What are your 9 dental marketing goals for 2014?

 

dental marketingIf you’re like most dentists, you have a list of dental marketing goals for the coming year, and your goals are the outcomes you want to see— not the specifics of how you will do the marketing.

 

If you are like many, you assign your dental marketing to a staff member and ask your colleague-friends, who are not local competitors, how they are marketing their practices. If you are fortunate, you have a practice coach you can turn to for advice.

 

Even still, most of you feel like you are floundering in a sea of possibilities.  On top of that, most of you have no metrics by which to assess the effectiveness of the marketing strokes you are taking. Wanting to keep your head above water, you eventually turn to a dental marketing company, hoping you’ve found a life raft.

 

Rather than hand over your dental marketing and hope for the best, there are nine actions you should take to ensure a good return on your marketing investment…ROI actions that will keep you in control… actions that — with a modicum of patience and discipline, will ensure you arrive at your desired destination.

 

To be intentional, convert these nine wise actions into strategic goals.

 

9 Smart Dental Marketing Goals for 2014

 

1     Meet with a reputable dental marketing company to evaluate the demographics, needs and wants of your local community — and also evaluate your local competition. In the process, you should learn which services are most sought after, and you could discern profitable new services you should train and equip yourself to offer.

 

2     Create a written dental marketing strategy and budget for the year with your chosen marketing company. For the next 2-4 months in advance, include a somewhat detailed outline of each campaign (messaging, incentives, supporting website content, social media content, and AdWords online advertising). Your marketer will help you envision the branding reputation you want to build, the expertise and services you should promote, and the most effective means to engage your local market.

 

3     Confer each month with your marketer about the next 2-4 months of marketing. Collaborate and inform each other. Review “content” before it goes public.

 

4     Insist on analytics so you can track what prompts each new patient to call you and what prompts patients to inquire about higher value services.

 

5      Insist on a system for building your online reputation with 5 Star reviews.

 

6     Invest in training and coaching your staff to engage callers and visiting patients in a winning way — wherever and whenever they interface. Provide incentives for 100% staff commitment to appropriate, effective conversations, thank you follow-ups, scheduling messages, and so on.

 

7     Create a checklist of monthly review questions. Note, you won’t know your dental marketing ROI unless you track numbers that allow you to answer your questions. Recommended questions include:

 Questions to ask about your dental marketing strategy.

Are search engines listing you closer to or at the top?
Is your number of new patient calls rising?
Is your percentage of new patient calls converted to booked appointments rising?
Is your number of inquiries about higher value services (e.g., implants, veneers, comprehensive makeovers and Invisalign) rising?
What specifically is triggering new patient and higher value services inquiries?
Is the next month’s expected (scheduled) revenue rising?
Compared to your revenue this month last year, did it increase?
What cancellations did you experience this past month? Why? How can you engage patients more effectively on an individualized basis?
Is your social media engagement climbing?

 

8     Quarterly, re-evaluate your dental marketing strategy for the year and make adjustments based on what’s working best, any identifiable failures, other improvements you see, and where you would like to accelerate certain efforts. Ask your marketer about split market testing to fine tune campaigns. Ask yourself and team how you can make the most out of every interaction you have with the public. Ask how you can maximize every webpage that people see. Be open to fresh, new ideas. Enjoy the creative brainstorming process in collaboration with your dental marketing specialist .

 

9     See beyond the dollars. A growing, profitable patient base is like a garden. In order to grow your business, you need to nurture your local community engagement, build your reputation, accelerate referrals, and become an authentic go-to expert. A modicum of time, doing the marketing discipline, and using experts will help you attract today’s mobile-seeking dental patients while you are doing this. In fact, in the care of an accountable dental marketing company with expertise in the digital marketing of dentists, your phone will ring at a significantly higher rate, and this rate will grow.

 

Scheduling more of the patients you want will make you smile. That’s what Dentist Profit Systems is all about… making dentists smile, one dentist at at time. Need us? Reach out.

View our services to see how we can help with your dental marketing strategy. We have many dental marketing tools to assist you with your goals.

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