All DentalMarketingCenter.com Updates

Keeping Good Dental Patients for Life: Your Fortune is in Your Follow-up

7/23/2009 5:19:31 PM

Studies show that up to 45% of the patients who contact you will purchase the same dental services that you provide within the following year. Will they purchase from you or another dentist?

The answer lies in how well your dental office is following up with those prospective patients.

Experienced dentists know that effective follow-up represents the cornerstone of a vital dental practice. Yet too many dentists are still using stone-age tools in a microchip world. Research shows that it takes a minimum of five to seven contacts before a patient decides to do business with you.

Traditional marketing tools such as mailing lists and the occasional phone call no longer get the job done. Bringing patients back into the fold requires a solid follow-up system, one with robust contact capabilities that allow you to deliver your message to selected patients without a lot of fuss and bother.

What is a solid follow-up system? Contrary to the popular misconception, it's not just numerous phone calls to the same person. Much broader in scope, a nice follow-up system involves an organized system of information that allows you to communicate with patients on an ongoing basis and in a variety of ways.

When properly utilized, a follow-up system allows you to:

Send personalized messages to your selected patients.
Retain current patients and motivate them to come in for treatment on a more frequent basis.
Attract new patients by explaining how your dental practice fits their unique dental needs.
Grow your practice in an efficient and cost-effective...

Essential Tactics for Attracting New Patients

7/23/2009 5:18:08 PM

How can you handle the marketing power of the Internet in a creative and reasonably priced manner?

The options appear to be overwhelming and the challenge is to develop a sensible plan to organize your research.

First, define a clear objective for your Internet presence. Are you looking to attract new patients? Do you need an online brochure for your existing patients? Are you interested in enhancing your professional image using the latest communication tool?

If you are interested in obtaining more new patients, the following guidelines will assist you in the design of your strategy.

Search engines position is critical for your success

You will need a top position with the search engines for the key terms, in this case: dentist or dental and your location. Secure a name for your website that offers the best position. For example, if you are Dr. Name located in NiceCity, one option could be NiceCityDental.com or NiceCityDentist.com

Remember, the key concept is to be listed at the top of the search engine listing for your location. You can always add your name to the description of the home page:

NiceCityDental.com Dr Name's Dental Practice in NiceCity

That's the whole point of this exercise: Terms such as dental, dentist, or dentistry associated with your location. Your name and the name of your practice are secondary to the objective of securing top listing with AltaVista, Metacrawler, AOL, Yahoo and the other search engines.

One word of advice in regard to Yahoo: This is a directory and not an automated search engine. That means that they have a selective process...

Stop Letting Patients Escape! (and Stop Letting Your Income Walk out the Door)

7/23/2009 5:15:34 PM

How many times have you or your treatment counselor made a case presentation only to have the patient decline the treatment, walk out the door and never return?

Frustrating, isn't it? You lose the revenue from the patient, which doesn't help your cash flow. You probably get upset with yourself (or your treatment counselor) for failing to close the sale. And as a doctor of dental medicine, it doesn't feel good knowing that your patient isn't getting the treatment they need.

Neither you nor the patient win in those situations, so why do they occur so frequently? The answer is simple -- lack of training.

The #1 Cause of Lost Revenue

Every dental practice has a treatment counselor, the person who informs the patient of the results of the examination and the treatment prescribed by the dentist. In some practices the dentist assumes that role. But in most cases, the task of "selling" the patient on the treatment falls to the dental assistant, front office person or office manager. Therein lies the root of the problem.

What we're talking about here is that horrible five-letter word that causes most people to recoil in fear and loathing -- sales. Let's face it, no matter how severe the dental problem or how strongly you recommend the treatment, the patient has no obligation to accept it. Therefore, you must convince the patient that it's in his or her best interests to open their wallet or pocketbook and agree to the treatment. Any way you look at it, that involves selling.

Now we come to the real core of the issue.

