Dental Relationship Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘dental marketing author’

The correct answer is both mediums used together is best. Why? You might ask, “With so many marketing companies now offering e-newsletters, isn’t digital the best option?” The answer is no, for several reasons. Digital or e-communication (as much as I love it) cannot yet completely replace all the benefits of hardcopy.

Tangible newsletters allow people to experience news in a much different way than e-communication. Most importantly, hardcopies allow us to get away with longer articles, more photos and richer content than digital formats.

There is just something more sincere and warm about holding a tangible note, card or letter in your hands rather than scanning it on a screen… For similar reasons, highly personalized hardcopy newsletters are still key relationship and trust building tools.

At the end of the day, you want to be sure your patients have seen and absorbed all you have to convey. Ensure your marketing communication is achieving every important objective by including both email and hardcopy news in your 2009 marketing plan.

Need help with dental newsletters for yourself or your practice? Email rita@tangiblemarketing.com or call Rita (303) 807-3827.

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To thrive in these economic times it’s best to focus your marketing dollars on retention, case acceptance, word-of-mouth and referral strategies. Concentrate your efforts amongst those who already know and trust you rather than attempting new patient acquisition from unknown and potentially skeptical audiences.

What’s hot: Invest in improving the patient experience. Now is the time to impress patients, as more than ever they will scrutinize everything you do and say. Consumers are paying more attention to everything they spend their money on. Some may question whether they should keep spending their money with you or go elsewhere. Invest in training for you and your team and be sure your patient relations skills are finely honed. There has never been a better time to implement new techniques to increase your case acceptance rates.

Invest in referral marketing. If you don’t already have an organized referral program, get busy and create one. Actively promote your program- not just twice a year by word of mouth when patients are in your office. Be sure to promote the fact that you want referrals the whole year long. Ask verbally and in writing (No you won’t come across as a pest or seem desperate because most people are busy with life and won’t likely remember the last time you asked, even if you ask them many times per year). Make sure you invite referrals verbally, and also put your invitation in writing. Tangible forms of promotion help visual learners (about 65% of the population) to remember to refer. If you’d like to know more about this, check out my referral guidebook and learn step-by-step how to create a successful turn-key system for your practice.

Invest in your online reputation. Google yourself regularly and see where your website rates. Also be sure to police yourself… confirm the first few pages of your search come out clean, accurate and don’t contain any negative patient feedback. It makes no sense to invest in search engine optimization if you don’t even know that negative patient feedback could be found alongside your name.

Consider investing in social media. While not for everyone, when done well- and authentically, participating in sites like Facebook and other social spaces gives you an opportunity to get your name and face in front of potentially influential networks. Have fun with it. If you know nothing about social media, ask someone on your team who enjoys this to help you. Again have fun, but at the end of the day be sure whatever you or someone else posts about you maintains your personal and professional brand and represents you well.

In this economy, what’s hot now is the return you’ll get from marketing investments related to customers/patients who already know you.

What’s not hot: Investing in brand building or awareness marketing such as radio, television or expensive magazine ads. The first problem is that these mediums are not generally geographically focused. The second problem is they require much repetition and thus very large investments before they penetrate enough to work. Even in good economies these mediums can be expensive and risky investments. With a population scrutinizing every dollar, becoming more skeptical about who and where they buy from and holding-off unless it’s an emergency, it’s better to avoid these types of marketing vehicles for now.

Have a question or comment to share? Email rita@tangiblemarketing.com. I’d love to hear from you!

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Convert your website visitors into patient appointments and referrals… LinkboxTM is a website add-on that provides valuable marketing tools to any existing website. LinkBoxTM encourages website visitors to contact your practice, as well as refer friends. And because it’s a stand-alone product, LinkBoxTM doesn’t integrate with your current practice management systems in any way – so it’s simple to set up and start using right away.

I especially like the way the product opens the door for dialogue. Consumers today have become so accustomed to sharing their thoughts, opinions and requests through their computer keyboards… This tool gives potential new patients one more way to explore you, and gives existing patients one more way to refer you.

Watch a demo and learn more about their terrific no-risk 30 day trial here.

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Lay-offs, rising grocery bills and a flood of bad economic news in the media are causing consumers to tighten their purse strings… How can dentists help to protect and even grow their practice in times like these? Here are a few smart recession marketing tips for dentists.

1) Be impeccable with the patients you already have. This includes phone, patient relation and case presentation skills. Need to know if you are impeccable or not? To diagnose your performance, try surveys, hire a ghost shopper or get an experienced consultant to observe.

2) Be REALLY impeccable with the patients you already have. How long has it been since you’ve brushed up on your case presentation skills or taken your team to a seminar or workshop about exceptional customer service. Now is the time to invest in learning everything you and your team can do to get more from the customers (patients) you already have.

3) Keep in touch. Follow up with patients- consistently and effectively. Patients will be putting off elective, cosmetic and non-emergency treatments, so make sure you maintain relationships with patients while they are saving up or waiting for some good economic news. Be sure you are top of mind when they are ready to buy dental again. This means calling patients to follow up (phone calls are quick, easy -inexpensive- and effective!), sending customized patient newsletters (consumers are now cocooning— staying home, nesting with family and they have time to read and learn more about you and your services), emailing (use email communication sparingly, make your notes brief and memorable).

