Marketing can be approached in many ways: it can be done on the fly, strategically, or somewhere in between the two. To be successful, it must be effective. To be effective, it must give you the platform to educate patients, both current and prospective ones, and engage with them. Engagement, or feeling involved with your practice, is especially important to patients who see themselves as health care consumers; these individuals expect to have equal responsibility and authority for managing their health care. Often, they actively research providers, treatment options and even pricing.
If patient engagement sounds like more than you’re ready for, make sure that your marketing keeps your practice visible, provides information, and highlights how your practice stands out from others in the community.
Effective marketing will help you gain the attention of the types of prospective patients that you want. It will also help you keep them in your practice for years to come.
A good rule of thumb when budgeting for marketing expenses is to allow 3-6% of a new practice’s expenses; 2-3% for mature practices; and about 4% for practices that are in the middle.
While marketing budgets in most practices vary, mature practices or those nearing a transition in ownership typically invest more on marketing; new ones usually invest less since they’re also dealing with the costs of starting the business. A good rule of thumb when budgeting for marketing expenses is to allow 3-6% of a new practice’s expenses; 2-3% for mature practices; and about 4% for practices that are in the middle. Dentists in new practices should plan on spending about $40,000 on marketing during the first year and can include that amount in the overall financing of the practice. How you invest your marketing budget will depend on your goals, the market you’re in and the channels and tactics you use. When determining your total marketing budget, you should consider earmarking 5-10% of that amount to updating your website.
Don’t Forget! Check your state’s dental practice to see what’s allowable and legal under local laws and regulations before you make any marketing plans. Regulations vary so it’s important that you know your state’s restrictions, requirements, and even its stipulations about contests and “thank you” gifts for patient referrals.
It’s also a good idea to review the ADA Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct for guidance; pay special attention to sections 5.F., 5.H. and 5.I: these sections review advertising, announcing specialization and limitation of practice, and general practitioner announcement of services.
Market Research
Having accurate market research will help you identify what audience, or types of patients, to target. Knowing what groups to target will help you identify the most effective way to reach them. If you don’t know your target, you can’t expect to hit it. Knowing who and where your target is and what matters to them will help you plan marketing campaigns that let patients know why your practice is the right one for them. Knowing what makes one practice stand out from others is known as differentiation and will help you create a brand for your practice. That knowledge will be instrumental as you develop your marketing campaign and identify which marketing tactics and outlets to use.
Knowing what groups to target will help you identify the most effective way to reach them. If you don’t know your target, you can’t expect to hit it.
The first major step to any marketing campaign involves several smaller steps:
1. Know the type of advertising you’ve done and how successful it’s been
2. Learn more about other dentists practicing in your area
3. Understand your current market, or patient base
4. Identify your target market, or the types of patients you want in your practice
5. Determine how much new business your practice can handle
That information will serve as the baseline data, or metrics, that you will use to gauge the success of future marketing efforts.
Gathering market research about your practice doesn’t have to be intimidating. Your primary purpose is to collect information about your patient population, how new patients became aware of your practice, the types of advertising you’ve been doing, and the results of each campaign or type of ad.
Your office or administrative manager can help collect this information by researching information on your previous advertising efforts, gathering information about other, similar practices in your community, and conducting a brief patient survey.
Your primary purpose is to collect information about your patient population, how new patients became aware of your practice, the types of advertising you’ve been doing, and the results of each campaign or type of ad.
Data on your current or recent marketing efforts should recap:
• Type of media used and when the campaign ran
• The length and cost of each campaign
• The number of prospective patients who called the office in response to the campaign
• The number of prospective patients who scheduled — and kept — appointments
Information about other practices in the community can be gathered by viewing the websites of similar practices within a specific geographic area, such as a 5-10 mile radius. Have the person assisting you in this research focus their efforts on practices similar to yours, such as general dentistry or specialty.
Collect data on:
• Types of services provided, including cosmetic and elective procedures
• Number of doctors
• Office hours
• Dental benefit plans accepted, if available online
• Any special offers or promotions
• Online availability of a practice newsletter, blog, videos, etc.
Most of the demographic data about patients is available in your patient records and sample survey questions and tips are available in the articles in The Patient Survey section of this book. Information to be collected should include:
• Who they are
• Where they live
• Their initial oral health status
• How they learned about your practice
• Case acceptance rates
• How willing they are to invest in achieving and maintaining good oral health
• Whether they have coverage under a dental benefit plan and, if so, the name of the plan, etc.
Once you’ve collected this information, review the details and determine whether your marketing efforts are delivering the number and types of patients you want. If they are, congratulations! If they aren’t, it’s time to consider redirecting your efforts.
Keep in mind that even the best marketing campaign can fail if your practice’s internal systems can’t support it.
Finally, talk with your staff about the campaign; let them know its goals, when and how it will launch, and how they can support it. Knowing this information early in the process will increase