Dedicated to helping doctors and their team have an office that is not only highly productive and fun but one that allows them to consistently exceed patient expectations.
It’s time to welcome Spring and your second quarter. Be sure to review your plans and goals to make this second quarter your best one yet!
Doctors, if you’re struggling to reach your practice goals – feel free to contact me for a complimentary, no-obligation 30-minute telephone consultation at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com to see if a coaching relationship is right for you.
Here are some marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your dental practice, exceed your current and potential patient’s expectations, and to have more fun as a team. Surely, less-stress and more fun at the office is something that everyone will appreciate.
Marketing Ideas for April 2021:
Community Spirit Days (April 1-30) What a great opportunity to get your name out there in the community.
Neighborhood Spring Perennial Plant Exchange from the office parking lot.
Feature a local restaurant each week on your social media page encouraging people to visit their FB page and leave a review. Do a gift card raffle for each of the restaurants.
Find a local charity that you can support.
Make your office a donation drop off site for items of need in the community (ie: non-perishable food items, books, etc.)
If you’re looking for Practice Management and Leadership Tips and Ideas for April 2021 Visit Here: April 2021 Practice Management
Educational & Marketing Opportunities:
National Youth Sports Safety Month – All month-long promote sports safety by protecting smiles with mouthguards.
Oral Cancer Awareness Month ~ An excellent opportunity for you to raise oral cancer awareness and the need for early detection in order to save lives. See Oral Cancer Awareness Ideas
Social Media Post Ideas to Improve Engagement during the month of April 2021
National Fun at Work Day: 1st
Vitamin C Day: 4th
National Siblings Day: 10th
National Garlic Day: 19th
Banana Day: 21st
National Sense of Smell Day: 24th
National Superhero Day: 28th
Wishing you all a productive, stress-free, and very Happy April!
If you appreciated these complimentary ideas I would love for you to please leave me a review/recommendation here on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK. Thank you!!
Don’t miss out on any of the ideas that I share each month. Are you receiving my complimentary Practice Management and Marketing Ideas in your email each month? If not, please start following us today. If you prefer, send me your email address (to bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) and I will send you an invitation to follow my blog.
What are your plans to exceed your patients’ expectations, attract more new patients, have more fun at work, and build relationships within your community during the month of January?
“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” – Melody Beattie
As you are setting your goals for 2021 and making plans to grow your practice remember to also create a marketing calendar.
Note: For Dental Practice Management and Leadership Tips & Ideas for January 2021 Visit HERE
Here are some Dental Marketing Tips & Ideas for January 2021
January is National Hot Tea Month. I am sharing this idea again this year because it is always a huge hit with dental patients.
Gift idea for your Patients: Give away packets of tea that have a label on them saying “Our Patients are TEA-riffic!”
Service/Treatment Feature: Desensitizing Agents. Many people experience tooth sensitivity while drinking hot beverages.
Fun Patient & Community Engagement Idea
Dress Up Your Pet Day: 14th – On your office Facebook page, invite people to share photos of their dressed-up pets. You could even offer a prize for the picture that gets the most likes.
Another Patient Appreciation Idea
Drinking Straw Day: 3rd – You could give away reusable straws to your patients that come in for an appointment that day or give them away all month long. Reminding your patients’ to use a straw when they drink sugary or acidic drinks to prevent contact with the teeth.
Note: Do you know how many new patients you are welcoming into the practice AND how many patients you’re losing each month? To help you get that data quickly, like within minutes – if your PMS is either Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental you can request a complimentary, no-obligation practice data snapshot here: Game-Changing Awareness from Dental Intelligence – Within minutes we’ll identify your practice’s strengths and uncover hidden opportunities. I am happy to assist you with this at no charge and with absolutely no obligation to do anything further with me.
Educational Ideas (In-office or Via Social Media Platforms)
Cigarettes Are Hazardous to Your Health Day: 11th – Share a post(s) to your social media platforms about the dangers of cigarettes, vaping, chewing tobacco, etc.
Sugar Awareness Week: Jan. 20-24 – This week share posts /videos to your social media pages all about sugar and dental health. For example, common snacks with high sugar content. Or how much sugar is in your favorite beverages.
