If you’re anything like me, you are currently heads down in your work, with an all-hands-on-deck attitude just to make it through the fall. The end of the year brings budget planning, holiday parties, employee reviews, and all the rest of the day-to-day work already on our plates. It can feel overwhelming to look toward the new year when we already have so much to do. And yet, if you don’t start looking forward now, you’re going to end up halfway through 2023 looking backwards, kicking yourself for not planning ahead. So I’m here to remind you to get a head start on your dental marketing in 2023.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2023
Marketing your dental practice in 2023 has the potential to be—let’s be honest—interesting. Consumer behavior is changing rapidly in response to a looming recession and out of control inflation. It’s only reasonable to assume that when gas and groceries double in cost, dentistry may face a cooling off period. It would make any practice owner want to cut back on expenses.
So, how does that impact your marketing plan for 2023? The answer is, it shouldn’t.
For those of you who have found your practice growth to be hampered by the availability of good employees, I am delighted to report that the job market is opening back up. With enough hygienists, assistants, and front desk team to fully staff the office, you should have room for lots of new patients.
But wait Xaña, didn’t you just tell me that a recession and inflation could mean less people will be seeking dental care? Yes, I did. While there may be a bit less demand for elective procedures, there are still plenty of patients who will need routine and restorative care. And that means this is the time to go all-in on your dental practice marketing. Doctors all around you will take a knee-jerk reaction to the economy and start cutting back on their marketing. Which means LESS COMPETITION for new patients—woo-hoo!
Look, I know it sounds biased for the owner of a dental marketing agency to tell you not to cut the budget during a down economy, but this is not self-serving. This is tough love. Think of spending money on dental marketing during a recession, just like dollar cost averaging on your 401K when the market takes a hit. You get more for less.
WHAT ARE YOUR GROWTH GOALS?
So, please get cracking with your dental marketing plan for 2023. Your starting place must be your goals.
Map out your growth goals for new patients, production, and collections.
Decide how many reviews you plan to get each month – will it be 5 or 15?
Do you want to start 3 Invisalign cases per month, or 6?
You must know concrete, SMART goals in order to create a plan that will bring those goals into reality.
The mere act of writing down your goals means you are 10x more likely to accomplish them. Trust me when I tell you that most of your competitors are holding their practice together with bubblegum and rubberbands, so if you write down your goals, you are already miles ahead of most other doctors.
CONSIDER YOUR OPTIONS
Once you know your goals, map out your strategies. Google ads and social media ads are a sure fire winner for new patient leads. SEO is a must, because if you cut SEO, you’ll just take twice as long to catch back up when you restart. Maybe you need a new, conversion driven dental website, or more prominent signage on your office building.
Think about the brand message you’ll convey on social media. Decide how you will motivate existing patients to send friends and family to schedule with you. Ask yourself all of the questions that your future patients will ask when seeking a new dentist.
Also important to remember is that dental marketing is about more than just lead generation. It’s critical to think about marketing strategies that will help your team to convert more calls into appointments. We personally love the training from Genevieve Poppe on Dentlogics; it can help your team to limit cancellations and convert those stubborn insurance driven callers.
BUDGETING FOR SUCCESS
Once you have mapped out your strategies, gather estimates for each initiative. Get a full picture of what the investment will be to continually grow your practice. If the budget is overwhelming, you may not be able to accomplish all of your goals in 2023. However, it’s more important to do 3 things really well than to do 10 things just “sorta-okayish.”
We’ll talk more in 2023 about how to measure your success, but for now, just focus on the future.
You don’t need Dorothy’s crystal ball to see into the future, you just need intention and a plan.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Xaña Winans is the CEO and founder of Golden Proportions Marketing, a dental marketing company dedicated to the growth of dental practices throughout North America. Founded in 2001, her agency provides strategy driven, full service solutions including branding, internal marketing, advertising, and digital marketing.
Goal driven results are at the heart of everything she creates.
Her passion for constant and never ending improvement led her to develop Smart Market Dental, the first dental marketing software designed to tie individual marketing strategies to resulting patients.
The ability to measure marketing ROI in real time holds her agency to a higher standard, driving continuous improvement of their work.
Xaña is a board member of the Academy of Dental Management Consultants and lectures nationally on the topic of dental marketing.
She publishes regularly in Dentistry Today and Dental Economics, and is a frequent guest on industry podcasts.
