The Dental Marketer

Even the smallest business can start a marketing campaign.  Just start with the low and no-cost techniques like these:

10 Low Cost Techniques

Can you motivate a dentist with compliments?  This interesting theory is offered by author, Tyler Cowen, in his book, Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist.

The following is an excerpt from:  Economics for Humans: Tyler Cowen on Using Incentives for a Better Life; Published: December 06, 2007 in Knowledge@Wharton:

Knowlege@Wharton: In your book, you write that you try to motivate your dentist by complimenting her. Is a good rule of thumb, then, that when you want performance from people, whether they are your employees or your children or your boss, you should start out by praising them?

Cowen: It is a good rule of thumb. But in terms of dentists, the most important point is just to realize that you have to motivate them. They don’t treat all their patients the same way. They’re not always inspired. They’re not always equally careful to minimize pain. As patients or consumers of care, we tend to shy away from that thought, because we feel if we admit it to ourselves, we’ll get very nervous. But just by thinking about it at all, you’ll probably get better treatment.

Knowlege@Wharton: So you need to make yourself special to your dentist.

Cowen: Whatever you do, whether it’s chatting about a mutual hobby, bringing a Christmas gift or writing a thank-you card, you need to make yourself stand out in their emotional lives.

A dental practice is, essentially,  a small business.  Each small business is different. The products and the services may be similar to those of the competition down the street, but each business owner has a different style and personality,  and their own unique goals.  Many will define their general goal as “success”, but everyone has their own personal definition of  “success”, so each business owner will have their own specific plan to achieve it.

Since every dental practice is at least a little different, no two will market themselves exactly the same.  That being said, there is no reason to completely “reinvent the wheel”.  Instead, it is best to use the successes of others to give yourself a head start.  Think of the marketing campaigns of the dental world as a supermarket of ideas.  Take the ones that fit, and put them in your cart.  Leave the ones that don’t work for you on the shelf. 

Start by defining your goals, and then design a plan to get there.  One thing most marketing campaign will have in common is the general goal of increasing revenue.  (Every rule has it’s exception, and sometimes a dentist will be satisfied with revenue, but would like to work less hours to make the same money.)  Revenue can be increased by using internal marketing to earn more from our existing patient base, and by employing external marketing to attract new patients.  Every mature practice should be doing both.

Why do Readers Digest articles about dentists always have to sound like they are exposing these big hidden secrets?  See:  http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/50-secrets-from-real-dentists-1281272/

Despite the dramatic headline, there’s not much to see here beyond brush and floss every day!

In October of 2009, the Federal Trade Commission issued some new guidelines about Endorsements and Testimonials.  These FTC guidelines are sometimes misunderstood by radio stations and groups, leading them to unnecessarily add wordy and counterproductive disclaimers to the endorsements and testimonials of their on-air personalities.

Blanket application of disclaimers to all endorsements and testimonials is an overreaction to the guidelines.  If a material connection exists between an advertiser and an endorser, there is an obligation to disclose that material connection only where the audience would not reasonably expect that connection to exist.   You may be able to convince your station to change their policy by concentrating on the actual language of the FTC text.

If the endorsement is given in a context where the listener would reasonably expect the endorser to be compensated, the guidelines don’t rquire you to disclose because consumers can reasonably be expected to have taken that fact into consideration when deciding how much weight or credibility to give to the endorsement.  In short, you don’t have to tell them what they already know.

The text of the FTC press release announcing the guidelines is here:  http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm.

 The text of the actual FTC Guidelines is here:  http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

At the turn of the century, it was mostly the early-adopter dentists that were creating websites for their practices.  In 2010, most dentists have at least a token presence on the web, and some contemporary practice websites are extremely sophisticated, with elaborate strategies for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Most dentists are somewhere in the middle.  They have a website, but they rarely look at their site and don’t think much about it.  They do, however, have this vague notion in the back of their minds, this nagging feeling that they should be paying more attention to their internet presence.  They know that their website could be better; they’ve heard that others are generating a considerable amount of new patients from the web; they have some sense that people are using search engines to find dental services – they just aren’t sure what to do about it.

Dental practices need a website that does two things.  First, it must look decent and offer good information.  Second, it must also attract new patients.  If your website only does the former, and not the latter, then the other dentists in the community are probably eating your lunch.

Here’s what to do:  First, take a good look at your website to see if it an attractive and useful source of information.  If not, you will either need overhaul it or hire someone to build a new one.  For a nice-looking semi-customizable website, you should expect to pay about $2000-$3000 upfront to a company who has experience with dental practice sites.

