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Issue #81 - Readers Respond:
What About E-mail Newsletters? |
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Welcome, to Private
Duty Today! . . . the bi-weekly electronic newsletter for Private
Duty Home Care Leaders from Leading Home Care . . . a Private Duty Today! is a permission-based newsletter. It is only sent to
our recent customers and those individuals who have requested it, or who have
given permission for their address to be included on our list of subscribers.
I was reading your
powerful article in Success in Homecare. I am obsessed with developing
an electronic newsletter to distribute to our high referring physicians. I
have been following the tips that you recommend, and saving articles, facts,
and trivia. My problem is, short of calling every physician's office and
obtaining an e-mail address, I have tapped into every resource to get the
information. Do you have any ideas on obtaining this easily? Kathy Devito Outstanding question, Kathy! To answer your question about collecting
addresses easily... there are a few easy solutions, but I wouldn't recommend
any of them. You can legally rent lists of physicians' e-mail addresses, but
the physicians on those lists probably get tons of e-mails they consider
spam. Developing an electronic newsletter is time
consuming, and not very rewarding in the short term. It is a commitment that
is rewarding over time in two ways. First, if done properly you will get more
referrals because of your newsletter. Second, and more importantly in my
opinion, it builds relationships with your readers in a way that no other
effort can. While encouraging new physicians to refer is great, we know that
the most successful home health care companies in the country are successful
because they get lots of referrals from a core group of physicians and
discharge planners. Relationships you build over time will reap rewards far
in excess of occasional new business.
According to the CAN-SPAM Act, the federal
guidelines for e-mail marketing, you must get permission to send mass e-mails
such as newsletters to individuals. There are two types of permission,
"implicit" and "explicit" consent. All of your current customers have given
"implicit consent" to be included on your e-mail list. According to
the law a customer can be defined as tightly or as loosely as you prefer. For
example, in my consulting firm, we consider a customer any individual to whom
we've given advice or sold a product, even if the advice or product was given
at no charge. If you e-mail me with the question and I offer advice, even at
no charge, I will check to see if you currently receive our electronic
newsletter, and if not I will add you to our mailing list. To collect prospects' e-mail addresses you
need "explicit consent" which simply means that you need to get
their express permission before adding them to your newsletter list. The
permission isn't required to be in writing but I recommend it.
First, for existing referral sources, I
recommend a personal phone call to their office. Simply explain that your
organization is dedicating itself to communicating more effectively using
e-mail. Politely ask for their e-mail address. If they give it freely, let
them know that you send an e-mail newsletter and they will receive a
complimentary copy. Additionally, let them know that they can opt out at any
time (another requirement of the CAN-Spam Act). The second technique, for perspective
referral sources, is to capitalize on previous issues of your newsletter.
Even if the first issue of your newsletter goes out to only a dozen people,
it's still a fabulous marketing tool. Archive your old newsletters on your
website and create a printable PDF of each issue. Print out a handful of
PDF's every time you go to make a call on a potential referral source.
Explain to them that you have a regular newsletter that may be of interest,
and invite them to sign up free. They may give you their e-mail address on
the spot, or they may investigate your website and sign up later. As I mentioned to Kathy, there is no easy
way of building relationships through newsletters. Frankly, relationships are
easy, and that's why they are so critical and powerful in business today.
Take your time, build your list; send thoughtful, insightful or even
entertaining e-mails and you will be rewarded.
If you are charged with selling home care
services, or if you are challenged with building a sales team, you will find
our newest newsletter, Sales Manager
Interactive, an increasingly valuable tool. The newsletter is free, so buzz on over to
our new website www.salesmanagerinteractive.com
and give us your "explicit" consent to send you a new issue every
two weeks. The new newsletter is just one component of
our new membership-based website focused on building a community for home
care sales managers.
A common question we hear from our clients
is, “If I use pre-employment assessments, do I have to give them to
every applicant?” Here’s the answer: Assessments can be used at
any step of the selection process, but like all other steps in that process,
must be consistently administered. Leading Home Care pre-employment assessments
are designed to be used in conjunction with the interview. The system will
generate behavioral interview questions based on assessment results and core
performance indicators for successful caregivers. Therefore, our assessments
should be administered before the formal interview. In addition, you can significantly improve
the effectiveness of your reference check process by taking advantage of the
data from the assessments and interview. You no longer have to ask the
generic, “Is Sally a good worker?” (To which you usually get a
generic answer, “Fine.”) Instead, you can ask a specific question
regarding the behavioral trait identified as a concern. Other than the items noted above, think
through what works best in your situation. Here are some other things to
consider. It would be a waste of money to administer
assessments to applicants who do not meet the minimum basic requirements of
the job. Most companies already pre-screen for basic minimum requirements,
usually either by phone or on-line. Likewise, it would not make sense to
spend money on expensive background checks or drug testing before the
assessments and interview. After pre-screening for basic minimum
requirements, some companies add an application review with a brief
pre-screening interview. This is the process that I have used in the
past, in my own staffing agency:
For more information regarding our new
caregiver pre-employment assessments, you can contact me by e-mail
(Kathy@leadinghomecare.com) or by phone (502) 339-0653.
By Stephen Tweed, CSP As non-medical home care continues to grow,
more and more Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies are looking for
opportunities to grow their Private Duty businesses. As a result, the National
Association for Home Care and Hospice has asked me to come to I know ... I invite you to join me as we talk about The Three Big Barriers, those three key
factors that get in the way of succeeding in Private Duty Home Care. I'll be
describing in detail what CHHAs need to do to succeed in this business. Join me on Monday morning, January 22, 2007
for this high-impact, interactive presentation. Later that afternoon, I'll be moderating a
panel discussion on Communicating with Baby
Boomers. This is a revised version of the panel we presented at
the NAHC annual meeting in If you want to get the latest information on
growing your Private Duty Home Care Business, join us in
The The feedback was very positive, and the
participants had a wonderful learning experience designed to help them grow
their businesses. If you would like to bring our Academy for
Private Duty Home Care to your region, contact your state home care
association. Ask the Executive Director to give us a call. We'll be delighted
to work with associations in your region to bring this powerful learning
program to you.
Private Duty Today! is published every other
Wednesday by Leading Home Care . . . a Tweed Jeffries company. We invite you
to pass this newsletter along to your friends and colleagues in Private Duty
Home Care by clicking on the link below.
Permission to Reproduce: Permission is granted to home care companies, home care
associations, and home care related publications to reproduce articles from
this newsletter as long as appropriate credit is given as follows:
"Printed with permission from Private Duty Today! Copyright 2006 Leading
Home Care ... To sign up for your FREE Subscription, log on to
www.privatedutytoday.com." You may also sign up for your FREE
Subscription to Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. This bi-weekly
electronic newsletter is written for home care company CEOs and senior
executives who want to grow their businesses and multiply their performance.
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email: jason@leadinghomecare.com
phone:
1-888-668-9333 |
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