Dental Marketing That Brings in New Patients

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FRANK: Hi everyone and welcome. I'm Doctor Frank Clayton and I want to welcome you to today's session. Today, I'm joined by longtime dental industry professional working in dentistry and marketing for 30 years, over 30 years, Lori Bernardo with Amplify 360. Lori, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

LORI: Yeah, happy to be here.

FRANK: Great. Today we're gonna talk about something every dentist, including myself, thinks about, and it's getting more patients. And specifically, there's 3 ways to attract more patients to your practice without burning out. We're gonna talk about them. Throughout my career, I've thought of this as a topic that comes up all the time.

So we're gonna get the numbers from our annual salary survey. We had talked about that in a previous webinar. And something really stuck out to all of us, including myself and Lori and I have talked about this.

Here are some numbers for you, dentists listening. 45% of surveyed dentists are satisfied with their practice growth. Now, that's down 11% from the year before. So that's in a decline.

Actually, only 30% are happy with their marketing agency. And I think that's slightly higher than the rate for Congress for satisfaction, but 30% is not good. That means 70% are unhappy with it.

And 25% say it's difficult to track how leads are converted to actual patients. I mean, we're dentists. We work in the operatory, we're buzzing all day and at the end of the day, you're exhausted, you're dealing with employees.

So, how does all this work? And today we're gonna talk about it and Lori, what I want to talk about is I want to spend some more time on marketing. I wanna hire the right people to do this because I'm a dentist. I don't have time to do it, but I'm worried about the numbers. So tell me what your take is on this.

LORI: Yeah, you know, those numbers really, Frank, are very shocking. When you talk about the majority of dentists and presumably in the survey, these are specific questions to marketing. And there are people who are investing money in marketing. For so many dentists that I talk to, and I'm sure in your world and your ecosphere, marketing really is considered a necessary evil.

Now, if you think marketing won't work, you're right. If you think it's great, you're also right. How can those two statements be said right after one another? Because it really just depends on if you have the right partner or not.

A lot like dentistry, marketing gets labeled as a have-to-do or a painful, uncomfortable experience. And as a dentist, you know there is more to dentistry than that. Yet patients feel that way. Patients feel that dentistry is a necessary evil.

But it really doesn't have to be, and we know that in your world, and it was my world for a long time too, in the clinical sphere — when that right patient finds the right dentist, the right care provider, it's an outstanding and wonderful thing. There's a relationship, there's respect. Both the doctor and the patient work together to achieve the optimal well-being for the patient.

Those patients, they don't feel like it's a necessary evil, do they? They don't have negative feelings about their dentist. In fact, you'll hear people say, I love my dentist.

FRANK: I always cherish that. That was one of a few, but it made your day when you heard it.

LORI: Yeah. And why is that? It's because the connection happens. The right connection. And it really is the same with marketing. When it's not working, it feels like a necessary evil because things have gone wrong in that relationship. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can have that symbiotic relationship where both parties win and they love working together towards that practice's growth.

In all of our years working with dentists — and when I say that I mean collectively myself and collectively with Amplify 360 — we've learned the biggest reasons why marketing doesn't work and what you should look for in a successful strategy. And for today's discussion, I think we boiled this down to 3 points.

FRANK: Yeah, let's call them 3 problems. We'll address them and we'll dig into them. It's interesting because the boards I'm on — whether it's Dental Town, Facebook, there's other dental boards — I always hear this marketing didn't work. Maybe 3 out of 10 did.

So Lori and I are gonna dive in today on why we think, and we know because there's research behind it, why they don't work. It's spaghetti on the wall and you're just throwing it there to see if it works. You don't have the time and energy to do it. Partner with someone that does. And it does work.

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PROBLEM #1: MARKETING WITHOUT REAL PRACTICE DATA

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FRANK: All right, so let's talk about the first one, Lori. Problem number one is marketing without real practice data. Some marketing companies will just say you need to do brochures or you need to do this, and they're throwing the spaghetti, and they don't really have the numbers from your practice — your production data, your procedure mix.

How can they treatment plan without a full diagnosis? That's the way I think about this. I've tried probably 6 to 10 different marketing companies before I ended my career with Amplify. And this is the big reason — because I look at what some of them did, and that was a 0-0-1-2-0. That was a PA exam that the marketing company did. Looked at one tooth and really not comprehensively at my practice.

