Dental Relationship Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘dentist marketing’

Social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and blogs have captured the attention of your patients.  Within the first quarter of 2009, the number of people over 35 on Facebook has nearly doubled.  Read more in the Metropolitan Denver Dental Society’s Articulator magazine, page 3.

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A recent Denver Business Journal article Study: Stay-at-home moms dominate social media stated that more than 60 percent of stay-at-home moms are more likely to use Facebook, compared to average adults at 50%.

The article also said, “Nearly 94 percent of the moms surveyed said they seek advice before buying products or services and more than 97 percent said they give advice on products or services purchased”.   This article is a timely reminder of where potential new patients are–online and interacting on social media.

Are you, or is your practice, participating in these online conversations?

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Motivate patients to refer by providing positive, memorable service experiences.  You can help your referral invitations to stick, even long after the patient’s last check-up, by making your message tangible.

Experts agree about 60% to 65% of the population are visual learners. Visual learners relate most effectively to written information, diagrams and pictures. Whether you illustrate your referral request in letters, postcards, business cards or emails, the moment you make your message visual or tangible you’ll increase your effectiveness and your referrals.

When was the last time your patients heard from you?

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Read all about it in the Metropolitan Denver Dental Society’s August/September 2009 Articulator Magazine, page 3.

Are you Facebooking, Tweeting or blogging for your practice?  What’s your experience so far?

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Why do some marketing programs work for one practice and not others?  If your practice has better technology, nicer referral cards and the best website … How can another practice that has none of those be more successful?  The answer lies not in the marketing tools, strategies and tactics, but in the people who use them.

The dental team, armed with exceptional people skills and genuine interest, can out-relate—and outperform any marketing secret.  Whether it be Facebook, a referral card or a personal follow-up call … the way in which the socializing, relating and interacting is done is key.

When a team member inherently enjoys what they do in your practice, the benefits are immeasurable. They interact with patients, genuinely, because they like to.

Customer service (patient relations) and marketing are one.  If patients feel a disconnect between what brought them to your practice and the experiences they have once there, it is a make or break point.  You and your team have the power to fuel Facebook activity, word of mouth and referrals—or not.

If your practice Facebook account is stale, referrals are flat and phone calls are unreturned, it may be time to review the motivation and energy behind the effort.  Remember, people don’t interact with Facebook, they interact with other people.  Likewise, patients don’t refer to a “practice”, they refer to people.

Good marketing plans are important; however the people that act upon the plans day-to-day are most important.

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The first thing to consider before investing in marketing is, “How well are you doing with the patients you already have?”  If you cannot answer this question, then you may be making a mistake by marketing.

For example, let‘s say you have a case acceptance rate of 35%.  Wait. Before you criticize this percentage, can you say exactly what your acceptance rate is?  Many practices have no idea how to begin to track and determine this crucial marker.  Instead they look externally for solutions that will “Bring new patients in the door and solve everything”.

When practices pull in new patients, without fully treating the patients they already have, the result is wasted marketing dollars.  In contrast, it’s a win-win when patients accept treatment … Patients get healthy and dental practices flourish.

So what happens in situations with low case acceptance and continuous numbers of new patients?  The practice stays busy, yet many times is unsuccessful.

Remember, “The fortune is in your follow-up!” Don’t wait for down-time to do your recall.  Call patients, and continue to follow up with them over many months. In today’s economy, follow up needs to be extensive.

-          Follow up with the patients you already have in your practice.

-          Track your case acceptance and learn your conversion.

-          Make sure you are fully optimizing the practice you already have before launching external marketing of any kind.

The only way to determine if you are a good candidate to proceed with marketing is to currently know:   1)  How many of your patients accept treatment?  2)  For patients that didn’t accept treatment, where are they with their decision?  3)  When was the last time you followed up with patients?

Where does your case acceptance stand today?  Are you a candidate for dental marketing?

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Hint, hint… Once the Yellow Pages® is on board with Facebook®, that’s another good sign it’s safe for dental practices to sign up too.

This does make me rethink my previous posts in which I said the internet is drowning phone book advertising… perhaps Yellow Pages will live on, except on Facebook instead of big tangible books.  Note this clipping is from the Canadian Yellow Pages.

