We all recognize that our world and our life as we know it is changing dramatically and quickly. Politically, economically, socially, culturally – you name it–nothing is the same as it used to be. So we all need to adopt new strategies to remain successful and competitive in the marketplace of public opinion.

I recently read a wonderful article by Saul Kaplan entitled Reinvention As A Life Skill. Saul is a friend, a successful entrepreneur, and the founder of the Business Innovation Factory. “If anything is clear about the 21st century, it’s that change happens faster than it used to. Reinvention isn’t something to be done only as a last resort. It is something we need to do all the time in order to stay relevant in a rapidly changing world.”

Dental practices are certainly not immune from the need for reinvention. If you hope to thrive in this current environment, you probably have to leave your comfort zone. Same old–same old–is simply not going to cut it. Here are some suggestions for your consideration.

1. Get more involved in your community as a volunteer. Perhaps your local hospital or your local Chamber of Commerce. The idea is to focus on meeting business leaders rather than limiting your out of office contacts to Dental Society meetings. You definitely have to increase your visibility.
2. Reach out to the HR department at two or three of the largest employers in your area. You probably have many patients that work at these companies. Ask them to connect you. Perhaps you can offer emergency care or complementary new patient exams.
3. Get way better at social media. This is especially important for doctors over the age of 50. I find that older doctors are very resistant to this path. But your existing and potential patients live in this world, and you have to join it and excel in it. Professional help in this area is certainly available.
4. Have some meetings with your staff and challenge them to help you develop new and exciting customer service ideas that truly separate you from your competition. Focus on great telephone communications. Take follow up care and concern for your patients to an even higher level. Write lots of personal notes. Make sure never to  forget to recognize someone for a referral.
5. Consider investing in technologies and services that so many patients are demanding–like same-day crowns, implant placement, sedation dentistry, Invisalign, and Six Month Smiles.
6. Take a hard look at your practice data regarding numbers of new patients. Dr. Mike Abernathy wrote an excellent article that will help you evaluate where you are and where you could be.

The bottom line is that reinvention takes courage. According to Mark Twain, “courage is not the absence of fear; it is acting in spite of it.” John Wayne put it another way: “courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway!” The optimist in me believes we are all capable of expanding our horizons if we make the necessary commitment of time and energy. One day at a time. This is a marathon, and not a sprint.

In my last post, I discussed how Google has made it so much more difficult to be seen on their Map.  I suggested that adding new content to your website using a Blog was more important than ever and one of the best ways to fight back. After all, Google still rewards relevance (new information) with higher placement. That has not changed. I received a lot of questions about the mechanics of how to do this, so let me share what I suggest to my clients.

Ask your webmaster to create a WordPress Blog. This then gives you access to a dashboard from which you write and publish posts. The stock format of a WordPress blog is free, but without modification, it is very basic and amateurish looking. Your webmaster can make the Blog Page the same color and format as your website. Your blog then becomes seamlessly integrated within your website in a way that the casual observer has no idea whether they landed on a page of content that is part of your website, or they are viewing an article that is part of your WordPress blog. Click here to see that the Jodena Consulting Blog Page looks exactly like my website.

Adding new content using a Blog serves two purposes. The first is that it satisfies Google’s aim to always bring new and updated material to the attention of the world, and thus reward you for your efforts with higher placement on the local Google business map. Examples I see frequently are articles about the need for regular check ups, or the benefits of fluoride, or why you need to floss your teeth – pretty basic and boring stuff.  But the second and far greater benefit to your practice is if you add specific information about dental services for which a prospective patient would be searching. Best examples are whiter teeth, straighter teeth, cosmetics, sedation dentistry, and same day crowns. These are all procedures you would like to do more of. When you write about these topics, Google does an amazing job of connecting to your website prospective patients in your geographical area who are searching for these services.

So choose a procedure. Then sit down with a glass of wine or your favorite scotch and dictate information into a tape recorder. Take an hour. Just talk about your topic with no attempt at creating an actual blog post. Let it all hang out! Then pay a stenographer $50 to have this material transcribed. You will probably end up with at least 7500 words. Either you – or someone you can hire – will now have enough solid material to carve out eight to ten posts.

Maybe you are good at Invisalign and would like to do more cases. So start with a post about what the technology actually is. Then another post about how the technology has evolved. Or how it has changed over the years. Describe life altering patient experiences that you were able to facilitate. Talk about all of the advantages over full banded orthodontic treatment.

In each post you should add links to before and after photos. Google loves it when you also add links to other relevant articles that reinforce your positions. A good length for a post is 300 to 500 words. Commit to a schedule of a new post every 10 to 14 days. Develop a casual style. These blogs are not intended to be published as  a professional article in a dental journal. It is fine to add a bit of humor.

This is not easy. It is a challenge that requires discipline. Don’t be too harsh on yourself or your writing style. You are not aiming to be number one on the best seller list! But no question that your efforts will pay big dividends in the quest to conquer the online marketplace. And to your delight, you will attract many new patients who otherwise never would have found you.