Marketing Right Now

Yep this is a tough rebuild for all dental professionals.

So, the question that we are being asked a lot is “what marketing should I do?”

Here are our thoughts:

- Your patients are also experiencing tough times in their lives and dentistry will not be on the top of their to do list.

- We fully appreciate and understand that you want and need to make money right now to try to recoup your financial losses. However, if you push your patients too hard, they will simply walk away and not return.

- Respect = Loyalty

Key Marketing Priorities are – internal marketing, referral rewards & community connections

- No 1 Strategy - start with a huge recall blitz.

Get as many patients in to maintain their preventative care as possible.

This will allow patients with health insurance to use this benefit plus give them a safe & positive experience returning to your practice with the added hygiene measures now in place.

Give every recall patient a hygiene ‘goodie’ bag with toothbrush, mini paste, mini floss, mini mouthwash

Plus make up gift cards with 10 to 20% off reward for your recall patients to redeem on follow on treatment within the next 3 months (always put an expiry date for any offer) and add this to the goodie bag but make sure you tell the patients that you are giving them this special offer.

Note – we use canva.com to create all marketing materials – easy & cheap

- No 2 Strategy – outstanding treatment list

Call everyone that you had to cancel prior to shut down and see if they want to reschedule.

This will be a significant list of potential planned treatment.

Give every treatment patient a thank you ‘goodie bag’ containing sugarless chewing gum, mini floss, calming tea bag blend – individual sachet, mini lip gloss – or whatever you believe will appeal to your patients.

Plus make up referral cards with a 10 to 20% off reward for your follow - on treatment patients that refer someone to your practice. Again, tell your patients that you are offering them this special opportunity.

- No 3 Strategy – community connection

We strongly believe that putting your energies and marketing resources into local marketing, networking and community connections is a much better ‘bang for your buck’ right now.

List out all local small businesses, schools, business groups, community groups, mothers’ groups in your local area. Target the groups that best represent your patient demographic and source of current patients’.

Then put together a simple flyer about your business – services, hours, expertise etc plus a cover letter outlining that you would like to network with them for mutual benefit.

Every type of business is struggling right now so why not support each other.

Post this out and follow up with a phone call approximately max of 7 days later.

Either yourself the principle dentist or a key staff member or hygienist could call and make a time to see the owner of the business.

There are endless possibilities to collaborate with local businesses, sponsor an award at your local schools, run a competition in conjunction with other businesses. The limit is your imagination, level of persistence and desire to connect and gain benefit for your practice.

We don’t believe that this is a time for expensive marketing campaigns or external marketing programs seeking new patients.

Allocate a much lower marketing budget to focus on internal and community marketing for much faster and successful outcomes.