Why is most dental advertising what’s called “incestuous” and why does that pattern actually help practices that escape it?
Because most dentists copy what other dentists in their area are already doing, then their copycats copy them, and the result is a closed loop of similar-looking advertising that never tests against the broader marketing world. The pattern is recognizable. A dentist sees a competitor’s mailer, postcard, or website and concludes the format must work because the competitor is using it. They commission similar materials. Other dentists see those materials and do the same. A small set of layouts, headlines, and offers gets recycled endlessly across the local profession, none of them ever tested against direct response principles or against the marketing standards of industries that actually measure response. The practices that break out of this loop and apply tested DRM principles produce ads that look noticeably different from everything else in the local market. The contrast is itself part of the response advantage. Prospects who have been seeing the same dental advertising for years suddenly encounter something different and pay attention. Meanwhile, the copycat competitors keep producing each other’s mediocrity. The dentist who escapes the loop gets all the patients the loop fails to convert.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.
