Dental Marketing Strategies For 2006
Dental Marketing Strategies For 2006
When discussing dental marketing, it is important that we get
the following fundamentals out in the open before we get to the
actual strategies and tactics we use to grow a dental practice.
The Cost to Acquire a New Patient The Lifetime Value of a
Patient New Patients versus Existing Patients Marketing Leverage
Practice Equity
Let's start with number 1 and work our way to number 5.
Hopefully by that time the beginning of dental marketing will
all come together and you'll have a firm understanding of how
all of these things will affect your practice and, more
importantly, your personal and financial wellbeing.
1. Cost to acquire a new patient
The first thing to consider when thinking about dental marketing
is the cost to acquire a new patient. This is simply how much
you pay for each new patient who comes into your practice. This
cost can easily be calculated by dividing the amount you spend
on dental marketing each month by the number of new patients you
see a month. For example, if you spend $3,000 on advertising and
marketing and get 25 new patients from that investment your cost
per new patient is $120 ($3,000 / 25 = $120). That may seem like
a lot of money, or it may not. Before you draw any conclusions
on the figure let's discuss #2.
2. Lifetime value of a patient
The lifetime value of a patient is what your average patient
will be worth to you, in dollars, over the lifetime of them
being your patient. In the dental industry the average lifetime
value of a patient is about $22,000. If you didn't already know
that, you're probably in a bit of shock right now. Now that you
know how much the average patient is worth to you, here's the
question: is it worth $120 to get that patient in the door? What
about $240? What about $480? Now, we're getting a bit excessive,
but we're trying to make a point. If that patient will turn into
$22,000 over the years, it's important to look at every dollar
you spend on dental marketing and advertising as an investment
rather than an expense and do whatever it takes to get the
person in the door and keep them around.
Now that we understand the cost of acquiring a new patient and
each patient's lifetime value, we need to get a major
misconception cleared up, which leads us to our next point.
3. New patients versus existing patients
Many dental marketing companies will talk about how many new
patients they can drive into your practice. New patients are
exactly what you need and the Avandant program drives in a ton
of them, but that's not where the real money is made in
dentistry. Allow us to explain. When a new patient comes in,
they're probably responding to an advertisement with some kind
of offer. The amount of money they'll spend on their initial
visit is not going to be that much since they're probably just
going to receive an x-ray, exam and cleaning or maybe some minor
treatment. Now, we all know that the real money in dentistry is
made from treatment plan fulfillment and long-term patients who
return time and time again. Here's what most dentists fail to
understand...when a new patient comes into your office they're
simply "checking you out." They want to meet you and your staff,
see if you're gentle, have sterile equipment, and more or less
get an overall feel for your practice. Just because they come in
once, doesn't mean they're committing a lifetime of dental work
to you. Even if they like you, they still might not come back.
Don't worry about why they don't, it's just human nature. They
might get an appealing offer from another dentist, they might
move, they might not have the time. Whatever the reason, a lot
of them won't come back unless you employ the right retention
and reactivation strategy.
A patient is only worth $22,000 if you have them over several
years, they accept a treatment plan and they refer other
patients. They're only worth an average of $800 in the first
year you have them. This is why focusing exclusively on new
patients will cost you a lot of money. You should focus on
acquiring and keeping patients in order to build a solid
practice. We've met plenty of dentists who have patients going
out the back door as fast as they have new ones coming in the
front. While this is quite common, it is very costly. Dentists
should work towards having a productive and profitable practice
while decreasing their marketing budget and new patient flow
over time. This is a realistic objective when you have a good
retention and reactivation strategy in place.
About the author:
Derek Naylor helps dentists get more ROI from their marketing
campaigns. For better results and more patients for your dental
practice take a look at our http://www.avandant.com" http://www.avandant.com>dental
marketing solutions.
Written By: Derek Naylor