You couldn’t operate your dental practice without having carefully designed processes and procedures in place. From dental insurance to billing to appointment-setting, your practice needs structure. The same holds true for the clinical side of your business.
But have you ever given the same degree of thought and planning to your marketing? Probably not. The vast majority of dentists have no formal training in the principles and best practices of marketing. They tend to do what they’ve learned from other dentists, or what they see their competitors doing.
In a way, that’s a shame, because those same dentists are leaving a lot of money on the table that could be theirs.
Where Dental Marketing Goes Wrong
The days of people finding a dentist through the Yellow Pages are gone. Today, more than 90 percent of prospects begin their search for a dentist online.
The internet is evolving at an unbelievable rate, and the vast majority of dental practices simply don’t keep up with the changes. Let’s face it: creating and updating dental websites are something that’s outside the skill sets of dental professionals. Typically, the practice will pay an outside provider to get the website up and running… and then forget about it.
This “fire and forget” mentality puts practices at a competitive disadvantage against more tech-savvy dentists. With more and more new, young dentists entering the market, more established dentists will struggle to be found online by their prospects.
An up to date dental website is only one part of the online equation. Social media fosters engagement with prospects and gives them the opportunity to ask questions and to get to know you and your staff. Done correctly, dental social media also has value for your website’s search engine results page rankings. However, most dental practices don’t use social media nearly as well as they could.
Finally, the vast majority of dental marketing happens without an underlying strategy. Monthly ads that feature discounts, promotions, and other price-oriented incentives attract low case-value patients with no loyalty to your practice. But despite the poor return on marketing investment, practices keep doing what their competitors are doing, year after year.
Stop leaving money on the table. If you want higher-value patients on a more consistent basis, you need to get systematic about your marketing approach.
The Benefits of an Integrated Marketing System
In today’s hypercompetitive environment, dentists can’t afford to miss a trick with their dental marketing. An integrated system that addresses the four aspects of prospect attraction, conversion, follow-up, and tracking is required. Not only does covering all aspects result in higher new patient appointment rates, it ensures a much higher return on your marketing investment.
SmartBox revolutionized the dental marketing process with its industry-leading Patient Attraction System
. Our comprehensive, wrap-around marketing approach provides a steady stream of more and better patients. That allows our doctors to focus on actually doing the dentistry rather than overseeing their practice marketing.
If you’re ready to put your dental practice on a sound footing now and into the future, visit www.smartboxdentalmarketing.com and click on the “Get Started” button.
Schedule your free, no-obligation Practice Discovery Session. Invest 25 minutes of your time to learn how SmartBox’s industry-leading Patient Attraction System can provide a steady stream of new patients so you can focus on doing the dentistry.
Following the phone call, we’ll send you your free, individualized Patient Attraction Roadmap. It’s yours to use as you wish.
Don’t piecemeal your dental marketing any longer. You’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
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