Dental Marketing #90: Making a Good First Impression

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

DMM #57 - Taking on an Associate

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 Mastery #38

DMM #38 -  The Truth about Duplicate Content



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 Mastery #37

DMM -#37: Rural vs. Urban Marketing | Dental Marketing Mastery Podcast



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 Mastery #13: Common Mistakes, Part 1

Learn more 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 Agency - Marketing Quotes

Today, it’s more important than ever for consumer brands to build relationships and reputation with potential and current customers. – Kurt Uhlir
Quote from sideqik.com collection.

July 2013 Newsletter - Let's talk about barriers - Dental Marketing

Let's talk about barriers

In the last issue of this newsletter, we discussed call tracking and calculating/projecting forward return on investment. Barriers have an awful lot to do with the number of calls you receive from your advertising, and in turn, your return on investment. Our objective with the next several issues of this newsletter is to enlighten you on how the public views the barriers, and how you might be able to mitigate the barriers to get a better result.

Price as a barrier

Price is the #1 consumer concern when choosing a dentist. We know this from testing. We know this from investing in completely independent consumer research. We doubt this is a surprise to any of you.

Is it price or ignorance?

We contend, and have proven for the past quarter century, that you can effectively promote a dental practice WITHOUT focusing (visually) on price incentives. As a matter of fact, in 99% of our work, you would have to search for or listen really hard to find any price incentive.

Females choose healthcare providers for their family. Half of those females are turned off by price incentives offered by healthcare providers as the primary focus of their advertising. These females make up the top half of the dental market.

If you look at the subject of price, one can flip it around and begin to wonder if the market truly understands the value and benefit of what dental practices offer. If they did realize and understand the value and benefit of what the dental practice offers, wouldn't price be less important? Yes, of course, especially with the top half of the dental market.

With the top half of the dental market, what you have is almost pure ignorance. Price is the only known concern. They don't understand the benefits of today's dentistry. The only thing they do know to ask about is either the price, or if their insurance will cover their visit/treatment. Fill their minds with the value and benefit of today's dentistry (in your advertising and during the first phone call to your practice), and the importance of price fades very quickly.

How to mitigate the importance of price in your advertising

In your advertising, you first mitigate the importance of price by talking about it! But, you don't have to make a big deal about some new patient special. You mitigate price by letting your audience know other things about price. You are affordable for the whole family. You offer payment plans. You offer patient friendly financing. You are their advocates, and will do everything you can to maximize their dental insurance benefits. You invest in technology that allows you to find cavities earlier, to help them save money. You provide same day dentistry to save them time and money. There are literally dozens of ways to talk about price with the consumer, without being perceived as the bargain basement dentist, and in turn, turning off exactly the market segment you are going after - the top half.

Don't avoid talking about price. Just talk about price positively without coming across as the low cost provider in your market.

The next thing you do in your advertising to mitigate the importance of price, is to talk about the benefits of the dentistry you provide! Refocus the consumer. They simply do not know what you do. They really do think the dentistry performed today, is the same as the dentistry done 30 years ago. Fill the value void. If you fill the value void, the importance of price is replaced with the importance of the services, conveniences, and technologies you provide.

 

Why does everyone ask about price or insurance during their first phone call to your office?

The bottom half of the market is asking about price or insurance because that's all they really care about. Your chances of flipping them into a good quality new patient are slim. Many frogs, and the occasional prince.

The top half is asking you about price or their insurance coverage because that's all they know to ask. They don't know anything about the dentist, services, technology, or conveniences your practice offers - they ask about the only thing they know. A properly trained staff person answering that phone call will immediately begin talking up the dentist, the quality of the services, the technology, and the conveniences your practice offers.

Your advertising primes the pump. If your advertising is filling the value void (talking about reasons to choose you other than price), and your staff is also talking about the value of seeing you - you will attract more than your fair share of the top half of the dental market. When that happens, you begin moving toward your objective.

Let everyone else compete to be the cheapest dentist

There are 75,000,000 females in the US who are not going to choose the overt, lowest cost provider anyway (the top half of the market). It's funny, the more overt and cheaper the advertising appears, the more the top half of the market moves away from those dentists.

Mitigate their initial concern about price and their ignorance about the benefits of today's dentistry by proactively talking about how your practice helps them afford and save money. Then fill the value void with the benefits of choosing you as their dentist.

Watch what happens.

Next month we talk about the barrier of convenience. Too many of you "think" you are a convenient dental practice to choose. The barrier of convenience is typically a fairly easy one to mitigate. So, pay attention next month.

If any of you need us, just call 866.336.8237. We will be here for you.

Got questions? Want to learn more?   

You can reach Mark & Howie at:

Howie: mailto:whh@newpatientsinc.com

Mark: markd@newpatientsinc.com

Check out our latest dental marketing book

Dental Marketing - 10 What Promotional Mediums Support Each Other?

New Patients, Inc.  
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

Dental Office Marketing Company

Ask Them What They Want
Tell Them They Can Get It from You
DentalTown Magazine
By William Howard Horrocks

It has been said that when Sigmund Freud was nearing the end of his career he admitted that in spite of all the mysteries and questions he had tried to solve in his life's work, the one thing he was never able to fully understand was, “what do women really want?”

