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dental practice management

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Is Your Dental Practice Marketing a Waste of Money?

by Naomi Cooper January 28, 2015

Is Your Dental Practice Marketing a Waste of Money?Dental marketing is not limited solely to bringing new patients into the practice. In fact, it encompasses the entire patient experience from the moment they begin their online research, to their first appointment through follow up and beyond.

Many dentists initially fail to see a positive return on their marketing investment and over time begin to wonder if their marketing is a waste of time and money. So, before spending any more cash, it is worthwhile to take the time to review the following internal processes, which can ultimately make or break a practice’s marketing efforts.

  1. Verbal Skills Training – Every staff member who interacts with patients is part of the marketing effort in that they are all contributing to the overall patient experience.
  1. Appointing New Patients – A phone ringing off the hook is a good sign that the external marketing is working well. Keep that momentum moving by prioritizing new patient phone calls. Aim to schedule new patients within 1-3 days of their initial call.
  1. New Patient Communication – New patients do not yet have loyalty to the practice. Help establish a relationship with them by tailoring communication with them. Welcome new patients to the practice with an introductory letter or new patient package, avoid using too much clinical language when speaking with them, and start a two-way conversation to build trust.
  1. Tracking Results – It’s impossible to know if a marketing tactic is effective or not if no one is measuring its ROI, or return on investment. The front desk team should always ask every new caller how he or she heard about the practice, and record that information in order to find out what marketing efforts result in both phone calls and first appointments.

External marketing is important for practice growth, but don’t forget about the internal processes that support it!

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Dental Marketing and the Law of Diminishing Returns

by Naomi Cooper November 18, 2014

Dental Marketing and the Law of Diminishing ReturnsWhen you spend money on marketing, you should expect to get a certain return on your investment (ROI).

At a certain level of spending, however, the return on investment for any particular tactic will start to level off. It’s different for every doctor and for every marketing effort, but once you’ve maxed out the frequency or reach of a campaign, spending more money on that given tactic beyond this point of diminishing return can eventually lead to a decrease in ROI. This illustrates the law of diminishing returns — and it’s at this point when you know you’ve reached the maximum expenditure on a certain marketing effort.

So how does the law of diminishing returns affect your dental practice marketing?

  • It reinforces the need for tracking the ROI on each of your marketing efforts. Measuring the ROI gives you hard data to help you make informed decisions about the course of your marketing strategy. You no longer have to cross your fingers and hope that your marketing dollars are well spent.
  • When you track your ROI, you start to notice trends. Say you double your investment in search engine advertising, but after a few months notice that it is not bringing in the same level of response you were expecting based on past expenditures. By noticing this trend, you can make adjustments as needed, saving the practice time and money, while keeping your marketing moving forward.

Consistently monitoring and reviewing the ROI of your marketing efforts is essential to build a successful long-term successful marketing strategy for your practice. Staying on top of the trends of your marketing investment will ensure steady growth fueled by smart decisions based on fact, not feelings, and will result in the best bang for your hard-earned marketing bucks.

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Dental Practice Marketing: 5 Reasons to Get Your Team Involved

by Naomi Cooper October 29, 2014

Dental Practice Marketing: 5 Reasons to Get Your Team InvolvedNothing keeps the dental practice moving forward like having staff meetings or morning huddles. Gathering the team together can open the lines of communication, and keep the staff abreast of new marketing tactics. When I’m consulting with my dentist clients, I remind them of the importance of staff meetings, especially when it comes to the marketing plan.

Here are 5 ways staff meetings can have a meaningful impact on your practice marketing:

  1. Better Return on Your Marketing Investment: Your marketing budget will be executed best when everyone is working together. For instance, the front desk needs to be aware of all current marketing campaigns since they should be asking the question “How did you hear about us?” or “Whom may we thank for referring you to the practice?” every time they speak with a new/potential patient. A staff meeting is the perfect time to keep the team informed.
  2. Increased Participation: In addition to keeping your staff informed, a staff meeting can be a great way to get them involved and invested in the marketing strategy. Show your entire staff what kind of marketing you are doing and when it will be hitting the marketplace. Tell them how much it costs and what kind of return you expect. And above all, remember to reward your team members for helping to make the campaign a success.
  3. Increased Word of Mouth: The entire team needs to be actively participating in the internal marketing process and proactively asking for patient referrals (and online reviews). This doesn’t come naturally to most people, so a staff meeting based around verbal skills training for the team is a must!
  4. Increased Input: Good marketing sometimes requires out-of-the-box thinking and a great way to generate new ideas is to solicit the input of your staff. Use your next staff meeting to host a brainstorm session to come up with ideas for a new branding strategy or to gather topics for upcoming blog posts or social media updates.
  5. Create a Sense of Ownership: As a dentist, between managing the practice and treating your patients, you already have enough on your plate — so delegation can pay off in spades. Designating a staff member to take the reigns on a specific aspect of the marketing – managing the social media calendar, writing blogs or tracking the response from a particular campaign, for instance – can help increase their engagement and give them a greater sense of personal responsibility.

