In this episode of Practice Talk, the Marketing Director of Lupi Orthodontics, Heather Hamm, divulges her office’s strategies for orchestrating prosperous community events. She highlights the diverse range of events they've organized, noting that those centered around health and wellness consistently draw the largest crowds. Heather emphasizes the effectiveness of distributing branded swag, particularly citing Chapstick as a highly appreciated giveaway item — after all, who doesn't need Chapstick? Tune in for invaluable insights and practical advice from Heather's wealth of experience.
IN THIS EPISODE:
(01:53) Heather explains that the most beneficial events have been health and wellness expos
(6:03) There are a variety of ways to measure the success of an event
(8:39) Discussion of how a private practice can stand out in the community
(10:23) A listener asks how to get her team excited about marketing events, and Heather discusses the swag they use
(17:22) How to build strong relationships within the schools and home-schooling communities
(24:25) Lacie invites listeners to send in their recommendations of guests and topics
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Engagement in the community is essential because it says that you care and are willing to invest in people
Theme-based swag is a great idea to tie everything together and show you have put a lot of thought into the event
Getting staff excited about doing events is a process. Asking them to assist in creating the event is an excellent way to get their involvement, and in large practices, it can be a condition of employment
QUOTES:
“One advantage of Lupi Orthodontics is that we celebrate 30 years in the community. The doctor’s reputation alone speaks for itself. We’re starting to see the children of the patients he first treated coming to our practice, which is always fun and gets us excited.” - Heather Hamm
“I love swag. One of the most important things is making sure that it's quality, not necessarily expensive, but something that they're not just going to throw away. For example, on their way out of the event, our most popular in-office swag is chapstick. Everybody loves Dr. Lupi's chapstick. We give those to the patients after a procedure or hand them out at events. One thing I like to do with the swag is align it around the event.” - Heather Hamm
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for watching the video.
(00:00:00) Lacie Ellis: Welcome to Practice Talk, a deep dive into the world of healthcare practices, where we invite team members to share strategies to make your work life easier. Now your host, Lacey Ellis.
Welcome to Practice Talk, brought to you by People In Practice. Where we specialize in digital marketing, website development, SEO, and so much more, I am so excited for today's topic, discussing strategies for community growth and engagement with my guest, Heather ham, Heather joined loopy orthodontics as the marketing director in October of 2020 with her 10 plus years of marketing experience and her positive outlook, Heather works hard to come up with new and creative ways to reach out to referring doctors.
New patients. And the community, Heather has helped keep the flow of new patients consistent and is very passionate about her community. She was born and raised in Stafford and loves that she works for loopy orthodontics, who is (00:01:00) celebrating 30 years in practice this year. Her passion and smile are contagious.
Welcome Heather.
(00:01:07) Heather Hamm: Thank you so much, Lacey, for the introduction. I'm so happy to be here.
(00:01:12) Lacie Ellis: We're excited. This is very fun for us. So as a reminder to our listeners, don't worry about taking any notes today. We will put together a printable that you'll be able to download for free from our website filled with the details of today's discussion.
As we've discussed on this podcast before at people in practice, we specialize in digital marketing and driving genuine leads to your website. However, we know that when there is a strong community presence, the combination of those two marketing efforts. It's just very powerful. So let's dig right in Heather.
What type of community events, um, have you found to be most beneficial to the practice? Um, the
(00:01:53) Heather Hamm: most beneficial events for our practice are the health and wellness expos generally because most of the (00:02:00) participants coming to those are looking for ways to improve themselves. So that's always a good start.
Um, it's really a great time for us to show off our practice. We'll bring out our 3d scanners, which is always a great attention grabber. Uh, Dr. Lupe is there giving onsite consults and if they're ready to move forward, we can schedule a followup appointment in office. Um, another event that is really great.
It's not so much about getting patients on the spot, but more of a presence for the community. It's called Stafford night out. Um, it's put on by our local sheriff's department and it brings local organizations and local businesses together. Thousands of people come to this event. It's really fast paced.
Uh, it's super fun for us as a team to be there together and it's really always great to see past and present patients come up to our booth and say hi.
(00:02:59) Lacie Ellis: That is (00:03:00) great. You know, I've heard, um, of so many great ideas for community events. You know, there's fun runs and kite festivals and school track and field days, school auctions, sports club sponsorships, bridal fairs, and health fairs, and it's a lot of effort.