4) Money, Money, Money- Make sure your fee quotes, insurance filing, payment options and related communication is flawless. People are more sensitive to money issues than ever before. Now is the time to be extra courteous, knowledgeable- and considerate of patient’s potential financial quandaries.

5) Internal marketing first, external second. Don’t spend thousands of dollars for a flashy magazine ad if you don’t have a patient referral system in place. Invest dollars to maximize internal marketing first (referral systems, sales training, newsletters, etc.), then look to external marketing tactics such as postcards, advertising, etc. This is even more important during a recession when external new patient acquisition becomes more challenging.

Need help? Or have comments to share? Email rita@tangiblemarketing.com

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5 Reasons You May Lose Patients and What You Can Do About It

Today, more than ever, it’s important to retain patient loyalty, build strong genuine relationships and ensure patients know that you accept and appreciate referrals. Here are a few reasons why patients leave their dental providers and what you can do about it…

Feel like you don’t care (they don’t hear from you anymore and think you probably don’t want them as a patient – perhaps because they didn’t do that new crown you recommended last visit?)

Don’t get the attention they deserve (a friend keeps saying how great her dentist is… and your patient isn’t aware that you offer what her friend’s dentist does)

Think you are fee-motivated (they feel like your practice keeps “pushing expensive” implant treatment. Meanwhile they aren’t aware of the risks without this treatment.)

Keep getting solicited by other dentists (they keep getting postcards from other dentists in the area and begin to think it’s time to switch. Besides, they’re not sure you’d care if they left your practice.)

Never hear from you (They aren’t sure they’re getting the service they deserve… the only time they see you is when they remember to call for an appointment).

Today’s marketplace is crowded and challenging (not to mention our current economic situation), so patients require more attention than ever in order to remain loyal, accept higher quality/fee treatments and continue to refer.

Patient newsletter marketing, when done right, succeeds at:

Building authentic and loyal relationships.

Keeping patients informed with friendly, unique-to-your-practice messages.

Reminding patients about recall, treatment/relaxation options, payment/credit arrangements or end-of-year insurance expirations.

Motivating referrals – patients need to know that you, first and foremost, want their referrals, that you appreciate them and perhaps what they might expect in return.

Want to learn more? Contact rita@tangiblemarketing.com

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Patient newsletter marketing, when done right, can be extremely effective in building relationships, trust, loyalty and increasing case acceptance. However many dental newsletter services are provided by huge corporate publishing companies who can efficiently pump out volumes of paper product, yet many times lack the personal hands-on dental experience needed to successfully market dentists today. Here are five patient newsletter mistakes to avoid:

1. No personalization- if you want a newsletter to get tossed on a regular basis, don’t personalize it at all. When patients scan to see if there is anything that looks familiar to them like a logo -or more importantly a photo- and see nothing they can connect with, they lose interest and you lose their precious attention.
2. Too much content- patients are super busy these days… while they do still like to hear from you, make it brief! This means a limit of two pages maximum- filled with wholesome unique-to-your-practice material. Four pages or more is not only too much content, but a waste of trees.
3. Boring cookie-cutter articles- it’s very important to take personalization to the next level here. Don’t include articles about children’s dentistry if your practice caters to adults or seniors. Likewise, don’t promote extreme-makeover dentistry if your client base is conservative and you cater to people who just want the basics. This is where the big guys (impersonal corporate publishers) miss the mark many times… by not allowing you to control each and every article’s content.
4. Too much sales-y talk – be very careful here. Present what you want to promote in a friendly informative manner. Yes it is ok to say “Call us…” However over-do-it and you’ll cross that precarious point of looking too, we’ll you know… sales-y.
5. Black & White- today’s “standard of care” for print is full color on high quality paper. This is especially critical for “technologically advanced or high-end” practices. Cheap paper with black and white print will stand out in the mail these days, but not in a good way.

Interested in learning about dental patient newsletter marketing -done right- for your practice? Email rita@tangiblemarketing.com

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Some dentists use their new patient “numbers” as a gauge to determine how healthy their practice is. However they don’t always realize that in some cases marketing can attract the wrong type of new patient. Especially when marketing is rushed, it can sometimes cause businesses to throw their standards out the door. In other words some practitioners may just want people who need dentistry to flow into the practice as soon as possible -instead of considering the “qualities” of potential new patients, ie: do they live within your area, are they interested in the highest quality dental care that you offer, do they have a fairly high dental IQ, are they open to investing in cosmetic dentistry or whatever your ideal patient qualities are.

So, why does it matter whether new patients are ideal or not? Because your success and more importantly, your peace of mind ultimately depend on the type of patient you attract. When you attract patients that are less than ideal into your practice, you make it more difficult to harvest quality referrals – and worse, you risk attracting patients who may not have interest in the type of dentistry you offer, who only want to take advantage of a savings offer or who don’t trust you much. So, if you dream of someday having a practice filled with great patients, where you may not need to do external marketing because your referrals nourish the business… then start taking steps today to fulfill that vision. Step one is identifying your ideal patient, stay tuned for more about this later.

Want to learn more now? Get a copy of our dental marketing referral guidebook.

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