There is very keen interest in selling Invisalign treatments at the moment, seemingly across the whole dental community. With short courses now making the treatment accessible to all dentists, it seems that most practices have someone on the team who can provide Invisalign.<\/p>\n
The challenge is to actually secure those treatments and understandably lots of marketing companies have jumped on the bandwagon in providing patient \u201clead generation\u201d services, often at a significant price! You\u2019ll likely have been spammed in your inbox, at a trade show or as you scroll your social media feeds by these marketing companies who offer guaranteed leads; sometimes also offering your money back if they don\u2019t succeed.<\/p>\n
All of that may sound too good to be true and you might well be right in thinking that. But how do those companies really operate and what are you actually tying into when you take up their services? Let\u2019s take a closer look so that you are fully informed and ready to ask the right questions before you jump in.<\/p>\n
The modus operandi for all of these companies is very similar and to be frank, not rocket science. Whilst you do need experience for certain elements of the process, it\u2019s relatively straightforward to do and much of it can actually be automated. To be fair, you are paying an awful lot for experience and a \u201cdone for you\u201d approach, and of course this may be exactly what you want. However, it\u2019s worth knowing what goes on and that there\u2019s no \u201csecret sauce\u201d involved, despite what some of the providers imply.<\/p>\n
In all cases, the marketing agencies will use social media ads and\/or Google ads to place your adverts<\/a> in front of thousands of users in and around your local area. Typically they will also try to take control of your website, often trying to sell you a new one during the process.<\/p>\n In conjunction with ads, the company will also use landing pages, contact forms and possibly on-line booking systems to make the process compelling but also simple for interested parties to make an enquiry. They may also use a technique known as \u201clead-gen\u201d where the user can enquire direct from the ad platform (Facebook) without having to actually click through to a landing page.<\/p>\n Depending on the level of sophistication, enquiries will either be directed to the practice email or a CRM (customer relationship management) system such as Dengro.<\/p>\n The company may also offer to qualify leads for you and train your team in the best ways to \u201cconvert\u201d enquiries into treatments \u2013 but do you really need that if your TCO and front-desk teams are already capable? They really should be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is where it starts to get interesting and also a little bit daunting when you realise the costs involved. Of course this should always be viewed in line with the return-on-investment as it all makes very good sense if you get a sensible number of high-paying new patients from the process. But as I mentioned earlier, it\u2019s very important to understand the commitment before you sign up.<\/p>\n Most of these companies want you to commit to their fee which is often over \u00a32k per month for a period of 12 months \u2013 so you are tied in whatever happens. Unfortunately there are lots of examples where very few leads have been generated, but dentists have still paid out in excess of \u00a320k for the privilege \u2013 and that’s simply for the agency management fee.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all – there is also the fee for click costs which can easily exceed \u00a32k per month, particularly in areas where competition is significant. So with the management fee and click costs, you could be looking at \u00a340 – \u00a350k per year; certainly something to understand before you begin.<\/p>\n This is very important as there is a huge difference between an enquiry and an actual consultation\/treatment.<\/p>\n The reason that the marketing companies want full control of your website as well as using very broad spectrum advertising, is that they want to capture every last \u201clead\u201d \u2013 even if it\u2019s just a passing message on social media. All of these interactions are then classed as enquiries and this is the way they get to their agreed target. So even the enquiries which would have come from your website or Google business page anyway, will be included in their target.<\/p>\n Of course a lot of these enquiries will be at best speculative and some will be completely rubbish. I\u2019ve even seen some of the marketing companies say that they only expect 5 or 6 of the enquiries to actually materialise into something tangible each month. Given this, we can make a more informed assessment on the payback these types of campaigns might deliver.<\/p>\n I may sound slightly skeptical in my explanations above but with all that said, it can still be a very good marketing investment when things come together as the marketing companies would have you believe in their promotional videos. All I want readers to realise is that this isn\u2019t always the case and that many campaigns don\u2019t deliver what was promised. In this circumstance you could potentially be tied in for 12 months and still paying out for very limited returns.<\/p>\n However, where a campaign does work and let\u2019s say that 6 enquiries do result in treatment each month, then the numbers are quite straightforward. You just need to add up your click spend together with the management fee and factor that against the profit you actually make from those 6 cases \u2013 remember it\u2019s the profit, not the revenue!<\/p>\n So you could easily be a few thousand pounds ahead and remember that once you\u2019ve reached break even, the incremental profit per case can be very attractive indeed. If the promises do materialise, then this type of marketing investment can still be very worthwhile.<\/p>\n The answer to this is \u201cno\u201d but then you will have a fairly steep learning curve as well as investing considerable time to set everything up and manage it. To be honest, in my experience very few dentists get this right simply because they don\u2019t have the time to spend, not because it\u2019s actually that difficult to do.<\/p>\nWhat might you expect to pay for Invisalign marketing services?<\/h3>\n
Understanding the \u201c30 enquiries or you don\u2019t pay\u201d promise<\/h3>\n
What might I expect as a return on my Invisalign marketing investment?<\/h3>\n
Do I have to use an Invisalign marketing company?<\/h3>\n