Which Dental Marketing Approach is Best for You?
You’ve heard the classic saying: “If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
You could be a great dentist. But if there’s nobody to treat, does that even matter?
Getting patients into chairs is critical to the survival of your dental practice. That part is obvious. What you really need to decide is who and how you will be connecting with new potential patients.
When it comes to Dental Marketing there’s essentially 4 paths you can take:
- Do It Yourself
- DIY with a Professional Course
- In-House Marketing Staff
- Outsourced Marketing Agency
Which option is best depends on you. It depends on your time, effort, desired result (effectiveness), and budget.
To help you decide on your path, here’s a useful dental marketing comparison table.
The Dental Marketing Comparison Table
| Time Required | Effort Required | Effectiveness | Cost | |
| Do It Yourself
In-house marketing done by you or a non-specialized staff person. |
High | High | Varied | Low |
| DIY, Professional Course
In-house marketing by you or an existing staff person trained through a marketing course. |
High | High | Moderate | Low-Moderate |
| In-House Expert
In-house marketing by a dedicated & professional marketer. |
Moderate | Low | High | High |
| Outsourced Dental Marketing
An outside professional dental marketing agency on contract. |
Low | Low | High | Moderate |
|
Do It Yourself
In-house marketing done by you or a non-specialized staff person.
|
|
DIY, Professional Course
In-house marketing by you or an existing staff person trained through a marketing course.
|
|
In-House Expert
In-house marketing by a dedicated & professional marketer.
|
|
Outsourced Dental Marketing
An outside professional dental marketing agency on contract.
|
Where do you fit on this dental marketing comparison table? What do you value: time, effort, results, or money?
If you happen to land in the Outsourced Dental Marketing option, contact devEdge Internet Marketing. We are dental marketing experts and have grown many practices in Canada & USA.
Let’s Talk About Your Options!
Detailed Breakdown of Your Dental Marketing Options
Understanding each dental marketing option is important so let’s break them down into more detail.
1) Do It Yourself
You can tackle the marketing end of your business with time and effort. This option can be a real money saver. Your results will most likely be sub-optimal. Marketing efficacy can be hard to track and quantify, but it’s critical that you do so. Have review structures in place to ensure you can follow-up on what works – and avoid wasting time and money on what doesn’t. If you, or one of your employees, have the time and technical skills necessary this option can be a good fit.
2) DIY, With A Professional Course
A step up from just going it on your own, courses can be helpful in laying the groundwork for marketing awareness. A good course will provide you, or your employee, with an overview of common dental marketing strategies. If you’re interested in doing your own marketing, but need to acquire the basic skills, this can be a good option. By necessity these courses offer “one-size-fits-all” approaches and will require some level of tailoring to fit your individual practice.
3) In-House Expert
Hiring your own internal marketing expert(s) ensures your marketing gets the attention it needs, and comes with a high price tag. It’s important to realize that marketing requires a broad range of skills. Hiring an in-house person means limiting yourself to that person’s skill set and even the most talented hire is still just one person. In order to do the job well, you will likely require multiple people or significant outsourcing. Like any other hire, the amount you get out of the position depends on the what the hire can produce – and you’re paying the salary regardless.
4) Outsourced Dental Marketing
Outsourcing your dental marketing is a common option chosen by dentists. Outsourcing tends to strike a good balance between costs and results. A good dental marketing agency, like devEdge Internet Marketing, will create a positive return on your marketing dollar. By outsourcing your marketing to an agency you are effectively hiring multiple skill sets – usually an agency has multiple staff with various specializations – for a fraction of what you’d pay for a similar team in-house.
Get Dental Marketing that Grows Your Practice
A common misconception for practices new to the idea of outsourced marketing is that it comes with a scary price tag. Rest assured that at devEdge we are results-driven. Marketing should generate income and increase your bottom line – not lower it. We all know you’ve got to spend money to make money, but we will work hard to ensure your monthly agency fee is affordable and provides a healthy return on investment.
Give the friendly team at devEdge Internet Marketing a call. We’d be happy to go over your options, help you choose the best fit for your practice, and get your business growing. Our experience and expertise behind your quality dental care can be a winning combination. Find out how today!
