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Connective Communication: Part 2 = Advanced Dental Marketing

> Effectively Divide & ‘Devine’ – Part II

The Marketing π Formula Connective Communication© creates a context and a filter (strategy) for separating complexity from simplicity. While there will always be dentists who will want to do it themselves with some portion of them being successful, the law of advertising development gravity is still in effect: the limits of time and marketing experience/awareness.



Time to accomplish all the tasks (which have not magically disappeared because of the web) and time to simply think about strategy is required. Additionally, the value of communication and dental marketing experience and expertise will always have value.


If, at one point in the distant future, machines sideline dental marketers and consultants, it most likely will correspond with the departure of human involvement in dentistry.

More importantly, the Connective Communication© strategy overcomes many of the obstacles faced by dental offices looking for patients and patients deciding to go to the dentist and pay any fees that are not covered by insurance. The most common question I get about dental marketing centers around this seemingly intractable issue.

The economy has impacted it in an obvious way, but in reality it was the good economy that covered up the ineffectiveness of promoting dentistry as most dentists do it. Of course, the biggest problem is that few dentists are promoting themselves.


In a recent survey, I developed for a dental laboratory (50 of their 100 or so dentists responded), over 90% of their dentist clients did no external marketing: insurance, team and patient referrals were often the top three choices. And, only a few those dentists (in the other ten percent) did something besides the yellow pages or a ‘website’.

What is the reason for this low rate of external advertising participation? It is a lack of understanding in the value of a well-rounded strategy, which is solved by the Connective Communication© equation. The added value is the formula’s ability to offer the dentist a way to structure their marketing plan without being overtaken by the marketing apparatus.

Trust is built in the value of doing more marketing and better communication because the dentist is in control and success is attained because they proceed with a complete plan. Rather than only implementing elements they like, have been promoted by their colleagues, overhyped online or oversold at seminars.

Without building trust and improving success potential for more dentists, marketers will always be fighting over the same group of dentists. The group consists of many sub groups: dentists looking for deals, dentists who want a guarantee or dentists who want to do most marketing by themselves. And finally, the biggest scuffle is over dentists who are jumping from marketer/consultant to another because nothing ‘works’ consistently.

Ironically, consistency works consistently. Flossing really good for one month and then waiting to ‘see what happens’ is a good analogy to the DIY or one big, next thing dental marketing bandwagon. When a patient has a broken tooth, flossing to repair it would be a less than perfect solution, but dentists often expect the Internet to do things it cannot like reach into homes and wake up the consumer. Something direct mail/dental postcards are able to do. “Nobody likes junk mail” – except when they need/want the services promoted.

Of course a proper strategy is required, which most dental marketers do not offer since it is easier to sell the ONE SIMPLE solution product, service or system. Selling one ‘simplistic’ idea to thousands of dentists provides the ‘multiples’ in profit generation bigger companies thrive on. What dentists get from usually is not in the same ‘profit’ league.

The compounded irony is that this paradigm also equates to the same scuffle dentists have over the stagnant group of patients they get from the same old sources: insurance, patient and team referrals. And if you haven’t noticed, those patient numbers are not growing very much.

Connective Communication© has the potential to transform the landscape of your dental office marketing. Everything else is merely nipping at the heals of the dental health dearth in participation in this country.

Sadly, overseas dentistry occurs in large amount due to people putting off dental treatment: ten years of no dentistry adds up. Therefore, it is very Cost of dental treatment becomes a large issue because inconsistent or too often nonexistent marketing did not bring in the dental consumers earlier.

Anyone that can travel overseas for their dental care had the money to do little things each year for the last ten that would have save them much more money, time and headache. Communication is everything – do it in slipshod manner with half pint marketing tactics and dentists get the same result consumers do with their half hearted dental care habits.

More about in future dental marketing consulting posts. Read the introduction here: Connective Communication©

Sincerely, Dick ChwalekDentist Communication Coach & Dental Marketing Consultant

CALL 1.888.380.0020, Talk to Oli to set up with consult with me.


Republished from NicheDental.com

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