The other dentists don’t like my ad
Many dentists hesitate to start an ad campaign on the radio because of fear. They fear that the campaign won’t be cost-effective, that the public will be offended by their campaign, and that the local dental community will be displeased.
If you know what you’re doing, the campaign will be cost-effective. Radio campaigns can be extremely profitable for dental practices. No ad campaign offers 100% guarantees, but smartly designed and well executed plans have proven successful for thousands of dentists. If you know your target market and efficiently reach them with a compelling message, you have a good chance of success too.
I have executed radio campaigns for hundreds of dentists, and I have never seen any appreciable public backlash to a dentist advertising on the radio. If your message is appropriate and respectful, you will actually get compliments.
But your peers may hate you. Advertising on the radio still feels unconventional to old-school dentists, and some of these guys have been resisting every new media since dentists started appearing in the yellow pages. Some dentists will also dislike your ads out of a feeling of self-preservation. Orthodontists sometimes feel threatened by Invisalign and “Six-Month Braces”; many oral surgeons fear competition from dentists using sedation; and even general dentists may worry about losing business to the guy who just started speaking to the community over the airwaves, when he couldn’t or wouldn’t do it himself.
You can’t worry about those guys. You didn’t start advertising to win a popularity contest. You did it to grow your business by letting the community know about the services you have to offer. If another dentist feels threatened by this – that is their problem, not yours.
