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Reap Tomorrow What You Sow Today

Are you ready to hit marketing hard in September? Do you have your image set, your web site ready and have ads and direct mail prepared to kick out your message? What about when those new patients call? Do you have the perfect brochure to send to them that makes them value your services?

If you know that you should be doing these things and are not quite sure where to start, you are certainly not alone. Most doctors have heard these admonishments in seminars and study clubs. Yet they keep using the same old magnets and yellow pages ad they’ve used forever. If you are ready to get into the swing of effective marketing, you have picked the right time. How can that be? The economy is bad, and new patient count is down, and patients are not going ahead with big cases like they were before. Plus marketing is really expensive, isn’t it?

Marketing is not expensive. It is a substantial investment, yes. However, you can expect to make 15% to 20% on that investment in the first year, and like compound interest, even more in subsequent years because good marketing has a cumulative effect. I’ll refrain from making snide remarks of how that is better than the stock market recently. Ooops, too late. Does that mean that if you put $10,000 into marketing you can expect to net $2000 and if you put $100,000 into marketing you can net $20,000. No, because the critical mass of marketing for your practice, for your geographic area, for your media, and for your desired type of patients may be $33,572. Below that level of investment, your marketing will not have sufficient impact and you will make less. Above that you will start to realize a lower return on every dollar spent. Where exactly, then, do the variables involved in a marketing budget come into play?

You will find that the tools of marketing are often the same coast-to-coast, community-to-community. In fact, I mentioned them in the first paragraph if this article. Fortunately, 95% of the dentists out there find that by having a unique, distinctive logo; a well-designed, professional web site; a good direct mail campaign; an effective ad; and an informative brochure, they meet most of the requirements needed for a year’s worth of solid marketing. Now, what it takes to effectively employ those tools is where your variation lies. If you are in a community of 30,000 with one local newspaper and 3000 qualified households in the area to which you can send direct mail, your costs will be comparatively low. Conversely, if you are in a large metropolitan area with a variety of high-exposure newspapers and 20,000 nearby qualified households, the investment required for implementation will be much higher. Fortunately, the prices you will be able to charge and the return you will realize will be proportional to these cost differences.

So what does this all mean? Whether you are located in Bismarck, North Dakota or Los Angeles, California the basic marketing tools are the same and the price to produce the tools does not change. The cost of putting these tools to work is what dictates your rate of return. Every dentist needs an effective marketing package, or at least every dentist who wants to take a lead position in his or her local market. But how do we know that we will have a lead position when the economy is bad, new patient counts are down, and current patients are holding off on big cases?

History has shown that companies that market during down economic times will enjoy a larger market share and larger profits when good times return. So am I telling you that good times will return in September? No, I am saying that September is a great time to start marketing to enjoy that leading market position when good times do return, which they surely will.

Think of marketing during a recession as planting tulips in the fall. You bury them, water them, and fertilize them, yet you see no return until the sunny days of spring bring forth a burst of bright color. So why not wait until times are good again to start your marketing? Marketing is like tulips. By the time you see everyone else’s tulips blooming next spring, you cannot rush to plant bulbs and expect blooms of your own two weeks later.

Now that you know how important marketing is in these economic times, call us at (800) 950-7133 or email us us to learn more about how you can take advantage of our money-saving packages or no-interest financing and take control as the leading professional in your market.

Super Sites to Visit
Dental Economics, May 2003

Curtis Marketing Group had four web sites featured in the May 2003 Dental Economics magazine in an article entitled "Super Sites to Visit" by Dr. Jeffrey B. Dalin.

Dr. Hugh Flax
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Hardin Dental
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Dr. Ken LeBlanc
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Dr. Richard Timm

New Logos

Here are a few of our newest logos designed especially for each of these doctors. Our goal is to "capture the doctor's soul" in each and every logo we design.

Dr. Gallegos & Dr. Jackson
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Dr. Gurtner
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Dr. Malick
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Contact

Curtis Marketing Group is a full-service marketing agency specializing in the dental industry.

To find out more about our agency and how we can help your practice grow, visit www.curtisgroup.com or call us toll-free at (800) 950-7133.

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