Dental Practice Marketing and Using the Media

In dental practice marketing it’s not often that a national media source which reaches millions hands the dentist a home run.

Usually, it’s an expose showing the less savory side of the licensed professions.  You know the stories:  Things like orthopedic surgeons doing surgeries that don’t need to be done, physician ilk that defraud medicare, and in the last year, dentists who disregard additional radiation delivered in the CBCT arena…

So….when we get our stories that are positive, you have to run with it and use it for dental practice marketing, especially if you happen to be one of those practices doing/offering whatever is being discussed.

Recently, the NYT had a digital medical issue and they related the story of a patient who fractured a molar and then had the prosthetic made via Sirona’s Cerec technology.  While the article was fantastic for dentistry, an even more enlightening side was reading the blog posts in response.  Dentists posting long-winded, technical, argumentative, “I don’t listen to my patients” statements and many patients relating bad experiences at the hands of a licensee.  LOTS to be learned just from those posts on what patients are really thinking and how you should be using the information to your advantage in dental practice marketing.

It’s interesting timing for this article as well since we recently added Cerec marketing (actual ads and training on what to do with the ads and to how to really benefit via Cerec) to our series of training modules in our online Elite Program (month 7 of the 24 month Program).  In fact, we’re the only place on the planet with Cerec marketing that’s based on behavior and advertising science.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of Cerec machines gathering dust because the message doesn’t get transmitted correctly the public by the correct dental practice marketing strategies.

Even if  you aren’t doing Cerec (90% aren’t) this type of article needs to stimulate your thinking for how you can be different to your prospective patients related to aspects of speed and convenience based dentistry.  It’s that kind of thinking differently that divides practices who stay independent and those who get further commoditized. To learn more, check out my book on Amazon on how to use media and other strategies to get ahead of your competition or go to my website here.