Internet dental marketing Archives

Dental Marketing: What Kind of Dental Practice Should Advertise on the Radio?

December 4, 2019 By Guest Author

Dental marketing is all about efficiency. It’s always best to keep doing the things that work and provide the most bang for the buck.

I’m one of the biggest proponents of radio advertising in the dental marketing industry because I’ve worked with so many practices who have seen great success from it. My company, Ridgway Consulting, is best known for our dental practice radio campaigns.

That being said, it’s not right for every practice.

Radio is a broadcast medium, like TV. This is significant because the radio signal often reaches a larger geographic area than what you might normally consider your practice’s base. Depending on the population in your area, you may mostly see patients that are within five, ten or twenty miles of your practice.

By contrast, some radio stations have the signal strength to reach listeners that are hours away.

The challenge with enormous “reach” of a broadcast like that is cost. When you advertise, you get what you pay for; in radio terms, that means radio stations charge you based upon the amount of listeners. So the problem is this: how can you be efficient when you are spending a portion of your marketing dollars to reach people who won’t travel as far as your office for dentistry?

The answer is simple – you need to have something that distinguishes you from the competition.

Radio only makes sense if you can offer something the other local practices are not offering. You need to give people a reason to pass by all the offices that are closer to their work and home, and make you their dentist of choice. That unique service, whether it be Invisalign, implants, sedation dentistry, or whatever, also needs to be a relatively profitable service.

It’s difficult to make an acceptable ROI when you advertise a low-dollar service like cleanings or whitening. Instead, use radio to advertise something like sedation. One big case, from someone who’s been away from dentistry for years, can pay for months of radio time.

Ed Ridgway has executed marketing campaigns for hundreds of businesses in the U.S. and Canada. He is nationally recognized for his ongoing campaigns with many of the top dental practices across the country.

Filed Under: Dental Marketing, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Marketing, dentists, Ed Ridgway, Internet dental marketing, radio advertising

Your Gift… The New Patient Marketing™Machine

December 4, 2019 By Jim Du Molin

Jim Du Molin calls it the “New Patient Marketing Machine™“… and it’s his gift to you.

“I’d like to give something back to all the dentists who have helped make my life so great,” says Jim. “So I’m going to do something I’ve never done before…”

“I’ll give the first 1,000 dentists who sign up a general dental website… entirely free for one year. No strings attached,” he explains.

Enjoy the holiday season… and Jim Du Molin’s gift to you. Get your gift now!

Filed Under: Dental Editorials, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Editorials, dental gifts, Dental Marketing, dentist, dentists, Internet dental marketing, marketing

Dentists Prefer Facebook For Their Dental Marketing

December 4, 2019 By Jim Du Molin

Facebook has turned into a popular dental marketing tool for dentists to attract more dental patients.

9 out of 10 dentists use Facebook as their preferred place to network online.

While Facebook is facing criticism over their often-disputed privacy policies, most of the dentists using Facebook use it for both professional and personal networking.

“We are at the beginning stages of our Facebook dental marketing. We are using it as an informational, personable and promotional platform. We are giving our patients useful information, keeping them updated on what is new in our office, and giving away prizes for liking our page. We also give patients $5 off their services when they check in!“ responded one dentist.

The Wealthy Dentist decided to survey dentists to ask what sort of social networking they do online, and whether it was for personal or business purposes.

Dentists use the following social networking sites professionally –

Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Blog
Google Plus

And for personal use?

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Google Plus
LinkedIn and blogging were used the least

Here are some dentist comments:

“We have a business Facebook page which does well for us. I update it regularly and have a couple staff that like to write updates on the wall, too.” (Ohio prosthodontist)

“I haven’t yet figured out what to make of Twitter.” (General dentist)

“I still prefer word-of-mouth recommendations most of all.” (Arizona dentist)

“I really do not have the time or inclination to follow through with these media platforms.” (Massachusetts dentist)

With Facebook about to make a public of offering, which is estimated to bring in about 10 billion dollars, it is time for just about every dental practice that is serious about dental marketing to get on the Facebook bus!

Filed Under: Dental Marketing, Dental Surveys, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Blogs, Dental Marketing, dental survey, dental survey results, dental surveys, dentist, dentistry, Facebook, Google plus, Internet dental marketing, LinkedIn, social networking, survey, Twitter, YouTube

Dental Marketing on Facebook for UK Dental Practice

December 4, 2019 By Jim Du Molin

A dental practice in the UK (and NHS practice) is trying to recruit new patients via Facebook.

And what’s most remarkable about this story isn’t the truly innovate form of internet dental marketing using online social networking… it’s the fact that there’s an NHS practice with space for new dental patients!

Historically, it’s been challenging for many UK citizens to get dental care through the NHS. In many areas, it’s next impossible to find a dentist who’ll take on a new NHS patient.

So the NHS invested £65,000 to create places for 10,000 new patients, but the VI Dental Centre in Bridlington still has 2,000 spaces available. And marketing-minded staff have turned to the internet, using sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: Dental News Tagged With: Dental Marketing, Facebook, Internet dental marketing, NHS, Twitter

Dental Marketing Gone Bad: Dentist Threatens Lawsuit for Negative Review

December 4, 2019 By Jim Du Molin

The most costly dental marketing mistake could be threatening to sue your dental patients. And once again, a dentist is making front-page news with her challenge against a negative dental review on Yelp.

ABC News is reporting that Stacy Makhnevich, DDS, threatened to sue dental patient Robert Allen Lee for posting critical comments about Dr. Makhnevich on Yelp and DoctorBase.

According to ABC News the problem began in 2010, when Robert Lee went into Dr. Makhnevich’s office for a scheduled dentist’s appointment. Lee claims he was in excruciating pain when he was told he had to sign a ‘Mutual Agreement to Maintain Privacy‘ form, before being treated. The privacy form required that Lee agree not to publish any commentary or write anything disparaging about his experience online.

Lee further states that although he was hesitant to sign this form, he was desperate to receive treatment and gave in to agreeing to sign the form.

Lee became unhappy when there was a mishap with billing his insurance company and he couldn’t get Dr. Makhnevich’s office to rectify the situation to his satisfaction, Lee wrote negative reviews about Dr. Makhnevich and her practice on Yelp and DoctorBase.

Both ABC News and Public Citizen are reporting that Makhnevich sent a letter to Lee demanding that he delete the negative posts, warning him that he violated the agreement he signed and threatened to sue him for breach of contract. Dr. Makhnevich also contacted the review sites and asked for Lee’s negative comments to be removed.

Both Yelp.com and DoctorBase refused to take down the negative reviews, but Makhneich reportedly claimed that a copyright clause gave her ownership of the negative comments. She then went on to send Lee an invoice for $100 for each day the negative remarks remained online.

Lee has now taken legal action against the doctor by filing a lawsuit in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York, accusing Stacy Makhnevich, DDS, of violating his rights as a patient by threatening him with a lawsuit for posting negative comments online.

As we have reported here on The Wealthy Dentist in the past, dentists have not been successful in court when suing patients directly for their negative online reviews. Recently in California a dentist who sued a patient now has to pay $80,000 in legal fees, not just to the patient who posted the review, but also to Yelp itself.

In the article, Dental Marketing: A Guide for Avoiding Negative Online Reviews, The Wealthy Dentist has offered dentists advice on how to handle a negative online review — and threatening to sue the patient was not listed as a viable dental marketing option.

What are your thoughts on negative online reviews and the sites that allow them?

For more on this story see: Dentist Threatens to Sue Patient for Negative Yelp Review and Doc Sued Over Attempts to Prohibit Patients From Writing Online Reviews.