I know, because I've done them, um, but these things are Things are what helped build those community relationships and the brand recognition. So I think if you go into them with that mentality, like you're saying that you're, you're going to go and connect with people and doctors there, which is great.
I've worked in some practices where a doctor did not come and that is a little less, uh, engaging for people. They like to meet the doctor who's going to be working on them. So, um, I love that. I love that you guys make it fun and that those events, um, Are helpful to the practice. That's great. Okay. So have you sponsored any community events, such as a youth sporting event or anything like that?
And if so, how would you measure (00:04:00) the success of those efforts?
(00:04:03) Heather Hamm: Yes. Dr. Lupe always loves the opportunity to sponsor events within the community. Um, we have done a number of sponsorships for our sports programs. Um, a few I want to talk about are. Um, some high school athletic fields that we sponsor their multi year sponsorships.
So it gives us the opportunity to come throughout the different sporting seasons and really connect with the parents and athletes that are on the fields. And so they kind of feel more familiar with us, like, Oh, Hey, there's Dr. Um, so that's always a great opportunity. And we're, of course, we're always doing giveaways at halftimes and Um, at our table, other event that we have done is we've sponsored, um, mouth guards for our local parks and recreation flag football league.
So I'll go out there at the beginning of the season and, um, hand out mouth (00:05:00) guards, which, of course, are always branded. With our logo and information, we'll usually put a code word on there. So if they're calling for a consult, you know, they'll say, mention flag football so that we can kind of keep our stats.
Um, but one particular sponsorship that I'm really excited about, um, is happening this year, we're sponsoring the Stafford soccer league, um, and that is their recreation, their travel and their adult league. And we're really getting involved with this program, and we get to send out an email to their 16, 000 participants, and we're going to have a landing page back to our website that will give us all the information that we need.
(00:05:45) Lacie Ellis: That is fantastic. So with those, how are you guys measuring that these are successful? Is the metric how many people call and say the code flag football or whatever was at the event? Or do you, you know, what, what does your office, uh, (00:06:00) consider a successful campaign? Yeah.
(00:06:03) Heather Hamm: So really How we measure is how many, um, we'll have any consultations we'll get from those events.
So whether they're calling in with the code word, or they're going to our website directly and scheduling a virtual or, um, in person consult.
(00:06:21) Lacie Ellis: Okay. And I think, I think it's important to talk about it just because I've worked in offices where you know, success was measured by. How many starts did we actually get?
Some offices measure by how many consults did we get? Um, how many leads did we collect? And, um, then I've worked in offices where we measure success by like, how many great conversations did we have and how many people did we connect with? And I think that is harder, harder to, you know, uh, Qualify or quantify, but it's just still really, really valuable.
So I think if we're strictly measuring just my opinion, if we're strictly measuring based off of leads (00:07:00) and, you know, numbers, which stats are important. Don't get me wrong, but I think sometimes we're missing the bigger picture of that. We talked to so many great people. We made so many great connections.
Our brand is recognizable. And if we weren't here, people would be like, where's loopy orthodontics? They're always here. You know, they always have, um, this fun booze or fun table. So, um, I just want to put that out there that I think while metrics are important, um, that it's really important to also put the value on.
That you were there and that you made the effort and that you made connections. So just my two cents. Lacey, you say
(00:07:33) Heather Hamm: that so much better than I would, but totally. I don't know if the doctor always agrees with those types of metrics, but I always, I love communicate, communicate. I love communicating with the community and being a presence.
And like you said, they, they, you Are always expecting Dr. Levy to be there. So when we're not, they're like, Hey, what's going on? But I (00:08:00) think that is such, you can't really measure that. But. Having those people wondering where you're at or excited to see you is just as important.
(00:08:09) Lacie Ellis: Absolutely. I completely agree.
Doctors have a hard time with that because it's an ROI thing, but it's, it's just, you can't, you can't put a value. I don't think on how important that is. So, um, we like to encourage questions from our online audience, as well as our clients at people in practice. So let's listen to our first question.
With so many DSOs out there, what are some ways that a private practice can stand out And
(00:08:36) Heather Hamm: highlight that they
(00:08:37) Lacie Ellis: are locally owned.
