Houston Dentistry Volume 1 Issue 3 The Texas Center for Occlusal Studies | Page 18

practice marketing

4 strategies corporate dentistry is using
to steal your patients and how you can

FIGHT BACK
by Marc Fowler

Corporate dentistry is like the neighborhood bully to the single location practice.
They have big budgets for advertising, are
in network with everyone, they have buying power with vendors, and they undercut
long-accepted pricing structures.

But you can fight back and win by taking a
few pages out of their marketing playbook
and exploiting their one big weakness (exposed at the end of this article).
Here are four corporate dentistry marketing secrets that you can learn from:

1

They use data from multiple
locations to optimize campaigns and maximize ROI.

Corporate groups that have a dozen or
more locations can test multiple approaches and fully implement only the
most effective strategies. They are able to
do this not only because they have several
locations but because they have a dedicated
marketing team analyzing the data.

Seeing what works across locations gives
them unique insights. What demographics
are responding? What ad tactics are showing a return? What niches can we move
into? They are able to track data from an
entire region and act on the results to benefit each individual location.

Likewise, corporate dentistry can test new
and emerging strategies at a single practice without affecting the whole company.
If a new idea works, they can quickly apply
it to every practice.
This gives them an advantage over the independent practice. One- or two-location

practices often can’t afford to experiment
with unproven marketing tactics that, if
unsuccessful, impact the entire business.

As a small practice, you can’t use this approach – or can you? What if you were able
to pool your resources and data with hundreds of other independent practices across
the country?

By partnering with a marketing firm that
works exclusively with dentists, you can do
just that. If the firm has a diverse client
base, they can tap into that collective data
and test results to implement a proven
strategy that will put you on level footing
with the bullies.

2

They use a diverse and
integrated strategy.

Corporate dentists remove the perceived
gamble from marketing by using what we
call the DICE approach to marketing.
Their marketing is Diverse, Integrated,
Customized and Effective.

Diverse is a way of describing a multichannel marketing system that big retail
brands use. They don’t just rely on a single
marketing tactic. Rather, retailers use a variety of programs to increase brand awareness and convert leads to customers. Or
patients. Depending on your market, a diverse strategy might include direct mail,
online reputation management, digital advertising, community involvement, video
and referral marketing. Several studies
have shown that it can take 7-10 marketing
“touches” to convert a prospect to a patient.

Integrated refers to the relationship that
each marketing channel has with the other

18 HOUSTON DENTISTRY | www.houstondentistrymagazine.com

and how they present a consistent brand
message across each. Every touch point
with consumers must be part of a welldesigned plan to build brand awareness
and trust. Consistent messages help the
corporate practices stand out.

Customized messages designed to speak
to the needs of potential patients. Corporate dentistry uses their data on current patients to design marketing that appeals to
similar audiences. This is proven to show a
higher rate of return. You need to make
sure your message speaks to your target
patient and is meaningful to them.

Effective is marketing that generates a
consistent return on investment (ROI).
Through measurement and adjustment,
corporations eliminate ineffective methods. Hope is not a strategy. Corporate dentistry is laser focused on the bottom line.
You should be too.

3

They invest heavily in digital
advertising.

The marketing departments in corporate
dental offices prefer digital advertising.
They use digital advertising because they
know that, in most markets, it is going to
result in a lower cost per new patient than
its non-digital counterparts.

Why is digital advertising more cost effective? First, better targeting means less
waste. With digital you can specifically target by demographics, psychographics and
geography. Only your ideal patients see
your message. Second, digital advertising
is less expensive to produce. There is no
physical product to print and send. So, the