Zero or Under Resourced Practice Marketing? What’s Next?
The cost-benefit “disconnect”.
This is a short post designed to stimulate thought around the subject of cost/benefit ratio of dental marketing. I’m prompted to write this because one of the biggest hurdles we encounter when trying to persuade dentists of the value of digital marketing for their practice, is the apparent disconnect between what it costs and what it delivers.
First let’s take a quick look at the time taken to deliver the monthly marketing work i.e. seeking out website link opportunities, blogging, social media content generation etc. For our campaigns, this is typically anywhere between 6 – 20 hours per month depending on the scope of the project. So basically how much input is required to meet the client’s objectives and to overhaul the competition in their local area. Prices range from £250 through to £1000 + per month which, taken in isolation, seem like big numbers.
It’s often at this stage that dentists or their practice managers panic and decide not to progress, albeit they are paying out much more than this on other monthly services which just fall as part of the expected costs of running a practice. If you add up the costs of practice management software, waste disposal, mechanical servicing for autoclaves, compressors, surgery chairs and all those other essential items, then you get to a pretty big number.
Marketing – isn’t that another essential service too?
Whilst all those items might be more tangible than “marketing” and clearly essential for the safe and effective running of a practice; without holding on to existing patients and attracting new ones, it all becomes a bit pointless and worse, business threatening. In this vein and as a cautionary tale, after 17 years of working with hundreds of dentists, we currently have our first client who cannot pay us for the work we completed. He designed and built a very smart surgery in a purpose-built facility but, despite our advice to budget for marketing, failed to put any systems in place to attract new patients. 12 months down the track and it looks like he could be out of business soon. A rather desperate and sad situation.
Cost/Benefit
What I’m trying to illustrate here is the apparent reluctance of many dental professionals to accept the need for marketing their services and that it isn’t simply just a “hundred quid” paid to an off-shore outfit to complete some dodgy search engine optimisation for the practice website. In these days of increased competition (lots of it) and the knock-on effect into digital and traditional marketing, it is frustrating that many dentists still don’t recognise and accept that they need to put promotional activities alongside the other essential services needed to make and keep a practice successful. And, understandably, there’s a cost to that. Of course, there are increasing numbers of savvy dentists who do understand the benefits and they are currently racing ahead and widening the gap between themselves and their less agile competitors.
I’ve talked elsewhere in this blog about the huge benefits that can be achieved from even relatively moderate marketing campaigns so I won’t go into it again in detail here. But perhaps check this link to explore more. You may also wish to take a look at last week’s blog which looks at typical costs for dental AdWords (pay-per-click). Both of those articles hopefully illustrate that spending on an effective, measured marketing campaign is not just money well spent, but essential too. Indeed, just as essential as keeping your surgery chair maintained and your practice management software running.
Summary
Even in the face of increasing competition and the clear evidence that digital marketing can deliver great results, many dentists are stuck thinking that new patients will just come knocking. For long-established practices who have developed great “word-of-mouth” recommendations, this may be true to some extent, but for the majority, and particularly for new entrants, you will need to market proactively and with a sensible budget. Failure to prioritise this alongside the other practice essentials is a big mistake and, as illustrated earlier, a real threat to business.
At Dental Media, we understand that marketing your practice can be daunting and you may not really know where to start. We also know that there are plenty of firms out there who have jumped on the marketing bandwagon and will try to take your cash from you without having the commitment or experience to deliver results. However, if you’d like to benefit from our 17 years of experience of helping dentists from across the UK with trusted marketing systems, please call us for friendly advice on 01332 672548. Our initial assessment is free-of-charge and without obligation. Don’t get left behind.