Joel Harris, President ADA Intelligent Dental Marketing, Inc. Printer Friendly Version

The Eight Principles Of Successful Dental Marketing

Sometimes in business it’s important to get back to the basics and dental marketing is no exception. Dental marketing is actually fairly simple but it’s easy to get lost in the endless advice and philosophies that circulate throughout the dental industry. I’d like to help you cut through the mess and look at dental marketing in its most basic elements.

Before you spend any time or a dime of your money on a marketing plan, it is critical that you understand a few marketing principles that are timeless and proven not only in dentistry but in every industry that provides a service or product to consumers. This article is written specifically for dentists and dental professionals, but it contains sound advice for any small business owner.

These eight points aren’t optional, or just my opinion from personal experience. If you aren’t ready to follow these principles or if you are skeptical about their importance, I don’t believe you are ready for marketing. From my experience, dentists who don’t follow these principles rarely have positive marketing results. When analyzing any failed dental marketing plan at least a few of these principles have been overlooked, ignored or even intentionally left out.

1. COMMITMENT: An average marketing plan executed by individuals who are truly committed to the plan will always be more effective than a brilliant marketing plan that lacks dedication and focus. When I say “commitment” I mean that you pledge to make marketing a top priority by following the remaining seven principles.
2. INVESTMENT: Marketing is not an expense. Marketing is an investment. It’s as important as your lab bill, new equipment, payroll and your student loan payment. Never cut your marketing budget, especially if you’re doing it to reduce expenses. The only time you should reduce your marketing budget is when your new patient flow exceeds your capacity. Even when this happens, never completely stop spending something on marketing every month.
3. MOMENTUM: Develop a good plan and assign someone to execute and measure it as often as every day. Skipping weeks or months at a time will you cost you more in the long run as you expend extra energy and money re-creating momentum. It’s OK to fine tune the plan as you go and experiment with different variables, but never stop. Stopping just means you’ll have to re-start, which is always more difficult. Some dentists lose important momentum because they have to be re-sold every few months on the truth of principle #2.
4. PATIENCE: Marketing is not a quick fix. If you need immediate results you’re setting yourself up for a negative experience. If you do not exercise patience, it will be difficult to practice many of the other marketing principles. Measure results and monitor your efforts and be willing to make a final assessment after your plan has completely run its course. Patience is a marketing virtue.
5. DIVERSITY: Individual marketing tactics rarely work. Using a variety of integrated marketing tactics is always more profitable and effective. The credibility of a great name and logo, combined with an attention-getting direct mail piece that promotes a content-rich website is an example of this principle at work. Make your marketing a complete experience for the consumer from the first touch to the last.
6. FREQUENCY: It is a proven marketing law that a group of consumers who receive a marketing piece twice respond more. That means that your cost per response goes down as frequency goes up. This law of frequency needs to be measured to determine the limits of the return on investment, but in simple terms the law is absolutely valid. Don’t make the mistake of changing the target after one attempt or your marketing will always be more expensive.
7. ANALYSIS: You cannot manage what you do not measure. It is an old management adage that is a very important rule of dental marketing. Unless you accurately and consistently measure your marketing results you’ll never know what to improve or change. Imagine being able to predict with complete certainty the results of your marketing investment. It’s actually very realistic and not a huge mystery if you analyze and measure every effort made.
8. CONVERSION: You can do everything perfectly but if your receptionist isn’t trained and effective at converting marketing calls into scheduled appointments your plan will fail. Don’t assume that you don’t have this problem. Most dentists would be shocked and frustrated if they were able to hear the way people are handled when they call the office. Your receptionist is your marketing front line. Make sure you hire, train and compensate this person accordingly.

Joel Harris is CEO and Co-Founder of Intelligent Dental Marketing, one of the nation's leading dental marketing companies focused exclusively on dental practices. Intelligent Dental Marketing provides powerful marketing tools to help dentists grow their patient base increase their profit and improve their image. Joel can be reached directly at 877.942.8855.

Interested in speaking to Joel about your marketing concerns? Email him at joel@thedentistsnetwork.net.

Interested in having Joel speak to your dental society or study club? Click here.

Forward this article to a friend