#107b: Claiming Your Market Part 3

Learn more about our dental marketing services by visiting our main website. 
New Patients, Inc.
4966 S. Rainbow Blvd.Suite 110 • Las Vegas, NV 89118
Telephone: 866-336-8237 Email: info@newpatientsinc.com
www.NewpatientsInc.com

Dental Marketing #103 - Is Something Wrong with Me?

Learn more about our dental marketing services by visiting our main website. 
New Patients, Inc.
4966 S. Rainbow Blvd.Suite 110 • Las Vegas, NV 89118
Telephone: 866-336-8237 Email: info@newpatientsinc.com
www.NewpatientsInc.com

Dental Marketing Quotes - Content marketing is not...

Content marketing is not simply a campaign or a tactic, it’s a commitment.

– Valerie Uhlir | Ethereal Innovations

Quote from sideqik.com collection.

Dental Marketing - There is no Black Magic!

Great Marketing Quotes - HubSpot.net

New Patients, Inc.
Dental Marketing Services
5935 Edmond Street Suite 105 Las Vegas, NV 89118 
Telephone: 866-336-8237    Email:  info@newpatientsinc.com

Dental Marketing - What to do between November 15, 2012 and December 31, 2012

What to do between November 15, 2012 and December 31, 2012

In the previous edition of this newsletter, we explained how to get set up for 2013.

In this installment of the newsletter, we will explain how to promote your dental practice between November 15th and December 31st this year.

Shut down your external promotion

Statistically, for the majority of dentists in the US, there is a very distinct increase in risk promoting dentistry to the dental consumer between November 15th and December 31st every year. Since one of our jobs is to help dentists minimize risk to their marketing dollar - you've been warned. The only reasonable and statistically justified exception to this rule is if your dental practice is in a "snow bird" area with a population that is predominantly above the age of child bearing years. Some of you may be in areas of Florida (to use a recognizable example), where you may or may not want to promote to the consumer between those two dates. For the rest of you, shut it down!

Ramp UP your internal promotion

As drastically as you shut down your external promotion, in an equally drastic fashion, you should ramp up your internal promotion. Let's explore some marketing projects that should be scheduled during the last quarter of 2012.

Use it or Lose it

For those patients with dental insurance, it is certainly a time to let your patients know that their anniversary date is looming and they will lose this year's benefits if they don't come in. Many dental practices send some variation of this concept to their patients once at the end of the year. Why are you only sending it once? If we were to guide you, we would send this piece (either through the mail or electronically) a minimum of three times. The right times would be the third week of October, the second week of November, and the end of the first week of December. We don't know why dental practices only send these once, but most make that mistake. Don't think for a second that ALL of your patients read or listen to anything that you send them once. Don't assume that everyone is just choosing not to respond. It is FAR more likely that they were simply too busy to pay attention the ONE time you sent them the message. Send it multiple times.

Charity/PR

The holiday season is the season of giving. OK. So give!

Run an overdue re-care list (or labels, or emails if you have them) of every patient in your database that was due for their re-care up to Jan 1 2012. In other words, the literally hundreds or thousands of established patients that you would really, really, like to re-activate! Tell them if they come in for their cleaning and exam between November 15th and December 31st, that you will donate $20 on their behalf to a locally recognizable local charity. For instance, Alex's Lemonaide Stand is really popular here in the northeast. You may have a different local charity that everyone recognizes within your market area. We are SURE the females in your dental practice know of a locally recognizable charity that will resonate positively with the majority of your patient base. Reactivating established patients for $20 a pop is an absolute win-win-win. Charity wins, patient wins, you win. If we are managing your website and your social media, get our internet department the information for your charitable event. We will blast it all over your various social media outlets.

Pedo - or Pedo/Ortho

Mom is home. Kids are home. We almost don't want to mention this because quite frankly, it can work gangbusters in some markets, and in other markets all you hear are crickets. But it is worth mentioning. Any time the kids are not in school (like winter recess, spring recess, summer), it's a good time to reach out to your patient base and offer them premium appointment times (convenient ones) to get little Jane and Johnny to the dentist for their checkups. We know some of you are wincing right now. Who in the heck wants to work on a bunch of kids the week between Christmas and New Year's Day? Well, we understand. But (you knew it was coming), mom is going to have to bring Jane or Johnny. Mom may need work. Dad may have never seen you before. Mom may have a mother or father nearby, or a friend that is looking for a great dental practice. Treating children is an important consumer demand. Children are the gatekeepers to the rest of the family and everyone the rest of the family knows. Ignoring it is certainly your choice. But those who embrace this consumer demand will be that much better off down the road.

