Marketing has, at long last, gained acceptance as a legitimate, indeed an essential activity for the health professional. To be successful at the marketing game, it is vitally important that you are committed to the idea of promoting your practice and that you are comfortable, indeed proud and excited, that you are in command of the message you share with current and prospective patients.

To achieve this level of success, a bit of “attitude adjustment” may berequired on the part of the practitioner and staff. You have to believe in, and indeed be happy about, the process of sharing the benefits of your practice, in other words, marketing, if you are to convey the necessary optimism and enthusiasm, and devote the energy and resources necessary to achieve success.

Just as one of your most important tasks is to improve the “Dental I.Q.” of your patients, the task falls to us to advance the “Dentistry Marketing I.Q.” of our Clients.

We begin by placing marketing’s role in the dental profession in historical perspective. We then present actual case studies, which illustrate some of the challenges and opportunities you might face, as well as specific action steps that were taken in anticipation of or in response to these opportunities and challenges. We close by sharing with you some important lessons that were learned by our Clients.

It is our intent and hope that presenting these lessons to you now will permit you to structure your marketing programs to yield maximum results from their inception.

Background

A common mistake many practitioners make can be summed up by the old adage of ‘putting the cart before the horse.’ Often, the dentist will amass a staggering debt by purchasing such technological wonders as video imaging, digitized radiography, laser packages, one-visit crown equipment, and needle-less anesthesia. They lose sight of the fact that, by itself, equipment does little to increase new patient flow. The only way to assure consistent practice growth is by implementing an effective marketing plan.

The term marketing is often used interchangeably with selling and advertising. Selling is the act of causing to be accepted or advocating successfully e.g. treatment acceptance. Advertising is the activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media. Philip Kotler, Ph.D., author of some of the most popular college texts on the subject, defines marketing as “human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes.” Selling and advertising are but two examples of exchange processes that comprise a marketing system. In other words, success at dentistry marketing depends on an integrated system of numerous activities (selling and advertising among them) and requires proper timing, planning, execution, and evaluation.

As business men and women, the success of your practice and your quality of life depend on your acceptance of marketing as yet another “hat” you must wear, just as you have come to accept finance, accounting, human resources management, clinical proficiency, etc.

Historical “Parallels”

Dentistry and marketing, with the notable exception of internal marketing (more on this later) have, until recently, had little to do with each other. Dentistry historically considered itself “above” marketing. This position was based largely on a misperception of reality. In many cases, there was no perceived need to market. My father and uncle were the first and only dentists in Glenview, a suburb north of Chicago, for many years. They followed the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which was building the Forest Preserve system. Their "marketing plan" consisted of opening their practice near the workshite. Talk about a “captive audience.”

But how does one measure the “opportunity cost” of not marketing? Even a successful practice could be more successful. In this regard, many practices remained (and remain) blissfully ignorant.

Prior to fluoridated water, managed care, and a decrease in the ratio of population to dentists, most practices could rely on little more than “word of mouth” to ensure a full appointment schedule. The thought of actively promoting the practice led the dentist to feelings of inadequacy, desperation, or failure as a clinician. “If I deliver high quality dentistry, should that not be sufficient?” went the conventional wisdom.

But perhaps the factor most responsible for the traditional lack of marketing in dentistry and other health care fields was the belief that it was an unethical activity. In fact, prior to the Federal Trade Commission’s 1979 Ruling (FTC vs. American Medical Association 1/4/77), marketing of professional services was prohibited.

Currently, state dental societies maintain strict parameters which must be followed by professionals who market their services, and it is in your interest to be familiar with these regulations prior to implementing your marketing plan.

The Patient/Provider Relationship

There are three paradigms used to describe the dentist-patient relationship. The Guild Model views the patient as incapable of making judgments, not only about kinds of treatment, but the need for therapy in the first place. Since there is no justification offered for decision making by the patient, there is no justification for a dentist to market.

The Commercial Model holds that the relationship between dentist and patient is simply that of producer and consumer. The watch phrase here is caveat emptor, buyer beware.

The Chicago Dental Society’s April, ’95 issue of CDS Review elaborates on the Commercial Model as follows:

Dentist and patient are viewed as equal bargainers who have no obligation to one another, except for a prohibition of coercion, an obligation to truth (not necessarily the whole truth), and a duty to keep contracts once made.

