Why Marketing Fails for Dental Practices

Many businesses approach marketing with faulty assumptions based on conventional wisdom that is often anything but wise. And there’s no getting around the fact that dental practices do this as well. The reason why marketing fails for dental practices is usually that dentists don’t fully understand the big picture.

Do you really want to know why marketing fails for dental practices? It’s usually because marketing is often treated incorrectly by dental offices. In fact, no company can survive without marketing. In the end, the only thing that fails is how you implement and/or track your dental practice marketing.

When people pronounce that marketing has failed, they’re not looking deep enough to see what’s actually failing. The problems are going to be very specific, such as:

  • How the marketing was tracked (assuming it was tracked at all)?
  • Was the content appropriate? Effective?
  • Did the call to action motivate people to call?
  • Was there follow-up when people called?

If any of these areas was handled incorrectly, there’s a reason (or several reasons) why marketing fails for dental practices. Just saying marketing doesn’t work will never solve your problem. If your dental practice marketing isn’t increasing production, it’s time to get very specific as to why.

This is Why Marketing Fails for Dental Practices

In its experience working with hundreds of healthcare clients, Dreamscape Marketing has determined that the following areas must be considered in any marketing endeavor:

You Must, Must, Must Track All Dental Marketing

When a dental practice relies on guesswork about how its marketing is doing, the marketing is probably doomed to failure. Call tracking numbers, for example, are essential for determining who responds, and what type of marketing they respond to.

Do you know what particular marketing initiatives bring in new patients? Also, do you know what the cost per lead is for each new patient you get? Without tracking data, it’s virtually impossible to provide definitive answers to either of these questions.

Understand the Difference Between Reporting & Analysis

Just tracking and reporting on your marketing isn’t enough in and of itself. One reason why marketing fails for dental practices is that no one knows what to do with the data they track. 

Remember that every business generates reports. However, not every business seriously analyzes those reports. Sometimes, the reports just pile up and are never seriously scrutinized. As the volume of reports increases, there’s less incentive to actually delve into the important information they contain. Remarkably, the company may be unfazed by this, believing it has done its job… just because it has been creating reports. Remember this one important fact: reports that aren’t analyzed aren’t worth creating in the first place.

Let’s be very clear about the difference between reporting and analysis:

  • Reporting: a process where you organize data into easy-to-read summaries so that you can monitor how different aspects of your marketing are doing.
  • Analysis: a process where you take the reports that you have generated and strive to pull from them meaningful insights that your dental practice can act upon.

Although both deal with collected data, reporting and analysis differ in purpose. By understanding the difference between the two, your dental practice can maximize the usefulness of the data you collect.

The big difference between reporting and analysis is that the former gives you no context while the latter does. With reporting, there’s either very limited or no context at all. Sometimes, the end users already know the context, but just as often they don’t. Any good analysis adds context to the data, which is essential in many instances. 

For example, a sudden drop in phone calls to your dental practice for a particular month may be reason to be alarmed. On the other hand, context may make it clear that this particular month has historically been slower for your office over a number of years. Without a careful analysis of the data, you don’t know for certain whether to panic or relax when presented with this data point. When dentists ask why marketing fails for dental practices, they really need to realize that analyzing data is of critical importance. 

There is, of course, no guarantee that analysis will ensure that good decisions are made as a result. It is, however, the best way to encourage good decision-making. The analysis will likely make you aware of things you probably never would have realized otherwise. When that happens, knowledge becomes a valuable asset in your marketing tool tray. In fact, a great deal of useful information can be gleaned from things like web analytics. If you take the right steps to learn what the reports are saying, you can reveal genuine opportunities to increase phone calls and ultimately bring on new patients.

Make Marketing Work For Your Dental Practice

Many dental practices settle for wildly underperforming marketing. Why? Simply because they don’t realize there’s a better way. Your first step should be to realize it’s time to work with a reputable digital marketing firm. The modern marketing landscape is changing fast. You need experts who can help keep your dental practice competitive. One reason why marketing fails for dental practices is that many dental practices fail at marketing. That’s a harsh assessment, and unfortunately only too true. 

As a Premier Google Partner, Dreamscape Marketing brings you the knowledge and experience you need. If you’re going to compete in today’s digital marketing world, you need digital marketing experts. We’ve built hundreds of websites for our healthcare clients and created more than 50,000 pages of optimized content. In fact, our SEO knowledge earned us the distinction of being one of the top five SEO agencies in America.

Contact us today at 888-307-7304 or via our Contact Us web page. We know why marketing fails for dental practices. It’s often because it was never given a chance in the first place. Let’s take your dental marketing from tentative to terrific.