It’s safe to say that the process of marketing your practice is more complex than at any other time in history. Blame the internet for adding an incredible number of channels and venues where your prospects like to hang out.
With all of that layered complexity, it’s not surprising that some companies try to “dumb down” dental marketing by promising that “THIS THING” is all you need to get all the new patients you need.
T’ain’t so, McGee.
The Problem With One-Trick Ponies
No matter how well someone or something performs a function or a series of tightly related functions, that’s where it stops. To take a “homely” example, a plumber can do all kinds of plumbing things in your home or business. But if you want a new circuit installed, lights replaced, or your entire home rewired, you’ll almost certainly want a licensed electrician. And if you want new door framed in and hung, hire a carpenter.
Plumbers are good, and electricians are good, and carpenters are good – in their areas. No one of those trades can accomplish everything you might need.
And yet, some marketing firms will tell you that SEO, or content marketing, or paid search, or television ads, are all you need to prosper.
SEO, content marketing, paid search, TV ads, and every other marketing tactic, are good. In their area. If you need any more proof, look at it this way – if SEO was all a dentist needed to succeed, everybody would be doing it.
Oh, wait – everybody IS doing it. That makes it a level playing field. So dentists who want an advantage will add content marketing, and some will add paid search, and some will add TV spots, and before you know it, everybody’s doing pretty much everything.
Keep Your Bases Covered
With dental competition at an all-time high, no dentist who wants to succeed can afford to ignore the different types of online and offline marketing. That’s not to say that every dentist has to use every channel – market conditions, practice goals, and the competitive landscape vary.But every dentist should consider carefully whether or not to use each approach in their marketing.
The downside of that, for do-it-yourself dentist marketers, is that addressing all of those options eats up a huge amount of time. That time will come out of office hours, time with your family and friends, or both. There’s no way around that.
Using office hours for marketing instead of seeing patients costs you somewhere on the order of $600 per hour. The odds are good that your hourly rate is way higher than a plumber’s an electrician’s, or a carpenter’s. And consider this: while you can master one, two, or three aspects of marketing, you’ll never be as good at it as someone who does those things for a living.
So, while you need to keep your bases covered, you’re not the one who should do it.
Talk With SmartBox
SmartBox blazed the way in providing comprehensive, strategic, and integrated dental marketing. Our industry-leading Patient Attraction System® helps dentists on three continents get more and better dental patients. And since we provide done-for-you marketing, your involvement can be as much or as little as you wish.
Learn what’s possible for your practice. Schedule a Roadmap call to take a deep dive into your practice’s goals and the competitive forces in your market. It requires about the length of time you need to place a single crown or a dental implant.
Following the call, you’ll receive your completely personalized Roadmap to the future you want for your practice.
One-trick ponies are fun, but they won’t get the job done. Contact SmartBox.