(00:08:39) Heather Hamm: Well, one advantage for Lupi Orthodontics is the fact that we are celebrating 30 years in the community. His reputation alone stands for itself. And one thing that we're starting to see is the children of the patients that he first treated are now coming to our practice, which is always (00:09:00) fun and gets us excited.
Us all excited in the office, but for those that have not been in practice for that long, I think just reaching out to the community and finding ways that you can be supportive for them is a great start. And
(00:09:16) Lacie Ellis: look for ways to give
(00:09:17) Heather Hamm: back.
(00:09:19) Lacie Ellis: That's great. And I know, you know, people in practice, we have some strategies that we use where we can write educational content.
That's used in educational ads where we discuss that. It's a doctor own practice. And, you know, doctor owned and operated practice. The doctor lives and works in the community. Um, or that it's a family legacy practice and that the doctor's grandfather perhaps started the practice years ago, or 30 years in practice, like countless smiles and people's lives have been touched through those 30 years.
Um, topics like that help people understand the practice better. And what we really try to do is encourage that. So. Support local (00:10:00) message. And I think that that is really taking hold, especially, you know, um, in the U S right now, I think there's this big push to like support your local communities. And, um, I think kind of feeding into that message is also helpful when we're talking about going up against a lot of dollars that DSOs and OSOs have.
So again, just my thoughts. All right, let's hear our next question. I struggle getting my team to participate in marketing efforts, everything from being on social media posts to helping with events. Do you have any advice to help us change this?
(00:10:36) Heather Hamm: So the struggle is real. For myself, um, but I have found, um, that including the staff in the planning process, getting them excited really helps.
Um, everyone is busy performing their daily task. So utilizing the downtime in the office is always a great way to create social content. (00:11:00) Um, You know, the younger staff, they're really into social media and tick tocks. So letting them be creative in that process, um, really motivates them. And then as far as like outside events, you know, weekends, nobody wants to give up their free time, but having the doctor's participation.
At those events, which Dr would be is really great at being there and present. Um, that also is a great motivator for the staff. To be there.
(00:11:33) Lacie Ellis: Awesome. I think that's really well said. And I think your point of help having the team help with the planning and like, if, if somebody on the team is super excited about tech talk, and while we may or may not think that that's really helping to drive patients, but if they're excited about it.
Like absolutely create the content. Let's do this together. Um, but I will say the social media part can be tough because some people have really valid reasons for not wanting (00:12:00) to be represented on social media, you know, a divorce situation or, you know, whatever religious implications. I'm not sure I've heard at all, but, um, there are some real valid reasons for not wanting to be on social.
So I think in those cases, I would take those team members and be like, okay, We'll We get it. You don't want to be on social. So here's how you can help us. You can help us find patients who have had great transformations or, you know, um, think of ideas for content and help us find those patients that we can use the patient for the content instead of the team.
Um, I think having a mix is great, but like put those people in charge of something patient centered where they're not the focus of it. And the patient is can be helpful. Um, and then, As for events, the office I worked in the longest, we did one per quarter. And the rule was that you were required to go to one event per year.
That was in our, you know, contract in our employment agreement. Um, and so at the start of the year, we would have, (00:13:00) um, a sign up for all four events and you would pick the one that connected with you the most. And when it filled up, You had to pick another one. And so, you know, if we just did it at the beginning of the year, you knew what you were signing up for and you went to one, one a year.
So that worked for us. Great idea. But yeah, you never know what will work for an office, but, um, and you have to have a bigger team for that to be probably very effective. So, um, okay. So what swag have you found to be the most effective or popular in the office as well as at events? And I get asked this.
At least once a week.
(00:13:37) Heather Hamm: I love swag. Um, to the point where I think I annoy the doctor a little bit with it, but I do have to say one of the most important things is making sure that it's quality and not necessarily expensive, but something that they're not just going to throw away. Like, on their way out of the event, um, our most popular in (00:14:00) office swag is chapstick.
Everybody loves Dr. Lupe's chapsticks. Um, so, you know, we can give those to the patients after they've had something, a procedure done at the office where their mouth might be dry or, um, just handing them out at events. That's always a go to. So we always have those on stock. Um, but one thing I like to do with The swag that I get is to try and try to theme it around what event might be happening.
So for example, our, um, football sponsorships during football season, I'll get many stress footballs and, um, we'll have those out at the events. We've even had the cheerleaders at the high schools, throw them out in the stands at halftime. Uh, so that's really fun. And then last summer for our patient appreciation day, we had a luau theme with, um, shaved ice trucks.