Maybe Sigmund should have done a survey.

A survey can give you an incredible amount of useful information you can use in your marketing efforts. Surveys can help you hone your marketing message so you can zero in on what people think and feel about you, your practice, and dentistry in general as well as a host of other topics. They tell you the reasons people chose you over the dozens of other dentists they could have chosen. Surveys tell you what your marketing message should be.

It's not always practical to go out and survey the public at large, that is, people on the street. That being the case, how are you going to find out what marketing messages people will respond to?

You ask those who have already responded - your patients.

The idea is; the marketing message that got your current patients to arrive will work to get prospective new patients to arrive as well.

Don't Assume You Know What People Want

Without a survey you might end up telling people things they couldn't care less about. For example, a client of mine thought that because he had all this high tech equipment like an intra-oral camera, laser, air abrasion, etc. that people would just flood in because he was so “advanced.” He wanted me to design mailings and other promotions that would highlight his “state-of-the-art” practice.

After surveying his patients I found out what they actually appreciated the most was that the doctor and staff were very friendly and treated them with warmth, courtesy and concern. They didn't really care that much about the camera and the other gadgets. So emphasizing the “cutting edge” aspect of his practice in his mailings and other promotions would have missed the mark and would have been an expensive waste.

Survey Secret

What you are actually doing with a survey is a very simple thing, yet it seems that not even the big Madison Avenue ad agencies or marketing gurus fully grasp its simplicity. Here it is in a nutshell;

The way to strike a responsive chord in your audience is to ask them what they want, and then tell them they can get it from you.

Here are some examples (by the way these are real life examples from my own clients).

Dr. Smith wanted me to re-design her Yellow Pages ad for the new year. So we did a survey on her patients and asked them what qualities they would expect a good dentist to have. The most given answer was - “he/she must be experienced and up-to-date.”

We also asked what they would expect from the hygienists and other staff. The most given answer - “I want them to be friendly and caring.” We then used that information to craft a marketing message and came up with the headline, “Where Can You Get The Most Up-To-Date Dentistry From Friendly, Caring And Experienced Professionals?”

The rest of the ad was built around and highlighted these themes.

Here's another. Dr. John wanted to find out what it was about his practice that his patients found different. In other words, what made him stand out from all the other practices? The most given answer - (survey says!) “I'm treated like family - not a number.”

So the theme for the mailing we did to the residents in the neighborhood was, “We Treat Our Patients like Family.” And we included testimonial quotes from patients that echoed this theme to really drive home the point.

Simple, isn't it? Ask them what they want, tell them they can get it from you.

Common Themes

Getting the doctor and staff to survey their patients is always first thing I do with a new client. I write the survey and have the staff hand one to each arriving patient. The patient is asked to fill it out and return it to the covered box on the front desk. (Covered to ensure anonymity). I usually try to get 30 or so completed surveys, though the more the better. Consequently, I have the results of literally thousands of surveys on dental patients from all over the country.

Marketing messages often vary greatly from practice to practice but even so, some common themes have emerged. For example, four years ago there was a fairly high percentage of patients in this country who were worried about getting AIDS from their dentist. Perhaps a silly notion, but they were worried just the same. Therefore the marketing documents (ads, mailers, etc.) that I wrote for my clients at that time would always contain a line about “advanced patient protection procedures” or some such phrase. The degree we emphasized this depended on the percentage who were worried about it. If it were a high percentage we'd make “sterilization” the main theme of the ad or mailer, perhaps even constructing a headline stressing cleanliness. If the percentage was lower we might have simply included a mention of it. But now, four years later, I've found this concern has all but disappeared. It rarely comes up any more, or if it does it's a very small percentage. So the “sterilization” message is not as much of a concern right now. However, a 60 Minutes hatchet job could change all that. That's why it's important to survey regularly.

What Do People Want From Dentistry?

Even though I encourage you to survey your own patient population to get their specific needs, desires and concerns, there are consistent themes that have emerged from the extensive surveying I've done. You can use these and be fairly certain that your message will not fall on deaf ears. The list below contains what I've found to be the most desired features people want from their dental health professionals;

1. Friendliness from doctor and staff (invariably this is the number one desire and has been for years)

2. Caring, concern and understanding from doctor and staff

3. Gentle, stress-free, as-close-as-you-can-get-to-painless dental care (even though it's trite, they still want to hear that you will be gentle)

4. Convenient location (close to home, work or near where they go frequently, such as the shopping center)

5. Clean, modern, up-to-date office

6. Insurance acceptability (even if you don't accept assignment they want to know that you will at least help them file the paperwork)

7. Payment options (credit cards, pre-payment discount, Norwest, etc.)

8. Prompt emergency care (do you make it clear that emergencies are welcome or do you discourage them by saying “emergency care available.”
    The word “available” makes it sound like you'll accept them but you really don't want to)

9. Good with their kids

10. Offers various cosmetic procedures such as whitening, bonding, veneers, non-mercury, tooth colored fillings

Notice that “technical expertise” or even “competence” aren't even on the list! Not that this is any reason to be sloppy or not do your best for your patients, but it is interesting that this is not a chief concern.