Social Media Post Ideas to Improve Engagement during the month of January:
Get Organized Month
National Soup Month
Drinking Straw Day: 3rd
Popcorn Day: 19th
Dental Drill Appreciation Day: 26th
Fun at Work Day: 29th
There you have it some marketing tips and ideas for January 2021. Please send me a message and let me know what you have planned for January. I love hearing from you.
Wishing you all a healthy and happy start to 2021!
Do you enjoy the dental leadership, management, and marketing tips and ideas that I share each month? I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation for me here on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK
Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address (bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea!
What is dental marketing? Do you need to market your practice? Does dental marketing even matter?
Oftentimes, dentists will proudly tell me that they don’t do any marketing in their practice and that they don’t need to market because they’re still growing with new patients each month. Others invest quite a bit of money to attract new patients to their practice. And some, tell me they need to start marketing because their office isn’t growing as they need it to.
It’s clear to me that people define what marketing is and why they would need it or not need it in different ways – in fact, here are a few dictionary definitions of marketing that I found:
“the act or process of buying and selling in a market.”
“The strategic functions involved in identifying and appealing to particular groups of consumers, often including activities such as advertising, branding, pricing, and sales.”
The American Marketing Association defines marketing as, “the activity, set of instructions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
From these definitions, we can see that marketing your practice involves so much more than just spending money on advertising. And the offices that tell me they have never done any marketing have been marketing their practice without even realizing it was marketing that they were doing to retain their patients and attract new patients. Why do I say this?
Everything that you do, everything that the patient (and potential patient) sees, hears & feels is a form of marketing. Everything you do or don’t do, matters.
Marketing your dental practice is like planting seeds. Some seeds sprout right away, others may take a while. You may have written some seeds off as a loss and when you least expect it, there it sprouts and produces beautiful results. And some may sprout where you don’t even remember planting.
” If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not. Speak then to me.”~ William Shakespeare
What are your marketing seeds? Marketing Seeds Include (but are not limited to):
Current Patients/Referrals
Social Media Platforms
Google My Business
Online Reviews
Direct Mail
Patient Appreciation Gifts
Staying in Touch with your Patients
The Patient Experience
Digital Marketing (Website, SEO, Emails, Mobile Devices, Google, Etc.)
Your Brand / Culture
Community/Charity Involvement
Local Business Partnerships
You and Your Team
Office Appearance (Inside and Outside)
Office Systems and Protocols
Take some time today and think about what you are sowing & producing.
Look at your practice through the eyes of your patients and potential patients.
Look closely at yourself, your team, the exterior, and interior of your building, all office systems, your lab, sterilization procedures, website & social media sites, marketing materials, marketing programs and the patient experience. Weeds can sneak in very easily if you don’t work to prevent them or if you ignore them when they are small.
Examine your referral sources & patient retention numbers, this will be a key indicator as to the quality & quantity of the seeds you and your team are planting.
Friends, Do you know how many of your active patients have a future appointment and how many do not? Do you know how many new patients you are welcoming into the practice AND how many patients you’re losing each month? To help you get that data quickly, like within minutes – if your PMS is either Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental you can request a complimentary, no-obligation practice data snapshot here: Game-Changing Awareness from Dental Intelligence – Within minutes we’ll identify your practice’s strengths and uncover hidden opportunities. I am happy to assist you with this at no charge and with absolutely no obligation to do anything further with me.
Who is referring the new patients and who isn’t? And why? Are you known as the go-to dental expert in the community? If not, why?
Do you provide your patients with a consistent & quality experience over the telephone? What about during & after their visit? Are you exceeding their expectations?
Are you and your team members involved in the community? Are you tracking, acknowledging, and rewarding those that refer to you?
Again, everything matters!
Don’t give up and please, don’t ignore any of the areas we’ve talked about – you might not see results right away but seeds are being planted, impressions are being made. You never know where and when they will take root and bloom!
Bring in some fresh eyes if you need to, ones that will see, hear & feel what you are missing, and ones that will give you the push and help to get rid of any weeds and plant seeds of greatness daily & consistently!
Doctors, if you would like to grow and improve your dental practice and have wondered what it might be like to work with me and what coaching is all about… please feel free to reach out to me to schedule a complimentary, no-obligation coaching call at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.