We need to look at periodontal, the bone, everything you do in a comprehensive exam. No different in marketing. Why wouldn't you treat the patient the best for the best outcomes? Same thing with Amplify — look at everything. So Lori, what do you see in this? The difference that Amplify does because you're looking under the hood and you're seeing the numbers, so you see what drives the practice.

LORI: Correct. Yeah, that's the number one problem — marketing without any real practice data. Most marketing companies make decisions about what to do with your marketing budget based on what they can see. And like you said, sometimes it's because they're recommending mailers because that's what they do, or they're recommending Facebook ads because that's what they do. They're only looking at what happens in their world, in the digital world — things like impressions, clicks, call duration.

And don't get me wrong, there is purpose to that data. When you're doing digital especially, you need that direct data because it tells the baseline, the foundation of what's happening. However, like you said, they cannot see your production or your case mix or your schedule. They're flying blind with your money. They don't really know if it's working, and they don't know how to show it.

So they talk to you about these digital metrics and make assumptions. And I know you've sat in those meetings, Frank. I've heard doctors tell me, I don't know what they're talking about. They talk to me about clicks and impressions, and I don't really know what that means. All I know is I need patients in my chair.

So they make these assumptions — well, Doctor Frank, your impressions have gone up 30%. Great. But did the phone ring? Did you actually get the right patients scheduled? Are those patients sticking around for treatment? And ultimately, are they improving your collections? And what is the real value of those patients that came in over time?

FRANK: That's what I wanted to know in practice. ROI of course, but how do you know the ROI if you don't know the value of the patient? And it's not just for one procedure. There's lifetime value. There's referral value. If you don't track it, you go, well, it wasn't a success. I think a lot of docs, me included, in the early stages, didn't know if the marketing worked because you didn't track it. But in hindsight, that one patient may not have done a lot of treatment, but they referred 10 patients.

So I know you guys are tracking that, and you use proprietary assessment tools. Tell me about that part, because honestly, when I got into that in my practice, that's where I trusted you guys enough to hand off and go — OK, this is what you do. Because it can get in the weeds, and the marketing weeds are totally different than the dental weeds. So tell me about how you look under the covers of my practice.

LORI: So really, at the end of the day, we have to think about marketing in terms of practice growth. The marketing is the machine, it's the mechanism, but really what we're talking about is practice growth. And to understand practice growth, you have to understand all the numbers. What kinds of procedures and services are you doing? Which things provide the best value? Which patients are bringing the best value? Where are you leaking revenue? Where are there opportunities to gain revenue?

This is a black hole of understanding. Practice owners don't know this. If you ask an average dentist what his number one revenue-producing procedure is, 9 times out of 10 they can't even tell you that data. So how do you make goals and make a plan to get there if you don't know any of this?

We had the same problem as a company. And we sought to solve it. So we developed a proprietary practice assessment tool that helps us understand just that. We have all of that data.

Now, it's like a patient coming into you and saying, Doctor Frank, I want a really beautiful white smile. I heard my friend got veneers and they worked really well, so that's what I want. And you say, hold up a second. I don't really know if that's going to solve your problem. We've got to look at all the things. We've got to take the X-rays, do the CBCT, see if you're bruxing, check your overall health. Maybe you have some crowns. Maybe it's a combination of veneers and crowns. Maybe you need ortho first. We don't even know yet. You can't just slap on a solution until you've looked at the data.

So our proprietary tools are able to look into your software, pull out this data, and help us find a very clear path to your growth. And then we have to prove it to you 6, 7, 8, 9 months down the line. When I have brought a new patient to your practice through the marketing, what was their value? So at the end, you're gonna say — well, Doctor Frank, you invested $41,000 in marketing. The actual revenue that came from those patients that walked through your door specifically from your marketing was $177,827. Doctor Frank, does that help you feel confident in your investment in marketing?

FRANK: Exactly. I look at that as direct realized revenue. There's so much indirect — referrals, other things that spring from this — so you could really get deep into it and track it. But it blows up. It's almost exponential what Lori's talking about and what's happened in my practice.

