Dental Marketing: The Magic of Internal Marketing

Are you doing everything you can to build patient relations and attract new patients?

by Tyson Steele

We are constantly getting calls from dentists who want more new patients and are considering various marketing programs. The programs include things like 1-800-dentist, direct mail programs, videos and custom designed ad campaigns.

Although we are not necessarily against any of these marketing tactics, our first question to the dentist is always the same, "Are you doing everything you can internally to build patient relations and attract new patients?"

Ultimately, the answer is a vague, "Well, not really."

So why is the dentist looking to spend thousands on marketing tactics that may attract "C" and "D" level patients and few "A" patients when they could spend zero dollars to increase their number of "A" patients through referrals?

For the most part, we believe it's an emotional decision. External marketing is perceived as glamourous and easy. Besides, it doesn't appear to require any sweat of the brow work. Unfortunately, in our opinion, it rarely works as well as internal marketing.

So, if you're not asking for referrals, making after-care calls and sending hand-written notes to patients, we strongly suggest you try it before giving your hard-earned profit to a marketing "guru."