Treatment counselors -- whether they are dentist, dental assistant or office manager -- are not trained salespeople. In fact, the vast majority of them have personalities that naturally shy away from the conflict inherent in sales situations....

7/23/2009 5:14:53 PM

Six Steps to a Better Brochure

7/23/2009 5:10:02 PM

You only get one chance to make a first impression.

That old saying rings true for most businesses, but especially for a professional service like dentistry. The moment patients walk through the door, they begin to form lasting opinions about you and your practice. Once formed, those opinions can be very difficult to change. That's why having a warm, friendly but professional looking reception area is essential for building the right image in your patients' minds.

For many dental practices, however, that critical first impression begins to take shape long before the patient ever sets foot in your office. In fact, it starts the moment someone picks up your brochure and begins to read about you. If they don't like what they see, or if they get turned off by your message, you may never have another chance at catching their attention -- and their business -- again.

Obviously, patients don't choose dentists solely on the quality of their brochures. But a well-written brochure can play an important role in helping to build your dental practice. To create an effective brochure that conveys the message you want prospective patients to read, keep the following principles in mind:

Understand the brochure's purpose. The primary goal with a brochure is to get potential patients to take the next step in the buying process. So in addition to including your name, location, phone number and the services you provide, it also needs to motivate people to take action. In the case of a dental practice, that action typically involves a phone call to learn more about your practice or to schedule an appointment.
Sell benefits, not features. To motivate people to take action, sell benefits, not features. People already know that you clean teeth, fill cavities, treat gum disease and so on. Those activities represent the features of your business. The benefits include things...

New Stuff

7/20/2009 5:41:03 PM

New stuff

7/17/2009 10:46:18 PM

asfjsld; fjas'djfasl'd kfals'dkfaos'd kfa'sd kfl;sad

7/16/2009 6:08:31 PM

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris sed leo vel metus iaculis faucibus. Maecenas a risus posuere massa vestibulum fringilla nec ut diam. Nullam laoreet, dui a mollis facilisis, lectus nunc elementum ipsum, a mollis ipsum odio sit amet dui. Nullam pellentesque porta libero sit amet hendrerit. Nunc sagittis mollis ultrices. Donec nisl ligula, semper et consequat sed, ultricies non sapien. Ut eu enim dui, sed cursus ligula. Fusce iaculis diam ac elit porttitor ullamcorper. Sed vel purus dictum lectus facilisis facilisis. Nulla sapien orci, dictum in tristique ac, lacinia et lorem. Aliquam erat volutpat. Etiam eros lorem, scelerisque quis molestie ac, gravida quis mi. Phasellus dictum cursus gravida. Vivamus porta, nisi ac mollis ultrices, risus leo tempus urna, imperdiet varius nisl magna eu nisi. Vivamus eros libero, ullamcorper et ultricies ut, blandit sed elit.

Suspendisse nec erat sapien, ac adipiscing velit. Proin varius dolor vel mauris pharetra at mattis lorem auctor. Nullam vel tincidunt erat. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Sed rhoncus leo et mi tincidunt volutpat. In et ipsum quam. Donec vel libero nisi, congue tincidunt orci. Mauris porta tincidunt augue id accumsan. In lectus turpis, bibendum ut eleifend eget, ultricies vel sem. Vestibulum congue varius turpis, vestibulum pulvinar sapien porttitor at. Ut sit amet tellus sit amet libero egestas vehicula.

Quisque a massa odio. Pellentesque nisl leo, pretium quis tempor sed, mollis non urna. Aliquam erat volutpat. Sed eget mauris sit amet tellus placerat lacinia. Fusce vitae congue nibh. Fusce nisl lectus, luctus nec auctor sit amet, venenatis sed mi. Nullam dapibus ultricies nisi, non dignissim diam tristique quis. Curabitur luctus nibh et orci fermentum vehicula. Etiam at sem id magna pulvinar elementum eget vitae mauris. Mauris et erat ligula....