Dentaltown July 2017 - 77

1

How do I avoid wasting money on marketing
that doesn't bring in new patients?

A.
Buy the smallest ads or campaigns possible, so you can test the waters.
B.
Advertise once and wait to see if it works before doing more.
C.
Target only the people who are most likely to become your patients.
ANSWER: It's definitely not A, especially in an industry as competitive as dentistry. And
B is probably the biggest mistake I see dentists make (and the fastest way to waste marketing
dollars), because people don't need the dentist every day. If someone sees your ad once, they
may or may not remember your name when they do need dental care. (FYI, they probably
won't.) You need to market yourself repeatedly so your practice will be top of mind when
that person does need a dentist.
That means C is correct: The best way to avoid wasting marketing dollars is by targeting
prospects most likely to come to you.
How do you know who they are? The identity of your target market depends on two
things: your location and the services you offer. If you're a pediatric dentist, your target
market is obviously people with children. If you're a general dentist who serves everybody,
you want to target every household close to your practice (which also helps you save money
on postage, if you're using direct mail).
The best part? With a high-quality mailing list, it's easy to target your ideal prospects.

2

How long do I have to keep marketing
before I see an increase in revenue?

A.
"Keep marketing"? Just do one or two ads and see what happens.
B.
A few months.
C.
One to two years.
ANSWER: The correct one here is B-and woe to the dentist who chooses A! (By "woe"
I mean stagnant or declining revenue, for the reasons mentioned above.)
When you start a marketing campaign, generally you'll start seeing an uptick in revenue
in four to six weeks. But some prospective patients could hang onto your postcard or ad
for months before they actually need you. For this reason, I recommend dentists run a
six-month campaign at minimum. A campaign of this size should give you enough data
to work with when assessing its performance. After six months, you'll see that the more
you market your practice, the more new patients-and revenue-you'll have coming in.
Fig. 1 (p. 78) shows the annual revenue of Dr. Amit Khanna, a Townie who owns
Patuxent Dental in Hollywood, Maryland. Khanna bought his practice in 2006 but didn't
start marketing until 2009, when he began sending out 6,000 direct mail postcards per
month. As he kept marketing-and especially as he increased his monthly outflow, from
6,000 to 12,000 and then added coordinating online ads to those 12,000-his new patient
numbers continued to climb.
That's how marketing works: You build momentum. It's a long game-too many
dentists forget that.
dentaltown.com \\ JULY 2017

77



http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown July 2017

Dentaltown July 2017 - Intro
Dentaltown July 2017 - Cover1
Dentaltown July 2017 - Cover2
Dentaltown July 2017 - 1
Dentaltown July 2017 - 2
Dentaltown July 2017 - 3
Dentaltown July 2017 - 4
Dentaltown July 2017 - 5
Dentaltown July 2017 - 6
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Dentaltown July 2017 - Cover3
Dentaltown July 2017 - Cover4
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