GM, Dentists and Dental Practice Marketing
With an eye to dental practice marketing, it is interesting to see what the mammoth companies are doing and saying when it comes to advertising………….
Have you seen the news? GM, the U.S.’s biggest advertiser in total dollars, has given the big “pfuuiii” to Facebook saying this social “media’s” advertising simply does NOT WORK.
A few things you need to understand. Much like it hasn’t been a great car builder since sometime around the time of Ramses II (okay that is an exaggeration–but we’ll be generous and pin that date at roughly 1959) and hasn’t been an astute advertiser since the late 60’s, GM has become more critical of how they spend as a by-product of that minor “bump in the road” back in 2009 (bankruptcy).
A rule in marketing is that very few big companies are actually capable of doing BIG & SMART marketing. Except for a few outliers – it’s all BIG and DUMB and it’s all the time. It would require a treatise to explore why that’s the case….
Thus, if those dull pencils at GM who are in charge of marketing have figured this out……it means there are some very big red flags for ANY B to C (that’s business to consumer which YOU ARE) business using the same promotional venue.
[BTW: I detailed an article for DentalTown earlier this year in which I provided 10 lengthy reasons and examples of why Facebook/Twitter/(Insert Social Media here) is a big fat waste of time for dentists promoting their practice and not one single “expert” selling social media services to dentists has taken the time to refute any of those arguments. BTW 2: Social media does work for dentists to “sell” each other on things like new procedures, materials, and trainings VERY VERY well. Why? Because it’s SOCIAL amongst PEERS and it WORKS when the interactions are between LIKE MINDED individuals (in country talk we’d say “birds of a feather.” By the way, if you “LIKE”us at Facebook you’ll get some stuff you can’t get anywhere else.]
In almost every industry there are some generic principles that apply across the entire spectrum of selling, promotion, and pricing for all goods and services. Doesn’t matter what it is, the rules apply. Then….in each industry there are some specific rules that apply just to it. For professional services–specifically accounts, lawyers, architects, physicians (actually for the most part just plastic surgeons) and DENTISTS the rules are even more specific due to regulations, etc. One must be aware of these principles when applying dental practice marketing.
An example: For a service like dentistry, the message you promote with must line up with the problem a patient is experiencing that needs a solution that you have for that problem. It also needs a reason WHY it’s YOU. If you want to do a lot more dental implants, you don’t talk about implants, you talk about dentures, missing teeth, and solving the problems of such NOT promoting an implant. The “norm” has been that dentists promote their location or name and not much else and wonder why they don’t do the procedures they would prefer. This is an inviolable, industry specific rule, yet few in dentistry have been exposed to it (thank you university).
Those who do know and adhere to the known rules, do a lot more cases, do a lot better in practice, and enjoy their work more. You can learn more about how to reach out to patients in a particular niche by going here. Or check out my #1 top selling book on Amazon to make a step in the right direction.
GM eat your heart out….
