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The ‘Boss’ Inspires: Dental Marketing Thriving in This Economy!
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There are many dental marketing approaches. The two main concepts are closed marketing systems and individualized strategies. Dentists need to choose their marketing carefully because many products and services are full of slippery decks, plank walking exercises, and reality pirates. Make sure your marketing is open, flexible, and Born to Run!
About 80% of dentists and dental practices will do quite well on a system. However, competition, the economy and the restrictive structure of most systems make them less adaptable to significant changes in the market. For example, one day Google will have less power than it has now, just like Microsoft computer-based software has lost the dominance it once had because of the Internet.
Secondarily, no dental marketing system can cover every marketing channel. Some “popular” concepts often do not work for a specific “consumer group” even though everyone has jumped on the “800-pound marketing gorilla’s” bandwagon. For example, my use of PPC advertising shows that Google has been less effective for marketing to dentists than Yahoo.
More dentists might be searching on Google but the Niche Dental conversion rate has been higher with Yahoo PPC advertising. More clicks are not the same as more clients.
However, the most important issue with any system is that it has a sales life of its own. A dental marketing system can be one product like dental websites or direct mail postcards or the system can be various elements. But it usually relies on concepts that are limited to the products they offer. Therefore, the rubber meets the road with their system when the next best thing comes along.
The sales life of this system now has a conflict of interest to deal with. Their system is dying in its effectiveness (the Yellow Pages are an example of this) but dentists are still buying it because they are not as aware of the trend. Plus the system often does not drop the price because the system has growth models in place and overhead that cannot be drawn down fast enough. So some dentists will always get sold the last spot before the concept dies: and that could be you.
Of course, the Yellow Pages section for dentists is a very large marketing entity. There are less obvious concepts from individual dental marketing companies that create this scenario as well. This sales life conflict of interest often occurs and is more blatant when they get to a tipping point.
The tipping point is when they have a territory exclusive concept – only one dentist per ZIP code for example – and get low on viable ZIP codes. They need to sell everyone and keep everyone so the sales calls and marketing strategies are more aggressive. In addition, the “contract lock ins” are more restrictive and in much smaller print.
While they might add other dental marketing products to improve their cash flow in other ways or even latch on the newest ideas (often in a half hearted way), the cash cow of the dying marketing idea will not be flagged as failing until the last drop of money is taken from the last dentist in the pipeline.
How many dental marketing companies are looking out for you? It is hard to really tell. But I see too many that look like sailing ship builders in the early 1800s. They keep promoting the benefits of ships while laughing at the steamships because they will never get across the ocean with “those contraptions”.
Working with a dental marketer that employs a “fool proof” system – puts you in the position of being the last one to buy a sailing ship. With this type purchase, it makes it more likely you will sink when the market changes.
Beware of the dental marketing agency with this overarching need to feed the beast of their great idea. You want to have the ability to see farther than their sales staff and have the flexibility to switch to the steamship when it has the power to take you their faster.
Also watch out for the simple dental marketing ideas and systems – that are guaranteed to work – usually those are the most tired and inflexible and are built on their odds not yours. Think about it this way: there was a company that said they could predict whether you were going to have a boy or a girl for a fee. If they did not, you got your money back. They made money no matter what, because the odds are 50/50 they would be right.
Let’s say these dental marketing systems are successful 80% of the time – as noted earlier in this article. Are you the 20%? If they keep all the statistics – which they like to trot out to get you interested – they could probably tell you, but do they just need to sell that ZIP code? Plus is their successful dental practice percentage starting to drop?
In this economic downturn you need dental marketing that works for YOU. If you feel like you are tied down by the limits of the concept your dental practice is employing now, get a new set of eyes to look at what is powering your ship.
Even if things seem dire right now, few new patients, lower revenues, and more cancellations, it probably just mean your sales need more than dental marketing wind to get your ship moving.
For inspiration, here is a story about getting through tough times: The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, was at wits end when he dug down deep for the song that made him immortal. Amazingly his most recognized song was produced as a “last ditch effort” to make it big. He had the right musical skills but he did not have the commercial success until he released the song that included these words: We gotta get out while we're young, 'cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run.
It is time to give your dental skills the prominence they deserve. Drop the marketing system that is tied to the mast of a slow sales ship headed for Davy Jones’ Locker. Develop a dental marketing strategy that is Born to Run!
Call to get onboard the ship made for you. 866-453-1026 ext 251
'Born To Run' Reference
this portion from wikipedia: Written in a small house in Long Branch, New Jersey in early 1974, the song was Bruce Springsteen's last-ditch effort to make it big. The prior year, Springsteen had released two albums to critical acclaim but with little commercial success. The lyrics to the song are appropriately epic for his last-ditch, all-or-nothing shot at the stars, yet they remain rooted in the universal desperation of adolescence: We gotta get out while we're young, 'cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run.
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