Small at first, and if you don't get results in 2 days, 2 weeks — with this instant society that we're in — don't be frustrated because it's a comprehensive set of levers. Lori comes in and adjusts things. Retention. You want to retain patients. You want to train your front desk on how to answer calls. It's not just throwing brochures out there.

So if we haven't hammered home the point — problem number one, marketing without real practice data — work with a team who can integrate your practice data. It's a comprehensive exam, and the value will be seen. It's not in the price, just like your dentistry. The value will be seen in the results.

Lori, let's move on to the second one. We could spend a whole podcast talking about that.

LORI: That's right.

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PROBLEM #2: DENTISTS DON'T KNOW MARKETING. MARKETERS DON'T KNOW DENTISTRY.

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FRANK: I want to go to the second one — dentists don't know marketing, and marketers don't know dentistry. If you picture two circles and a Venn diagram, there's a little overlap. You know enough to know you don't know.

What impressed me about Amplify is you spoke dental. There are certain things that happen in this industry that are unique to us, and when you speak them, you have a little more trust. Many companies I used before could pull up the numbers but you could tell they did not understand them. It was a bad feeling from the beginning — try this, try this, try this — because they were guessing.

I wanted to focus on patients. Once I found a company I could trust, you leave it in their hands, just like a good employee. You guys came in, you tracked things — yes, clicks and exposures, but also measuring results at the end.

I don't have time to go out and write Facebook ads. Some docs do and that's great, but the best use of your time is in the chair and stepping on the rheostat. Let these guys do it. Amplify does that.

Where does that leave me on dentists don't know marketing, marketers don't know dentistry? I wanna say, Lori — it's like a Reese's. The dentists are the chocolate and the marketers are the peanut butter. Let's put it together and make it taste great. So where are you on that?

LORI: You know, I firmly believe that dentists need to be doing what they are trained to do and do best. You have to make educated decisions about who you're gonna partner with and what you're going to do, but you don't really have to make those decisions on how to make the sausage. We want the sausage — or you want the sausage.

Every office meeting I ever sat in during 30 years in this industry, when the team gets together, what's the one thing that always comes up? How many new patients did we see this month. That's the top metric. The biggest thing you want to look at is how many new patients walked through the door that month.

As a dentist, you're not a marketer. When you hire a marketing company, there's often a gap because I guarantee 99% of those marketing people have never sat in a room and heard that question asked at every single team meeting every month. But we have. We truly understand dentistry.

Marketing is the mechanism, but practice growth comes from understanding how you measure success and helping you navigate what that growth path looks like. I talk to doctors who think it looks one way, and I can help them see there's a broader path that will work more effectively. And why do we know this? Because we've worked with tens of thousands of dentists in the last 30 years. We've seen what works and what doesn't.

Your practice is not like any other business. You're not selling sandwiches, you're not selling pressure cleaning services. It's a very different niche market. Your version of success is focused on patients and scheduling and how your practice works. Is it the right kind of patients? Are they saying yes to treatment?

So we do our job — we pitch great new patient opportunities to you. But what happens if the patient gets in the chair and they don't come back? Most practice owners don't know what their retention data is. They also don't know their true treatment case acceptance rate. If you don't have a way to measure that and you don't know what's leaking, then your marketing is not going to work.

What we're able to do is say these are the right kind of patients — because we know through the initial practice workup what kind of patients you're looking for, what kind of growth you want, what procedures. And now we can see if you're getting there, and if you're not, why not. Marketing should be able to answer those questions. Unfortunately, most times it cannot.

We know how practices work. We've been doing it collectively as a company for over 30 years. And it's not a one-size-fits-all. Practices go through phases.

FRANK: You're retired from your practice now. When you first opened the doors, the most important thing was just fill the schedule. Warm bodies.

LORI: That's what I wanted — warm bodies. Right? But later on in your career, what did you want? You didn't want the volume. You wanted patients who followed through on their treatment, who stuck with you. You didn't want to work more. You wanted to work less but earn more.

FRANK: And all that is achievable.

LORI: If you have a plan in place. And you know what — I've had marketing companies never ask me what phase of growth I was in or what my goals were. They knew the goal was more patients, but did they know it was more patients because I'm gonna add an associate? Because I'm gonna exit? What is it?

