I don’t know about you, but I love darts. There’s something fun about hurling thick needles attached to missile fins through the air. Today I’ll teach you how we can help you hit the bull’s-eye every time.
OK, we’re not really talking about darts today. But we are going to talk about hitting the bull’s-eye with your marketing, and you’ll have a lot more success with what I’m about to tell you than the 0.14% percent chance you have of hitting the bull’s-eye in darts.
See, as in the game of darts, you can hit lots of places on the dartboard and still score points. But if you hit the bull’s-eye, you’re going to score the most points with the fewest number of throws.
Same with your marketing. You can throw out a lot of money and gets some benefits. But if you target your efforts, you get the clients you want.
It’s not about turning away patients that need your other services. It’s about attracting the right patients (hitting the bull’s-eye) so that they fill up your schedule. By only marketing to the types of patients and cases you want, you can stay profitable in this new dental economy without discounting and without being insurance dependent.
Attract the Patients You Want
So how do you attract the patients you want?
- You want to stand out as the expert in a specific niche area and attract the patients needing that specific dental care.
- Your advertising is a mirror reflection of the type of patient you will attract.
- If you want to attract the large cases and patients with money to spend, your marketing must be attuned to the needs of those patients (Hint: “Free whitening and x-rays” isn’t going to do it…).
- If you only attract dental insurance patients, you can continue to give half to insurance write offs, half of what’s left to overhead and half of what’s left from that in taxes. There’s nothing left, and that’s why you’re not getting ahead!
Be the Answer to Your Prospective Patients’ Needs
When your patients are looking for solutions to their loose dentures, they don’t search for “dentist” and they certainly don’t search your name. They search for terms like “why do my dentures hurt” and “who can fix my denture pain.”
When you answer all of their questions, they will pick up the phone can call you.
So now ask yourself, does your current marketing, including your website, hit the bull’s-eye by answering the questions of the patients you want?
- Or do you get close to the bull’s-eye and bring in some of the patients you want and too many of the others? Maybe you have good SEO but a bad website, or vise versa.
- Or are you on the outer edge of the board and bring in few of the patients you want and almost exclusively the others? If you are targeting the patients that want free x-rays and exams, uniqueness doesn’t matter because these leads are only interested in “cheap.”
- Or worse, do you miss the board altogether and not bring in any patients? Probably, if you relying exclusively on social media and pay-per-click advertising.
This is About Prospective Patients’ Needs, Not What You Have to Offer
Remember, I’m not asking if your website:
- Looks really nice.
- Has a great catch phrase and good photo of you in the header.
- Has eye-catching before and after photos.
- Has a great biography of you.
- Has page after page of all the services you offer.
- I’m asking, does your dental marketing attract the patients you want?
Until next time, keep moving forward.
On another note…
Selection Sunday is today. My wife Amanda and I will be rooting for Indiana University and Butler University to get bids and do well. Various staff members here at SmartBox will be rooting for their favorite teams. So who do you have cutting down the nets in April? Leave your comment below…