The following is a guest post by Elliot Pearson of Dentistidentity.com. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

Dentists Are Not Master Marketers

Dentists are not just people who take care of people’s teeth. In the business standpoint, they are also managers, leaders and motivators. But although they have a number of roles to fulfill, dentists need to realize that they are not the best advertisers and marketers. A person can try to learn the ropes but, at the end, it is the experts who will most likely dominate this field. Most of the time, dental ads consist of faces of dentists plastered on walls with write-ups that sing their praises.

Patients Care About Their Own Needs First

But the fact is that patients do not care about you. They do not care about the image that you project. On the other hand, they care about themselves. The reason they choose to have treatments done on them is because they care about themselves. They go to you because they want to feel or look better, not because they think of how wonderful you are. This is why you need to think twice before commissioning an ad with your face all over it.

Your Practice’s Name Is NOT Your Brand

The first lesson that dentists need to know about marketing is branding. You know that you have successfully branded your practice when people recognize it as soon as they hear your practice’s name. The problem with some dentists is that they believe that their name is synonymous to their practice’s brand. But this isn’t the case. Most companies which have effectively branded themselves do not use the owner’s name as the brand name. It’s time for dentists to come up with a good brand name and then use this in their external marketing campaign.

Understanding Your Customers Needs Is Critical

The second lesson that dentists must know is to identify with those individuals who they are advertising their practice to. Because the patients have self-serving reasons for going into our dental clinic, you need to know exactly what their wants and needs are in order to appeal to them better. You can talk about how your practice offers treatments which are minimally invasive and painless in order to appeal to those who may be scared of going to the dentist.

Your Thoughts

What additional “Truths” about dental marketing would you add to the list?

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