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Learning
the importance of marketing and advertising
By
Tom Orent
What is Marketing?
Marketing, in the broadest sense of the word, is letting people
know what you have to offer. Roger Levin once defined marketing
as "forty or more consistent, simultaneous, positive messages."
An effective marketing campaign is one that conveys what you have
to offer, and to whom.
There are two categories of marketing: external and internal. Internal
marketing creates and maintains interest on an ongoing basis with
your patients. External marketing reaches out to those who don't
use your services, yet. Though we'll focus here on external, it
should be placed second on your priority list. Take advantage of
internal marketing since you already have a following of happy folks
who know and trust you. Internal marketing will help to keep them
abreast of new developments in dentistry, as well as new treatments
being offered.
For example, perhaps Mr. Jones has absolutely no interest in whitening,
but his granddaughter's adult teeth just came in with embarrassing
brown decalcifications. If you have an internal marketing program
in place, he will learn that you have a solution to his granddaughter's
problem.
Be certain to review, revise and upgrade your internal marketing
strategies before undertaking a new external marketing campaign.
Otherwise, you'll waste your hard-earned dollars when your practice
isn't able to handle and manage the influx of new patients that
will beat a path to your door. If you aren't prepared, you'll never
get to realize their awesome potential and they'll never have the
opportunity to choose services from which they may derive great
benefit.
Why Should I Advertise?
Good question. You should consider external marketing (advertising)
if you fall into any of the following categories:
You're considering selling the practice within the next five to
ten years. Your practice has been an outstanding source of enjoyment,
pride and financial support over the years. However, your new patient
flow has declined as of late with new, younger practitioners opening
up shop and the increasing proportion of managed care patients.
This is a critical time because anyone interested in purchasing
your practice will take serious note of your overall production
and new patient flow.
You're in the middle of your career - ages 30 to 50. Overhead is
continuing to rise, collection has plateaued or is declining, and
your take-home is waning. It's now simply a numbers game. If you
need a boost in production and collection, one excellent avenue
is to increase your production and new patient flow through advertising.
If you've got the extra chair time, a couple of additional new patients
each week can dramatically increase your bottom line. Keep in mind
that the fixed overhead for the month has already been paid so you'll
incur only a slight increase in supplies and lab. Other than that,
the only significant increase in overhead will come from your advertising
-- which you'll monitor carefully, tracking your ROI (Return On
Investment).
You've seen the light and decided to focus on a specific area of
practice. Perhaps you've recently returned from the American Academy
of Cosmetic Dentistry's annual sessions and have made a commitment
to increase the number of porcelain veneer cases. Or maybe you just
purchased the Halimeter and are primed to start your own "Fresh
Breath Center." Whatever your interest, target marketing can
aid in bringing you just the right kind of patients and can be incredibly
effective.
You're close to bringing on an associate or partner, but can't quite
sustain another doc. There may be tremendous benefits available
to you, however, you can't support the extra provider quite yet.
It's often a catch-22. There are days when your staff knows they've
postponed or lost treatments because they couldn't schedule the
appointments fast enough with you. Yet, if you add another doc too
soon, you'll both starve! If you feel that your practice is at a
point where your patient production and flow is more than sufficient
to sustain your income, advertising may also be able to assist you
in generating patients for your associate.
Regardless of which of these stages your practice is at or what
has led you to consider beginning a marketing campaign, external
marketing can be an excellent tool to open up new opportunities
and new business for your practice. There are many marketing mediums
that can be effectively utilized to your advantage. The most common
ones are yellow pages, newspapers, coupons, direct mail, radio,
magazines, television, and Web sites. Keep in mind that these mediums
vary in cost, size of potential audience, frequency, ability to
target a specific market, level of savvy required to be effective,
and most importantly, results.
When planning a marketing program, the two basic pillars of success
are to be sure that you know who your target market is and to decide
what you are willing to offer to bring those potential patients
in. And remember, a comprehensive marketing campaign is multi-faceted,
built over time, and requires both effort and a financial investment.
But when you are able to find marketing tools that work for you,
the process can be a lot of fun and the results can definitely be
outstanding.
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