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Welcome back to another episode of The GrowOrtho Podcast. Today we’re listening to Aaron Boone, Founder of MVP Mailhouse.

Fun fact: Aaron grew up on a goat farm before eventually playing college football and then professional football with teams including Dallas, Chicago, Carolina, and even NFL Europe. If you’re wondering now how in the world Aaron got into dentistry, he chalks it up to never becoming “rich and famous” through pro ball, hence the transition to a “real job.” Eventually, he found his way into dental marketing and specifically direct mail.

Aaron and his team at MVP Mailhouse commit to helping general orthodontics practices become their “most valuable practice” possible, using a very niche approach of targeted and direct mailing.

Tune in to hear Aaron’s insights on:

  • How direct mail works in the digital age (and the importance of employing multiple “touchpoints”)
  • How disciplined, multimodal tracking helps optimize direct mailing ROI
  • Why direct mailing can be a great solution for office managers frustrated by their digital campaigns
  • How to strategically turn your brand into a household name within your community
  • Aaron’s unique approach to analyzing patient data
  • Geographical and mental barriers for potential clients
  • Costs of direct mailing (and what tends to be the most expensive part)
  • Why not all weeks are created equal when it comes to direct mailing (and which weeks to avoid, according to Aaron)
  • Whether your direct mailings need an offer (and what kind of offers work best)
  • A few of Aaron’s favorite success stories — and what makes each client experience unique

Aaron starts by admitting that when people find out what he does at MVP Mailhouse, “they are shocked.” But it turns out that an old proven marketing medium like direct mailing offers a lot of benefits for orthodontist practices, especially when it’s leveraged with modern-day digital technology:

  • “The beauty of direct mail is that I can physically reach out to these people,” Aaron says, “and with our technology, we’ve been able to better target, better track, and get better results by controlling the variables.”
  • Since launching MVP Mailhouse, Aaron has mailed over 100 million mailings — and they’ve tracked all of those results. This commitment to thorough tracking has helped him and his team optimize direct mailing results for their clients, down to the level of when and where to send out a direct mailing for the best results.
  • With fewer offices utilizing direct mailing, are the better results Aaron’s realizing for his clients due to improving technology or the lack of saturation in the direct mailing market? It’s likely a balance of both, he says — a nod for practices to get their feet wet with a reputable company like MVP Mailhouse.
  • Aaron also encourages office managers not to be discouraged by past failed attempts at direct mailing. There are “lots of variables” that will influence whether targeted mailing campaigns are successful or not, which is valuable to tease out. “Sometimes you can learn a lot more from a loss than from a win,” the former pro-footballer says.
  • One way Aaron’s team is different is that they take a unique approach to analyzing patient data. A great example: through their “MAP IQ” process, they can identify where their existing patients are coming from in the surrounding communities (plus identify interesting trends, like how people tend to migrate toward major cities rather than away from them when searching for services), then send out direct mailing to patients’ neighbors — leaving out the patients themselves. This way, you’re still hitting the “hottest neighborhoods” as identified by your patient data, Aaron says, but you’re not wasting money on advertising to your pre-existing clientele.
  • The previous example perfectly captures why Aaron believes you don’t have to try to take over the world to turn your business into a valuable venture. Targeting even a two-mile radius around your location can translate to huge wins. Says Aaron: “Even if you only have a 5% market share, you can be a wildly successful practice.”

There are tons more gems in this episode (and plenty of football references). To connect with Aaron, visit mvpmailhouse.com or email him directly at aaron@mvpmailhouse.com.