This article will help you decide how to better allocate your marketing resources. It might not detail every variable that you could encounter, but it will give you considerable guidance during your next media budgeting session. The comparison article has three sections: high-end patients, marketing viability and the final analysis.

High-end Patients

A high-end (or high-value) patient is a fairly flexible term. If you’re in a large metro area, it could mean celebrities, CEOs and the wealthy. If you’re in a rural area or midsize community, it could mean individuals who want the best care available in the area. Of course, it could also be a mixture of these groups. Ultimately, the definition is “patients who want comprehensive and elective dentistry, and will pay your fees in full.”

Look at these general characteristics and determine which publication has the highest probability of attracting your specific patient.

Yellow Pages
     • Sent to everyone who has a front door
     • In possession of almost everyone who will have an emergency (Emergency patients aren't usually ready for comprehensive solutions)
     • Promotes all of your competition at the same time (The public perceives all dentists listed to be your competition)
     • Limited ways for you to differentiate your image
     • You are paying for many "less-viable" households (fees are based on how many people have telephones, not on how many would be good prospects)
     • A lower-percentage of the viewing audience uses the Internet

Newspapers
     • Generally has an older audience (35-70)
     • Generally, the audience is more likely attuned to the value of high-level care
     • Generally has a more educated target audience: education or training past high school
     • Generally has a more affluent target audience: made up of those with better paying jobs or greater wealth
     • Generally has a readership that is more likely to use the Internet
     • A new edition is published every day or week (Its audience has multiple opportunities to be engaged by your ad)

City, Home and Garden, Society or Business Magazines
     • Narrow demographics for a greater concentration of upscale readers
     • Readers are expecting to be exposed to ads for upscale services
     • Because they usually aren't free, the reader is stating their buying tendencies up front
     • A high percentage of readers are "Initiators" - they buy new products/services first
     • The majority of City, Home and Garden, and Society magazine readers are females with extra disposable income
     • The majority of Business magazine readers are males interested in gaining an edge

The Arts/Symphony Program
     • Higher disposable incomes are almost guaranteed
     • Recipients are more likely to have advanced education
     • Patrons are often opinion leaders in community (you’ll have a strong marketing advocate in these patients)
     • They have invested more to receive the program - translates into attentive readers
     • The male readers are more open to esthetic choices than other male readers of other publications

Marketing Viability

It may seem that one option would always be the best choice. However, each publication will have different marketing roles depending on the area’s demographics. Each publication also can reach different, but still valuable, audiences. The Arts Program’s influence in a metro area of thirty thousand is different than in a metro area of one million.
These factors are points to consider before you drop the Yellow Pages or change to some other source to attract more of the "best" patients.

Consider that…

     • Yellow Pages work best in areas of high housing growth or resident turnover
     • New patients will tell you that they found you in the Yellow Pages, when in fact they learned about you through other patients, your ads, a newspaper story on you and a drive-by when they saw your sign. However, to check your phone number they did, indeed, “find you in the Yellow Pages”.
     • In communities of 25,000 to 200,000, the Newspaper will have more relevant local news to attract socially connected readers. Socially connected readers are more conscious of their smiles and dental health. Most cities larger than 300,000 have an impersonal metro paper and smaller community newspapers that may be better buys for you.
     • No new patient will ever tell you that they were influenced by your ad in an Arts Program, but it may have been the deciding factor for their choice. People do not want to appear to be easily influenced.
     • A City Magazine, or regionally topical magazine, is almost always worth every penny you put into it. The graphics showcase your ad well, the cost keeps out the riff-raff competition, and readers will save your ad for a year or more until they are ready to go ahead.

Make Your Marketing Synergistic

     • It is best to choose at least two of the above to connect effectively with your audience
     • One publication may create interest. The second publication reinforces the credibility of your brand and moves the consumer to action
     • If your competition is heavily advertising in one publication (but it is the best one to be in), compete with them, and then advertise somewhere else as well to start garnering that audience that hasn't been approached effectively by them.

Publications with these Attributes Work Best

     • People pick it up to discover something new
     • It actively educates, but doesn’t alienate
     • It is a regular conversation piece in circles of influence
     • It gets passed around to many people
     • It is flexible enough to test-market different messages, designs, content on a weekly/monthly basis to fit special occasions
     • Has sections or topics that interest your target market, not just the Dentist category, how about the Art, Fashion, Food, Wedding or Women's sections?
     • Has readers that like to be "in the know"
     • Is handed, delivered to, or placed in front of readers even if they are not thinking about your service

Final Analysis

The skilled, high-value dentist is not looking to see a lot of mediocre patients. Therefore, narrowing the audience with proper placement is important. For example, the Yellow Pages are created for everybody and almost every business concept. Specialty services like high-level dentistry are lost in the shuffle.

Most every dentist would rather not quibble over price, deal with the intransigent insurance patient or do "one-tooth-at-a-time" dentistry. If your goal is to work with fewer patients and do more comprehensive restorations, the publication with the narrowest audience is the best. Of course, the size of the publication and how many of your competitors are advertising in it will determine whether or not it fits in as the only, the best, or a good supporting publication.

Just like patients have to break out of the paradigm of insurance dictated care, high-level elective dentistry needs to commit to aggressively promote and educate. It cannot wait for someone to have a toothache.

Each marketing vehicle presents some type of downside that can be surmounted. It is a matter of finding the right mix to overcome those obstacles. Then the designs and messages put into play in this mix should present effective image guide posts to direct only the most enlightened patients to your door. While this can't be accomplished in one fell swoop, it is vital that a new level of marketing interaction is developed with the public.

If you have questions about which is the best option for you, let us know. We’re here to help!

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