in the Yellow Pages under Magnets or Promotional Products. You could also do a search online with the search term fridge magnets. Here are two online sources of magnets. (This is not an endorsement.)

Gary Austin Advertising (located in the USA and seems to have very good prices)
http://www.garyaustinadvertising.com/business-card-magnets.html

Tradewise Promotions (located in Canada; click on the "promotional products" link)
http://tradewise-promotions.com/frames/twp_frames.htm

As an alternative to custom printed magnets, you can also buy adhesive magnets at most office supply stores and can simply attach your existing business card.

Fridge magnets seem to be a really great tool that puts your marketing dollar to good use. If you have any experience or successes in using fridge magnets, please let me know. I'd love to hear about it.

Important notice

You're reading one of the future lessons for the Fill Your Practice 101 program. With the Fill Your Practice program, you get a simple, easy to understand, practical marketing lesson like this one in your email every day for about five months. The program takes you through the process of building a successful practice step-by-step. It makes learning to have a profitable business easy. Not only that, if you encounter any bumps along the way, post your question to the discussion board we've set up specifically for the course. The other participants and I would be happy to help you out.

This program has been offered at an introductory price of $29. As of Monday, June 16th, the price will be going up to $59. And in about a month after that it will go up to the $99 that I intend to charge. So if you've been holding off getting the program, now's the time to go for it. And with a generous money back guarantee, you have nothing to lose.

Click here to order the program now. You can have a full practice, but you have to take action.

As always, I have a favor to ask. If you know of a colleague or fellow student who could benefit from the information in this newsletter, please pass this along. They can get a free subscription of their own by sending a blank email to marketingtips@bodyworkbiz.com. And please be sure to tell them to check out the program so they can still purchase it at this low price.

This newsletter has grown from about 500 subscribers to almost 1,780 subscribers in about four months. I haven't marketed this site at all, so this remarkable increase is due almost entirely to you sharing this information with others. Thank you soooo much! I really appreciate you helping me help others.

All the best

Eric Brown, Director
BodyworkBiz