In our final article in this series, Coach Chris Barrow and Dr Geeta Perks delve into the 5 step methodology and the numbers behind successful dental marketing.

The 5 step methodology

Producing dental marketing content to keep the life of your business alive online can be difficult if you have a large team that just wants to do their jobs and go home, but it is imperative that you get them on board to help potential new patients in Australia to decide if you are the best dentist for them. Having everyone involved in your dental marketing will build momentum and drive more and more people to choose you in the long run.

1. Make sure that every patient has the opportunity to use the check-in on your Facebook business page.

2. Make sure that every patient is encouraged to provide their email address and compliant permission to be added to a mailing list for a monthly newsletter.

3. Make sure every patient is offered a photograph with the clinician and assistants with the appropriate compliant permission to use that photo as part of marketing collateral. 

4. Make sure that every patient is offered the opportunity to take part in a short video where they may talk about their experience and give the appropriate compliant permission for it to be used in marketing.

5. Make sure that every patient is offered the opportunity to write a digital review, especially in the UK, and remind Australian patients of their Google options. 

The Numbers

This methodology is not a quick fix to gaining new patients, it requires relentless determination and business coaching but in a 1-2 year period with word of mouth and digital recommendations the effects will begin to snowball; growing as it gains momentum.  

Another benefit of this method is that it is more cost-effective than throwing a bunch of money into advertising like Facebook or Google ads, signage, banners, posters, etc. and the numbers are there to prove it. 

Advertising

Advertising sees a 15%-25% conversion. It is an expensive way of getting clients with a high attrition rate. These patients also have a tendency to be more price-conscious which is not the type of client we are looking for.

Recommendations

Recommendations from other patients see a 66% conversion rate.

Referrals

Referrals to other specialists see an 85% conversion rate.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth takes longer and requires your whole team to be involved but it produces the most desirable outcome with a lower financial cost than advertising. Our goal is to focus dentists on the right dental marketing strategies for their business in order to help it grow.

For more guest features and dental marketing strategy breakdowns visit our YouTube channel.

Get in touch with us today to find out how we can take your dental practice to the next level.

Brought to you by the global leaders of dental marketing, Dental Focus Marketing.

How do potential new patients find out if you are the best dentist for them?

To be in compliance with national laws one cannot outwardly state that you are the best dentist for a particular type of individual, but potential new patients in the UK or Australia are certainly thinking about it, even Googling it.

There are two types of patients conducting online searches. The “best price” patients and the “best place/solution patients.” it is not in your best interest to go after the “best price” ones; as a business decision they are not important, we at Dental Focus understand that you need to be pulling in the second kind of patient, the types that are looking for the best dentist that offers the best solution to their problems this where you will want to direct the focus of your dental marketing. 

A side note on UK vs. Australia compliance

Before discussing the best way to get your team to help push the right kind of online exposure, it is prudent to understand the difference in advertising laws surrounding dental marketing in the UK and Australia.

The United Kingdom – allows for any and all positive patient testimonials to be produced on websites that you the practice are responsible for, this includes all social media pages as well and also any before and after pictures or videos. 

Australian regulations – are much more strict; under the national law section 133, practices have to abide by the guidelines set out for regulated health service providers. No client testimonials or reviews may be published on websites that you are responsible for or that directly represent your business. However, third party pages that you are not responsible for like Google reviews or Yelp may publish reviews as you have no control over their content. Before and after pictures may be published directly on your website and/or various social media pages provided that each one comes with a disclaimer that all treatments carry their own set of risks and that a second opinion needs to be sought out. 

Dental Focus offers compliance to all the regulations set out in section 133 under Australian national law to ensure that your and it’s online presence is up to code as to avoid any fines or worse consequences and AHPRA provides compliance guidance, review, and check correct tools, for more information please see www.ahpra.gov.au

Understanding the potential patient’s journey

It is important to know the four stages that potential new patients in Australia go on before they decide on you as the best dentist for them so that you can best target these individuals with dental marketing for your business.

Personal Recommendation

Perhaps a family member, friend, or colleague has recommended you to a potential new patient, the first step in their journey has begun when they take this recommendation into consideration, they then move onto the second stop.

