With so many things threatening our future such as global warming, pollution and the depletion of our natural resources, Go Green Bags have become a great marketing tool while supporting a positive future for our planet.
Similar to the bags being sold in grocery stores, malls, etc., Go Green Bags are reusable bags for the community to use in place of plastic or paper bags that allows practice information to be printed on the front with a message to “Recycle. Reduce. Reuse.” In addition to providing the bags at no cost, it is very effective to also include several things inside the bags that will be useful
for the recipients. At Affiliated Foot & Ankle Center, LLP in Howell, NJ, Dr. Hal Ornstein places an explanation of why they are providing the bags and other ways the practice is “Going Green“, in addition to 2 practice calendars. As the individual responsible for the marketing of Dr. Ornstein’s practice, I also spoke with some local restaurants to provide us with a gift to the patients that we can place in the bags. These gifts range from a free slice of pizza to a free appetizer or dessert. Lastly, I contacted the local PR representatives from the local hospitals to see if they had interest in providing useful items, such as pens, letter openers, etc. that they would like to contribute to the bags. If you choose to develop this for your practice and extend the opportunity for outside sources to place materials/gifts in the bag, please make sure it is not a coupon or a sales/marketing piece. This will give the gesture of providing the bag at no cost a “tainted view.” Last step in the process is getting the word out. The press offers a great opportunity to spread the word and have people stop into your practice to pick up a bag. Put together a press release and submit to all of your local press contacts. In addition to this, health fairs and public events offer tremendous opportunities. You can take the approach of giving them out at these events, or better yet, creating a flier about your practice “Going Green” and have people come to your office to pick up the bag.
Opportunity surrounds us and while benefiting our practice(s), we are doing a great thing for our environment, thus, for our future. We encourage our clients at Integrated MedReps, LLC to move forward with ordering these bags as it is a tangible item given to patients/potential patients that is frequently used and provides great exposure throughout the community. If you are interested in doing this for your practice, I/we work with Dawn Nakash at Daybreak Marketing to develop and print the bags.
By Chad Schwarz
Find us on: