Episode 612: Are You CONFIDENT With Your Marketing?

Transcript:

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0:00:05.9 Kiera Dent: Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I have this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, biller, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create a team. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:00:52.1 KD: Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and Spiffy Tiffy coming in hot today, talking to you guys about theme number nine out of 12, guys. We have hit theme number nine, confident marketing. So Spiffy Tiffy, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

0:01:07.6 Tiff: Oh, I'm good. How are you? How are you feeling today?

0:01:11.2 KD: Marketing is my bane of my existence, and so I'm real thrilled to have this podcast. [chuckle] I am doing well. Podcasting gets me up and going. I think... Not I think, I'm on podcast, I think, 13 of today. So I've been on a podcasting roll, and I'm just going... Tiff, we're finishing this. It is gonna be labour of love. This quilt is gonna be tied, buttoned up, and packaged today for you guys. Done. [chuckle]

0:01:36.9 Tiff: Done and done.

0:01:39.2 KD: So I'm doing great. And honestly, guys, marketing, oh, this is why I think I might have actually helped name this one, the confident marketing one, because I don't feel confident in my marketing. And honestly, Tiff can relate. Like let's go back like...

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0:01:54.8 KD: That was my sound of a VCR rewinding. I hope you guys enjoyed that. Let's just...

0:02:00.0 Tiff: I got it. I knew exactly what it was.

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0:02:02.3 KD: If we were going back in time to when Tiff and I started out in Dental A Team, what happened, Tiff, do you remember? Do you remember our first marketing snafu? It has something to do... Do you remember it?

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0:02:15.3 Tiff: Yeah, I do.

0:02:17.3 KD: All right, guys, Tiff and I got blundered 80,000 bucks early on with zero ROI. And ever since that day, I've sworn off of marketing. I think marketers, you guys are super nice, you're a freaking scam most of the time. I love you all, and I know you're needed, but I honestly feel so dumb with marketing because I feel like I'm at your mercy of you doing things to grow a company. And it is downright terrifying to have that much, I guess, expectation and control of the company being outside of your reach. It's terrifying. And so that's why we wanted you guys to, on this theme, really be able to walk away of either being confident or not confident. So really getting this marketing there. So there are different types of marketing. So we'll just kind of dive into this. We've got internal and external marketing. Also, if you don't know, not all marketers do everything. There are growth strategy marketers. There are branding marketers. There are graphic design marketers. There are marketing specialists. There are content creating marketers. There are marketers for every single thing you could ever imagine. And they don't all do the same thing. So you can't just go hire a marketer and expect them to do strategy, design, content. Most of them don't do it all. Most of them have their specialized niche. So for dental offices, marketing internal is something we do have control over.

0:03:43.0 KD: That's getting our five star patient reviews. That's having internal referrals. That's making sure that we are watching our attrition. Those things we can absolutely do. But the external, we use external to drive new patients to our practice. So that can be through Facebook ads, that can be through billboards, radio ads, office signs, community outreach, paid per click advertising, SEO, click funnels, you name it. Social media is also another world in this, and I feel they all play their part. And so Tiff, let's kind of dive into this today of how... Let's start first internal 'cause I think you and I are stronger on internal and then dive into external. But bottom line, end all be all, I don't care what your marketing is. Are you getting the new patients necessary to grow your practice? That to me is the number one KPI. And if not, we need to do some changes for that. That would at least be... I would say Tiff, I'm not sure if you've got another metric you'd like to look at.

0:04:39.2 Tiff: No, I think that's accurate. I think that what I do look at to know if we are right, it goes back to the maximized case acceptance because if you're not able to diagnose enough, it's typically because you don't have enough new patients. Most of your treatment diagnosis is going to come from new patients because the theory is, your recare patients are cleaned up. You've already done all your treatment there. So your new patients are gonna be the bulk of where your new treatment is going to come from. So if we're not marketing to patients to bring in new patients, we're not watching the new patient numbers and the case acceptance or the diagnosis amounts, then we don't really know where we're at. We're just kind of winging it. So I have worked heavily with a few practices this year on acquiring new patients. And one thing that I've noticed is really acquiring the right new patients in the right avenue. So I actually, I went through... I have one practice in particular that we've been working on filling a recare schedule, or filling a hygiene schedule and getting new patients for two years now.

0:05:38.7 Tiff: Just building this practice up from almost the ground. Just the practice that he bought just wasn't really reactive in their recare. So anyways, we've been doing that. And this year alone, we have the two of us, doctor and I have interviewed so many marketing companies and it is incredible to me how they can do the same... They can say they do the same thing, but they do so many different things. So it was really difficult to kind of piece all that together. So I think going into confident marketing, one of those pieces for me was really just understanding all of those different pieces that go into outward marketing and really learning so much just within the last couple of years about what that looks like so that we can help give that information to other offices.