Research: Website

Following a recommendation potential new patients will conduct research on your business asking themselves the question; “Do people like me visit practices like this?”

There are then 7 things your website needs to contain in order to make it appealing to potential new patients, they are known as the 7P’s of dental marketing and we at will Dental Focus endeavour to help you make your website fulfil all these requirements to help your potential new patient move onto the next step

Research: Social Media

If they like the look and feel of your website, potential new patients will move onto your social media platforms, namely your Facebook Business page and your Instagram page where they expect to find more clarification on the services you offer and if others like them are satisfied with your work.

Research: Reviews

Reading reviews (that are within compliance) is a taught behaviour brought to us by online shopping markets like Amazon, likewise, services can be made or broken by an online review and potential new clients will trust these testimonials above all when deciding if you are the dentist for them because previous patients are going to be interested in writing your reviews for one of two reasons:

1. Reward – a past patient was so satisfied that they are willing to make time to write a good review in order to reward you thus giving confidence to the potential new patient in your abilities.
2. Revenge – a previous patient was so dissatisfied with your service that they are motivated to take revenge on you by leaving a bad review thus warning a potential new patient off.

In the final part of our 5 part series we will cover the 5 step methodology and the numbers behind successful dental marketing.

Brought to you by the global leaders of dental marketing, Dental Focus Marketing.

In parts one and two Chris Barrow covered the three critical services offered by a dental business coaches. In this article we will delve further into the three tiers of Dentistry and the impact of dental marketing.

Dentistry is a 3 Tier Business

Dentistry as a business can be broken up into 3 tiers, each leading onto the next and understanding these levels can help you attract patients in Australia:

1. Emergency Dentistry

The first type of patient will likely walk in on their own accord. These patients’ primary concern is getting rid of any pain they are in or fixing something that is broken.

Pain relief and functional care is a service that patients seek out voluntarily and the best strategy our dental marketing business coaches at Dental Focus recommend for this is that you be visible online. A quick organic Google search of “Emergency dentist Edinburgh” for example, can lead to 20-25 new inquiries each month for the practice that comes up on page 1. 

2. Long Term Care / Preventative Dentistry

Once you have solved the patient’s problem in tier 1, the opportunity to move them to tier 2 is open.

A simple question like “Now that we have taken care of you and gotten you out of trouble, why not stick around? – perhaps become a member of a long term care plan.” keeping patients once you have helped them is important and making them understand the importance of preventative care will keep them coming back. 

3. Cosmetic Dentistry

In order to move the patients that are in tier 2 to tier 3, you need to have a conversation about what is offered in cosmetic dentistry, and how it could possibly help them. Perhaps asking “Do you have any events coming up in your life?” could lead to a conversation about orthodontics for a future bride, or whitening for a photoshoot. Different patients will be interested in different procedures, perhaps it’s the Millennial who is interested in whitening while a professional person in their 30’s would benefit from invisible braces. Someone in their 50’s may need implants or restorative work and an elderly person in their 70’s could require a permanent set of dentures. 

Whatever the age of the patient or the reason they may need or want cosmetic dentistry it is important to remember that the point of the procedure is to make them more confident. Improving self-confidence is the key to converting long term care patients to cosmetic procedures.

What are patients looking for?

You attract patients in the UK and Australia by being attractive. It sounds simple enough but understanding what is considered attractive and to whom is important and fundamental to dental marketing.

Firstly patients have to be able to find you, the SEO we offer at Dental Focus will make this possible but once they find you it is up to you to be attractive, the first impression of what you do and the kind of people you serve will result in ideal and relevant patient inquiries:

What patients are asking themselves when they click on your website or social media pages is; “Do people like me, go to a practice like this?” – can they imagine themselves in your chair and waiting room? Would they fit in? A website with pictures of smiling children at their first dental appointment is not going to appeal to the professional in the city. Likewise, a 21-year-old Zoomer looking to straighten her teeth is not going to spend time on a website where it looks like geriatrics are being fitted for dentures. 

They will want to know if “enough people like me have been here.” And have enough people like them given a good account of their experience? Dental marketing and third party media in Australia helps patients to make these decisions. So knowing who you want to target and how is very important and something that a dental business coach can help you with.

