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Marketing - The Big Five

Yvonne Wallace MCIM and Joanne Mellor BSc (Hons) Dip. M, Chartered Marketer are Directors of Designer Dental a well established and successful marketing company working exclusively within the dental sector.  

	With everyone thinking about using their marketing budget wisely Yvonne Wallace and Joanne Mellor suggest the top five marketing concepts that are tried, tested and work.

We are often asked ‘What works?’ and ‘What are other practices doing?’ These two questions are worth serious consideration in times where return on investment is very important.

First and foremost look at your internal marketing.

The Big One

Communication with patients is key.  One of the most successful ways of communicating with patients on a regular basis is patient newsletters. Many dentists make the mistake of trying to do these themselves and they end up looking exactly what they are – a DIY job.  Make them eye-catching, informative, educational and different.  Once the newsletters are done give careful thought to what you are going to do with them and the many ways you can utilise them. Make sure they are in front of as many patients as possible.  They can even be enlarged, framed and used as wall decoration – one practice we recently visited had a ‘Hall of News’ that led the way to the main waiting area. These newsletters, once designed can also be added to your web site. What is important is the continued regularity of these newsletters.

Communicating with patients by sending birthday cards, thank you cards, special patient offer vouchers and having open days are all key components of internal marketing –attention to detail is everything!

The Big Two

Referrals are essential.  Referrals will be the foundation of your practice and these should be both encouraged and rewarded in equal measures.  EVERY practice should have referral cards that are handed to patients on a regular basis to ask and encourage a healthy flow of new patients.  As well as cards in each of the surgeries and waiting areas, you can display posters asking for referrals, add a section on each newsletter and also on recall cards and letters.

Rewards are never forgotten.  Operate a refer and reward system.  This can be done in many different ways – one practice recently has linked in with a professional photographer who was prepared to do a small photo shoot and provide one 10” x 8” photo for free. The patients are happy and the photographer is happy because they know the patient is not only going to buy only one photo, they will buy more. Another practice is rewarding with a coffee for two vouchers at a local coffee house. You can also offer vouchers off oral health products or off treatments such as tooth whitening.

The Big Three

Professionalise and educate.  Provide the best you can to patients in the way of welcome packs, treatment leaflets and education material.  Patients are now more discerning and have a growing thirst for knowledge – do not fall into the trap of your patients going elsewhere for treatments because they do not know you do it – it happens regularly!  Look at eye-catching and innovative ways of design and presentation of this literature and make sure it reflects the quality of your dentistry. Posters that are well designed and eye-catching are a great way to instantly show patients what you have on offer. Any money you spend in this area should be viewed as an investment and at worst you should recoup the money and at best it will elevate your revenue into the practice.

The Big Four

Capitalise on outside opportunities.  Open your eyes to the many opportunities that are available to you to promote your practice.  These opportunities are there, all you need to do is look and focus.  Sometimes all it needs is a fresh pair of eyes or a keen member of staff that can be nurtured to look for these opportunities.  If you cannot look beyond what you are doing maybe you need outside help to suggest new ideas.  Outside marketing is a huge area and what you do depends on where you are, what opportunities are available and of course the all important budget.  Outside marketing can include newspaper and journal advertising, tube station advertising, bus advertising, sponsorship, exhibitions, billboard advertising, A boards outside the practice, great use of signage, direct mail, leaflet drops – the list is endless.  

The Big Five

Dentistry has been transformed in the past few years there are new products, new technology and amazing results and benefits for patients – make sure you capitalise on your share of the growth, it is there for the taking if you just look for it.

DESIGNER DENTAL OFFERS FULL INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR PRACTICES OF ALL SIZES Clients of Designer Dental have won Best Marketing in the Dentistry awards for the last two years.  Contact Designer Dental for award winning marketing ideas. t: 01642 206196    e: enquiries@designerdental.co.uk  w: www.designerdental.co.uk