Check out this great message from guest author, Ron Sheetz. Also, be sure to check out his “Eclipse your Competition Media Summit” October 13-14th; I’m actually a guest speaker – hope to see you there!
Did you ever hear the saying, “Too close to the forest to see the trees”? It means you can be too close to something to see it objectively.
I’m going to make a statement and run the risk of completely irritating you.
Ready?
Here goes…
Creating marketing and advertising for a dental practice is actually easier than most make it out to be.
Because most docs are too close to the practice to see the real important stuff to communicate.
I’m sure you’ve heard it before, don’t promote the technology, promote the emotional aspects of dentistry.
It really is that simple.
There are 3 fundamentals to really good marketing and advertising:
Message
Market
Media
It’s the creation of a specific message, intended for a particular market, and delivered through a media that target market pays attention and responds to.
The message is simple…
A direct response message is one that calls out to your intended audience. For example, if promoting Invisalign for kids you could tailor the message to speak to the kids, but, they’re not the ones who pay for treatment. Therefore, a message should be targeted to the parents, specifically the moms. I know, that makes perfect sense, right?
But the message often gets more complicated and ultimately doesn’t produce patients.
A common mistake is focusing on the media first, without a plan. Often that’s because the newspaper rep shows up and has a great deal on ad space. Because you need to do something you put an ad in the paper. Or the radio rep calls you and you think, “Well, we haven’t tried radio and I’ve hear that radio works, so you buy some air time. A lot of media is bought this way.
Start with your market, then craft a message that connects with them, then decide on a media. As a dentist you want patients, but what kind of patients? Do you want more hygiene? More cosmetic? More crowns and caps?
Once you know who (your market) and what will attract them you then can craft the message. The media choice then becomes easy and you’re empowered to say no to those ad reps whose media doesn’t fit your plan.
However, creating a marketing or advertising message from scratch is the hardest, most difficult place to begin. It’s like a writer sitting in front of a blank computer screen without any research beside him or her to work from.
So where do you start from?
I always start with the patient… your patient. Who else better to create a message for than the ideal patient you already have.
Attract more of them…
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
You’re practice is filled with patients you like (or at least I hope it is).
That’s only one of the nuggets I’m going to show you how to do at the Eclipse Your Competition Media Summit October 13 & 14, 2017. How to extract those powerful marketing/advertising messages from your best patients and then how to craft powerful messages that bring patients to your practice.
Your practice’s greatest asset is not the dental technology, it’s not the staff, it’s not even you…
It’s your patients. The right patients, the good patients, the ones you really like and like doing treatments on. They will tell you everything you need to know to attract more like them, when you know how to ask, what to ask and then what to do with it.
I hear it from docs all the time, “I keep attracting the wrong patients”. That’s more about getting the message, market and media wrong. Don’t start with a blank page.
I’ll show you how to extract the write messages from your patients and then how to turn it into powerful, automatic messages that attract the right patients to your practice.
Both space and time are limited for the October event. Only accepting 8 practices (primary and key person). 44 days and counting down.
Click to download the event registration form, or go HERE to request details of the entire event, including my guest speakers.
Ron Sheetz
PS There are times you’re working way TOO HARD to get the results you are. Despite what you may think, there’s an easier way.