Note also that the top items on the list; friendliness, caring, concern and understanding, are human elements and have nothing whatever to do with crowns, bridges, root canals or expensive equipment. And not only that, these actions and attitudes don't cost you a thing yet they are the very best marketing you can do.

By regularly surveying you are asking your patients what they want. All you have to do is make sure you can deliver those things and then tell one and all they can get what they want right in your practice.

That's a message people will respond to.

Dental Marketing Company for Dentists

Why 2013 May Be a Big Rebound Year - Get Ready

According to the ADA's website, dentistry as a whole has shed 18% since March of 2008. Many of you haven't seen that drop. But for every dentist that hasn't seen that kind of a drop, another dentist has experienced a greater than 18% drop in the past 4 years. It's just simple math.

NPI has been doing this a long time. And, you probably already know that we have statistical analysis on most things related to consumers and dental revenues. With every recession in history, there is a rebound. As we've written numerous times in almost every major trade journal in dentistry these past four years - this particular recession is interesting and unique when compared to others in the past 25 years.

This recession, or the reason why it is hanging on so long, is being prolonged (primarily) by the lack of consumer borrowing power. Remember 2002 through 2007 when everyone in the country racked up credit card debt and paid it off with home equity? Well, that home equity vanished in 08. That's where the majority of your elective dental procedures went. Poof!

There are five main general reasons why 2013 could be a big rebound year for dentistry.     They are as follows.

1.    Presidential election: Every presidential election cycle causes consumers to hold off spending. Usually from June through December of an election year. This is nothing new. This is not tied to the overall recession. But it is a fact. Consumer spending will slow down until a decision is made the first week of November 2012. Regardless of who wins the election, once the election is over, there will be an economic rebound from pent up demand.

2.    Who wins the election will make a difference: This is not a political blog. We are not taking sides. We are not debating ideological points or economic principle. If one side wins this election, there will be a slight bump in dentistry in the first quarter of 2013 from the pent up demand created by the election cycle itself, then things will flatten out. If the other side wins this election, there will be slow steady uninterrupted growth for dentistry throughout the year.

3.    Housing Prices are stabilizing: Consumers haven't stopped wanting to spend. They just stopped being able to run their credit up to historic levels. Look around you. Look at the housing numbers around the country. For the majority of the country, housing prices have stabilized. It may be another few months before prices start to tick up, but for most of the country - the floor has been found. This bodes well for future consumer spending.

4.    Interest rates are still historically low: This will further clear out the housing market and balance the supply and demand. This also allows more people to fund more elective treatment within the window of months just ahead of us.

5.    What happens to teeth and gums that are ignored for five years? Do you see the balloon of emergency treatment, extractions, implants, perio, sedation, and dentures coming?  Oh, it's coming!

What should you do?

If you are already promoting to the right segment of the dental market surrounding your practice and you have been consistent with it through this recession - you are WAY ahead. ALL those consumers who know about you through your promotion, but have yet to call - will call in greater numbers and greater quality!

If you went through the recession with little/no promotion or inconsistent promotion, establish your momentum now!

If you are not sure what to do, you can call us to chat, you can complete an online survey and have us build a marketing plan, you can read our latest book, or you can take our online CE.

All of you, to some degree, have been challenged by this recession. It's time to set up for the rebound.

Got questions? Want to learn more? 

You can reach Mark & Howie at:

Howie: whh@newpatientsinc.com

Mark: markd@newpatientsinc.com

Contact Us

New Patients, Inc.

The marketing firm

exclusively for dentists

866-336-8237

www.newpatientsinc.com

Corporate offices:

Oquendo Business Park

5935 Edmond Street

Suite 105

Las Vegas, NV 89118

Office: 702-221-2184

Fax: 702-252-3958

Pacific Time Zone

Dental Marketing Company - Client Testimonial

Kent Smith, DDS
Irving, TX

“We messed up by thinking we had this new patient thing fixed because New Patients, Inc. fixed it for us in a big way several years ago. But we stopped doing mailers after years of rising success. Don’t ask me why. We got busy. We took our eye off the ball, yada yada, whatever. But once we learned our lesson, we had NPI work their magic again, so the calls are coming in like clockwork. 

We had a new patient yesterday who’s a financial planner. She told me she read every single word in the mailer, and her word to describe her impression of the practice was “genuine.” She 
said anyone can say anything on a piece of paper, so ‘you have to do it right to make me believe that the product is indeed what is represented on paper.’ She also said our office didn’t disappoint. Everyone was so calming and friendly, etc. . . She has quickly become one of our favorite patients, and not just because she started Six Month Smiles, scheduled crowns and is sending in her new husband.

Oh, one more item on this patient. She said she loved the fact we had families on the mailer and treated children. Is that because she has children? Nope. It just gave her a comfort level she was 
looking for. How many of us dentists who love to do cosmetics would design a mailer with families? Nuf said.” 

New Patients, Inc.

The marketing firm

exclusively for dentists

866-336-8237

www.newpatientsinc.com