0:06:25.7 Tiff: And on that note, I think keep in mind too, if you are working with us or you have a coach or a consultant or if you need one, those are services that we provide as well. I know I worked with this doctor very closely this year. I'm really just figuring out which company was gonna be the best, and that meant hopping on Zoom calls with him and the marketing company and really being there to help him evaluate the cost and the ROI and what they were offering. So marketing can be... I think marketing can be difficult, but I think we can kind of scale it back and slim it down and make it so that the internal marketing is so simplified with our systems that the external marketing is really where you just have to... You can pour all your brainpower into it.

0:07:06.0 KD: Exactly. And so if you don't have the internal systems in play, I would say get those there first, that is low hanging fruit there that honestly can help out a ton, but to Tiff's point, and Tiff actually has a KPI scorecard because I don't feel like I did this super, super well, when I was a practice manager and owner, I didn't track our marketing source and resources really strongly. I would just put it in that new patient referral box if we got lucky, but I would never look to see which campaigns, which ads, which services really were generating the most ROI for the dollars spent. There's different metrics out there of good return on investments for marketing. And honestly, I don't feel confident enough to even say a number because I've heard as much as like, if you get 5% return back on the money you spent, so if we spend... Guys, I'm talking, if you spend $10,000, and we get $500 back, then we should be real happy about our lives. To me, I've never really loved that because I feel like I just spent $10,000 to make 500 bucks. That didn't feel like a great ROI, but you also have to remember in dentistry, marketing is very different because the patient value is not just that year.

0:08:23.4 KD: Most patients are with practices 15 to 20 years. So if they spend even say $2,000 a year and you're gonna have that patient, let's think of their cleanings, their exams, maybe a couple fillings, and they're gonna be with you for 15 years, the lifetime value of that patient is $30,000. So yes, if it cost me $10,000 to get them or realistically in this example, it would be $9,500 to get that patient, I still get, if I deduct that $9,500 over the course of the next 15 years, $20,000 of revenue from that patient. Could they be more? Could they be less? Yes. But that's where you also have to realize, every dollar we spend to bring in a new patient, that patient should be with us hopefully 10, 15, 20 years. So there's a much greater endgame with dental marketing than for us in dental consulting over here. Our goal is one, maybe two years with each client we have because we are teaching you how to fish and then sending you on your merry way. So for us, our acquisition costs, that would make zero sense for us to spend that much on a new client when they're only going to be with us for two years.

0:09:30.8 KD: So really looking at those marketing sources, how much you're spending on it, how much it's costing you to bring in a patient and really tracking that every single month is going to help you know where should you be putting your dollars. Also looking at your overall marketing budget, we typically hear between 2% to 5% of total collection should be your marketing budget allocation for most dental practices. Now if you're in growth mode, 10%, 15%, 20% is very normal, but that 2% to 5% tends to be pretty average for external marketing. And that includes swag, community outreach events, social media, if you're paying somebody to help you with that, all of that falls under that 2% to 5%. So just to help you guys kind of know exactly what we're talking about so you can really rate yourself on, do you know that information? And if not, I would not be giving myself five stars. I'd be like, "Oh, I might need to learn this area a little bit better just so I can be more confident in my marketing."

0:10:27.1 KD: Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and you guys, how was your 2022? I want you to look back and tell me, was it the year of years or was it a really hard year? Did you crush it or did it crush you? This is the time, guys, for end of year, Dental A Team Platinum is welcoming you where we will physically fly to your practice. We will come and we will elevate your dreams and make them into a reality. And guys, space is limited and prices are going up. This is not a sales pitch. This is not something where I'm trying to scare you into it. I'm just facing the reality of inflation is here, flights are expensive and I want to see as many people as we possibly can and serve as many as we can. So if you want to be part of our elite group of people, there are limited spaces 'cause our consultants can only see as many. We are taking on 10 new platinum offices by the end of the year and that's it. That's all we have space for. So if you want to be one of the elite 10, come join us. Be a part of our top notch elite doctor community. Be a part of our office manager and hygiene and front office communities. Get your operations manual done and live the life that you've only been dreaming of today.

0:11:40.7 KD: Email me, "Hello," at the dentalateam.com and make 2023 truly a year that's unforgettable. We are a complete tax write off and like I said, we are only taking 10 offices, so don't get left behind. Be one of those 10 and I cannot wait to give you the biggest, warmest welcome to completely and utterly changing your life for good. Welcome to the Dental A Team. I can't wait for you to join us. "Hello," at the dentalateam.com, cheers to 2023 and making you your best self yet.

0:12:11.6 Tiff: Yeah, I love that. I think it's huge and I think it's another piece of owning a business that we don't learn in school. Dentists, hygienists, dental assistants, front office, and none of us learned how to really do this in school, so I think it's really easy to go into this without the confidence. So we put this together and Kiera's brain power, just like you put a lot of work into this month, if I'm honest with you, you did a lot of it. And I think it's super helpful to be able to take that stress off of the practice and off of the doctors and really allow them some of that confidence that they need.

