Dental Marketing

English: Edward Francis Hutton in 1920

Remember the advertising campaign that showed a couple of guys talking, and one guy says, “What does your broker say?” And the response is “Well my broker is E.F. Hutton, and he says…”

What a great ad campaign. How would you like to reach that kind of status in your community? When a conversation about dentistry occurs in public and your name comes up…you are the expert. The place where people turn to for advice…everything dental.

Well this happened to me the other day. One of my patients reported being at a wedding and the subject of teeth came up. Everyone was discussing how great their dentist was. There was another dentist in the crowd too.

Someone turned to the dentist and asked who her dentist was.

She mentioned my name, (my patient was sooo proud), and then just like the EF Hutton commercial...everyone stopped to listen.

Isn’t that what word of mouth marketing is supposed to be about. You can’t pay for that. That’s brand building!

What are your word of mouth strategies? I would love to hear some great ideas…the best ones I will put in the new book Art of Case Presentation (of course you will be acknowledged)

Place your ideas in the comments below.

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Here’s a formula to go out of business.

Good enough to eat? You tell me.

We had a great hamburger restaurant in the neighborhood for years — mouthwatering burgers, an enormously diversified salad bar, cold beer on tap, and all at reasonable prices. They thrived.
Then the owners of the franchise decided to buy out the franchiser.

The first time we went for dinner under the “new ownership,” we hardly noticed anything different…until… the prices were increased by 20% without a change in the quality… and we now had to pay for the same salad bar that we used to get for free.

I told my wife that I was never coming back and would be surprised if they lasted 6 months.

They lasted three…there’s a For Sale sign up now.

What’s the lesson?

There are actually a few lessons. And I know you have similar stories to tell…I see it all the time.
I’m an average Joe…I just walked out without saying anything, never to return. Hopefully that doesn’t happen in your practice…but patients and customers rarely tell us when they are unhappy.
They just leave.

But the big lesson is one of Marketing’s Big Principles — Everything is Marketing.

Do you market your practice?
Of course you do, depending how you define marketing. For me it’s the creation and maintaining of the relationships with your patients…it’s a process by which we make impressions and create perceptions.
Marketing is every communication, every message, every image.

Anything that sends a message has a consequence…positive or negative in the minds of our patients.
Here’s a short list:

how you look
how you operate
how you price
how you answer the phone
your website
your clean operatory, and bathrooms
your uniforms
your signage
your photography
your language (scripting)
your mindset (yes…you can’t hide it).

Dentists are being taught to sell.

Selling is transaction based. It is a mindset that is hurting the profession. The marketing mindset is one that understands that we want to create patients for life. Selling dentistry has its place and like advertising it is just a small piece of the larger marketing puzzle. By making continual positive impressions on our patients, we become “their dentist.”

For those of you who are familiar withL.D. Pankey’s Ladder of Competency, he described the dental community as 54% apathetic or indifferent. Indifference really shows up in every communication.

Someone once said, “You cannot not communicate.” Similarly, you cannot not market.

That’s the lesson…everything is marketing.

And the hamburger joint that went out of business? What message did they send to me?

I would like to hear your comments…dig deep, because the answer will reveal just how serious these communications really are.

Look for more Marketing 101 Principles.

What is Your Definition of Word of Mouth?