So we had branded beach balls, (00:15:00) um, and you know, that's different. You're not usually going somewhere and getting a beach ball. So that was really cool. And you know, I've seen them out in the yards going down the street. Um, since then, I'm just like, Oh, there's our beach ball. Uh, so those are some fun things, but you always can't go wrong with a toothbrush.
And you have to make sure that it's a soft bristle toothbrush and a nice one, not just, you know, a plastic toothbrush. We usually like to get one that has a nice grip, colorful. We'll put our logo on it. And. You know, you're supposed to change it out every three months. So those are always a good one.
(00:15:41) Lacie Ellis: I love that.
Um, great idea to get ones that are themed to the event that you're at. I love the mini footballs, stress balls, beach balls. That's all so, so cute. And I will say. I've never gotten a ChapStick from an office that I threw away, you know what I mean? I've never thrown it away. So that is, (00:16:00) and it's easy to throw it in your purse and, um, you know, keep it, uh, nice water bottles tend to do really well.
Um, I think, you know, we kind of purge ours every so often and throw them away, but I keep the ones that are like, Oh, that's like a really good quality ones. I won't toss those. Um, tote bags tend to do pretty well as long as they're decent quality and not like too oversized. And then, um, something that I know one office did is they got those stadium cups, but they weren't the plastic ones.
They're like the stainless steel stadium cups. So they're just like the Standard size, we will not throw those away. And I have like three of them in my cupboard. I don't live anywhere near this practice anymore. And I won't throw them away because they're like the cup. Everybody grabs to like get a quick drink of water or something like that.
So that's another idea that I've seen. Be really. Effective. Yeah, that, that is a great
(00:16:52) Heather Hamm: idea because we have done the plastic cups and one comment that the doctor made when I ordered them is they (00:17:00) never dry all the way in the dishwasher. So maybe now I'll present that we should get the metal state. Yes.
There you
(00:17:08) Lacie Ellis: go. All right. So the last question I have and the thing I. Probably get asked the most is how can we build strong relationships with our local schools and homeschooling communities?
(00:17:22) Heather Hamm: Yeah, um, that can be a challenge, but what I have figured out is to target those schools closest to your practice.
Reach out to them. See what support you can offer them. Um, we do many events with our local schools from elementary middle to high school. Um, we'll do sponsor their spring carnivals, um, middle school. We are sponsoring 8th grade T shirts. Um, because they're going to be moving up to high school, so we're sponsoring 800 8th grade T shirts this year.
Um, (00:18:00) with the another elementary school that we're doing is they're called car writer tax and they hang on the rear view mirror. So, at pickup line, um, the staff at the school will see the number. I'm not sure if you know how. The car rider lines work, but their call out on their walkie talkie, like student 2, 4, 5 is here.
Um, so the staff is seeing that, but on the backside of the tag is, um, and basically an ad for leapy orthodontics, which has been, um, great. We have gotten the call out. A couple leads from that. So that's always exciting. So just reaching out to those schools and seeing what what wage is not always advertising with them.
Um, but just being supportive. Um, another example is an elementary school was going on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. And the bus, there was a miscommunication and the bus never showed up. (00:19:00) So we actually went to the pumpkin patch, picked 40 pumpkins, uh, from the patch, loaded them up in the truck and brought them to the elementary school.
And just that presence showing them that you care is always a great way, um, for them to reach back out to you.
(00:19:18) Lacie Ellis: I love that. That is, that is a beautiful, uh, representation of you, like, really caring about the community. And again, that's not one of those things where you can say, okay, we dropped off 40 pumpkins and we got one patient from it.
Like that's not how it's going to work. What's going to work is when the parents that works at that school or the parent of the kiddo who got one of those pumpkins, um, calls you. You know, and they may tell you it was the dentist that referred us. Cause that's usually the, what people think the strongest referral source they can tell you is their dentist or a patient.
So those are the ones we hear the most, but usually they've touched something within the ecosphere of, of what we do. And that's, you know, that's why at people in practice, we do holistic (00:20:00) marketing and we believe in that. It's because we know that people touch. So many things before they actually pick up the phone and call you or go to your website and fill out a form.
