The renowned Carl Sagan once said, “Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.” That holds true when it comes to the claims made by some dental marketing firms.
Most dental marketing companies are reputable. They’ll paint a realistic picture of what their efforts can achieve for you. If you’re considering a reputable company, you know upfront what the likelihood of success is. Of course, that won’t stop you from hoping for more. Unfortunately, reputable is not the same as effective.
However, there are other dental marketing companies that make wildly exaggerated claims. Those claims may or may not be about their effectiveness in helping you get more new patients. Often, companies claim expertise, “exclusive” knowledge not available to anyone else, or premiere standing in the industry.
To throw in another quote, this type of talk is almost always, “Sound and fury, signifying nothing.” It falls apart under a closer examination.
Point By Point
“More” probably isn’t.
Let’s say that a marketing firm claims to do more of something than anyone else in the industry. That may or may not be true, but how do you prove or disprove it? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of marketing firms in the U.S. that handle dental practice marketing on a full-time or part-time basis. Are all those companies sending their numbers of website, ad campaigns, social media pages, and email campaigns to some central registry? No. The entire idea is absurd. So how can a company claim to provide some marketing service or product more often than anyone else?
If you’re tempted to respond to one of these marketing come-ons, the first thing you should ask is for solid proof of its claims.
“We know…”
Marketing firms that claim exclusive knowledge had better tell you how they came by that knowledge. If they’ve performed, or commissioned, a proprietary study that gives them data available to no one else, that’s fine. If they’ve developed a proprietary marketing strategy or technology, that might be valid, but they’d better be ready to explain it to you in detail.
Otherwise, these “exclusive knowledge” firms are blowing smoke. The principles of marketing are well established and the knowledge is widely available.
“We can get you up to…”
It’s easy to claim that you can get “up to” a ridiculous number of new patients. Two things about that claim – first, the company had better be able to prove that it’s actually achieved that claimed result for one or (preferably) more clients. Second, they should demonstrate to you, based on solid analysis and/or data compiled from other clients, the result that you can expect from their efforts.
“Can” is not the same thing as “will.”
“You’re wasting money…”
Businesses who try to succeed by bad-mouthing the competition are not the kinds of marketing partners any dentists needs. If your current marketing isn’t returning enough new patients or high enough case value, it might be fair to say that you’re wasting money. But to imply, or state outright, that you’re wasting money by dealing with any other marketing firm suggests a lack of ethics.
If you’re even tempted to follow-up with a dental marketing firm that trash-talks other firms, demand that they prove their assertion that you’re wasting money with your current firm. And watch out for the, “Well, we can get you up to…” argument here.
At SmartBox Web Marketing, we’re happy to share hard data with you about the number of new patient phone calls we get for our dentists. We’ll even tell you how we do it; after all, the “secrets” of our industry-leading Patient Attraction System™ are available to everyone at www.smartboxwebmarketing.com
And, we back up our performance with our $10K Guarantee.
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. Feel free to demand evidence from us; we’re ready.