CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO READ Ayodeji Onibalusi’s article.

The TLDR;

Social Media and Digital Marketing is just rounding the corner.

The ROI is still a billion times more than traditional.

Avoid Direct Sales via social. No one likes that.

Instead go for being informative, educational, and providing info that helps the decision making process.

Source: Don’t Believe Those Reports You’re Hearing About the Death of Social-Media Marketing

• 1st- Choose the family angle or the individual angle. Everyone looking at these pics will think of themselves or their spouse (and maybe children)
• 2nd-  Make it Relatable– everyone can relate to one or more of these, then the job is just to relate it back to the practice.
• 3rd- Engaging Content will always win. You can create a point of interaction on your website, at check-out, in email. Doesn’t matter. Any time you can create an experience that humanizes your practice/brand/dentistry- you win.

The lesson: it’s not always about selling the practice and giving away a $99 cleaning/exam. It’s about creating content that engages and endears people to your brand/practice. Dentistry is not sexy.. but it CAN be creative.

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Statistically, about 50% of the dental patient base will be served by corporate practices in the near future. By near future I mean less than 4 years from now. And I’m not guessing at it when I say that most single practices are nowhere near prepared for the impact. The way vision care has been corporatized will be the way of dentistry. Lots of commercials. Quick service options. Shiny signs on every corner and strip mall. Fewer options for private practices. I implore practice owners to beware and prepare. You gotta be proactive about it. If I were a practice owner I’d employ a business strategist and marketing strategist to help put a plan together right away. The corporate practices are doing this right now. I’ve worked for them and their Teams have teams that are put together solely to develop and grow their business(es).

Embarrassingly enough, I’ve attached an audio file of some ramblings I had earlier this year after reading an interesting article. Have a listen and stay tuned.

David

What does this have to do with customer service and marketing you say?

If you haven’t already, go and read the last post about customer service brainstorming ideas. Though it’s not necessary to have read it prior to this post… the two ideas work in tandem. Secret Sauce!

Activity 2: Watch&Discuss

At your next staff meeting (again, you ARE having regular staff meetings… aren’t you?) watch the timeless sales (yes, SALES.. the 5 letter word) video “Give Them the Pickle”. First, if you haven’t seen this classically cheesy video, take the time to explore the website yourself or find an old dusty copy from your Salesman Brother In-law. After the staff watches it, ask them specifically how we can apply its lessons to the practice and to their daily activities. This is a continuation of the first exercise but hearing the exciting stories of Bob Farrel gives it wider scope and helps teams think even further out of the box. This is pretty good stuff right?

We’re interested in hearing your results. Drop us a line (davidt@tolliverbellgroup.com, if link doesn’t work). You can also call to talk about improving your practice’s internal or external marketing efforts.

Be sure to stay up to date with TolliverBell Group’s blog for more insightful marketing tools and tips.