Shake It Up Dental Marketing

Every dentist needs a communication plan for his or her patients. Some have it down. Others are searching.

Many are just trying anything and everything that comes their way. The cheapest. The easiest. The newest. The flashiest. The "proven". The dentist (who is now a marketing person) approved version. The guru guided. Or the always hot… "Future" of marketing concept.

What is your poison? Okay, it is not that bad. Maybe it's just a bitter pill to swallow. But you do need to make a decision. If you're a down and get-your-hands-dirty entrepreneur like myself, it won't be doing nothing. So let's find out how to knock'em dead with good dental marketing.

I like to break the rules. Bring in the big guns. Burn down the house. Start from scratch. Shake up your world.

Many dental practices want to make gradual changes or find that one thing to change their fortunes. Sadly, changing gradually on top of a generic foundation does very little to improve marketing success. That one thing is not likely to work either with an average foundation to work from.

Shake It Up Dental Marketing Goes Beyond The Façade
Why Other Dental Marketing Agencies Don't Shake It Up
Developing Shake It Up Dental Marketing
Conclusion to Shake It Up Dental Marketing

SHAKE IT UP GOES BEYOND THE FAÇADE

Think of the major restaurant chains and retail stores that update their interior presentation every 7 or 10 years. This costs hundreds of millions of dollars. DHL recently spent around 100 million dollars to paint their entire fleet of about 20 thousand trucks yellow (with a splash of their red logo) in a matter of months. If sending out another postcard or letter would have done the trick, don't you think they would have done that! You need more to break through the clutter.

You are not a national chain with billions of dollars in sales, but you have much of the same resources as most franchises. You can take out a loan or dig into your (future) revenues to pay for those types of changes if you wanted to.

Of course, many dentists have already spent their "future salaries" because of family and personal commitments. They have not planned for that 7 to 10 year change in strategy and image enhancement anymore than their patients have planned in $20,000 in dentistry (smile makeover) enhancements at age 45.

What do you mean spend $1.2 million on a new building or $75,000 on a remodeled image? I was not planning on that! You hear the same thing from your patients about their smiles.

Those that do build the new building don't realize that new image marketing created by a cool new facility won't last more than a couple of years. It is the same as the dental patient that comes in for a new smile because they want to be more attractive to the opposite sex. But they just sit at home and wait for a phone call. Or when they are out and about, they display only their smile and not a personality. Designing it and they will come (a new smile or new building) only goes so far.

The façade (the building or the person's smile) only goes so far as a marketing tool. The consumer needs to understand the deeper value of that façade. We know a façade is all some people need. But for most people to make a real commitment ($20,000 smile makeover or marriage) they need to scrutinize more things and will place more obstacles in the way.

The consumer will give you the filling and the crown with a façade of dental marketing. However, once the out of pocket costs get beyond one thousand dollars, most consumers will start to find things wrong with the picture you have drawn them.

NOTE: No matter how valid your dental recommendations are SOME people will never part with this kind of money. We are talking about the 10-20 percent of people who are not accepting your treatment right now and 5 percent of the general population who have not approached any dentist about smile makeover dentistry.

I think there are also another 10-20 percent of those that are not coming to the dentist--because of fear or old ideas about dentistry--who might only accept less comprehensive dentistry, 2 to 6 teeth enhancement, who can also be attracted by better marketing.

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WHY OTHER DENTAL MARKETING AGENCIES DON"T SHAKE IT UP

Let's say you do not have a new building or are not in a growing area to "supplement" your need to do proactive marketing. Then you need to do something to shake up the market. Break the stalemate created by the clichés of dentistry like drilling and pulling teeth, and the generic if not often terrible dental marketing out there.

Most big dental marketing companies have fairly decent marketing ideas that work for many practices. Unfortunately, they often need to use the lower common denominator of marketing concepts. They want you to buy now and a lot. I call it the drill, bill and fill of dental marketing. It is not the best recommendation - it's just the one most dentists will buy: low cost, easy implementation and almost immediate.

While this lower common denominator dental marketing just might work for some, many dental practices need a strategy that does more than what is being purchased off the shelf.

I compare this to the dental patient that comes in thinking they just need teeth whitening to give them the right smile. But they have yellow teeth because of major periodontal problems. I could throw a simple "whitening package" at you and see what happens, but what kind of a marketing clinician would I be?

