In the world of dentistry, there’s no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy for dental practices. Just like any other business’ marketing efforts, dental marketing is also one of the most important parts of a dental practice’s overall budget, and without it, no one would know you’re in business. The type of marketing your practice needs and the amount of money you should spend in marketing is going to vary from practice to practice.

As a business, you already have a budget where funds are allocated to various things like equipment, software, and staffing but it’s also important to make sure that you have set aside funds to dedicate to marketing, and in doing that, you also need to pay close attention as to how you’re spending it. If you think about it, the overall goal of marketing is to get the biggest bang for your buck. Ideally, you want a high ROI without spending a ton of money.

You Get What You Pay For

There are so many dental practices that invest in these cheap dental marketing firms and get such bad results that it makes the good ones look sketchy. Dentists! Note to self: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Now we’re not saying that in order to achieve great results from your marketing efforts, you have to spend a fortune but by taking the cheap route, you’re probably going to get cheap results. To help you better understand, take a look at it in reference to patients.

Scenario 1

So, you’ve invested in the cheap marketing route and it’s actually exposed your dental practice to thousands of people but out of those marketing efforts, you’re only seeing two new patients per month. Do you think the amount of money you’re spending on marketing is covering those two new patients? Absolutely not.

Scenario 2

You’ve invested double the amount of money than you did with the previous marketing efforts but you’re exposed to half of what you were previously exposed to. This sounds like you got the short end of the stick, right? Not necessarily. Smaller groups are more targeted and if this smaller group is showing more interest in your services, you have a higher chance of getting leads out of that group and converting them into patients.

Before the internet came into existence, dental practices were dependent on marketing through TV, radio, and billboards. The biggest issue with that type of marketing is that it was displaying the dental practice’s message to thousands of people who had no interest in their services, not to mention, those dental practices spent a significant amount of money to market their practice with those tactics too. 

In order to realistically determine how much you should spend on marketing your practice, you first need to establish your practice’s goals.

What are Your Practice’s Goals?

How long your practice has been in business and its growth cycle plays a huge part in your needing to invest in marketing. If you’re a new dental practice, you’re going to need to invest more in marketing than an already established practice. So this is the time where you need to really think about what your goals are. Is your practice’s goal to attract new patients? Are you looking to partner up with a new dentist? Or are you ready to hire your dental staff?

If any of those are some of your practice’s goals, you’re going to need to do some type of marketing for it so that people not only know your practice exists but to also let the public know what you need from them. The more aggressive your approach to marketing is, the more you’re going to need to invest.

Establish a Marketing Budget

Marketing does so much for your practice. It brings brand awareness, attracts new patients, and increases sales… for all that it brings, why not set aside a budget specifically for it? We can’t tell you a set or specific number to spend on marketing efforts, again, because it varies from practice to practice. It solely depends on your available resources and your business goals.

According to thrivehive.com, most businesses allocate five to ten percent of their revenue towards marketing. The thing about businesses is that you don’t just want your practice to survive… you want it to grow. When you want it to grow, your allocation needs to be more on the higher side, close to ten percent or more. Now, remember, these stats are just a generic estimate. You can only allocate to marketing what you can afford but the more you spend, you’re more likely to have a higher ROI.

Should Your Marketing Budget Go to Traditional or Digital Marketing Methods?

This is something you don’t necessarily need to know upfront. We’re the experts here to help you make the best marketing decisions for your practice. We’ll go over what traditional and digital marketing methods are if you’re unfamiliar with them. Ideally, you’d want a little bit of both, it just depends on what your practice’s strengths and weaknesses are. We’ll look at all of that.

Both traditional and digital marketing methods have pros and cons to them but it’s nothing your practice can’t handle. We have solutions for both traditional and digital marketing methods.

So How Can You Get the Biggest Bang For Your Buck?

In your mind, you’re probably thinking that in order to properly market your practice, you’re going to have to spend an arm and a leg on it and the truth is that you don’t. Dental marketing is affordable. Now, the more you put into it, the better the results you’ll see but that still doesn’t necessarily mean that spending lots of money is the key to success… you also have to be smart about your marketing methods and hire the right people to help you with your practice’s marketing needs at an affordable rate and still get the most value.

We here at Dental Marketing Specialist can help you rank ahead of your dental competition. Whether you’re leaning towards traditional or digital marketing methods, we’ll help you every step of the way. We’ll take a look at your practice’s previous marketing efforts, see why it’s not working, and devise a marketing plan to scale your visibility and all at a rate you can afford. Get in contact with us today to learn more about our services.