Why Is Marketing For Your Dental Practice Important?

Show Notes

Introduction to Mettler Marketing and and the Mettler Marketing Podcast.  Linda discusses why active marketing for your dental practice is mission critical.  She sets up the importance of a coordinated marketing plan in developing and meeting long-term business development planning.

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What is Mettler Marketing?

Linda provides dental professionals actionable marketing knowledge they can use to grow their dental practice.

Linda Mettler: And I know that right now you are being inundated with emails, social media ads, phone calls that are promising to show you how to get 100 leads per month, or give you the secret to new
patient acquisition. Welcome to the matalin Marketing Podcast where we will talk about marketing strategies and tactics to grow your practice. I am your host, Lynda Mettler and I have worked with
dental practices for several years now. And I want to share my knowledge and experience with you so that you can gain valuable and actionable steps on how to grow your practice. We will talk about the
latest and greatest and marketing features some guest speakers so that you can hear firsthand what is and is not working and help you unravel the complexities of the digital marketing world. I work
really closely with my clients. So we will also delve into some other issues that affect your practice from time to time, such as staffing problems, COVID protocols and similar issues. Hi, my name is
Linda Mettler and I'm the owner of Matlin Marketing. Today, I'm going to give you a little bit of background about me, and overview of metal marketing, and then talk about why I think it's so critical
to have a marketing plan or strategy before you spend any money at all on marketing and advertising. I have worked in healthcare, sales and marketing almost my entire career. I started out long ago as
a former rep, and then worked for a healthcare data company before going out on my own and starting Mettler marketing over 11 years ago. I am very passionate about health care as well as marketing.
And at Matlin marketing, we work with both medical and dental practices. However, in the past five years or so, we primarily focus on working with dental practices. We have offices and clients in
Colorado, Arizona, and soon expanding into California. So needless to say, I have some frequent flyer miles on the books. I do love to travel to see people in person because I feel it's so important

to have a personal working relationship with each and every client. I want to understand what makes their practice unique, and what makes their office vibe tick. We're going to talk a little more
about this philosophy in a later episode. On a personal note, I love traveling, hiking and cooking. But mostly I love to ride my bike. And I'm an avid road cyclist for over 15 years now. So if you
ever want to chat with me about the triple bypass ride in Colorado, or the Seattle to Portland ride, hit me up on social media, DM me, or you can check me out on my website. I love to talk cycling as
much as I love to talk marketing, probably even more. So speaking of marketing for your practice, let me ask you a question. Why is marketing for your practice so important? Well, the obvious answer
to that is to get new patients right, of course. And I know that right now, you are being inundated with emails, social media ads and phone calls that are promising to show you how to get 100 leads
per month, or give you the secret to new patient acquisition? Well, I'm going to tell you there is no secret, it takes a plan, a strategy, and a well thought out one at that. So let's dive in and look
at how we create a marketing plan or strategy. Marketing is the means by which you tell your story to prospective new patients. It's how you let them know who you are, and what makes your office
unique. They need to feel like your office is someplace they can come for quality care and comfort. But you don't need just any patient. You need the right patient for your practice. And that's
something that most dentists don't really think about. And that is where your strategy or your plan begins by answering some of the following or all of the following questions. Who is your ideal
patient? What is their age and their gender? Is it young kids? Is it the older family member? What type of dentistry Do you love to practice? Are you a general dentist or specialist? What type of

procedures are your favorite to perform? How many patients per week do you want to see? Do you want to work five days a week or three and a half? Are you looking to work late evenings and early
mornings? Or do you just want to work the typical, you know eight to five? Do you have specific financial revenue goals for your practice? What is the production breakout needed to meet those goals?
Also, are you in your first five years of your career or Last, do you have a transition plan? Do you have a marketing budget? And what is your marketing savvy? Are you highly tech savvy? Are you
really good on social media? Or are you more old school? And how much time per week Can you spend on marketing? If you're 25, and you're right out of school, and you're super tech savvy and on
Instagram and tik tok all day long, then you can probably do a lot of your marketing on your own. But if you're not, or you don't have time for marketing, or huge interest, you may want to outsource
some of those activities to a firm or an agency. You may also wonder what any of these questions have to do with marketing. But the answers to these questions help identify the type of new patient
that is the right fit for your practice. And that is what's going to make you successful. With this information, you can determine the right marketing channel and tactics to use. For instance, an
orthodontist definitely wants to be on Instagram and probably Tick Tock to appeal to the younger patients, the tweens, but as well as their moms, and some of the young adults who also need their teeth
straightened. But the prosthodontist and the general dentist have a different set of patients, and Facebook or maybe even some old school traditional print advertising might be a better channel for
those practices. I have a client in Colorado that I've worked with for several years, he had a practice in a large neighborhood for about 30 years when we met. He had a good patient base, but his

growth was stagnant. And he was looking to sell his practice and a few years, he was very old school and needed to get on to the digital marketing train. So we started slowly, and we started with a
website overhaul and then got him up to speed with what social media could do for him. It took about a year but after that time, we were up to about 20 to 25 new patients per month on average. By the
time he sold the practice a few years later, we were at 40 new patients per month pretty consistently. Needless to say this helped him get a much better price for his practice. This year, he has
decided to open a new boutique practice in a very niche neighborhood. So we are working on a plan that includes digital marketing since most of the area. The demographics are our young people, young
professionals, but also incorporates a fair amount of community marketing by means of sponsorships and collaborations with neighboring business partners. This particular neighborhood is very focused
on giving back and partnering with each other. So I'm really excited to be a part of this community and his dental practice marketing team. But our strategy is much different than the previous
practice. There are so many options out there for marketing today. A good website is an absolute must and should be your central hub, where people can find out everything they need to know and to
attract those new patients. There's digital marketing, social media marketing, traditional marketing, video marketing, community marketing, all kinds of different channels. We would love to help you
with any of them. But what we don't want to do and what we don't want you to do is to use a shotgun approach. We want you to have a plan that is flexible, but with a specific goal and strategy in
mind. That way you can spend your marketing dollars wisely, and shift them around as necessary with digital marketing analytics are available immediately. And I definitely suggest reviewing your plan

every quarter to make necessary adjustments, you may need to stop advertising on one channel and started on another. So if you have a plan, and you review it quarterly, you can make those adjustments
pretty easily. So get working on your marketing plan. And we will take a deeper dive into specific marketing channels for new patient acquisition in our next few episodes. We will also bring on some
guest speakers so you can hear what isn't isn't working for our clients and other peers and leaders in the dental community.

Ed Bejarana: Are you committed to the growth of your practice Mettler marketing can help at medtner marketing. We help dental practices gain new patients increase referrals and maximize patient
retention with customized Marketing Solutions tailored to fit your needs. Visit www dot medtner marketing.com to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help grow your practice. Thank you
for tuning in to the Mettler Marketing Podcast. Please share this episode with your friends and colleagues. If you would like to be a guest on our show, visit Mettler marketing.com and drop us a note
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