When I was in the Canadian Forces, I made friends with a fellow officer from Newfoundland, a province in Canada on the Atlantic coast, where commercial fishing is one of the biggest sources of employment in the region. He was telling me how the better captains knew where the fish would be because you want to “fish where the fish are.”

Years later, I heard the quote again, this time by the late Charlie Munger, the quiet partner of Warren Buffett and one of the world’s richest men. He said to “fish where the fish are” in relation to his philosophy of value investing. Since this is not a blog about investing, I will leave it to the reader to look this up and learn more about this concept.

The Barenaked Ladies, a band from Toronto that formed in 1988, found huge success with their first album, “Gordon,” which was released in 1992. They toured extensively and made it big all over North America. But, more than a decade later, they had a fall from grace — their music was considered overplayed and underwhelming. They hired a new marketing manager who applied the concept of micromarketing, which is another way of saying “fish where the fish are.” 

Their new manager had them perform where their fans were located in larger numbers based on sales of their albums. Instead of spending big money marketing to the masses, traveling to many cities where their fan base was small and hoping some new fans might take notice, they marketed primarily to their fan base over and over. And their success soared.

In my recent “10 Moments of Magic” series on this blog, I outlined how, if you followed 10 simple inexpensive or free ideas, you would create a practice filled with fans who pay, stay, repeat and refer. Now, it is time to celebrate your fans!

Someone on your team needs to pay attention to who is referring patients. Tally the numbers up. Someone on your team needs to pay attention to who is giving your practice five-star reviews with comments or stories about how great their visit was. Then, flag these people in your practice management software so that the next time they are in your practice, you can take a moment to show some gratitude. Say “thank you” for the great review or the referral (in addition to the handwritten card I mentioned in a previous blog). Then, you should take it one step further.

Your practice has a logo. Get that logo on T-shirts, baseball caps, hoodies, coffee/tea mugs, etc. And when your “fans” come into the office, give them a gift of one of those items. Now, these fans will not only be happy to be your patients and happy to be saying great things about you online and/or to family and friends, they will also be walking billboards, wearing your brand when they are out and about in their worlds.

And, when you give them the gift, you can take a picture of them receiving it, post it on social media and tag them receiving it so the post ends up on their timeline for their family and friends to see.

You can take it further still. For these fans, you can also send flowers to their workplace as a “thank you” so that everyone they work with will see your name and what you do for your patients. If they are not flower people, send them a fruit basket or other item that requires a delivery to their workplace that other people will see and notice.

But one word of caution. Do not cut corners and buy cheap clothing. You can even find a company to purchase from with a mission you can discuss with your patients — I use a Calgary-based company called Local Laundry, which has a charitable component. When I share this with my patients, they display the gifts with more pride. When you make it more about them, more about the world being a better place, and less about you, they end up cheering you on even more!

Your greatest source of new patients is your existing patients. And if some of them are actively referring other patients or leaving great reviews, spending money marketing to them will be the most effective use of your marketing dollars. Remember: fish where the fish are.

As always, I am here to help.