I’m old enough to remember what it was like to practice dentistry before the advent of dental insurance. I also remember when it was considered illegal or unethical or certainly questionable to advertise or market yourself or your dental practice to the public. All, of course, before the Internet, and e-mail, and Google, and Apple, and social media changed the way we share and communicate information.

When dentists first were permitted to advertise, the medium of choice was direct mail. You would print up 50,000 postcards–in order to get the best rate on printing–and send them out to your dearest and nearest friends in your neighborhood and hope for the best. It was very expensive and you never knew if your message or offer would resonate, and guessing was very costly!

Direct mail marketing programs of today are VERY different from what was the standard even ten to fifteen years ago. As different as an iPhone from a rotary phone. As different as a Victrola from an iPod. One company that exemplifies this new and modern approach is 123 Postcards. I have been following them for most of 2013, and I am quite impressed. Instead of mailing to zip codes, they break down the mailings to specific mail carrier routes. That means you can better target specific neighborhoods by proximity to your practice, income levels, median home value, average age, number of homes with children, etc.–the data gets pretty sophisticated.

123 Postcards has pioneered one of the most comprehensive marketing tracking and monitoring systems in the industry. Every mailing includes a unique, local call-tracking number that rings seamlessly into your office. Not only is each call recorded, but it is also scored, graded, and analyzed so that you and your staff know the exact results of every mailing. They can track the number of patients who called, the names of the patients, the offer they responded to, which part of town they called from, and staff performance on the telephone call. With cheaper printing costs, they can now send out mailings in smaller amounts and thus measure the response rate to different offers. This allows your message to be very current i.e. back-to-school specials or end-of-the-year use it or lose it for dental insurance.

Since there is considerably less standard mail arriving in your mailbox these days, it just might be time to consider a well-designed direct mail marketing program. I certainly feel comfortable recommending the folks at 123 Postcards for your consideration.

My wife and I recently spent a week’s vacation in Spain. We love European cities, and we had a wonderful time. Very enjoyable travel with trains, planes, and automobiles, magnificent scenery filled with architectural marvels. One potential problem for me is that most restaurants don’t even start serving dinner until 9 PM. Well I’m much too old for that! So if you want to eat normal hours in Spain – from Barcelona to Grenada to Seville to Madrid – you go to a Tapas Bar.

Tapas are a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish cuisine that have evolved into an entire culture where one can order many different tapas and combine them to make a full meal. Additionally, three or four people can all order different dishes – a la Chinese food – and share. There are literally dozens of these establishments in every city, but it seemed impossible to differentiate one from another.

That got me to thinking about the challenge that dentists face in trying to separate their dental practice from the competition. Most of you are not fortunate to own a stand alone facility with huge distinctive signage that allows you to stand out and be noticed. So the distinction must come from the heart and soul of what metaphorically “you serve” in your practice.

A caring and considerate and interested staff making each patient feel special could be the appetizer. Extraordinary customer service with attention to every detail in all aspects could be the first course. Honest, comfortable, and outstanding clinical dentistry could follow, and user friendly, affordable payment arrangements could be the dessert.

The “dinner experience” at your practice must be so amazing that people feel compelled to tell others. Seth Godin – an absolutely brilliant marketeer whom I read each and every day – eloquently summarizes and makes my point when he recently wrote that “ideas spread from person to person, not so much from you to them. So find your biggest fans and give them a story to tell.”

The rest will take care of itself.

When Facebook first burst on the scene, many dental offices created Business pages with the high hopes of capturing leads and gaining new patients at a rapid rate. As many of you who tried this know, it didn’t quite work out that way. But over time, Facebook has introduced marketing tools that have enhanced the platform to allow businesses to market themselves. As a result of these changes, dental offices are able to target potential patients and get them to become aware of their content, unlike ever before.

Have you ever logged on to Facebook and seen ads on the side of your screen? Those ads are targeted specifically to you. They may be targeting you because of where you live, what you have indicated you like, how old you are, or even what you have talked about on Facebook.  Thus Facebook’s ad platform will allow you, the dentist, to target people who live within the communities you serve. This, I believe, is an extremely effective marketing strategy.

Think about this: what if you could show your face and a note about how amazing your office is to every person living in the area where your practice is located? Historically, the only way you could be assured to reach these people would be through direct mail. Now with Facebook ads, you can create an ad that targets people in your town and show them that ad multiple times. This can be done for a fraction of what it would cost to direct mail them.

Additionally, Facebook has recently allowed business pages to “boost their posts.” What this means is that when you post something on your page, you now have the capability of paying to ensure that your content shows up not only in front of the people who Like your page, but to their friends as well. You can also choose to show that content to people targeted by age, gender, geographic, or language. The results are measureable, and with Facebook’s superior analytics, you are able to see the impact in relation to the dollars you spend.

It is important to understand that your impact and results will be commensurate with the amount of people who are in your target area and who Like your page. The amount of people who Like your page can easily be grown by using Facebook ads. So my recommendation is to use the ad platform to get as many Likes as you can. From there, if you are posting interesting content, you will see an incremental increase in engagement and eventually lots of new patients. It should be noted that Facebook  won’t allow you to boost a post unless you have 100 Likes, so work first on increasing Likes, next on posting interesting content, and last on boosting the posts of that interesting content.

If it all seems like too much, ask for help. There are people out there who specialize in Facebook marketing. These people take the time to understand how to leverage Facebook’s tools to increase the exposure of your practice, stay up to date on the changes, and provide valuable insight that can help you grow your effectiveness using this platform. Contact me if you would like a recommendation.