In part one we covered what a dental business coach can offer your business as well as the range of dental marketing services offered by Dental Focus Marketing, this article continues Coach Barrow’s interview with Dr Geeta Perks.

Imagine you are part of an Olympic rowing team and every decision you make in your personal and professional life needs to be able to answer the question’ “Will it make the boat go faster?” If the answer to this question is ‘no’, then you don’t follow through with the idea, and a business coach will be there to ask you this question, in different forms of course, but the essence remains: “Will what you have just suggested help you reach your goals?”

Accountability

Our obligation to you goes hand in hand with focus, having regular meetings with your coach where you report on tasks and targets that the two of you set out and agreed on as being relevant, will hold you accountable to seeing them through thus keeping you on track. You alone are responsible for your business’ success, but when you are accountable to someone it makes your chances of success that much higher as you are not going it alone; there is a coach there who is dedicated to guiding you through, making you feel less overwhelmed, and more motivated by providing you with the structure that will help your goals remain visible.

Experience

Our dental business coaching has past experience with many clients, having worked with different sized dental practices over the last couple of years we can offer you a wide range of understanding, knowledge, and experience in the dental industry to help you attract patients and run your business successfully. 

A dental business coach in the UK and Australia knows what works and likewise knows what doesn’t work, you can rest assured and trust that we know what we are talking about if we say to you that a particular idea may not be as beneficial as you may like it to be because we’ve seen it done before and advise that you allow us the benefit of saving you the trouble of going down a not so lucrative path.

How do dentists attract patients?

So you have a practice going, it’s in a pretty good location but you’re struggling to get bums on seats, not just your walk-ins with a sore tooth but dental implant patients, orthodontic patients or veneer patients; the kinds of patients you want to keep long term, how do you attract them to your business? These are the patients that you want to be targeting with your dental marketing, the patients that will give you the biggest return on investment of your marketing budget.

The keyword here is ‘business’, how do I attract patients in the UK and Australia to my business? First we have to answer what kind of business it is, and then we can break down how that business structure works and where the patients fit in.

Brought to you by the global leaders of dental marketing, Dental Focus Marketing.

Why do dentists need a dental business coach?

The simple answer to this question is that dentists are in the business of fixing teeth, not in the business of making money; the business of making money is a speciality not taught at dental school, while you may perform the best root canal or be the best at fitting an impeccable pair of implants, it may well be that you are less inclined to be good at business. And there is no shame in this, that’s not why you studied dentistry in the first place, but it is the reason why you need a dental business coach in the UK and Australia, to help you make your business a success; because a talent for fixing teeth is simply not enough.

What can a dental business coach offer me?

Some people just have a mind for business, they are wired that way. Many of these people become entrepreneurs themselves while a few become business coaches using their specialised thinking and understanding of business to help others take their own businesses to new heights; by providing an understanding of modern dental marketing tools and the correct way to use things like online social media to your best advantage in ways you possibly never even realised were useful, a dental business coach can help you and your practice reach optimum success.

But more important than the, ‘how to get it done’; a dental business coach in the UK and Australia offers you three valuable services that will help you get the most out of your dental practice:

Focus

What a business coach offers in terms of your personal business journey is a laser-like focus to help you meet your goals and targets. It is easy for us to get excited and distracted by new ideas but a coach will put proverbial blinkers on you, like those on a racehorse, to keep you on the path to success without any detours.

Once you and your coach have discussed your business and set important milestones to reach, we at Dental Focus Marketing will continue to guide you towards those milestones by keeping you on point at all times with guidance and direction for dental marketing as well as your business as a whole.

What Dental Focus can offer your business

Dental Focus is the UK’s market leader in award-winning dental websites for 2018 and 2019, we have a google rating of five stars and not only offer you coaching with focus, accountability, and experience but can help with your social media, websites, google domination and assist you in attracting patients with compliance and advanced dental marketing.

When it comes to the category of ‘best practice’ Dental Focus offers comprehensive packages that will get you to the top of your business game; with websites of 25+ pages, SEO and social media integration, full video packages and patient lounge TV, and premium access to Dentinal Tubules to keep your passion for dentistry burning.

In part two we will cover accountability and experience.

Brought to you by the global leaders of dental marketing, Dental Focus Marketing.