This article originally appeared in the January/2022 issue of the Academy of General Dentistry’s AGD Impact magazine.
By: Jackie Ulasewich Cullen
At My Dental Agency, we are privileged to work with a great number of dentists who are at the top of their games. We are honored to think that we helped them get there, too. Their practices are consistently growing because they have fully embraced the power of marketing. Our clients understand that marketing is more than just a billboard and a social media page. They are willing to commit resources — not just funds — to achieve better results year after year. The dentists we work with are involved in their marketing campaigns because they truly care about growing their practices and attracting quality, long-term patients. We would like to highlight a few of our real clients who are remarkable — not only as dentists but also as entrepreneurs.
Lee Brown, DDS, is one of our most enthusiastic clients. He is absolutely engaged in marketing and the new patient experience from start to finish. From a marketing professional’s standpoint, Brown is a dream client because he is always open to new ideas, never misses a strategy call and plays an active role in the planning process. He also understands that, for his marketing strategy to work, his entire team needs to be involved and motivated.
One key to successful marketing is a willingness to be creative, and Brown is not intimidated when it comes to trying new things. Whenever we make a suggestion, he is on board and ready to take action as soon as possible, providing us with custom content and images when asked. When the pandemic hit, he was the first doctor to take advantage of our virtual appointment suggestion. He is an early adopter of ideas we offer to our clients such as recording weekly educations videos. This is important, because waiting too long to implement a campaign can seriously limit its effectiveness. Often clients will make us aware of an event they want to promote such as an Invisalign day and we suggest specific content from the client. If they delay in getting us the material we need, it limits the amount of time that campaign can run and therefore limits its exposure to new patients. Waiting too long to adopt an idea can also put you behind your competitors. It is important to act fast and efficiently on marketing ideas and campaigns
Brown knows that marketing is a continuous process that does not stop once the patient enters his practice. Once you attract a patient, it takes effort to retain them, and he works hard to keep his patients engaged, even creating weekly educational videos that are fun and informative. He conducts training sessions with his team to ensure that they continue to provide top-notch service at every opportunity.
All of these efforts are paying off for Brown, as he is one of our top-performing doctors in terms of new-patient growth and revenue. For him, quality far outweighs quantity.
Phoenix is a hot area in more ways than one, and Eddie Harsini, DDS, understands that a great marketing partnership is essential if you want to stand out among the competition. For Harsini, marketing does not stop once a potential patient inquires about services or even schedules an appointment. It takes an ongoing effort to get them in the door and to not only provide them the service they asked for, but also to gain their trust and loyalty so they keep coming back — and referring their friends.
One way Harsini distinguishes his practice is by training his team on how to properly and professionally handle new patient phone calls and form submissions. He has an internal process for monitoring and tracking results. His team is always looking to refine their skills to make memorable first, second and third impressions.
A big part of Harsini’s success in attracting new, high-quality patients is his utilization of an automated new patient management software. This system helps him automate the process after a new patient requests an appointment, responding to them in a timely manner and helping his team by taking work off their plate.
Because of his dedication to world-class customer service and enhancing his marketing efforts, Harsini has been able to attract and retain more high-quality patients every year.
David Pearce, DDS, takes marketing his practice very seriously. He gives us great content — pictures, videos, anything we ask for — and he’s always dependable. He also encourages his team to get involved and send us pictures and videos as well. This type of engagement helps us do our best work, which translates to better, more consistent marketing results for the practice.
As with all of our most successful doctors, Pearce wholeheartedly believes in quality new patients over a large quantity of new patients, which is why he takes a comprehensive approach to marketing his practice. It is important to Dr. Pearce that he attracts the right type of patient to his practice and retain that patient rather than attracting a higher volume of patients that may not be the right fit, may not show up to their appointments or may only come to his practice once. An example of a quality patient for his practice is a patient that values whole health, a patient that wants a practice to take their time and provide quality care not a patient that wants to be treated like a number or looking for value over quality dentistry. He uses traditional marketing such as radio ads and digital marketing such as Google and Facebook ads, plus his team is well trained in handling new-patient inquiries from start to finish, no matter how they reach the practice.
Pearce has been able to keep growing his practice every year. He is a shining example of how being engaged with your marketing partner can make an enormous difference in the quality of patients you attract to your practice.
Each of the above dentists is a dedicated professional who understands that dentistry is an art, a science and a business, and, as such, you need a great team and a devoted marketing partner to help keep you at the top of your game. Any dental practice can achieve the same level of success and continue to reach new heights every year by following the advice of our best clients: Be open to ideas, get involved in the new patient experience and marketing process, remember that marketing doesn’t stop the moment the patient calls, and take a comprehensive approach to marketing.
