By Keaton Marks
April 29, 2013
In the past six days, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by three of the greatest dental marketing minds in the area.
I took the opportunity to lock down as much information about marketing as I could possibly drag out of them.
3 tactics to improve your phone skills in the dental office
3 simple tips on handling tough questions from potential dental patients
Know your market and demographic
If you are selling expensive smile reconstructions, you will probably want to be in Hollywood. Most of us are not in Hollywood, so let’s take a minute to understand the area we are servicing.
Take a few minutes to think about what the demand is in the area. Should you be targeting uninsured patients? Are you in an area with large families looking for large family discounts? Build dental plans based off of this and then design your marketing pieces accordingly.
3 tips for increasing new patient appointments: What to say and do on the phone
Pain and cost are the main barriers for patients. Help them break through!
The ADA released a study that argued pain and cost were the reason people avoided the dentist. There are so many people out there that should be going to the dentist but are afraid to. Always remember to address these barriers in your marketing pieces. Make sure the potential patients know it will be a painless experience and it will be a cost efficient visit.
When you find a message that works, do it again
Imagine you send out a direct mail piece and your community loves it, so much so that 32 new patients schedule an appointment. What should you do next? Send the piece out again! Of course, this requires that the marketing pieces are tracked. (If you are not tracking your marketing efforts, we need to have a completely different conversation.)
When you find a message that works do it again – in a different media
If your direct mail piece brought 32 new patients, won’t that same message work for the newsletter you send out? Use alternate methods to drill the same message.
Come back next week and I will share the rest of my marketing discoveries.
Now get out there and own your phone!
