Dental Marketing: All You Should Know
With the dental market increasingly saturated, the dental office owner needs to increasingly understand issues that are not related to clinical practice in the dental office, but also that are related to management and administration, such as dental marketing.
I remember that, as of this writing, Brazil has nearly 300,000 dentists and more colleges. This number corresponds to 20% of dentists worldwide.
Dental marketing is still a little sought-after device used by the dentist. To give you an idea, the term “dental marketing” is the most searched in this category that has several variables, as shown below:
- Dental Marketing;
- Marketing in Dentistry;
- Marketing in Dentistry;
- How to do dental marketing.
The term “dental marketing” is searched less than 1000 times a month on google. Analyzing these numbers, among other variables, we realize how scarce is the notion of the importance of marketing in dentistry, especially to attract patients to the dental office. On the other hand, despite the slightest search for the subject, I see dentists who own dental offices using some marketing techniques in dentistry:
- Disclosure of photos of the dental office;
- Differentiated business cards;
- Flyers;
- Dental advertisements on the internet.
However, even with the intention of taking action to get patients to the office, over 97% of dentists fail and achieve poor results or even no results at all. And dental marketing goes beyond mere dental advertising. And this frustration causes the dentist to give up capturing patients to the dental office through dental marketing. This is very natural. After all, he invested time (which is money) and saw no results, but what many dentists do not see is that that dental marketing strategy would hardly bring results because it was done the wrong way. Making an analogy with the dental clinic, it would be like a smoker patient wanting to have a spectacular result in the tooth whitening procedure. And we dentists know this will be next to impossible.
In fact, if a dentist wants to grow in your dental office without marketing, you are doomed to two situations below:
- poor profits;
- Bankruptcy of the dental office.
To help several fellow dentists around Brazil and around the world, I decided to write the most comprehensive article on dental marketing on the internet. So if you want to know the effect of excellent dental marketing, read this article to the end!
What is dental marketing?
As everyone knows, dental marketing aims to promote and strengthen the dental office brand for specific purposes, which almost always consists of capturing a certain niche of patients for the dental office.
The idea that dental marketing is expensive has long been overturned, not least as the emergence of digital marketing, which has literally thrown costs down, as well as being cost-effective.
The first and most important step in effective dental marketing is to identify your target audience. It is no use spending a lot of money if your dental marketing is going to the wrong person, for example, to this day I receive emails from a famous dental clinic here in Recife inviting me to do dental treatment. Unless she wants to specialize in being a dentist, which is not the goal, there was a serious mistake in targeting dental marketing and targeting the right people.
Another mistake I get today is from a famous children's brand that offers products for children. But I have no children and, as this marketing was done by facebook, it was perfectly possible to choose people who have children. What I mean is, when the dentist sends dental advertising to the wrong person or the least likely to be interested in your products / services, he is literally losing money. So first and foremost, know who your target audience is.
What forms of media can we use in dental marketing?
In any marketing action, one can make use of offline media and online media. Both are important for dental marketing, but one is growing a lot. Let's understand:
OFFLINE MEDIA
Offline media, also known as traditional media, corresponds to media that has been widely used in the past, whose use is declining greatly because of online media. Examples of offline media include:
- Flyers;
- Magazines and printed newspapers;
- Radios;
- Outdoors;
- Outbus;
- Direct mail.
These media were and are still widely used in marketing, however, is losing a lot of space for online media, which we will discuss below.
ONLINE MEDIA
With the need to reduce costs while measuring results, marketing had to reinvent itself and keep up with a strong market trend, which is the strong growth of the digital environment. Online media, which is used on the internet (websites, blogs and social networks), has brought many gimmicks to those who use them to do the marketing. Here are some advantages of online media over offline media:
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Possibility of measuring results
Let's say you campaign to get people to visit your site. In this campaign, you will know:
- How much the click cost, that is, how much you spent per person to get to your site;
- How much your ad response rate: For example, you can know how many people out of 1000 who viewed your ad clicked on it. If this rate is low, you can change the ad, something not allowed on offline media. If you have printed 10,000 flyers with bad dental advertising, there is no way to fix this error;
- Know which advertisement generates the most results;
- Set times and locations for ad delivery;
- Automate the campaigns.
All the above I can't do with offline media
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Audience Targeting Accuracy
If you are raising a budget for a billboard today, for example, the renter will say something like:
“The daily reach is 100,000 people…”
I am categorical in saying not to fall for this argument. Of these 100,000 people, not even 1% fits your target audience. Besides, you would still have to hope that the person who supposedly could be your patient look at the Billboard, that is, a real shot in the dark, because that billboard shows an advertisement for all sorts of people, do you agree?
