Wednesday

Thanksgiving Food For Thought - Dental Marketing Reprieve

Time to eat and talk turkey. Tomorrow we have a date with the dinner table. Friday we have a date with the mall. Soon we will party till we ring-a-ding in the new year.

There is something WRONG with this picture, much like how dental marketing is unflatteringly employed. You and I need to talk frankly about how dentistry should be presented to the consumer to affect a positive and productive result.

It is time to change the rules. You need to avoid overindulgence on supposedly simple million-patients-in-a-month, fairy tale spun marketing tripe. Stop bingeing on super secret 100% money back dental advertising turkey droppings.

Following 'all the rules' and practices of yore vidal sassoon without serious reflection will too often mean ending up going in the wrong direction.

Thanksgiving dinner can turn into tummy tuck redux. Holiday shopping can trample the reason for the season. Tipping a few too many glasses of bubbly back has caused a staggering number of people to hear sirens sound rather new year's party horns blare.

Instead of following other dentists off the cliff of same old outlandish brain-locked marketing schlock, get real and start building an integrated, consistent, scalable communication strategy. It will take some hard work and even cost more money than you think makes sense. Of course, this cheaper by mutton headed philosophy might sound like something dentists like you have heard from patients.

Stay away from the easy and the cheap, anyone can do it, buy another lottery ticket solution. Following these tired and "always about money off your valuable expertise" rules will take you down a path where you will meet patients of the same perspective.

How can it cost that much doc? Why can't marketing/dentistry be easier and done without a lot of thinkin? Can't I just watch a training video, steady the marketing drill on my own and take care of that tooth back there? Oops. Ouch! Darn. That dental marketing without a net thing is more dangerous than I suspected Skipper.

You could ask me to show you how you can actually build your practice, increase revenues, bring in more new patients and help more people get the care they need. Or not.

Just wait till things turn around. Sit there at the table and keep telling yourself eating all this food is a good thing. That some day you will get up and do some jumping jacks and calisthenics to tighten up your belly full of yesteryears when things were easier and money flowed like milk shakes and honey ham.

But when you realize no one uses the words calisthenics or does jumping jacks anymore. And figure out the milk toast selling dental marketers are shaking you down. Regain consciousness from the ham handed money scam you been hit with. Let's talk turkey about raising some revenues so you can improve the dental health of more consumers instead of navel oranges grazing.

Leave the lameness of last year's simpleton marketing ideas behind. Flush the toilet of no revenue movement. Whether it is virtual reality or real world advertising techniques, make a pact with yourself to do things in the pragmatic, continual build mode while utilizing concepts that help real people make real decisions about dentistry.

Promoting dentistry like its a sale on turkey franks at the big box grocers is detrimental to the health of your practice and us consumers. Frankly, I recommend beefing up your marketing strategy with data reality developed through comprehensive marketing tracking. I even have some grade A prime steroid infused data that will whet your "prove it to me" appetite.

Here is something the slick marketing their magic tricks group won't tell you - even in their super secret dental marketing reports... "It ain't easy to get it right, partner." And most fail because they thought it was easy and were shocked into backing off.

Of course, there is an "easy" part. It is in how THEY take your money and then move on to the next dentist waiting with fork in hand.

These marketers sell you smile whitening gel when you have periodontitis. They pull your teeth when they should have performed a root canal. Place a sold sign on the London crown and bridge when implants would have conserved even healthy teeth of a Brit.

So. Before you get sold a bill goodies again make sure their idea does not reek of LIMITED TIME ONLY marketing halitosis.

If these marketers have done so much good with their reports and deals of the century - why does this STATISTIC remind me of the movie by Dr. Even Steven Cling : "Caries" - the dental visit horror report.

"Overall, there was no change in the percentage of the population
with a dental visit from 1996 to 2004." (SeniorJournal.com)

Looks like my time is up. See you next week. Same bat channel. Same lame puns. Blame tame nuns. Game day runs. Claims son's name. Hum gains fame. Gun came framed.

Okay... it has gotten to be too late again. Sorry about that. Good night.

Happy Tank Living. A Marry Billie Hollandaise to You. Lappy New Beers. Dunk Murray, He My Pappy. Just scream when it starts to hurt.

Dick Chwalek
• Dental Marketing Coach • Dentistry Communication Consultant
CALL 866-453-1026

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