It’s easy to target ‘dream patients’ who live near your dental practice

Sometimes you find your “dream patients” through hard work and a lot of marketing. Sometimes someone just happens to move into a neighborhood close to your office, and they essentiallyfind youthrough pure happenstance. Have you ever thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could have more patients like that find me?” You are not alone.

Thankfully there are free and easy ways to find those dream patients you want to attract to your practice. Literally thousands of families have moved into your neighborhood just in the last few months, and they’re looking for a new dry cleaner, a new hairdresser, and even a new dentist.

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I’m going to teach you how to find these folks the easy way. All you need is a library card and a computer. Does this sound too good to be true? Read on and find out. There is a free service that anyone with a library card can access on your local library’s website called Reference USA. On Reference USA via the library’s website you can pull up lists of people based on many different factors, and one is a list of people who have recently moved.

You set all the parameters on this service, and it pulls up a list for you with all the names and addresses of those dream patients who have recently moved. These recent transplants are much more apt to be receptive to the marketing you send asking them to switch dentists.

You can set many parameters to narrow your search and make it ultra-targeted. Some of these incude:
1) Homeowner or renter
2) Single family homes or multi-family dwellings (Multi-family are condos, apartments, townhomes, etc.)
3) Income level—Maybe you only want patients who make $100K+? No problem.

4) Age—Maybe baby boomers control all the wealth in America and you think you want to focus on them. But if you’re a just out of dental school that might not be the best demographic. You might want to focus on patients who won’t die within the next 10 years since you plan to be in practice for the next 30 years. Maybe families between the ages of 30 and 50 fit your ideal patient demographic. You can focus on patients who are in any age bracket you deem appropriate.
5) Estimated home value—You can easily tailor marketing messages to folks based on the demographic you choose. My best advice is notto send the same marketing messages to everyone.

6) How long ago the people moved—As stated, you can set the parameter to those who have moved in the last one week, two weeks, three weeks, one month, two months, three months, six months, nine months, or one year. It’s your decision. People who moved more than six months ago might have already found a new dentist due to needing their six-month cleaning. But many times people move and it takes them one to two years to find the dentist they really love.
7) How far the person moved in terms of distance/miles—You can use this to target people who have moved, for example, 10+ miles since this group might be more apt to switch dentists. Someone who moves only one mile might not need to switch dentists. You might need to test this parameter to see what is the most effective range to target.

The library is a great resource and you might find they provide a lot of services you had no idea existed. I truly believe Reference USA is one of the best kept secrets in America. It may or may not be one of the free services available in your state. It is free in my state and I use it regularly, but I cannot make a blanket statement about its availability elsewhere. It’s certainly worth your time to check.

I hope I’ve proven to you there is no paucity of quality prospects moving into your neighborhood each and every month. Now you know how to find them. Your next step is to create specific marketing messages for each demographic you’re targeting, and implement what you’ve learned. Remember, you cannot send one message to everyone and expect it to have a profound effect on all demographics. Always tailor different marketing messages to different segments for the best results.