Your Dental Practice Needs A Marketing Plan
Your Dental Practice Needs A Marketing Plan
Marketing is strategic.
As a dentist, you don't open a patient's mouth and start treatment without first doing an exam, charting existing restorations, taking x-rays, and recording periodontal measurements. As a practice owner, you should approach marketing the same way — that is to say, with appropriate preparations and a detailed plan in place!
At My Dental CMO, we specialize in marketing plans for dental practices, from concept through execution and every step along the way. Contact us to discover if our practice analysis and marketing plan development fit your practice!
Too Many Dental Practices "Fail" at Marketing
Too Many Dental Practices "Fail" at Marketing
All dental practices need a marketing plan — but, astonishingly, most don't have one!
Your plan doesn't need to be complicated, but a CMO should uniquely tailor it to your goals, practice metrics, ideal patient, demographics, competition, and more. Even if your goals do not change (and many practices do as they grow and mature), the outside factors often do. An annual marketing plan can make all the difference in your continued growth, success, and profitability.
Many dentists do not receive a reasonable return on investment (ROI) from their marketing efforts. Often this is because they:
Look at what their competitors are doing.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
Call the marketing company that offers the service their competitor seems to be using.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
Buy a "marketing campaign" — without asking crucial questions or considering that what the practice across town might be doing might not be suitable for their practice.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
Experience frustration when their campaign doesn't deliver the desired results.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
Repeat.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
An effective marketing plan should include various tactics. Still, most website developers aren't going to remind you about the benefits of community involvement, and your local magazine doesn't provide proper social media direction.
Because most practices don't formulate a plan before seeking marketing outlets, their marketing campaigns almost always fail. They quickly become frustrated when nothing they try seems to work out. These dentists make one costly mistake after another, not realizing that they are wasting their marketing budget on narrow, shortsighted plans that go nowhere.
Many dentists do not receive a reasonable return on investment (ROI) from their marketing efforts. Often this is because they:
Look at what their competitors are doing.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
Call the marketing company that offers the service their competitor seems to be using.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
Buy a "marketing campaign" — without asking crucial questions or considering that what the practice across town might be doing might not be suitable for their practice.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
Experience frustration when their campaign doesn't deliver the desired results.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
Repeat.
This is where the text for your Feature List Item should go. It's best to keep it short and sweet.
An effective marketing plan should include various tactics. Still, most website developers aren't going to remind you about the benefits of community involvement, and your local magazine doesn't provide proper social media direction.
Because most practices don't formulate a plan before seeking marketing outlets, their marketing campaigns almost always fail. They quickly become frustrated when nothing they try seems to work out. These dentists make one costly mistake after another, not realizing that they are wasting their marketing budget on narrow, shortsighted plans that go nowhere.
Who Needs a Marketing Plan?
Everyone needs a marketing plan!
Who Needs a Marketing Plan?
Everyone needs a marketing plan!
Owning and operating a dental practice is the same as running any business; every business needs a marketing plan. If you apply for a small business loan, your marketing plan would be one of the first things the lender would ask to see. For some reason, we ignore this requirement in dentistry.
Marketing plans aren't just for dentists who "advertise."
Marketing plans aren't just for dentists with big marketing budgets.
Marketing plans aren't just for start-up practices.
Marketing plans aren't just for multi-location practices.
Marketing plans are for all smart business owners.
Understanding what your unique dental practice marketing plan should include is the first step.
Owning and operating a dental practice is the same as running any business; every business needs a marketing plan. If you apply for a small business loan, your marketing plan would be one of the first things the lender would ask to see. For some reason, we ignore this requirement in dentistry.
Marketing plans aren't just for dentists who "advertise."
Marketing plans aren't just for dentists with big marketing budgets.
Marketing plans aren't just for start-up practices.
Marketing plans aren't just for multi-location practices.
Marketing plans are for all smart business owners.
Understanding what your unique dental practice marketing plan should include is the first step.
“We have worked with My Dental CMO for over a decade. Kristie’s energy and drive are contagious. She possesses keen insight into what drives a patient to a specific office through clear understanding of the evolution of dentistry. Through her vast understanding of the industry, Kristie has guided me through many campaigns that have strengthened our practice and which continues to flourish steadily with her assistance. She is an invaluable member of our group.”
Dr. Sergio Guzman; Managing Partner
Dental Partners of Boston
“We have worked with My Dental CMO for over a decade. Kristie’s energy and drive are contagious. She possesses keen insight into what drives a patient to a specific office through clear understanding of the evolution of dentistry. Through her vast understanding of the industry, Kristie has guided me through many campaigns that have strengthened our practice and which continues to flourish steadily with her assistance. She is an invaluable member of our group.”
Dr. Sergio Guzman; Managing Partner
Dental Partners of Boston
1. Number of "ACTIVE" patients
Varied definitions of an "active" patient exist. Some dentists and advisors define it as a patient seen at least once in the last 12, 18, or 24 months. Others advocate the need for a scheduled hygiene appointment as the true "definition" of active. Specialty practices have different definitions. It's crucial to know how many patients you have — so you can determine how many you need to achieve your goals! 99 times out of 100, the number your dental software "spits out" is grossly incorrect.
2. Attrition rate
Even if you do everything perfectly, patients will pass on, move away, or shift to more specialized care. You need to know how many patients you annually lose so you can plan for the ideal investment to acquire the new patients necessary to maintain or grow your practice.
3. Average New Patient Value
We define this as what you can expect to produce from an average new patient in the first 12 months they are a part of your practice. Amazingly, many dentists don't know what this figure is! This number can vary widely from practice to practice depending on specialty, fees, insurance participation, and case acceptance percentages.
4. Average Existing Patient Value
We define this as what you can expect to produce from an average existing patient annually. Again, this varies since some practices see patients only a few times for specialized procedures and others see patients regularly several times a year for decades.
Once you know how many patients you have and how much they are worth, as well as how many new patients you need and how much THEY are worth, you can calculate how much you can afford to spend to acquire a new patient.
Some practices spend less than $50 for each new patient, and others spend upward of $1,000. The difference will depend on several factors, the most obvious of which is how much the patient is worth in their first twelve months in your practice.
Download the “How Much Should I Spend On Marketing?” Worksheet
All new patients are not created equal. In some practices, a mere 10% of patients produce over half of the practice's revenue. The strategic and savvy thing to do is to figure out:
- Who are these patients?
- Why are they so valuable?
- How much do they cost to acquire?
- How can you get more of them?
These patients will vary depending on your type of practice. They could be the ones who need more restorative treatment than the average patient, want more cosmetic services, have "better" insurance, additional discretionary incomes, and so on.
While your practice should focus on bringing in a wide variety of patients, considering and attracting these crucial high-value patients should be an essential part of your overall marketing plan.
Interested in getting more high-value patients? Schedule a call today!
We’re here to make your marketing better than ever in three easy steps.
We start with a practice analysis to reveal a "top-level" view of all your marketing activities and their results, including production and collection data, new patient flow, procedure mix, reappointment, time in practice, and more. We identify crucial data points such as the worth of your new and existing patients, the cost of patient acquisition, opportunities and pitfalls in your conversion funnel, and
Next, we explore your current activities in branding, advertising, digital marketing, advertising, internal marketing, community involvement, public relations, and doctor marketing activities. We look for places to cut wasteful spending and opportunities to enhance tactics that generate your high-value patients.
Finally, we create a 12-month marketing plan and budget to help you achieve your practice goals. We can present this plan to you via ZOOM or in-person in concert with practical and fun training designed to ensure your entire team successfully executes the program.