Funding your dental marketing
Creative ways to free up cash to fund your marketing strategy
A potential dilemma facing dentists in 2013 is how to fund their marketing strategy in the face of mounting costs and diminishing income. Business growth for many dental professionals is at best static with a large number actually reporting a decline as the general public draw back on expenditure for “non-essential” items; in particular some of the more complex cosmetic treatments.
Whilst it is clear that professional, well-targeted dental marketing will help to counter this downturn by generating more business, the dilemma of freeing up cash to boost marketing efforts remains.
Here’s how one of our dental clients is planning to achieve this by saving on his running costs, in particular his dental payment plan provision and then reallocating funds….
The evaluation
The client had long suspected that he was not getting full value from his dental payment plan provider but had been too busy to do anything about it. He was receiving some peripheral benefits e.g. a quarterly newsletter and a few posters but the marketing benefit of these was very limited. He knew he needed something more sophisticated and primarily web based where the reach and returns are significantly better. Until recently, lack of time had prevented him from exploring alternatives. However, a pressing need to grow his business and differentiate from his local competition spurred him into action.
After checking various options and prices, it became clear that cheaper and more efficient payment plan options were available. The cash saving was significant > £9k per year, which would easily fund his new marketing plans and also liberate cash for other pressing projects.
Fundamentally the client had realised that all he needed from a payment plan provider was a solid and professional transactional service with low cost and high service levels. After all, his team were doing the dentistry and keeping the patients happy. The peripheral business “benefits” offered by his current provider could easily be replaced much more cost-effectively by independent, professional providers.
The proposal
- the new plan provider will migrate the client’s patients seamlessly to the new plan without any adverse impact
- the client will enjoy slicker, more professional plan administration including on-line tools
- pricing will be transparent with no hidden administration costs
- significant savings will be partially reallocated to fund new web marketing initiatives and the provision of professional business support services if needed
- unused savings will boost the business bottom line
Summary
This is a good example of a business resting on its laurels until a pressing need forced a change in direction, in this case re-evaluation of a service that was not delivering good value. Alternative options were identified and evaluated which will deliver significant business benefits, including a seamless, positive transition for existing patients to the new payment plan.
For more details and a closer illustration of how this can work for your practice, please call us on 01332 672548.