If you're like most dentists I've encountered, the idea of marketing your practice to new patients is pretty daunting. After all, you went to dental school to learn dentistry, not marketing. So with today's onslaught of online marketing opportunities, reputation management, and social media, you probably want to put your head in the sand and hope that with enough time, these "fads" will be long gone when you decide to resurface.
Unfortunately, like most things technology-related, the longer you wait to get on board, the further behind you'll be. Opportunities to connect with your existing and potential new patients through search engine optimization (SEO), Google and Yelp reviews, banner ads, Facebook, Twitter, and other electronic venues, will only get more expansive as time goes on.
Jay Geier is the president and founder of the Scheduling Institute.This is actually good news for you if you embrace it, as you will learn to expand your reach to audiences who depend on the internet for their research and social proof, or who may not be responding to other conventional forms of marketing. The bad news is that dentists are being fooled into believing that the latest and greatest online opportunities are the solutions to their new patient problems. You're told the more you invest, the more new patients you will get. That is simply not true.
I'm not downplaying the importance of Yelp, Google, and Yahoo reviews; click-through conversions; and search result placements, but you can't hang your hat on the numbers alone. website visitors are great, but it really comes down to the potential new patients who search your site, not your existing ones. And online reviews are your practice's social proof, but no amount of money is going to buy you good reviews if the patient experience is not worth writing about.
Let's go back to the high-end website you've been encouraged to create. It's got all the bells and whistles that make it look like what you paid for it. But what do you think is the most important piece of that investment? What is the very first thing interested new patients will do after they have clicked through all the "cool" features on your site?
They will find the phone number and call your office. This is where you see the true return of your marketing investment. Because increased traffic on your website will certainly offer you more opportunities for new patient calls, but it will not guarantee an increase in new patient numbers.
If your team cannot turn these prospective new patient calls into scheduled appointments, it's a (really) expensive missed opportunity.
Now I'm not saying don't invest in marketing. I'm saying you need to also invest in training your team to properly handle calls that do come in from your marketing efforts. If they're not appropriately trained to turn the calls into scheduled patients, you're wasting your money.
The two work hand in hand. Think of it this way: Your increased web presence brings in additional new patient opportunities through phone calls to the office. The calls are converted to appointments by your highly trained team.
That same team provides a patient experience that then drives your reputation. The better you are at the experience, the more your patients want to refer their friends and write about their experience online. The more positive reviews your practice receives, the more potential new patients will call your office, and you've got yourself a nice cycle that will result in tremendous growth in the practice.
Bottom line is this: You can't depend on your marketing alone, whether it's print or digital, to bring new patients into the office. You also need to have the right team in place to capitalize on that marketing and maximize the return on your investment.
Jay Geier is the founder and owner of the Scheduling Institute, a dental training and practice consulting company. Visit www.5starchallenge.com to find out how to improve your new patient growth, and also visit www.doctorsunder47.com to learn more about the institute's September 23 event.
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
