At Clear to Launch Dental Solutions, we use a 3 step dental marketing plan for the practices we work with. This is applicable to 1, 10, or 100 practices. This framework for success works every time. In this blog post, we’ll go over the third step. Order is critical though, so go back and complete Step 1 and Step 2.
STEP 3. Become a 1% Dental Practice
Once you have completed Steps 1 & 2, your dental practice will be greatly outperforming traditional practices. You are no longer on the same playing field as the other dentists. You get to pick and choose the best patients, referrals are amplified, and the practice is growing on autopilot.
The items in Step 3 include the following:
- Dental Event Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- Original Dental Content Marketing
- Public Relations
- Local ‘Celebrity Dentist’
Dental Event Marketing
Event marketing achieves results on almost every level of growth for your practice. It engages current patients, past patients, new patients, the community, local organizations, charities, and much more. As a well-established brand, you can now focus on creating well-established events that will keep your schedule full with your ideal patients.
Examples of Event Marketing
- Wine and Cheese Night
- Golf Tournaments
- Bowling Night / Trivia Night
- Kids Picnics
- Sporting Events (Bulk tickets for very cost-effective)
- Concerts
- Softball / Bags Tournament
- 5k Fundraiser / Charitable events
- Local Niche Activity
One of the largest benefits of Event Marketing is that your patients will be talking about the event before, during, and after the actual event. They will share the event on social media and with their personal network.
*email lisa@cleartolaunchdental.com for a Step-by-step guide on how to host the most popular events for dental offices.
Influencer Marketing
Having the right influencer as one of your dental patients is a great way to attract the very best patients. Usually, the dentist will provide an influencer with free dental services. In return, you borrow the patient’s social media influence. A common example is athletes. When you provide free services for one high-profile athlete, the rest of the team will make your practice the preferred option. This causes a compounding effect allowing you to leverage their large social network.
Original Dental Content Marketing
Original content marketing begins with photos and short videos. As the number of followers and subscribers grows, the original content transforms into a form of entertainment / reality TV. This can include dentists on Instagram with large followings like @DrBillDorfman. This can also include reality TV shows like “Botched” and “Inked”.
Public Relations for Dentists
Declaring you are the best dentist is one thing, but having a news source make that claim brings an entirely different level of credibility to your practice. To cultivate PR the practice needs to create compelling content and easy-to-access media kits for news outlets. These news outlets are always looking for quality content to publish. Your job is to make it easy for them.
Local ‘Celebrity Dentist’
This is the end result of doing everything in steps 1 – 3. It is not everyone’s goal to become a local celebrity, but when you are, you get to pick the very best, highest-paying patients. ‘Celebrity dentists’ enjoy the maximum financial freedom and time freedom.
Final Thoughts
You have spent years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars becoming a dental professional. You have mastered your craft. People use your services because in dentistry the Do-It-Yourself-Dentistry method is not recommended. Could you imagine a patient attempting to fill their own cavities or extracting a tooth? When we see a dentist attempting to do their own marketing, we feel the same way. In both cases, the person usually does more harm than good. We recommend hiring professionals and staying focused on what you do best.
Thank you for reading our Modern Dental Marketing Plan. If you would like this information presented to your staff or organization, please email: Lisa@cleartolaunchdental.com
Clear to Launch Dental Solutions is a full-service dental marketing agency headquartered in St. Louis, MO and serving clients across the US. Clear to Launch Dental Solutions focuses on dental websites, dental social media marketing, dental Google Ads, dental SEO, and other online marketing for dental practices, dental groups and DSOs.
