The Most Effective Dental Marketing Starts With A Diagnosis Not Prescription

My small business marketing consulting firm is working with a local dental practice here in Richmond, VA to conduct a marketing diagnosis (aka develop their dental marketing strategy) before they jump into 2021 and start taking prescriptions.

Using a marketing diagnosis is the best way for practice owners to save time and money. Think of how much you could have saved over the years with all the prescriptions that didn’t relieve your patient generation or practice awareness pain.

Marketing takes strategic patience. It takes a while for prospective patients to trust you, and if you change your dental marketing, media, and identity, you’re hard to trust. Success comes to dental practice owners who begin with a diagnosis, and have the strategic patience to move beyond the need for instant results.

The reason great dental marketing is so powerful in the first place is that it doesn’t manipulate, it persuades — it’s useful information, presented in an accessible, interesting way.

All too often a dental office tries a postcard mailer or two, maybe three and quits running right before it would have started to pay off.

A good dental marketing diagnosis starts with evaluating your ideal patient. Specifically, discovering why they value your dental practice. Below are a few examples:

• “they have unique products and services”
• “I never have to wait”
• “they are upfront about treatment cost”
• “the front desk always remembers my name and asks about my family”
• “they never push treatment”
• “they give me an option and educate me on the best direction”
• “they perform a lot of the difficult procedures themselves so I rarely have to see a specialist.”

It might surprise you to learn that quality customer service, a fair treatment price, and good hand skills will rarely set you apart because they are an expectation of patients and you cannot differentiate yourself based on these attributes. It is generally the small things that patients value you for, such as:

• Answering the phone by the second ring
• Returning your calls promptly
• Walking in with a little to no wait
• Listening to patients and take the time to answer questions
• Never overselling the patient and give options to get the work done

So how do you find out why your patients value you?

You ask them. You look at reviews. You ask your patient-facing staff. It is always something that you would never expect something small but valuable. Look for a trend with your ideal patients. Note: It is always best to use a third party to help with an interview because patients are more likely to share their true feelings with an outside source.

In summary, the best dental marketing is a combination of:

• diagnosing your dental practice vision, mission, and objectives
• Uncovering your ideal patients
• Figuring out what your practice does that ideal patient's value

One of the best investments you will ever make in your practice is to understand why your patients value you. It is done by dental marketing companies who value a “diagnosis before prescription” approach to dental marketing and by phone takes about 5 to 10 minutes per call.

If you want to interview your patients get in touch and we’ll be happy to share our findings and how to best use this insight to grow your dental practice.