What are your thoughts?

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What does your online marketing say about you? Does it say, “I’ve got URLs all over the web- but none of them has any content worth reading,”  or does it say, “You may need to skip over a few links above us on Google’s search page, however once you reach us, you’ll find we are a better fit for you”.

Recently, I ran across a “pioneer marketing” dental practice who hopped on the social media and online marketing bandwagon.  They joined Facebook (a few months ago, and hadn’t visited their page again since).  The practice had many website and blog articles and postings, most of which were filled with blatant key-word text.  The majority of their content was obviously duplicated and re-engineered data plastered all over dozens of sites.  The goal was likely to be found, however at what consequence?

Patients looking for “just any dentist” may not care if you are out to win maximum online exposure.  However, discerning, knowledgeable consumers looking for a more genuine dentist will likely look for online material representative of their ideal dentist.

So, the tip of the day is ensure your marketing matches your brand.  If you are a relationship-focused practice, be sure your marketing (articles, content, website, postings, Facebook account, etc…) looks like you pay attention to it.  Consider the cost of sloppy, rushed marketing before you allow someone to talk you into quantity over quality.

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It’s all about relationships.  The most successful dentists and teams know that patient relations are paramount when it comes to referrals and good case acceptance.  For years, I’ve touted the fact that referral marketing is the best way to market a practice.  Today, despite all the improvements in technology and all the wonderful social media outlets, referral marketing is still king…

So why then would I even recommend social media marketing for dentists, when I know how great word-of-mouth and referral marketing performs?  Social media could simply be seen as an extension of referral marketing.  In other words, if a practice is already exercising excellent patient care, communication and follow up, they are more than likely receiving a great number of referrals. It is just this type of practice that could find social media community a successful extension of their existing relationship-focused marketing philosophy.

To clarify, social media is not a good tool for every practice.  For a practice that is focused on “quantity”, has less than ideal chair-side skills and finds relationship-building an unnecessary toil, social media would not likely be beneficial.  Some things never change… referral and word-of-mouth marketing are still the most important foundation of any successful practice.  Likewise, good relationship skills are a must-have in order for social media tools to be beneficial for a practice.

Good people skills are beneficial in person and online.  Practices who struggle with patient relations in person, may find more problems than they bargain for in online communities… Today, it is more important than ever for teams and practices to assess their patient relation skills- before any type of marketing strategies or tools are implemented.

Again, to clarify, social media is not an end-all marketing solution for everyone.  Begin internally first, assess your client care, communication and case acceptance.  Then determine if it is a natural and authentic extension of yourself, and your practice, to participate in social media.  If you genuinely care, love what you do and it shows, patients will trust and believe in you- whether in person or online.

What are your thoughts?

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While most of us are aware of the value of being found on the internet, many marketers and dental practices are still struggling with the thought of social media.  To join and participate-or not-that is the question.  It is baffling to hear the number of consultants and dentists bashing social media entirely.  This could be a risky prospect… imagine a world with no yellow pages, with no unsolicited (junk) mail and no newspaper advertisements.  What if the only option in the future was online marketing? If that were the case, wouldn’t you want as much positive content about yourself online as possible?

In the future, if “he with the most current, relevant and interesting online content” wins in search, don’t you want to be found?  If yes, then it is necessary to start now.  It is important to begin building a name for yourself online, including participating in social media.  For example, if you have a stagnant brochure-ware website, and your competitor is an active blogger and participates in numerous social media outlets- guess what… they will likely be found time and again before you.

Be open and try social media.  Treat your participation in online groups with the same common sense as you would any other social situation.  In other words, don’t post anything in writing that you don’t want to come back and haunt you.  Don’t treat others like they are numbers- be kind and sociable.  People want to be treated well online, just as they do in person. Be willing to converse, be friendly and get to know about others- hence the name “social” media.  If you think it is all a complete waste of time, then it probably will be for you.

The old saying “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it” applies to social media as well.  Those who participate with others online, expand their networks and spend time interacting with people they enjoy will get a completely different perspective on the direction marketing is moving toward.  So, before deciding against social media entirely, reconsider what you really have to lose or gain from it.

What’s your opinion?

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