This Little Piggy Went to Marketing…

Did I get your attention?

Over the past few months, I have been discussing and evaluating various marketing mediums designed to attract more new patients to your dental practice. Fans of social media may be attracted to powerful, relatively inexpensive, new analytics developed by Facebook that can subliminally target the demographic you are seeking. Direct mail has become much more sophisticated and cost effective. Google Adword campaigns can drive prospective patients actively searching for a particular service to a well designed landing page on your website. And please don’t forget about good old fashioned SEO techniques that organically elevate your position on the local Google business map.

I believe that there is no magic bullet. What works fabulously well in some geographic areas may be a disaster in others. There definitely will be time and money spent on trial and error. But nothing ventured – nothing gained. Or to quote a wonderful old Japanese proverb “Fall down seven times – get up eight!”

I totally agree with Dr. Mike Abernathy of Summit Practice Management who recently wrote: “We need to picture our marketing strategy as a multitude of small streams that flow into a river, and eventually form a much more powerful flow than any one of the smaller tributaries. We shouldn’t put all of our eggs in one basket. Instead of looking to one marketing vehicle to supply you with 30 additional new patients per month, look at 10 different marketing vehicles across a wider demographic to produce several patients from each source.”

Not only do you have to choose the advertising medium, you also have to choose the right message. I am so against “free this” and “free that”. The mediocre results of patient retention that many practices have experienced with give away promotions using companies like Groupon and Living Social should make you realize that the people who respond to “deals” are unlikely to be impressed with your office no matter how outstanding it is.  These folks don’t appreciate quality – they simply move on to the next free offer. I would much rather see and encourage a message of exquisite customer service and quality dental treatment.

I am comfortably recommending a marketing and advertising budget to all of my clients of at least 3% of annual collections. I do believe you have to spend money to make money. Just try to spend it carefully and intelligently.