0:12:49.0 KD: Yeah. So guys, this is where I want you to really look at your numbers. I want you to look at this marketing area of, number one, how are your Google reviews doing? That's super low hanging fruit. How's your website? Again, super low hanging fruit. If you need help on either of those, we recommend Swell for Google reviews. Studio 88 is awesome for websites. We also love Ryan Gross for new patient growth. Are you guys doing referral programs? Do you have affiliate relationships with OSP to OGP? Are we sending new patient thank yous? Do we know how to fill our schedule and make sure that we're getting that ROI for marketing by tracking our new patient referrals? Do we have different types of marketing in place externally? Are we tracking this? Are the people who are doing our external marketing, do they report to us weekly or monthly on their marketing efforts and the amount of money that they're spending and what that is generating for us? Because if not, we need to shift and get really great on that. So guys, I want you to now do this, give yourself a star. I would say for Dental A Teams marketing, Oh Tiff, here we go.

0:13:56.3 KD: Dental A Team is back on the hot seat guys. [chuckle] And I only do this not to expose our entire company, but this is how honest I want you to be as you're rating your practices on these systems. So Tiff, from your perspective, I will say what my number is, on a one to five, how do you feel like Dental A Team's marketing is?

0:14:17.7 Tiff: Two.

0:14:19.1 KD: Two. I would agree. Why did you give us a two?

0:14:20.6 Tiff: I gave us a two because I think, one, we don't have anyone solely dedicated right now to lead generations, so new patient generation. Really working on that. And we went a while where we didn't have anyone really in that marketing position or seat for a couple months, which was really, I think, detrimental and definitely put us to a two. Definitely put us way lower than we wanted to be. And I think too, we're still figuring it out. We're still trying to figure out what works. We're still trying to figure out the social media aspect and SEO and all those pieces.

0:14:57.1 KD: I would agree. And I don't feel like I've got a great handle. Never once, no matter which marketer I brought into our company, never once have I felt like every week I get my marketing numbers delivered. I don't know our bounce rate on our website. I don't know our engagement rate on our social media. Those are numbers that I don't know. So I would agree with Tiff. I think we're at a two. I think we have a lot of good things in play. I would say our social media, we are pretty dang great at being consistent on there, but I don't feel like we have a lot of thought process behind it. We also have some great affiliate relationships as far as that external marketing. So for you guys like OS and PEDO, but I feel we haven't nurtured those relationships. We haven't worked on those relationships and they're kind of an afterthought. I will say marketing for a dental consulting company is radically different than it is for a new patient. So for you guys, I want you to truly think about it. You have it easy. I always think Dental A Team has it a bit trickier than you guys because we don't have any consulting company to mimic and mirror off of.

0:15:55.2 KD: Guys, if you didn't know, dental consulting companies don't really love to share their ideas. They don't want to be like, "Oh, Dental A Team, you're a competitor to us. Here's how we market."

0:16:06.7 Tiff: Shocking.

0:16:07.2 KD: Just shocking. [chuckle] But you guys have dental offices that all work. You guys aren't competing with each other because an office in Utah will happily share with California because guess what? I don't care if you get great patients, be a great dentist. Consulting companies, we are nationwide, so we do compete with each other. You guys have it 1000% easy for you. And I use easy very gently because just because it's easy doesn't mean that it's easy to implement, that it's easy to execute on. But just know you do have a lot of marketers out there that know dental offices that have successfully helped dental offices and are there to help you. So it's time guys, it is time to rate. So rate yourselves one to five. Actually Tiff, I'm remembering, I feel like we did one to 10 before 'cause I remember you giving your leadership number a different number. So guys, we're just gonna shake it up for you. It's either a one to 10 or one to five.

0:17:00.7 KD: These last ones have been one to five. The beginning ones might've been one to 10. We're wild over here guys. These are clearly on the fly, on the spot, giving you our best of our best. So whether it's one to five or one to 10, give yourself a rating. Just stay consistent amongst all of them. I don't want some of them being a one out of five and others being a one out of 10 'cause you'll have skewed numbers. So make sure, I don't care how you do it, a one out of five or a one out of 10. One out of 10 seems to be a little easier. Tiff, would you change your number if it was a one out of 10? Cause I would not. I'd still keep us at a two.

0:17:29.0 Tiff: No.

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0:17:31.1 Tiff: Yep. Solid two.

0:17:33.1 KD: Solid two. So on that guys, give yourself a rating again, either on a one to five or a one to 10. Write that number up, make sure you've got one for all of them and then get ready next week. I hope you're ready. One of the best systems that you need to have. We even have a way to help you. I'm just telling you. Operations Manual Creation. So be sure to join Tiff and I next week to go over Operations Manual Creation. We're gonna tell you everything you should have in that Operations Manual to check to see how that system is for you. So Tiff, as always, thanks for joining me on this labour of love. I super appreciate you being here.

0:18:06.2 Tiff: I love it. Thank you for having me.

0:18:09.1 KD: Absolutely. All right guys, give yourself that number and thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast. And that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.