The Simple Rule of Successful Dental Marketing

It struck me a long while ago that there is a need to simplify what marketing and advertising is for a dental practice.

Many of our clients and other dentists were in a state of confusion as to what to do to really get the type of patients they wanted and the number of new patients monthly that they wanted through marketing.

I would hear all the hype phrases and sales talk they had heard form countless marketing salesmen and other dentists and friends and even patients, such as:

You need SEO to be number one.

Get to be number one on Google and you will see the patients rolling in.

You need our PPC (Adwords) system and management.

Our mailers are the best.

Public Relations (PR) is the best way to start growing.

Internal marketing to clients with “Care to share” type promotions of all kinds is how to do it.

Make these videos and all will be well.

Social media is how to go nowadays and it’s cheap.

No marketing – just go for word of mouth and grow your practice.

You have probably heard more than these. It’s confusing when trying to decide on what to do, isn’t it?

Lets simplify it!

There is a common denominator of these suggested ways of marketing: they are all methods of distributing a message.

By message I mean the information transmitted about the services and benefits of your practice to the target audience.

When salespeople talk to you about the marketing you should do, they rarely mention what should be said in the message to get someone interested enough to call your office. And how to say it; and with what imagery.

The simple rule of successful dental marketing is to have content and imagery that resonates with the target audience and motivates them to contact your office to make an appointment.

Truthfully, the harder thing is to make marketing that resonates with its target audience and gets response than to work out how to distribute it. Any competent marketing company can work out how to get you onto the first page of Google results or mail a postcard.

Ever read a magazine and read all the ads that were in it? Ever watched a TV show and paid attention to all the ads that appear within it? Ever read a newspaper and all the advertising that is in it? Ever gone online and searched for something and read what was on all the websites that you clicked through to? No!!!

What you would have seen and remembered and even interacted with would be the ads and commercials that resonated with you immediately while flicking through or turning pages or listening in.

They got across a message to you that attracted and interested and got that idea to you in a fraction of a second. Yes that’s right! A fraction of a second.

Wow!! That’s a tough one to do. Yes you are right. It is tough in advertising and marketing to get that sort of response to our messages sent out in large quantities daily. The average person sees and hears many ads per day. Many messages. But only a very few garner his attention.

These attention-grabbing items in marketing are called “buttons”. Something a person would react to in some way to when seen or read or heard.

How do you get these “buttons”? By survey and marketing research. Asking people for what they need and want and consider valuable.

We at Gileard Dental Marketing are experts in Marketing research. We use marketing research and surveys in making our Internet marketing and print marketing products. This plays a very large part in our success.

Once this data is known the message can be crafted and the marketing pieces made that are successful, whether they be digital, print, radio or TV or video.

Any questions please contact me – I’ll be happy to answer and go over your marketing and simplify your vision of it to help you make a plan for 2017 that will see your practice expand in the direction you want.

All the best for 2017 and Happy New Year.

Keith Gilleard