So, um, I will say I've seen some offices do the car tag pickup, um, and on the back of it with their ad, they'll say something funny because that's what the parent is staring at. So it's like looking good today. Or, you know, your smiles bright today. Or, you know, um, I don't know, just silly quotes like that that make people grin when they look at it because they're like, Oh, that's so dumb, you know, but they're laughing.
So it's
(00:20:33) Heather Hamm: true. It's true. It really, you know, is a way to, to connect with those parents. Not, not everything has to be so serious.
(00:20:40) Lacie Ellis: Exactly. Exactly. And I think the best advice I've, um, ever received was to reach out to the schools or, you know, these homeschool groups and co ops are great. Huge, much bigger than I think people realize, and maybe that's, you know, community specific, obviously, but, um, reach out to them and just be like, (00:21:00) we want to help.
What, what do you need? And by asking what somebody needs instead of, can we do this for you? Or can we sponsor that? You know, just. What do you need? And I think I've shared this before on the podcast, but you know, we did that with one school. We were at middle school. We were just like, what do you guys need?
And they're like, we need mini deodorants because yeah, preteen boys.
And so we did, we, we dropped, we went and got a ton of mini deodorants. We did. They let us put our sticker on the back of them, but most of those stayed in the gym lockers at the school. So they weren't necessarily getting home. But. That wasn't the point. The point was the school was so incredibly grateful, um, for that.
We also had a school, um, Actually, we did this at all of the schools is we dropped off emergency like braces and retainer emergency repair kits to the nurse. And we taught them like how to effectively use wax because (00:22:00) People don't understand it has to be super dry to stick, like all of these things, um, you know, teaching them how to use the eraser of a pencil to like, bend, uh, something that's poking, um, just giving the, uh, nurses a little bit of education is.
Also, really, they're very, very grateful for that. And if you can give them some tools also for them to keep, they're really grateful for that as well. So other ideas.
(00:22:25) Heather Hamm: That's a great idea. Yeah, we have done the school nurse packets and they're very appreciative of that. And with the homeschool group, I'd say also trying to find those patients that are.
Home school themselves and reaching out to their parents, offering perhaps an in office field trip for them, um, kind of catered around to what they're learning. Um, in what subject they're learning at in school, and, you know, there's. Great ways to talk about health, oral health and hygiene, um, (00:23:00) using the 3d scanners and the printers to talk about science and technology.
Um, so there's really great ways that you can show off the practice with the homeschool groups.
(00:23:10) Lacie Ellis: That's great. Actually talking about the 3d printers. I bet that goes over really well with some of these groups because they do get into that science based learning. And that is incredible technology that.
I'm going to date myself and tell you I haven't worked in a practice where we had that technology and I'm super jealous of the practices that have it. Um, and the 3d printers and the things that can be done. It's just, it's, I mean, I was in a dark room developing, I'm old, developing PAs and things in a dark room.
So the technology bit, um, that's a great. That's a great thing to highlight in a practice, especially with those homeschool groups. So that's a really great tip. Yeah. And then you have the parents
(00:23:50) Heather Hamm: interacting because they didn't have that. They're talking about the goo that was in their mouth that made them want to gag and how lucky these kids are to have to be (00:24:00) scanned, um, you know, with that.
I tarot scanners and. And then going straight to the lab and having them print out. It's pretty awesome.
(00:24:09) Lacie Ellis: That's amazing. Well, I really hope that you enjoyed our conversation today as much as I did. Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your valuable insights, Heather. We really, really appreciate you.
Thank you so much, Lacey. It was a pleasure
(00:24:23) Heather Hamm: being here.
(00:24:24) Lacie Ellis: Good. Great. Um, so our goal with this podcast is to give you truly tangible items that you can use in your day to day life at the office and to elevate the voices of the people that actually work in an office and sit in the same chairs that you sit in every day.
We'd love to hear from you on topic or guest recommendations as well as questions or comments about the things that you are dealing with in your practice. Send us your questions and stories to practice talk. com. Um, please subscribe and share this episode with your friends and family that might find these conversations helpful and interesting.
And don't forget to listen to our (00:25:00) original podcast called the golden age of orthodontics hosted by the founders of people in practice, Dr. Leon Klumpner and Amy Epstein. Until next time. Until next time, thank you for joining us on Practice Talk, where your voice has value. Thank you for listening to the Practice Talk podcast.
Head over to practice talk. com to ask us questions or tell us your stories. Until next time.
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