In online media, you can fully target your audience by:
- A specific location (neighborhood, city, state, etc.);
- A radius of km near the dental office;
- The age group that is most attended by the dentist in a particular specialty. For example, orthodontics usually serves teenagers and young adults;
- Family income;
- Level of education;
- Genre;
- A particular interest, such as oral health or body aesthetics.
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Cost control of online dental marketing
Imagine you made an art for a flyer. Then, in the rush of everyday life, did not get to see the final art and has printed. When he saw it, the pamphlet came with a beautiful Portuguese mistake or the CRO number went wrong. Literally you threw money in the trash.
Another situation is that after reviewing a banner, it approved the impression. Then, after a few days, he saw that he could have looked like his competitor, which generates a lot of patient engagement. But then the banner was printed and once again the money went down the drain.
The above two situations would be easily corrected in online media, since you can easily edit ads by investing only in ads that bring results. Plus, investing in online media is infinitely better, especially when you compare costs versus benefits, especially since you can choose exactly the profile of your target audience, which would dramatically increase the chances of getting patients to your office. Today, there are no excuses for not having online presence. There are several free platforms that offer office site creation. Same thing on social networks, facebook and instagram (both free).
What are the main benefits of dental marketing?
In an increasingly saturated dental market, the dentist will have to make use of strategies that actively target patients, not just through referral marketing, which works, but in the medium and long term. Making use of proper dental marketing will bring to the office several benefits such as:
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Very few dentists do effective dental marketing.
Stop to think how many of your fellow dentists do any of the following:
- They have active websites;
- Make some offline advertisement, such as flyers or billboards;
- Have profiles active in social networks;
- Do some email marketing work;
- They invest heavily in the professional appearance and physical structure of the office.
Do not waste time. Of all your classmates, I say that not even 10% do at least two of the above actions. And that ends up being an opportunity because those who get ahead will enjoy it a lot.
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Dental marketing will strengthen your office
Let's think about a soda. Thought? Now tell me which brand comes to your head! It was probably coke, right? Strictly speaking, she could afford to spend a great deal of time without marketing, but the proposed continuity of Coca-Cola's marketing efforts is not aimed at capturing customers directly, but by strengthening the brand. And the result is when coke is among the first two brands of soda most remembered by people.
This reasoning can also be applied in dental marketing. And, depending on how many dentists are in place, you could easily be the one most remembered by people, which would inevitably bring more patient to the dental office.
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Dental marketing will bring more patients to the office
The overwhelming majority of dentists cannot capture patients. So, often, they are in the hands of dental plans and referral of patients by word-of-mouth, which, as I said above, has excellent results, but quite time consuming.
Well-done dental marketing actions greatly accelerate the process of capturing patients for the dental office.
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Dental marketing will increase patient loyalty
As we discussed, dental marketing is not just about bringing the patient to the office. It also includes patient loyalty strategies. Below are some dental marketing strategies that can be done in the office, making the service memorable:
- Excellence in service;
- Quality structure;
- Care after consultation (know how the patient is, if approved the outcome of treatment, etc.);
- Solve the patient's problem;
- Thank you for directions.
Often, office loyalty requires zero cost. We live in a country with a serious customer service issue. The office that offers this will go far ahead of the others when it comes to retaining the patient.
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Dental marketing will strengthen your office in the face of a crisis.
Dental marketing, among its many functions, aims to strengthen the name of the office. And any strengthened company feels much less the effect of any crisis.
How do I know if I'm doing dental marketing the right way?
After defining your target audience, it is time to do the proper dental marketing, which is where many dentists sin. Here are some tips before marketing your dental office:
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Your dental marketing actions are bringing the right patients
When it comes to capturing patients, there are three possible outcomes:
- Actions do not bring patients;
- Marketing actions bring all kinds of patients;
- Actions bring the RIGHT patients.
Of the three alternatives above, no doubt the third is the best option. Is the second bad? Not! But why will the dentist invest in dental marketing to bring in the wrong patients? This will lead to an increase in the average ticket spent per correct patient agree? So, given these results, these dental marketing actions will be costs and not investments. Or rather, it will be money lost. When dental marketing brings those patients who fit in with your target audience, it is a sign that the dentist is on the right track.
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The results the dental marketing actions grow proportionally to the investments made for this purpose.