As always, if we (NPI) don't handle your promotion for you, you can learn the most effective ways in our latest book. We also have 7 hours of online CE for you to learn from. Of course, if you'd like us to build you a marketing plan for your practice, at no cost or obligation to you, we can do that as well. Just click this link and share information about your dental practice. You will get your marketing plan emailed to you in 4 to 5 work days.

Got questions? Want to learn more? 

You can reach Mark & Howie at:

Howie: whh@newpatientsinc.com

Mark: markd@newpatientsinc.com

Website: www.newpatientsinc.com

Dental Marketing - How to set-up for 2013

How to set-up for 2013

In the previous edition of this newsletter, we explained 5 solid reasons why 2013 may represent the beginning of a rebound period for dentistry.

In this installment of the newsletter, we will explain how to get everything set up properly for the coming new year.

First step - Marketing Asset Inventory

There are two staple "must haves" for every dentist when it comes to properly and effectively promoting dentistry, and ultimately being pleased with the return on your investment. Those staples are: A dominant internet presence in your market (properly arranged website with dominant positioning on search engines), and, a properly targeted, designed, and deployed direct mail campaign. Neither of these promotion outlets have a risk ratio to your marketing dollar greater than 4%. In other words, there is greater than 96% chance these two mediums will work in your market and will provide a robust return (if done properly of course).

If you do not possess either of these staples to promote your dental practice, you now know where a portion of your 2013 marketing budget should go. If you do possess one of these, but not the other - you now know your priority marketing project for 2013. If you DO possess both of these staples, read on.

Second step - Statistical Tracking

If you do not already have these, in 2013, commit to embedding a remote call forwarding telephone number into your mailer, your website, and into anything that consumes more than 10% of your annual marketing budget. These call tracking numbers record every call and drop the results into a reporting website for you to view/listen. As the CEO of your dental practice, this gives you the control you are looking for out of your marketing. Imagine you are home on a weekend and being able to visibly see every call and listen to every new patient inquiry that came into your practice last month. Imagine being able to see the inquiries that came in during office hours - that were never answered. Or, the inquiries that came in that took 15 seconds or more for your staff to answer. You spend GOOD MONEY promoting dentistry the right way. Spend a tiny bit of money to make certain that when that phone rings - you and your team are doing everything they possibly can to convert that inquiry into a new patient appointment.

Third step - Leftover Budget

If you have enough budget in 2013 for a dominant mail campaign and a dominant internet strategy, and still have room in the budget for something else, your next moves (in order of risk) vary from market to market. If you dominate the internet and mail markets, there is a very good chance we are going to recommend exploiting the local print media market. But, we may recommend expanding the internet market by simply adding a mobile website. It depends what market you are in. If you are in say Seattle, New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, or very near a big city with lots and lots of people - we are very likely to recommend a properly done mobile site. If your practice is more in the burbs to rural, it is very likely we would recommend allocating some money toward newspaper inserts.

Summary

Every year, you plan the following year's promotion. When you invest each year consistently (and do it properly), you end up with dominant positions in those mediums. Once you dominate a medium (like the internet or mail), continuing to dominate it requires LESS money over time. It requires far more money to initially establish a dominant position in a promotion medium, than it does to stay there. A classic example is the internet. Once you have a great website built and the initial SEO started - you won't have those promotion expenses next year.

If the mediums you already dominate are producing and the costs are dropping, you should have budget room in the coming year for additional promotions. Use that budget room to begin to establish dominance in the next medium.

Step by step by step, one promotion medium at a time. All tracked and reported back to you on a continual basis. The CEO (you) has total control.

How cool would that be?

As always, if we (NPI) don't handle your promotion for you, you can learn the most effective ways in our latest book. We also have 7 hours of online CE for you to learn from. Of course, if you'd like us to build you a marketing plan for your practice, at no cost or obligation to you, we can do that as well. Just click this link and share information about your dental practice. You will get your marketing plan emailed to you in 4 to 5 work days.

Got questions? Want to learn more? 

You can reach Mark & Howie at:

Howie: whh@newpatientsinc.com

Mark: markd@newpatientsinc.com

Website: www.newpatientsinc.com