After working with hundreds of dental practices around the world, marketing seems to be a consistent challenge. And with good reason – when you’re studying dentistry, no-one prepares you for the marketing and business acumen needed to run a practice.
But no matter where you are in your practice ownership journey, you need to be aware of these five marketing principles.
There are no silver bullets
I get asked all the time “what’s the one thing I need to do for an effective website? What’s the key thing I need for my marketing communications?”
Sorry to say, there is no silver bullet or one secret strategy that you’re missing out on. When it comes down to it, effective marketing requires thought, preparation, strategy, and an investment of time and money. Like anything in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Don’t get lazy
Like it or not, having effective marketing is a large part of owning a successful dental practice. It might not be your passion, you might even really dislike it, but at the end of the day it’s what will propel your practice forward so you can do more of the clinical work you love.
As a practice owner, you do need to take an active interest in your marketing because it’s what keeps your patient flow coming.
You don’t need to go out and code websites all day or go out and become a marketing expert, but you do need to know what’s going on and be able have an input. Especially if you’re engaging the work of contractors – you want to be able to ask intelligent questions and supervise the people you’re trusting with your hard-earned money.
Ideal patient avatar
It’s important to remember that your website isn’t written for YOU. It’s written for your prospective patients – and more specifically, it should be written with your ideal patient avatar in mind.
One of the most powerful concepts in practice ownership is really drilling down your ideal patient avatar, and then directing your marketing communications at them. This allows you to work with the kind of people you really want to work with, and position your practice in a way that speaks to their needs, wants, and desires.
Great marketers are great gardeners
This is a concept that has been an “aha” moment for numerous clients I’ve coached – but think of your marketing efforts as one giant garden you’ve been tending to, optimising, and creating a really fantastic environment.
Picture your patients as butterflies, that you want to draw into your garden. We want them to see a fantastic patient experience, we want it to be targeted to their needs, and we want them to float on by into our garden.
Sure, you could go out with a net and tire yourself out running and jumping after butterflies all day – but I don’t need to tell you how inefficient that is. Great marketers know how to create a garden that butterflies are drawn to.
People can copy what you do but not who you are
When all other variables are the same, your brand personality and story will be what makes people feel a connection with you.
There are a lot of practices with very generic, beige descriptions about who they are and what they do. But, to stand out in people’s minds and really get them to feel that affinity, it’s important to go a little deeper.
Tell them something about what makes your practice – and even you as a dentist- different. Strategies and colours and slogans can be copied – but they can’t replace the personality and nuance that makes your practice unique.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
1. Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