So if you look at two different versions of this — Doctor A who just opened her first practice, a marketing company needs to know how big of a net to cast. Second doctor, 15 years in practice with two locations — I need more of a rifle approach. I need to target these patients. Because if you open the floodgates, you overwhelm the staff. You don't have enough capacity.

This is where a lot of dentists and friends of mine have run into trouble — the marketing agency just said this is what we're gonna do without analyzing it. And of course that didn't work. Or it works for a little bit, and you're excited — look, new patients! But then you find out they're just, you know, a bunch of 20-year-olds who don't need any dentistry. Which is great for them. Not so great for your practice growth.

The solution here is to work with a marketing company that understands and speaks dental. Let them do it, vet them, and trust them. As you should with your accountant, as you should with your employees. If they're part of your success team, trust them. Let them run and do their job.

FRANK: So Lori, are you seeing a pattern here?

LORI: Yeah. There are reasons why practices are spending more on marketing and still not getting the patients they want. But it doesn't have to be that way. We know that when the right patient finds the right dentist, there's a relationship. The same thing is going to happen with your marketing partner.

FRANK: Beautiful thing.

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PROBLEM #3: YOU GET REPORTS WHEN YOU NEED RESULTS

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FRANK: All right. Problem number 3 of the 3 — you get reports when you need results.

I can tell you from experience this is transformative. Any agency can overwhelm you with marketing data. You need the key metrics. And if it's not speaking dental — if it's 5:15 and you've seen 35 patients, you're gonna zone out on that report fast. You're not going to retain it.

What I really want to know is — is it working? Things like the Investment Performance Analysis — that's a really great tool. Tying you back and understanding what you spend on marketing and how it connects back to your production. So Lori, break this down.

LORI: You got it right. They show you a nice dashboard that looks active. I've heard this many times — dentists don't care about what I call the marketing nerd data. None of it connects to actual patients or revenue.

We don't stop at leads. Call them leads, call them new patient calls, call them whatever you want — they're people reaching out to your practice to schedule an appointment. They may make it in, they may not. Most marketing stops there. We don't.

We show you where your revenue is really coming from and where you're losing it. And we help with conversion. A big place of leakage is in that call conversion. Patients call up and your team faces challenges that nobody has ever actually trained them on. There's no school for that. Nobody teaches front desk people how to effectively deal with the challenges they face every day. They're just hoping they do it right.

So we help with call training and case acceptance guidance. Getting patients scheduled and having your team trained. And I hope what you all hear is that we are really growth advisors. We're gonna look at your full patient mix and more. It's not just about the marketing — it's everything working together. Your ads, your website, your data, and your decisions. That's what separates us.

FRANK: I agree. These are the levers I was talking about earlier. It's not just putting people in the door. It's point A leading to point B to point C to point D, and keeping them in the loop. A lot of marketing companies I worked with stopped at — oh, you got 75 new patients this month. And that was it. There was no "now what." So you don't carry it to the finish line. That's why a lot of docs get frustrated.

Lori, we've talked about a lot. Close us up here. Tell us how we can get in touch with Amplify.

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CLOSE

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LORI: I would love an opportunity to help any of the listeners out there who hear the message and know there should be a better way. Our team has over 30 years of dental-native experience and we're experts in both marketing and dentistry. We help practices get more patients, more of the cases they want, and help them grow on their own terms.

If this is making sense to you, do yourself a favor — book a call. Whether you're unhappy with your current marketing company, which 70% of you are, or just want a better way to connect your marketing to your practice goals, it's a short call and we can help you unlock what's next.

There are a couple of ways to reach us. You can scan the QR code on screen, which will bring you to a scheduling link. You can text GROWTH to 470-704-3982. Or you can go directly to www.amplify360.com/schedule-a-call. And if you forgot all of that, just go to amplify360.com — there's a Book a Call link in the corner.

We'll also be sending a follow-up email to all the listeners with contact information, so there's no way you can say you can't find us. You'll either talk to me or one of my really amazing team members who all approach this the same way. Thanks so much for having me, Frank. I really appreciate it.

FRANK: Thanks for being on, and thanks to everybody for listening. Lori, I'm gonna ask you back to cover even more if you'll agree.

LORI: Absolutely.

FRANK: All right, again — it's Frank Clayton with Lori Bernardo. We hope you enjoyed it today. Thank you.