In these "periodontal problem" marketing cases, my recommendation is to shake up your world with a makeover. And then shake up the world of the consumer with marketing that shakes them from their current concepts of dentistry. Maybe we will burn down the house and start over or just dig deep to see what messages might work in your situation.

Pulling something off the shelf is not what I do - P&G has great whitening strips - but they don’t work for everyone. They don't straighten smiles. They don't solve TMJ. They don't lengthen teeth or heal them. Niche Agency "Shake it up" dental consulting goes beyond the whitening concept of generic one size fits all dental marketing.

Generic - looking for 1,000 dentists - dental marketing companies don't offer this type of service because it is difficult for them to package it neatly. They hire people who can sell you their wares without much knowledge about the products or services being sold. They are selling consultants not marketing consultants.

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DEVELOPING SHAKE IT UP DENTAL MARKETING

The dental consumer has fears, worries, anxieties, misperceptions, and emotional and physical memories of and about dentistry. These things keep them from focusing on dentistry in the manner you wish them to. Shake It Up Dental Marketing presents concepts that break through many levels of this thick veneer.

Some will make positive changes because you give away free whitening. Some will do positive things when you reduce your examination fees. You might grab the cream off the top by getting out front and doing some cool image advertising. But once you have competition in these generic areas, your power to engage the dental consumer is limited.

To shake up this status quo there needs to be an honest, deep, and wide-ranging assessment to determine:

• Where you're at from an image and expertise perspective?
• What you want to market and why (your mission not the services you want to sell)?
• What is available from a budget and demographic standpoint?
• What can be achieved in your market? Don't under estimate the market.
• What value concepts will be accepted? Help them build value.
• Is your team really onboard to more your image to the next level?

Make sure your team and you have all the skills to communicate value not just the excitement and energy.

Once you have these answers, they need to be injected into your marketing. Should I do a free whitening offer is answered by doing this. I am asked by dentists all the time, "What kind of marketing should I do?" If I answer that question the first time you call - you are getting generic marketing help. It could work - it probably won't.

Imagine offering smile makeover recommendations without x-rays and impressions. Then getting judged by that. But that is what most dentists want when they asked the questions above: marketing successes free of reality.

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CONCLUSION TO SHAKE IT UP DENTAL MARKETING

Shake it up dental marketing is based on developing ideas from an understanding of the situation on the ground - not what's in my head or your head. It complements what you already know and puts that and other research into direct and favorable activities. It refocuses my early preconceptions of what might be good, and then takes those realities to the consumer.

Does it always work the first time? No, there are often many issues to overcome. However, it provides insight to make better decisions as you move along.

As discussed earlier, even the big guys need to retool and try things. Of course, if you want to be that main street fading-away department store, you can stick to your guns and do what you're doing. Or you can fight the Wal-mart (drill, bill and fill) dental practices directly and lose out by lowering the value of your expertise by going the low road.

Most analogies break down somewhere, but I suggest something following an example more like the retailer Target - break the rules - have value-focused fees and use creativity to influence how the dental consumer perceives you.

As you know, paradoxically, the dental consumer wants low fees and the great services you offer. You need to thread this dental marketing needle so they don't mind higher fees because they see the value in what you provide. (Higher fees also include the fees over and above want dental insurance pays.)

For 30 years parents have broken this low fee/great thing paradox for their children's smiles via orthodontics/braces. It can be broken more often for smile makeovers and non-insurance level restorations if you have the right information to work with and apply it consistently.

Niche Agency "Shake It Up" dental marketing consulting is not for every dentist or dental practice. But if you want your consumers to look for value, to know what value is, and to accept your value, the generic dental marketer's three levels of marketing (platinum, gold, silver) or however they package it, probably will not do it for you.

When you are done roaming the web and done being frustrated with the generic dental marketing ideas being promoted, I am ready to Shake It Up for you!

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Dental Marketing Commentary by Dental Marketing Consultant and expert in dental marketing research, Dick Chwalek - Niche Agency Director

For more on Dick Chwalek's dental marketing expertise, read his articles. The article topics include choosing the best dental logo design firm, getting better dental referrals, getting larger smile makeover cases, and standing out in the dental marketing crowd.

While not a dentist, Dick is well versed in many of the latest dental techniques and dental technologies. Recently, he wrote an advertorial for Dr. Kent White of Chattanooga on Neuromuscular Dentistry.