Several dentists are afraid to increase investment in dental marketing actions. If it works, why not invest more and more? Just invest and monitor the results.
On the other hand, it is important to be very confident that dental marketing is really having an effect. For example, you can't take the result of a week and think the marketing actions were effective. If a dentist invests $ 100 a month in dental marketing actions and has a return on investment (ROI) of $ 2,000, we realize a 100% gross return on invested capital. If this return holds for three months with the same capital invested, it is time to increase the value, however, gradually. We can start with a 20% increase.
Another important point is that in the first months after the investment increase, it may not be possible to see this proportionality (decrease in ROI). However, if the dental marketing strategy is appropriate, the tendency is for proportionate results.
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Expected goals are being met with moderate to high frequency
Every self-respecting company that wants to grow in the market has to have goals and targets. After all, they will serve as a professional purpose, meaning that dental office staff members will strive to achieve the goals and objectives, for example, one of the office's goals is to attend to an X number of patients monthly or to reach a Y amount of gross revenue ( $ 20,000 / month, for example). And, to have an increase and constancy in the number of patients in the office, it is essential to have a dental marketing strategy to achieve those results.
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Increased patient loyalty in the dental office
Dental marketing is not only about bringing the patient to the dental office, but also keeping them in the company. This can be done in a variety of ways, ranging from an impeccable office structure to excellence in patient care. All this is important so that the patient does not want or even think about having treatments with their competitors. Also, keep in mind that keeping a patient from home is MUCH cheaper than getting a new patient to the office.
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There is a gradual increase in the number of patients referred by other patients (word of mouth)
Using the previous topic, a patient who is satisfied and delighted with the care offered at the dental office is likely to refer to friends, relatives, and colleagues. In other words: he will disclose the office for free where he can disclose, including on the internet (social networks, which is the most common), where the impact will be much greater. After all, who will indict a dentist if they are not satisfied with dental care and the end result of the treatment, do you agree?
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There is a follower engagement on the internet
This last topic will be for those who have some digital presence (website, blog or social networks). The dentist who is not present on the internet is bound to be out of business in a few years.
The bigger and better the digital dental marketing, the greater the engagement of your followers and visitors, that is, the more comments, post shares, and likes. All this influences your ranking, that is, the dentist will be more visible on the internet.
How often is your dental office marketing? When is the best time to do it?
In fact, it is no use for the dentist to have an excellent dental marketing plan if he only does it at certain times of the year. Being honest and objective: the ideal is that there should be a frequency and consistency in the marketing of dentistry and intensification at times of the year where there is a greater stimulus to consumption, as is the holiday season.
How much will I invest in the dental marketing of my office?
How much does dental marketing cost? It's a question many dentists ask. Before I start, I mention that the money invested in dental marketing is not a cost but an investment. The reason is simple: it will be investment because it will bring more patients to the dental office. The amount that will be invested in dental marketing will depend on the action chosen. For example, investing in a billboard will cost much more than investing in google or social networking.
Generally, I recommend that the dentist start with a small investment (around 5-10% of his professional income) and monitor and analyze the results, precisely to correct flaws that may occur in the disclosure process in time, so that there is no waste. of capital.
Dental marketing is not just about actions outside the office
If, on the one hand, there is an impact caused by dental marketing through the online and offline media discussed above, there is also the marketing done within the office itself. And at this point we have:
- Structure of the dental office (waiting room, clinical room, bathroom, etc.);
- Customer service in the office by all members;
- Quality of dental service provided;
- Follow UP (Customer follow-up after the procedures);
- Relationship after dental consultation.
Is it possible to do ethical dental marketing?
In the dental market, we find a true festival of ethical infractions, both in the offline and online dental markets. Below are some of the most common ethical violations:
- Disclosure of photos of clinical cases before and after treatment;
- Disseminate prices of clinical procedures;
- Disseminate payment methods for services (cards, slips, checks, cash…);
- Use terms that characterize unfair competition and commercialization of the profession (popular prices, free consultation, discounts, free treatments, etc.);
- Do not put the registration of the CRO in dental advertisements;
- Announce the performance of more than two dental specialties;
- Use of a fancy name without CRO registration.
If in doubt about the dental marketing actions that will be done, read and reread the Dental Code of Ethics (CEO). If you are still in doubt, contact your state's CRO (via email or whatsapp for documentation) and make sure your dental marketing actions are within ethical limits.
Source: Empreenda Dentista. Avilable at: https://empreendadentista.com.br/2018/03/21/marketing-odontologico-guia-definitivo/. Access on: 11/08/2019.