The Great Marketing Conundrum: You have Questions and we have Answers!
How to market your dental practice and who you should be marketing to can be a mystery. Coming up with creative ideas can also be very daunting. Often, we hear, “I am not creative” or “We need a fresh idea”.
To start off, you need to establish a marketing budget for your practice. It is important to set aside money so you can set a schedule and stick to it. You will need to decide what percentage of your gross annual revenue this will be. Some suggestions are 5% to 10% if you are an established but growing practice, more than 10% if you’re a new startup practice, and 3% to 5% more than you’re currently spending if your practice is stagnant or declining.
There is a difference between internal marketing and external marketing.
Internal marketing is simply communicating with your patients. By marketing to your existing patient base, you can capitalize on those connections – whether it’s a service you offer directly to them or asking if they want to refer new patients to your office – working with your existing patients is key to growing your practice production.
External marketing is primarily focused on acquiring new business; it may be patient targeted marketing or may focus on creating partnerships with other healthcare providers to further educate on the Vivos System.
Internal Marketing
Let’s take a deeper dive into Internal Marketing. Capturing the attention and engagement of your internal patients is key. If your patients are unaware that now you are offering a sleep solution you will want to determine how you are going to share that message.
Here are few ideas on how you can begin to communicate this new treatment option with them.
- Do you play the looping video in your waiting room?
- Send out a series of emails sharing the co morbidities associated with a compromised airway.
- Provide your patients with marketing materials in your office.
- Create a monthly drawing for attending a patient education meeting.
- When a patient leaves and says “this was great” do not be afraid to ask for referrals!
Share with us other ideas that you may have on how your internally market to your patients. We want to hear your successes!
External Marketing
Now let’s talk external marketing. External Marketing is about building relationships with other offices and medical providers. It is also about visibility for your practice! External marketing is all about referral relationships and visibility (digital and otherwise
When trying to establish a new referral source it is important to build that relationship- not only with the referring provider but also with their staff.
Remember: relationships take time to build! Don’t be “one and done” at any office! Just because you stop by once and they don’t send you any referrals doesn’t mean you should abandon them as a potential referral source. Work out a marketing schedule with your staff and decide how many offices per quarter you want to visit. This should work within the marketing budget you have set. Sometimes it takes multiple visits and engagements for a relationship to start! Keep at it!
Share with us other ideas that you may have on how you externally market your practice! We want to hear your successes!
Need some ideas? We’ve done the work for you and the price is right!
Click the link to get some fabulous marketing basket ideas!
Stop by their office to introduce yourself, always try and connect with the doctor even if it is only a short introduction, and don’t forget to bring something for the office! Never walk into an office empty handed, we recommend making it fun and educational!
When stopping by an office try and set up a lunch and learn with the doctor and their staff! This is an amazing opportunity to show them the PEM and get them excited about the treatment you are providing- and who doesn’t want a free lunch?!
Stay Tuned for the post in our marketing series:
What to put on your website!