A nicely dressed woman walks in to your practice. Does she need veneers? A filling? No. She wants you to advertise in your local paper’s upcoming special section for health and wellness. "We have no other dentists in the piece and only one space left!" she says with a gorgeous smile – a daVinci smile.
Why doesn’t her dentists take the spot? He probably passed on the "great" opportunity.
You’re inundated with marketing opportunities every day – from the football booster club’s 2008 wall calendar to the chamber of commerce’s full-color business guide that’s mailed to all new businesses in the area. How can you discern which opportunities are good, sound investments for your marketing dollars? Well, don’t count on the booster club’s wall calendar to bring you a flurry of patients interested in cosmetic makeovers. Expect some football players with teeth knocked out at best. Unless you are an avid booster yourself, you may want to respectfully decline.
Thirty-year veterans to the practice marketing game, Stewart Gandolf (a marketing wizard?) and Lonnie Hirsch of Healthcare Success penned the article "Just say no to spaghetti marketing" that appeared in August’s Dental Economics. In it, they named seven ways to spot marketing that just won’t stick (thus, the spaghetti reference). With no marketing experience at all, you can spot a bad opportunity a mile away.
If the sales pitch claims that: the opportunity is low cost; one new case will cover the cost; it’s a unique or creative approach; you’re the first participant (ie: Guinea pig); it has a large, free distribution; or – as in our situation above – there is one space available, all others are sold, then you need to open your eyes and see the red flag. The most disheartening pitch mentioned in the DE article referred to blackmail – the salesman will take the fabulous opportunity to your competition. You’re too smart to be blackmailed into poor marketing. You’re a doctor, for Pete’s sake!
Gandolf and Hirsch recommend creating a one-year marketing plan that’s well planned, but you’ll need to stick to it. You can get a free small business marketing plan template from Microsoft here: http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/products/office/templates/sales-and-marketing.htm.
What marketing venture can show you in hard numbers whether it’s paying off? The first that comes to mind is a website. Reporting features can track traffic on your site, telling you where visitors enter and where they leave, how many people are looking at your site, what they look at while they’re there, and all kinds of awesome marketing info. You can incorporate forms to track leads, as well. Check out www.TNTDental.com for more information about professional dental websites with search engine optimization and reporting.
Dental Economics Article: "Just say no to spaghetti marketing" – http://www.dentaleconomics.com/login/index.html;jsessionid=1355636B3378BB47E41E287FE4DA83B3