UK Dentistry – Who Wins The Marketing Wars?
Why you need to plan carefully and budget for success
Over the last few weeks the team at Dental Media has collated data from numerous accounts to investigate which dentists are actually winning the marketing wars – so who is doing what and at what cost, to secure new patient enquiries.
The analysis is ongoing and the results will be the subject of future blogs; however there are three general conclusions which are already apparent – 1) In general UK dentists don’t spend enough on marketing, many nothing at all, 2) those who start early and budget appropriately win the marketing wars and 3) those who do it right, quickly extend their lead over their competitors. That probably seems quite predictable, but given the general reluctance to budget and plan marketing appropriately within the UK dental sector, it’s well worth reiterating.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these elements and how the information can be used to inform the business strategy for your own dental practice.
UK dentists are generally significantly under-budgeted when it comes to marketing
This is particularly the case when you compare to other countries such as the US or indeed general businesses in the UK. Very often we see that dentists have a website and then do little else, perhaps some ad hoc social media marketing or some DIY Google Ads. There may also be some website SEO happening, but even this is far from the norm.
This is somewhat peculiar given that it’s very easy to show that websites which are prominent on Google are excellent for attracting new dental patients and payback on SEO is fast. It’s also easy to demonstrate that social media, done well and consistently, can deliver excellent return on investment.
Despite the data and evidence to show just how well professional marketing contributes to a dental business, there still seems to be a disconnect for many dentists in the UK. There is often a focus on the sum of money needed to introduce and maintain marketing, rather than the payback which it can deliver. This failure to invest leads to business growth stagnating unnecessarily.