Dental Marketing Archives - The Wealthy Dentist

Dental Management Survey Reveals Dentists Aren’t Getting Enough New Patients

April 9, 2013 By Jim Du Molin 1 Comment

Dentists want more new patients!

We asked dentists in our recent dental management survey if they were getting enough new patients.

A clear 66% majority of dentists said No — it would be better if they got more leads.

Another 22% said additional leads would be great, even though they were doing alright.

Only 13% said they got plenty of leads.

“Many of our new patients are still emergency only, and interested in only pain relief. Hopefully we will get back to the committed patient who wants ongoing care.” Texas dentist

“I don’t want leads! I imagine I can look in a phone book and call any number of leads. I want people who want to come see me and have already been prepared by meeting me or by another patient that spoke of me.” California dentist

“What are you supposed to do with a “lead”? Go get ‘em and reel them in? Do cardiologists and psychologists need more “leads”? My God, what has dentistry come to?” Illinois dentist

“We’re not getting enough new patients, so we’re starting a dental patient marketing campaign shortly.” New York Dentist

Dentists in our survey are seeing an average of 17 new patients each month. Answers ranged between 2 and 55 new patients, with the median also at 17.

How about your dental practice? Are you getting enough new patients?

Filed Under: Dental Surveys Tagged With: Dental Management, Dental Marketing, dental survey results

Best Dental Marketing Avenues (Dentist Survey Video)

March 19, 2013 By Jim Du Molin 1 Comment

Which are the best dental marketing avenues, the ones that lead to the most new patients? When it comes to dental practice management, that’s the real question.

In a recent survey, doctor-to-patient interactions ranked as the most effective form of dental marketing. Direct mail marketing and dental patient referrals were also noted as effective.

Dental websites came in at #4, followed by email marketing, social media marketing, and radio advertising. No respondents felt that Yellow Pages or local community involvement were effective sources of new dental patients.

“Patient referrals are just as valuable as my radio advertising,” commented a Washington dental marketing professional.

Jim Du Molin and Julie Frey discuss dentists’ thoughts on the best dental marketing avenues:

“I find doctor-to-patient interactions to be most effective,” said a Missouri Dentist. “I think more local community involvement would also help.”

“We are currently working on greatly increasing our internal dental marketing via patient referrals,” said an Ohio prosthodontist. “We have found direct mail marketing to be effective.”

“Since our practice is well established, we are continuing with internal marketing and excellent patient care,” offered a South Carolina Dentist.

What is your attitude about the best dental marketing?

Filed Under: Dental Videos Tagged With: best dental marketing, Dental Marketing, dental marketing avenues, dental marketing vectors, dental patients, dental website, dental websites, direct mail, direct mail marketing, new dental patients, new patients, referrals, types of dental marketing

Facebook Dental Marketing: What Dentists Think (video)

January 30, 2013 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Facebook dental marketing may be picking up steam, but many dentists still don’t know how to use social media for internet dental marketing.

In this survey, two out of three of dentists report having a Facebook business page, while only one-third do not.

“We are able to connect not only with our own patients, but also with their Facebook friends when they like or share one of our posts or videos,” said a Missouri dentist. “It helps us to get the word out.”

Check out Jim Du Molin and Julie Frey discussing the topic of social media marketing in this short video…

What are your thoughts on using Facebook for dental practice marketing?

Filed Under: Dental Videos Tagged With: Dental, Dental Marketing, dental survey, dental video, dentists, Facebook, Facebook for dentists, social media, social networking, survey, survey video, video

Dental Marketing and the Future of Personal Search

January 22, 2013 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Just when dentists have figured out how to include Google search as part of their dental marketing plan, along comes Graph Search by Facebook.

Facebook Graph Search will allow Facebook users to perform searches based on people, places and interests.

For example, Facebook users can search for dentists mentioned, visited or discussed on Facebook.

PCWorld is calling Facebook’s new Graph Search “the future of search” believing that personalized search is the future of all Internet search.

Facebook Graph Search developers argue that in knowing which of your friends recommend a certain dentist, restaurant, or product, or if they liked it, will help everyone have a more social experience about about their choices both online and off.

Do people really care what dentist their friends choose and are they looking to share that they want to make a dental appointment?

Graph Search makes a lot of assumptions about how people will interact on the Internet in the future and is looking at those born after 1985 to set the trend.

But before we throw the toothbrush out with the toothpaste here and dismiss Facebook’s Graph Search at first glance, stop for a moment to think about a Facebook user searching the term “dentists my friends like” and suddenly Graph Search takes on new meaning, along with revealing the value of having a dental practice Facebook Page.

Last month Google rolled out it’s own personal search called Google Now for mobile users which many industry insiders believe will be the next hot service to take off, but then does anyone remember Search, Plus Your World that Google rolled out last year?

When you are logged into Google and searching the Internet with Google search have you noticed the little icon in your search results indicating personal results based on the Google Plus profiles of people you know or follow?

No?

Whether you believe in the value of social search or not, some of the biggest players on the Internet are investing heavily in the belief that personal search will be the future of search.

This being said, it’s hard to argue against your dental practice marketing plan including a strong social media strategy that reflects an active presence on your dental practice Facebook Page and your Google Plus dental practice Page.

Creating an active social network around your dental practice pages on Facebook and Google Plus will only benefit your dental practice as social searches continue to gain in popularity.

If you think about it, it is possible that personal search users will be more inclined to call your dental practice for an appointment if they see that many in their online social circle “like” your dental practice.

A trust relationship has already been initiated before this new dental patient walks into your dental practice waiting room.

And that is the idea behind any successful dental marketing plan.

Filed Under: Dental Marketing, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Marketing, dental marketing with Facebook, dentist, dentist marketing, dentistry, dentists, Facebook, Internet dental marketing, marketing, search engines, SEO

New Root Canal Patient Gross Production Value

January 22, 2013 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

The latest The Wealthy Dentist survey reveals that the average gross production of a new root canal patient in the first 9 months of treatment in 2012 was $2,300.

Suburban dentists reported higher production figures with amounts between $2,200 – $5,000.

Charles Blair of the Blair, McGill and Hill Group with Dr. Michael D. Goldstein have stated that “there is no greater potential for increasing your net hourly revenue than by doing your own uncomplicated endodontic procedures efficiently… analysis has consistently shown endodontics to have the highest dollar-per-hour and highest dollar-per-visit payoff of any [dental] procedure…” (Source: Dr. Michael D. Goldstein)

It has been estimated that approximately 40 million root canals are performed annually in the U.S. with a greater than 95% success rate.

A UCL Eastman Dental Institute systematic review of human clinical studies on tooth survival following non-surgical root canal treatment found four conditions that significantly improved tooth survival, making it an attractive dental procedure for many dental patients. In descending order of influence, the conditions increasing observed proportion of survival were as follows:

1. A dental crown restoration after RCTx.
2. Tooth having both mesial and distal proximal contacts.
3. Tooth not functioning as an abutment for removable or fixed prosthesis.
4. Tooth type or specifically non-molar teeth.

In The Wealthy Dentist root canal survey, general dentists were performing root canals and reporting average production profits between $1,800 and $3,000 for new root canal patients, while endodontists average $1,000.

One dentist responded, “Root canal therapy is a big money maker. It’s a great way to beef up the bottom line.”

What are your thoughts on the value of a new root canal patient?