21 Aug Your authentic self – simple and effective dental marketing
A wonderful meeting with a new Club Connect client this week and a reminder of how simple and effective dental marketing can be.
This client has a regular advert and editorial page in a local publication but was struggling to explain why sometimes the publication caused the phone to ring and other times it didn’t.
We had a conversation about what it is that customers need to firstly accept both consciously and unconsciously, before they will even take a look at what you do, your prices and how you do it. That conversation with your customer has to start with trust, particularly where health matters are concerned. At first she found this puzzling but soon began to awaken to the fact that, the editorials about teeth and dentistry (either with or without an advert offering a discount or a special offer) were just not getting the same results as real stories that allow the reader to firstly accept as true that “these are decent people, I know I can trust them, let’s have a further look at what they do.”
One way to describe this conversation with your customers is to be “your authentic self” after all it’s what you no doubt try and do when you meet your new patient so why wouldn’t you start this conversation sooner in your marketing? The best way to give you an example of this is to copy her latest editorial and let you decide for yourself; does this feel like a business you can trust and where you will be looked after?
In yet another week where dentistry is getting an unnecessary bashing in the press, perhaps it’s time to turn the table and talk less about teeth and more about trust?
This is reproduced proudly and with full permission;
YOU CAN’T TOUCH THE MAGIC…
Recently after enduring another bout of dentist-bashing news, exasperated, I sent an e-mail to the news anchor at Sky News. No doubt, there is good and bad in all professions, but often to the press, there is only one type of Dentist- the bad one!
I thought-“That is not my story!” There is danger in only hearing one side of the story. Here’s mine:-
My heart sings every time I drive to work-literarily! It does this little thing in my chest, and I know I’m where I’m meant to be. Some days, my nurse and I share a quick hug as we say good morning, with a knowing smile – we are blessed to do what we enjoy.
You see, the press doesn’t know about the patient who suffered a fall cycling to his appointment and for whom my nurse had attended his wounds and made a cup of tea all before I got in to work at 8am. They don’t know that she drove him to A&E to get looked after and put his bike away for safety as well as calling his next of kin to inform them. They don’t know about the patients who stop in for a chat and a cup of tea just because they were in the neighbourhood. They don’t see the look of surprise of the patient who says “that was the best and most comfortable visit I’ve ever had to the Dentist”.
My e-mail to Sky News concluded with me telling the news anchor that in my next life, I was coming after his job. On second thoughts, a job where I wake people to tell them the worst thing that has happened in the world everyday would not be for me.
I realise dentists will always get bad press because that’s what sells… but no amount of bad press can touch the magic… Shhhh.
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