Once you have a nice-looking site, with good information, you need to research how many patients you are currently generating from the web.  If you use call tracking numbers (which are cheap and simple to use – get them now!), look at how many calls are coming through your website phone line.  Your team should already be asking people  how they heard about the office.  Do people frequently mention the website?

If your web host provides you with analytics, look at the data, and pay special attention to  how people are finding you.  Are you getting much business through search engines?  Perform searches of your own, as if you were a prospective patient.  Google “(my town)dentist”, and see how close to the top your listing is.  Google a couple of other terms that are important to you, along with your location.  Try cosmetic dentist or implant dentist.   Are you in the top five?  Are you on the front page?  Are you even a blip on the radar screen?

If you don’t seem to be generating much business from the web, you should be a bit concerned.  Contact your web host/provider to see what you are supposed to be getting in terms of SEO.  Make sure you are getting what you pay for, and also ask them what supplemental SEO services they offer.

In very general terms, SEO is either paid or organic.  There are many positioning techniques for generating a high organic listing, using keywords, relevant activity, and inbound links, just to name a few.  Any website company worth its salt should at least be doing the basics.  For an additional monthly fee, many web companies will actively work on your SEO through a variety of techniques.  If your provider is unable or unwilling to offer much in this area, there are third party companies who will optimize your site even if they haven’t designed it and don’t host it.  Their techniques, prices and effectiveness widely vary.

SEO can also be directly bought through sponsored links and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.  You can do this directly through the search engines, like Google and Yahoo, or you can hire a third-party company to manage a sponsored link and/or PPC campaign for you.

A large segment of our population is increasingly relying on search engines to find the products and the services they need.   Make sure that you’re one of  the options they see when they are looking, and give them what they want once they get to your site.

Remember that marketing success is all about efficiency, and internet marketing is about as efficient as it gets.

This is a funny commentary on micro-managing projects we’ve assigned to others, in this case web site development.  We’ve all been this annoying client at one time or another.  The moral is – hire experts you trust, and let them do the job.

 http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

Here’s one way to lose a patient.  This is taken from a reader write-in feature, called, “Ticked Off”, from orlandosentinel.com :

“I am ticked off at my dentist’s office in Aloma. I called and canceled on a Thursday for a Monday appointment and I received a bill for $30 for giving less than 24 hours notice. When I called to question it I was told they were closed on Friday so it was less than 24 hours notice. This policy was never disclosed to me, and the office manager was extremely rude.”

I’d bet that this Aloma dentist  never even knew why he lost that patient.  He may even be surprised by the policy of his own office.  He’d certainly be surprised that the policy was conveyed to the patient in a rude manner.

The trouble with this, from my perspective, is that marketing to attract patients is hard and relatively expensive compared to keeping an existing patient.  For every chart you lose, you reduce by one the net growth of the practice produced by the new patients from the marketing campaign.  If they are coming in one door and leaving through another, you’ll be treading water forever.

A customer service expert, name Bob Farrell, swears by the philosophy of  ”Give Em the Pickle”.  It all started when one of his waitress employees lost his retaurant a customer by refusing to give him a pickle.   Farell’s point is that your business is all about the customers; do anything within reason to make them happy and loyal, and “give em a pickle”  if necessary.

I’m not against late-cancellation penalties, and I realize that some patients need to be let go.  Just make sure that you and your team all understand that a good loyal patient/customer is worth a heck of alot more than that $30 fee.

Marketing is all about efficiency.  It’s much easier and efficient to keep an existing patient than to attract a new one – especially if all it costs you is a pickle.

“Drilling For Dollars”, an article about dentists in  September’s SmartMoney magazine,  describes a number of things dentists are trying to create income in this new economy.  These include:

• Care packages for patients, including coffee mugs
• Laying off hygienists or handling hygiene appointments during the hygienist’s lunch break
• Rewards points for patients who show up on time, wait in the lobby, or choose an elective procedure
• Changing focus from cosmetic dentistry to more general and endo cases
• Lowering fees
• Using fillings instead of crowns to lower costs
• Free tooth whitenings
• Free electric toothbrushes
• Upselling everything from tongue scrapers to makeovers
• Rewarding referrals with a bouquet of flowers

What do you think of these techniques?  It’s easy to criticize the ones that don’t make sense to you, but maybe not so easy to come up with your own effective methods. 

The point is this:  you can’t just wait for the economy to turn around and  reverse disappointing practice revenues.  You need to expand your comfort zone create opportunities for yourself.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the rise in dental marketing in the face of the recession:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124995744000721607.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Are you growing your practice – or just waiting for the competition to eat your market share?

