Dentists Will Need New Dental Advertising Techniques to Attract More Patients

Doctors and dentists, in addition to many small business owners feel thwarted because of the high cost of commercial, medical and dental advertising that provide minimal return in their initiatives to acquire new patients for their offices.

Whether it's buying time for regional radio and television promotions, inserting ads in newspapers or investing in full-page ads in the telephone directory, several dentists, doctors and small business owners are getting frustrated by the high cost of utilizing conventional marketing and advertising campaigns that render small results. As the recent financial crisis carries on its slow fade into history, financial recovery, nonetheless, still seems to be at a distance as medical professionals have lost their unemployed patients who can no longer keep their medical or dental insurance and, therefore, have little alternatives but to scale back on their regular medical care appointments. Some doctors and dentists are now becoming more aggressive in their marketing and advertising attempts in order to secure patients for them to keep their practices running.

The reality is, the medical and dental advertising ideas and strategies that many health professionals employ are nearly the same and do little to differentiate one doctor from another. In addition to that, some doctors, especially dentists, are leery of utilizing such heavy-handed medical and dentist advertising tactics because they think such overt self-serving promotion in an industry as serious as medicine could very well impact the dentist’s standing for being a professional and credible expert. Many dentists have stated, as a result of prior experience, that using such advertising has actually turned potential patients away.

"People often steer clear from the types of businesses who are seen as boldly tooting their own horn," says Helmut Flasch, a medical and dental practice management advisor and CEO of Doctor Relations, Inc., a medical and dental consulting company located within California’s San Fernando Valley. "Frankly, there is really no need for someone to invest a bunch of money on advertising to toot their own horns if someone else is able to do it for them, plus it costs almost nothing," reasons Mr. Flasch.

Mr. Flasch thinks the most powerful credibility endorsements come from good word-of-mouth through a dentist or a doctor’s area. He emphasizes that it is not the same thing as looking to secure referrals from a medical or dental peer. "Referrals really can’t be relied on to solely build a practice. A specialist might get two or three referrals inside the span of four months. That is not sustaining," he states. He proceeds to say that dentists need to use alternative methods to get their message through to would-be patients rather than using the typical dentist advertising and referral processes.

"Doctors really need to get involved with their local area activities if they want to get new patients. It's the most effective way," says Mr. Flasch. He believes that whenever a dental practice or a medical doctor participates in a community special event such as an essay competition for local children or perhaps a walk-a-thon, it offers him the chance to connect with potential patients as a person and a humanitarian. This technique is recognized as Un-advertising, which involves a person giving to his local community by making an improvement in the lives of other people and obtaining positive press in exchange. "By taking part in a community activity, people will remember the dentist not just as the sponsor of a successful food drive or an composition contest for school-age children, they'll remember him as a reputable dentist," says Mr. Flasch. "It actively works to enhance the credibility and awareness of a dentist any time he interacts with people face-to-face in a civic setting, and he’s now on the radar for potential patients who'll need his services for future medical needs," he concludes.