When you open a dental practice, you also become a business owner. Your plate gets very full, very fast. Suddenly, you’re no longer just a dentist seeing and taking care of patients—you’re an employer, responsible for training and instructing employees; you’re a decision-maker, responsible for dental office design and determining an effective working order; and you’re also a marketer, developing your brand and promoting your new practice to the community.
For most new dental practice owners, the marketing side of business-ownership is the most daunting. Determining how your practice will best serve the community while generating a successful production income is a delicate balancing act.
As we discussed in previous articles, you spent significant time and money becoming a doctor. This what you trained to become and the career you chose for yourself. Attempting to handle I.T. and advertising tasks on your own is not a productive use of your time and skills. Unless you have previous experience in marketing, knowing where to start can seem like an enormous challenge.
Attempting to market and advertise your dental practice on your own WILL cause you stress. Effective marketing and advertising is and art and a science. It requires analyzing the data to determine which message attracted a new patient and tweaking the message to improve ROI (return on investment). It may require completely scrapping a current campaign and creating a new approach to deliver the right message to attract new patients (customers). Not only is this an additional task that will take you away from treating patients, you may become too emotionally invested into a campaign to be willing to change strategy.
Remember, this is a business you are building—not your ego. It may be in your best interest to step back from the creative and find a team that can professionally handle your marketing development and implementation.
Getting help is not a sign of weakness, it’s an intelligent business decision that will payoff in the long run.
You can do your dental marketing on your own, but would you do your own electrical and plumbing for your new practice? As a new new dental practice owner you need to minimize your risks. A professional marketing team will help you develop the right message, the right brand, and the right campaign to attract your new patients.
For most new dental practice owners, the marketing side of business-ownership is the most daunting. Determining how your practice will best serve the community while generating a successful production income is a delicate balancing act.
As we discussed in previous articles, you spent significant time and money becoming a doctor. This what you trained to become and the career you chose for yourself. Attempting to handle I.T. and advertising tasks on your own is not a productive use of your time and skills. Unless you have previous experience in marketing, knowing where to start can seem like an enormous challenge.
Attempting to market and advertise your dental practice on your own WILL cause you stress. Effective marketing and advertising is and art and a science. It requires analyzing the data to determine which message attracted a new patient and tweaking the message to improve ROI (return on investment). It may require completely scrapping a current campaign and creating a new approach to deliver the right message to attract new patients (customers). Not only is this an additional task that will take you away from treating patients, you may become too emotionally invested into a campaign to be willing to change strategy.
Remember, this is a business you are building—not your ego. It may be in your best interest to step back from the creative and find a team that can professionally handle your marketing development and implementation.
Getting help is not a sign of weakness, it’s an intelligent business decision that will payoff in the long run.
Five Reasons to Consider Experienced Marketing Professionals
- It saves time: You WILL have your hands full when opening your own dental practice—when your marketing is most important. Taking advantage of marketing professionals who can tailor a multi-pronged marketing campaign to your removes a major headache from your to-do list and allows you to focus on the aspects of running a dental practice for which you are prepared.
- It eliminates guesswork: Without previous marketing experience, you will feel like your marketing campaign is a big game of trial and error. Employing marketing professionals allows you to piggyback on their experience as they have already created methods that get results. They can avoid known marketing pitfalls and adjust your message more quickly.
- It gets results: There’s a reason marketing is its own industry—it’s a big job that requires an expert. There is online marketing, direct marketing, branding, advertising and more. You will face competition that has been marketing for many years. A professional marketing team can help you create “shock-and-awe” in an environment where the marketing and advertising has been okay.
- Eliminates distractions: A new business will attract all types of companies vying for your advertising dollar. You will be approached by salespeople from phone books (there are many publishers), card decks, flyers, newspapers, billboard, radio and television. A marketing team can interface with these salespeople as your proxy—allowing you to spend more time with patients.
- Maintains brand continuity: The various advertising mediums can be great, but they will all tell you they have “people” who can design your creative “for free!” Your message WILL become muddled by having different people handling your designs. The pictures, fonts, and copy used in medium will differ from others. The lack of brand consistency will work against your practice instead of working for it.
You can do your dental marketing on your own, but would you do your own electrical and plumbing for your new practice? As a new new dental practice owner you need to minimize your risks. A professional marketing team will help you develop the right message, the right brand, and the right campaign to attract your new patients.
You've hit the nail on the head by saying it's impossible for any small business owner to be all things to all people and many roles in your company need to be delegated to the professionals for that area, e.g. marketing. It's a bit like paying an accountant to do your accounts. In the long run it saves you time, money and stress.
ReplyDeleteRegina Morales @ Sonic Response