If you stay in the same business for a long time, you’ll keep hearing some things over and over.  People have been telling me for years that satellite radio is going to replace terrestrial radio.  Anyone who bought stock in Sirius and XM can tell you that this prediction seems a long way off right now. 

Over the years I’ve also often heard that radio doesn’t work for dentists.  I’ve worked with hundreds of practices, from Anchorage to Miami, that could tell you otherwise, but here’s ten ways you can make this one come true:

1. Assume that everyone listens to your favorite station.  Heck, if the team plays it at the office, then that’s the one where we should buy some advertising!
2. Find out which station has the most listeners and buy that one.  There’s no need to research the demographic mix of listeners.  People are people, right?
3. Try out a station for a month to “see if it works”.   If you’re not getting fabulous results right off the bat, quit and try something else.   That whole “frequency” thing is just a scam to get you to keep buying ads.
4. Instead of focusing your message on high-value services that distinguish your practice (like sedation, implants, Invisalign, etc), just let everyone know that you’re the dentist office “that cares”.  Nobody else cares, and you should let the public know that you do.  If that fails, try telling people that you are a “cosmetic” dentist.
5. You’ve got 60 seconds to get your message across, so make sure you let the audience know every fellowship you’ve earned and every dental association you’ve joined.  People will be very impressed hearing obscure but prestigious names being used.  That’s a good use of your limited time.
6. Don’t focus on benefits and solving people’s problems.  Tell people all about yourself and the features of your office.  The audience will find that stuff fascinating.
7. Don’t give a web address.  Who uses that internet thing anyway? 
8. Even though media buyers are experts at getting the best deals and placing the most efficient schedules, make sure to buy all your advertising yourself.  So what if the radio station pays their commission and you get all their service at no charge.  You’ve got nothing better to do, so why not sit through appointments with every radio rep in town?  Just because the reps work for the station doesn’t mean they won’t be objective – right?
9. When deciding on a budget, just pick a number that feels right.  Even better, just advertise on months when there is a surplus and you feel you can afford it.
10. If the economy slumps, terminate all advertising, and huddle in the fetal position until outside forces change.  That’s what the competition is going to do, so you won’t lose any market share.

The best marketing, and the best subsequent customer experience, generate not just customer satisfaction, but actual customer loyalty.  Brands like Apple and Harley Davidson have not just customers, but evangelists, spreading the word.

Effective marketing and superior customer service will put your patients to work for you, and bring you referrals like crazy.  So will giving patients a referral  thank-you gift.  If you start a referral incentive program like the one below, make sure to send an e-mail or postcard to all your patients letting them know.

Put this language on the back of your business card:

New Patient Offer

Get a free $25 Visa Gift Card with your first paid appointment.

Tell us who sent you, and they’ll get one too!

I was referred by:  _____________________

Some patients really get into it.  I’ve see a few offices have contests for their patients to see who can give the most referrrals in six months or a year.  Prizes are either a bigger gift card, or an electronic item like an i-pod or flat-screen tv.

Make sure that your state board has no restrictions about rewarding people for referrrals.  Most don’t, but you should check first.

http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-08-2009/0005002969&EDATE=

This could open the door to overturning a number of draconian laws in different states.  Florida has always been tough on dental advertising.

There were three articles in the Chicago Tribune about Americans heading south of the border for dental care. See them here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-border-dentists_boxmar24,0,5556110.story .  

Americans use dentists in Mexico for one reason – cost. Even after accounting for travel expense, you probably can’t compete with a Mexican practice on cost. If you can, you need to raise your rates. Where you can compete is value, of which cost is just one component.

The value perceived by the dental patient is established by balancing your fees against two things – the quality of the dentistry and the quality of the service. Many factors contribute toward the patient’s perception of the service quality, including how easy or difficult your team makes the whole process. Was the process, from booking the appointment through exiting the building, easy or complicated? How was the initial phone call handled? Was it easy to set up an appointment?  Was the patient greeted with a warm smile, or just barely acknowledged by your front desk with a point towards a chair, during the middle of a phone call?  Was there a lot of waiting in your reception area or was the patient seen promptly? Is the office comfortable? Were questions answered? Does the patient have to repeatedly fill out forms or give the same information again and again?

At an American practice, patients expect that they will receive top-notch dental care, that the office will be clean, and that equipment will be sterilized. If you deliver these things and also make it easy, comfortable, even a little pleasant (all things considered) to come to your office, people will see the value in your higher cost.

Getting to the Root of Dental Phobia – FOXBusiness.com

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