James Erickson is the President of EMC Dental Marketing. EMC Dental Marketing is a resource for turn-key dental marketing programs and dental practice marketing education. Visit www.EMCdental.com to receive a free practice building kit sent directly to you.
Press releases and free publicity are possibly the two most underutilized marketing opportunities in the dental indus¬try today. Over 90% of all the dental news I see is negative. There is a huge opening out there to promote your business and your brand in a positive way for little if any money. There are steps to take, however, to ensure your practice is being represented the way you want it to.
In your local media, 80% of the news is pro¬vided by press release. Look through the stories in... Read Full Story
As a service oriented business, you have one main asset your practice that you could not survive without… your patients.
But so many dental practices we see are more worried about where the next mouth will come from; when the next dollar is going to come through the door. All the while, ignoring the dollars (and future dollars) that have already walked in and out of their door several times.
As your practice grows, patients are not listed on a balance sheet, or a profit and loss statement... Read Full Story
Last September, I decided to finally take a vacation, and headed off to fabulous Las Vegas.
Vegas is one of my favorite vacation spots because it seems as if no one there has a care in the world except what time they’re going to the pool, and what casino they will attempt to win money in later.
As I walked up and down the strip (it seems like you walk more than anything in Vegas), I started to notice something very peculiar about my surroundings. All that seemed to be in Vegas were Hotels... Read Full Story
From 1994 to 1998 I spent my time as a Combat Engineer in the Marine Corps. In the Marines, combat engineers get to play with all the fun stuff…explosives - C4, TNT, Dynamite, and any other type of substance that would go BOOM.
The reason I tell you this is because, as a Combat Engineer we had a saying. “P equals plenty.” In reality, P actually equaled pounds of explosives to be used for any specific mission. Taking down trees, creating large trenches, or dropping a bridge, all had their... Read Full Story
Targeting an audience is perhaps one of the most misused parts of direct marketing.
In surveys it has been shown that as much as 80% of consumers choose their health care providers (dentists included) by convenience of location. Basically, “is the practice convenient for me to get to?”
But other than location, there is a huge need for your services based not on demographics (age, income, etc.) but based on psychographics. In other words, how someone thinks based on a certain set of... Read Full Story
At the fundamental level, the focus of any marketing program is to motivate people to take action.
In marketing, many times we get lost in the details. Demograph¬ics, saturations, market-consciousness, and network-awareness cloud our conversations and take away from what is truly important.
We could talk all day about generation marketing, web-based sales principles, or the four fundamental P’s of marketing… but at the core level, what are we trying to do?
We try to motivate people to take... Read Full Story
Robert Allen has two very popular books out about tapping into multiple incomes and becoming rich in the process. If you haven’t read his book called Multiple Streams Of Income, I would suggest jumping over to Amazon.com and investing in a copy immediately.
His philosophy makes sense. With multiple incomes, you can make more money, but also, you can stabilize your income stream by drawing from many sources. If one stream hits a low streak, that’s okay, because the other streams are still... Read Full Story
With 2008 half-way over, it is time to start planning for 2009. Planning in any business is an essential function that all too many times gets overlooked. Lack of planning leads to playing defense for a whole year and being reactive, not proactive in your success.
Think about it this way: When you go into a dental procedure, you have all your tools laid out on the tray ready to go. Why not start the year with all your marketing tools laid out ready to go, and knowing exactly when you want and... Read Full Story
Your practice should have a plan for community initiatives. This means you should take some interest in your community events, and show support for the goings on in your target area. This ties your practice in with many people, and when it comes time for the public to make a choice in who completes their dental care, this will come into consideration.
If you are struggling to find a way to set yourself apart from the crowd, this is it.
I coach girls soccer at a local high school, here in... Read Full Story