The goal of the dentist, according to the Interactive Model, is to enhance patient autonomy. This assumes both that the patient is capable of understanding, and the dentist owes a duty to assist the patient in making decisions, about dental care.

What distinguishes the Interactive from the Commercial Model is its belief in the moral, not merely the economic equality of the doctor and patient, and it is the model we believe ought to characterize the patient provider relationship.

Awareness and Persuasion

Most marketing programs consist of two components: an awareness creation component, and a persuasion component. There are those who maintain that persuasion has no legitimate role to play in dentistry marketing. In our view, persuasion has a valuable role to play, provided it has as its primary objective providing necessary and high quality services to the unserved and under-served public.

It may well be that very little persuasion is necessary to achieve your practice growth objectives. We work with a number of practices where, for example, owing to the shortage of providers or rapid population growth in the area, all the practice need do is create awareness of it’s existence. An excellent example of this was a doctor in downtown New Orleans who merely needed to inform businesses of his location to realize a substantial influx of new patients.

Another example of the awareness-creation component of marketing is related by a Member practicing just north of Chicago who invested a lot of money to make his office wheel chair accessible. “I just assumed people knew about it. Apparently, they didn’t, and I no doubt missed a lot of opportunities to treat these people.” By simply mentioning this benefit in the copy of his mailings, the response among senior citizens increased markedly.

Internal and External Marketing

Internal marketing concerns itself primarily with communication among your patients of record. In a general sense, anything, which has an impact on your patient’s perception of your practice, is a form of internal marketing.

External marketing is intended to create awareness and induce a response among people with whom you’ve not yet established a relationship.

As mentioned above, some practices need only create awareness of their existence and location to induce a response. Marketing where the element of persuasion is absent is called Institutional Marketing. Its sole concern is conveying information and a certain image about the practice.

Examples of internal marketing include: treatment presentation, patient recall and reactivation, on-hold messages, and referral programs (see www.climbforacause.org/jump/index.html for an example). The distinction between internal and external marketing is somewhat blurred when one speaks about referral programs. This is because, while directed at patients of record (internal marketing), their intent is to attract prospective patients (external marketing).

Examples of external marketing include: community outreach, as in making presentations on dental hygiene to school children, speaking and networking at Chambers of Commerce, direct mail, Yellow Page advertising, and professional call handling (also called telemarketing). Owing to the fact that convenience is such a strong motivator in an individual’s decision to join a practice, most dentists should consider themselves to be local area marketers. The so-called broadcast marketing channels (advertising on radio, television, newspapers, etc.), therefore, are seldom cost-effective since they are attempting to contact (and you are paying for the attempt the attempt) people beyond your Service Area.

Telephone call handling is another area where internal and external marketing can overlap. This is because current as well as prospective patients call your office (and, yes handling incoming calls to your office is a form of telemarketing). Proper etiquette in handling these calls is absolutely crucial to the positive perception of your practice among current and prospective patients.

Recent years have seen the proliferation of the use of the Internet for everything from academic research to grocery shopping. Its use in the dental profession has increased significantly as well, both as an internal and external marketing tool. Used as part of an integrated marketing plan, the Internet can serve an internal marketing function by, for example, facilitating cost-effective communications with your patients of record (periodic emailed newsletters, appointment reminders, etc.). External marketing is facilitated both by including your website address prominently on more convention communications, such as direct mail (so called clicks to bricks marketing), and via direct Internet promotion using such strategies as search engine optimization and listing on high exposure directories, such as www.888NowSmile.com. In addition, your website can help increase practice efficiency by serving as an administrative tool to e.g. streamline the new patient enrollment process.

Links In A Chain

We stress that the programs offered here cannot work in isolation. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. For example, the success of your external marketing programs will depend to a great extent on having your internal marketing systems in place (and vice versa). This is the case because external marketing programs are best at generating inquiries. It’s what you do with that traffic (and here is where internal marketing and other essential systems enter the picture) that can mean the success or failure of your external marketing efforts.

Other “links in the chain” that are equally important to continued practice growth are: overhead control, patient financing, web site design, soft tissue management, treatment presentation, human resources management, patient communications, and technology integration.

To learn more or to ask a question contact us

» Back to Case Studies «