7 ways to make your dental practice marketing more effective

Finding the right balance in dental practice marketing is essential as 2022 progresses. It’s time to embrace the power of telemedicine and digital lines of communication if you haven’t already. Here are seven strategies to help you get more value out of every dollar you spend on marketing.

1. Quit reacting irrationally

Avoid “purchasing” a marketing solution before performing your research. When production and the number of new patients decline, it can be tempting to start spending money to try to solve the issue. However, if you didn’t do your homework, that money can be money you never see again. Few marketing strategies are the same and are tailored specifically to a dental practice’s needs and patient base.

2. Recognize the three primary marketing philosophies

There are just a handful of main marketing strategies, and each one has a unique entry barrier, conversion rate, and return on investment (ROI).

Advertising

Advertising is a form of interruption marketing. It typically has the highest price tag, completes tasks the quickest, and requires the least amount of time. Because of its impersonal nature, it can also be a scattershot approach with a low conversion rate and mediocre ROI (due to the prohibitive cost).

Digital

Digital marketing is “permission-based,” and it relies on data you’ve gathered from customers, prospects, or third parties who have given their consent for the use of their data for marketing purposes.

Marketing that has purpose (MWM)

Referrals are still the most reliable form of advertising, and the dental industry is no exception. However, word-of-mouth has evolved into “marketing with meaning,” and as a result, referrals from both offline and online communities are now more likely to come from your practice as a result of your outreach and efforts to enlighten and educate people.

3. Be sensible with your spending.

Time—your time, the time of your team members, and the time of your patients—also counts toward your budget. How much time can you commit to marketing, tracking, and analysis of campaigns? You might need to spend some of your marketing budget on a specialist who can manage the details. To be clear, the company that sells you the marketing strategy is frequently not the most qualified professional to create, carry out, and measure your specific budget.

4. Recognize the value of a new patient.

In 2020, how many new patients (NP) did you bring in? What percentage of sales may be attributable to the production of new patients (NPP)? Although it just requires basic math skills, many practices overlook this crucial step in obtaining information about their revenue. Orange Park Smiles always put their patients at heart. 

5. Contrast you with you

Each dental office has a unique target demographic, geographic scope, and potential for success. You cannot compare yourself to the multispecialty office in the big metropolis if you manage a modest general dental practice in a rural area. Even while this appears clear, dentists frequently engage in story-telling without truly comprehending the comparison measurements.

6. Test, follow, and adjust

The main issue with many dental offices is this. They neglect testing, don’t track properly (or quickly), don’t make adjustments, or do all three. With no usable results and a return to the same old “proven” marketing strategies, this results in a significant loss of resources such as time and money.

7. Encourage teamwork in marketing.

Everyone’s job will include some marketing, but it must be done properly. Starting with the day they are hired, every team member needs to be aware of your marketing strategy and the part they are supposed to play in it. Making marketing a key component of everyone’s job description prevents it from feeling like an extra task that is required of them, and it helps it to become ingrained in your practice’s culture.