When considering your office needs and marketing plans, remember to…
Know Your Target Audience
Set Goals
Create a monthly marketing calendar
Track all your marketing efforts. What’s working? What needs improvement? What needs to be eliminated?
Do you enjoy the dental leadership, management, and marketing tips and ideas that I share each month? I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation for me here on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK
Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address (bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea
How do you encourage referrals and build relationships with your patients when the average dental patient comes in only 2 times per year for their continuing care hygiene appointment? Think about this, you get to spend 2-3 hours out of 8,760 hours per year with those patients. With all of life’s distractions and responsibilities, how can you ensure that they don’t forget about you in between appointments? Stay In Touch. Keep your name in front of them by planting little reminder seeds.
Today, I’m going to share with you 10 Ways to Stay In Touch With Your Patients. Ten easy & effective ways you can stay in touch by planting “reminder seeds”.
Social Media – Active Social Media pages are a must. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest are excellent ways to engage and build lasting relationships with your patients. If you struggle with what to post on your pages, visit here for social media content ideas.
Freebies – Give away free items imprinted with your office name, website and phone number to each patient at their appointment. Such as; toothbrushes, magnets, calendars, pens and lip balm. ( If you’re wondering where you can order some quality imprinted items, check out Bizarre Marketing. I share this particular company with you because their customer service is awesome!)
Cards – Send cards to your patients, Just Because, Thank you for your referral and/or Special Occasion cards. People appreciate getting an “old fashioned” hand written greeting card via snail mail. Make it convenient by keeping a variety of greeting cards on hand.
Telephone – Pick up the telephone and call your patients. Here are a few reasons you may have to call: Continuing care appointment reminders, Thank you for your referral, Post-op (just checking in to see how well you’re doing), Refill reminders (due for a refill on whitening gel, toothpaste, electric toothbrush head replacement, etc), and Special Occasions.
Letters – Send out letters for incomplete treatment, congratulations on completed treatment, welcome to our practice and thank you for your referral. Tip: providers and team members should personally sign their letters. Include a brief note or comment if appropriate. In addition to letters, send continuing care appointment reminder postcards and text messages.
Newsletter – Send newsletters out to your patients. Include sharable content, dental health tips, recipes, community news, office happenings, dental education and special offers.
Emails – Dental Hygiene Tips, Office Happenings, Continuing Care Reminders and Special Offers. Be sure to ask and record email addresses of your patients. Email communication is inexpensive, easy and effective. Just don’t spam your patients with too many emails.
Website – Keep your website fresh, easy to navigate and attractive. Include videos, info & pictures about the doctor(s) and team, community events, special offers, ability to schedule appts online, FAQ, dental services and education, office hours, directions, social media pages, contact information, etc.
Patient Appreciation Events – Host a fun event for your patients – In-office Patient Appreciation Days and Open House events. See Open House ideas. Out of office events, such as; Roller Skating, Indoor Bounce/Trampoline, Movie Theater, Public Pool, Bowling, Local Park, etc. Invite your patients to bring a friend. Be sure to have imprinted giveaways and information about your office at these events. Encourage all attendees to visit and like your social media pages.
Community Involvement – Be involved in local health fairs, charity events, sponsor local sports teams, etc. Just a thought, when you and your team are out participating in community events, consider wearing t-shirts that clearly identify (advertise) your office and give away a lot of imprinted gifts.
There you have it, 10 ways to stay in touch with your dental patients. Doing some or all of these things will help to build lasting relationships with your patients and encourage referrals.
Of course, the very best way to ensure your patients remember to come back and to refer their friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers is to get them talking about their experience after they leave your office. How do you that? Be consistently great! Consistently exceed expectations! Plan to make sure that each and every appointment is great from the initial greeting at arrival, during their appointment, and when you say your thank you and goodbyes as they leave. (See Earn The Privilege To Serve Again)
At your next team meeting, discuss what you are currently doing to stay in touch with your patients and how you can improve in planting more reminder seeds.
Are you receiving my complimentary Practice Management and Marketing Ideas in your email inbox each month? If not, please subscribe today. Feel free to tell your dental friends all about us so they can start benefiting from these dental ideas too. If you liked these ideas, please let me know by hitting the “like” button. Thank you!!
