Strategic Marketing in Dentistry

One of the main goals DSO marketing teams should have for 2024, beyond typical marketing tactics, is to get strategic alignment with their operations teams. Connecting with operations on a regular basis helps ensure everyone is driving toward the same result. Too many times marketing and ops work in silos as they might have different end goals. This misalignment can cause a negative impact toward marketing efforts and become a burden on marketing resources.

What are some things to keep in mind to ensure a successful marketing strategy?

Schedule Capacity: This would include forecasting any unexpected changes to schedules; staff shortages, doctor days/hours, changes in office hours, etc. to ensure you have appointments available to accompany your marketing efforts. Patient Visit Goals What goals are you looking to hit each month? They could be related to new patients, existing patients, ratio of new to existing, etc. From there, reverse engineer how many doctor days/patient slots you have available and what marketing efforts you will need to apply to fill the schedule.

Understanding Broken Appointment Rate: Making sure ops and marketing have a clear understating of what an office’s “broken appointment” rate is and then having a shared plan to add additional columns to fill for those who will ultimately miss their appointments.

Moving Marketing Dollars: After taking the above actions, is there an office who is truly “booked out” further than patients are willing to wait? If so, marketing dollars should be shifted until more capacity is found. In healthcare, new patients want to be seen within 24-48 hours. If you continue to spend marketing dollars on patient acquisition for offices who can’t see a new patient within a few days, you are probably wasting money. The further out they are booked, the less likely they are to show.

What dental marketing initiatives help drive patient retention? 

While as marketers we often focus on patient acquisition, it’s also important to drive patient retention. Typically, the marketing cost per new patient is higher than your cost for existing patients, so it benefits the practice overall if there is a focus given to current patients.

First and foremost, cultivating a patient centric approach is key. As in the question above, a partnership between ops and marketing is essential to drive patient retention. From an operations perspective, providing exceptional customer service, personalized care plans and attentive communication can foster a positive patient experience. Think about what your office’s six month recall pre-book plan is and how you are getting those patients – who are in your office today – on the schedule in six months. Making sure this is a priority will help your schedule build organically.

Other tactics that can support those efforts include implementing a comprehensive recall system, including automated appointment reminders, offering discounts or membership plans for those who are uninsured, and utilizing technology to streamline administrative processes, such as online appointment scheduling.

Social media is another marketing tool to regularly engage with your existing patients. Asking patients, when in the office, to follow you on social channels, then providing regular content including educational posts, videos and updates about your practice can help keep your office and services at the forefront of the patient’s mind.

Lastly, it’s imperative to actively seek and value patient feedback. For larger groups, this means utilizing technology that asks for reviews from existing patients and tracks responses and Net Promoter Score (NPS), then promptly addressing concerns when they arise. This demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement and cultivates a trusting relationship between a practice and patients.

Is there any one marketing trend you wish you could say goodbye to? 

Say goodbye to marketing trends that don’t have data and analytics to demonstrate ROI. This doesn’t mean you cancel any tool that doesn’t have a direct appointment conversion associated with it; you still need some “top of funnel” tactics which are more brand awareness focused to drive to bottom of the funnel where patients convert. But what this means is, in the ever-evolving landscape of marketing, making decisions based merely on a suggestion, intuition, or assumption can lead you down an ineffective marketing path. By leveraging analytics, marketers gain a nuanced understanding of our patients’ preferences, behaviors, and the effectiveness of campaigns. Stop doing campaigns and tactics that might “look flashy” but have no associated ROI.

We know staffing has been a big challenge for many organizations, how do you use marketing to retain and attract staff? 

In this day and age, dental marketing teams aren’t just trying to drive new patients, but they are also acting as support to our recruiters. Crafting an appealing employer brand is essential when prospective employees are researching your company. Leveraging digital platforms, social networks, and your website allows you to highlight your commitment to a positive and inclusive work environment as well as showcase your mission, core values, and culture to ensure the people applying for jobs at your company will be a good fit.

Leveraging marketing tactics to promote your dental practice as not just a healthcare provider, but also an employer of choice, will aim to attract and retain talented staff.

If you had one sentence for anything else to focus on in the 2024 dental marketing world what would it be? 

Applying MarTech (marketing technology) tools that will still maintain a heavy focus on HIPAA compliance and PHI.

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