As you can see, staff meetings can play an integral part of the practice marketing strategy. When the staff feels an increased sense of ownership, you’ll see that your return on your marketing investment will improve dramatically. The team will be more satisfied, the dentist will be happier and the practice will be operating more efficiently, making staff meetings a true, all-around winning solution!

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What Dentists Must Know Before Spending Another Marketing Dollar

by Naomi Cooper June 9, 2014

What Dentists Must Know Before Spending Another Marketing DollarSome dentists think of marketing as though it is a magical faucet. They believe they should be able to implement a new tactic, snap their fingers and get magically get 100 new patients through the front door. The truth is that marketing is a real faucet, and the laws of physics apply in that you have to exert a force upon the faucet to start the flow. Three forces in particular will turn on the new patient flow, and they are three of your most valuable and limited resources: time, money & energy.

Before spending your precious time, money and energy on generating new patient flow through new external marketing campaigns, take a look at your existing new patient flow. What happens to  the prospective new patients who are already coming out of the proverbial marketing faucet by contacting the office by phone or email? Do you have a nice solid bucket under that faucet catching every drop? Or does it look more like a sieve, resulting in missed opportunities to capture new patients?

If there are missed opportunities, then you have what I like to call holes in the bucket. These are issues such as:

  • Scheduling issues, such as new patients not typically scheduled within 1-3 business days
  • Not knowing how many prospective new patient callers you already get each month

 
  • Front desk turning away new patients because of insurance or cost concerns







  • A lack of comprehensive treatment planning and case presentation skills





 
  • The hygienist not co-diagnosing







  • The patient coordinator failing to schedule recommended treatment
  • Lack of existing patient follow-up for both recall and reactivation

Maybe you are already getting enough new patient calls, but you have challenges that are preventing you from turning your new patients into patients of record. If any of the above is the case, you may not need to spend as much time, money and energy on external marketing as you think – rather, work on correcting these outstanding issues and get solid internal processes in place so that when you are ready to turn on the new patient flow faucet, you’ll be ready to catch every last drop.

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Dental Marketing: The All-Important First Phone Call

by Naomi Cooper May 21, 2014

Dental Marketing: The All-Important First Phone CallOften when consulting with my dentist clients, the focus is on attracting new patients, which of course is an important part of dental practice growth. But I caution my clients before they ever spend any money on external marketing efforts, they need to be absolutely sure they and their staff already have solid internal processes in place.

Simply put, the dollars spent to attract new patients through external marketing efforts can end up going to waste if effective marketing processes and strong verbal communication skills are not in place. After all, why go to all the trouble and expense to make the phone ring if the person answering the phone doesn’t have the ability to turn a caller into a patient?

Often a new patient’s first contact with the dentist and the practice is during the initial phone call to find out about the practice, and possibly to make an appointment. The front desk team needs to be able to effectively communicate with new patients and address all questions and concerns, as well as schedule appointments in a timely manner.

The first phone call is a critical time: the prospective patient is sizing the practice up, and this interaction needs to be handled delicately. So what can the front desk team do during the call to ensure success?

Find out in my most recent article published in Inside Dentistry: Growing the Dental Practice Through Patient Communication.

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Dental Practice Marketing: Consistency Matters!

by Naomi Cooper March 4, 2014
Dental Practice Marketing: Consistency Matters!Consistency. As dentists, you constantly remind patients of the value of consistency…regular brushing and flossing — and keeping their recall appointments. As business owners, we also intuitively know that consistency matters. So why is it so hard for us to take our own advice?
When it comes to dental practice marketing, consistency tops the list of Must-Do’s. I remind my clients time and again that sporadic marketing efforts will not generate the kind of return they expect to get. Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter what type of marketing you are doing, you have to do it regularly. Few tactics exist that will produce overnight results. Blogging. Social media. Direct mail. Asking for referrals. None of these activities will give you the results you want to see unless they’re done with consistency.

Still not convinced? Check out this recent blog from the team at Dental Support Specialties to discover what areas of the dental practice could be improved through a focus on consistency. What have you got to lose, besides a few bad habits?

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