Is Your Dental Brand Weak? Here’s How to Fix It

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Is Your Dental Brand Weak? Here’s How to Fix It

Branding is often such a vague and mysterious hurdle for business owners to overcome. If you’re a dentist who owns your own practice, most likely you’ve redefined and reworked your branding and marketing strategy over the years, without really understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your brand.

If your strategy ain’t broke, don’t fix it; but if it’s killing your brand, you need to know why and be ready to make some changes.  We’ve noticed a few common denominators when it comes to weak dental brands, and the sooner you can fix them, the better off your practice will be.

Focusing too much on the competition

With approximately 146,800 dentists in the United States you’re going to have competition. That’s inevitable. But rather than focusing on the dentist down the street who you’re convinced is ‘stealing your leads,’ position yourself in a way that showcases your strengths. Focusing on other practices or other things that are out of your control is only a downward spiral.

What message are you sending to your current and prospective patients? Are you telling a compelling story, one that makes them want to choose you? It’s in the message, not the medium, which will convert the ‘lead’ into your patient. You want a patient who feels comfortable in your office so he or she will come back time and time again, right? A message that portrays exactly what they will experience is more likely to get you the high quality patients who will not only return, but also will become your best referral source.

Branding goes deeper than the services you offer. Provide value for your patients. Be an expert in your field, someone they can trust. If you express and share your passion for dentistry with your patients, you’re building credibility and trust.

Unwilling to make changes

We get it – There is always a level of risk associated with change, but it can be extremely rewarding. Think about this: If you have a handpiece that’s so old and used it just can’t cut anymore, you’re likely to dispose of it and buy a new one, right? So stop throwing money at ‘old’ and ‘used’ marketing strategies that aren’t getting the job done. Instead invest in the things that work.

I wish I could tell you that my colleagues and I at Page 1 Solutions have a ‘definite formula for success’ and if you follow it you’ll be on top of your competition, but I can’t. I can tell you that we do have a ‘best practices’ of sorts and depending on your market size, as well as your target market, each practice strategy is different. Before the Internet was such a large resource and informational gathering place, print marketing (mailers, flyers, etc.) used to be enough to keep a practice afloat. Sorry folks, times have changed, and if you aren’t on the web with a cutting-edge website, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. 

For most brands, the most frustrating aspect is often that the marketing strategy that once worked, no longer does. But, the longer you stay frustrated without changing your strategy, the further behind you will be.

Where would I start if I knew my current strategy wasn’t working, but I didn’t exactly know which elements to change?

  • If you don’t already have a website, you need one. You also need someone who knows your industry to build and optimize that website for search engines as well as prospective patients.
  • Next, I’d implement tracking software ASAP. Applications such as PracticeROI or MyMedLeads will track what you’re spending on each advertising medium (i.e. website marketing, pay-per-click advertising, mailers, publications, etc.) and how much traffic and/or the number of new patients you are getting from each.  Then, you will be able to see your return on investment (ROI) for each medium, compare the ROI percentages to determine where you’re getting your best return and adjust your marketing budget accordingly. You’d be surprised how many business owners think they know exactly where their new patients are coming from, but have a whole new outlook once they actually track all their advertising efforts.

At my company, we are passionate about tracking and can never have too much information; therefore, we created our own way to track website leads. Our ‘Success Hub’ which you can see below, allows our clients not only to see the leads we’ve harvested through the website (phone calls, contact forms, chat and pay-per-click), but gives them the opportunity to classify each lead as a ‘prospect’, ‘new patient’, etc. and assign a monetary value to them. We can then see where they’re getting their best ROI and position and optimize their site to capture those leads accordingly.

Page 1 Solutions Success Hub example

Not focusing on your target audience

You can get new patients all day, but if you’re not getting quality patients who will return to your practice, you’ll continue to spin your wheels without growing your patient base. You know your practice better than anyone, so who is your most ideal patient?

Are you a practice focusing on families? If so you want to target the mother of the family, who will also schedule appointments for her husband and children. Not only will they come in for routine maintenance, but she’ll call you every time one of their little ones falls off the monkey bars and breaks a tooth and also when she decides it’s time to get Invisalign braces.

Are you looking for the couple with a rather large disposable income, who visit you for regular teeth whitening and are interested in anything that will improve their smile and their overall appearance? What about TMJ and neuromuscular dentistry? All are very different patients, requiring different marketing strategies to target them and get you the best results.

The bottom line when it comes to branding, marketing and positioning your practice is to pay attention. The more you track your efforts, the more you can dissect them and understand what is going on with your marketing and branding strategy. Don’t get hung up on your competition.

Be willing to take a risk and focus on your target audience. You might just be surprised. 

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