I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend. Last November, I published a white paper titled: Twenty Affordable Ways to Market Your Dental Practice in 2016. This white paper was originally only available as a free download to subscribers of my blog at OneLooseTooth.com, but a few months ago I changed the download link to allow anyone to download the paper without subscribing to the newsletter. If you have not had a chance to read the first paper, clicking the link above will take you to the download page.
Today (about 1 year later), I’m publishing 10 More Ways to Market Your Dental Practice in 2017. I’ve kept this paper short and to the point. While internal marketing is still by far the best long-term strategy to grow a dental practice worth working in, organic growth is slow and can present many financial challenges to young dentists and practice owners. With that said, one of the main reasons why marketing a dental practice is difficult is because the doctor-patient relationship is often mediated by a third party (dental insurance). Patients that have dental insurance typically seek out providers who are in-network and they are unlikely to choose an out of network general dentist because of an advertisement. Furthermore, patients who do have dental insurance and find themselves in an office where the dentist is not an in-network provider may feel confused, or worse, deceived.
With this in mind, market wisely; carefully plan your monthly budget and try to keep your external marketing needs to a minimum. Always be truthful, and when someone calls asking if your office accepts their insurance, don’t say yes if you’re out-of-network.
