June, 2010

Five Steps for Marketing the Ortho Practice

Roger P. Levin, DDS

Introduction

What creates a highly successful orthodontic practice? Without question, marketing is a critical aspect. The right marketing systems can increase the number of parents bringing children to the practice for consults, giving you the chance to increase your starts.

Marketing Steps

Through strong marketing initiatives, millions of dollars in revenue can be generated over the course of an orthodontist’s career. To seize this opportunity, ortho practices should implement a dedicated marketing program that:

1. Establishes quality relationships with referring dentists

Creating outstanding relationships with the referring dentists and potential referring dentists in your area is essential to any marketing endeavor. A strong patient referral process also plays an important role in ortho success. Levin Group recommends identifying the four groups of referring doctors: top referrers, frequent referrers, occasional referrers and non-referrers:

Top referrers: doctors are the top third of referrers – responsible for 40% to 60% of production
Frequent referrers: are the middle third – 20% to 30% of production
Occasional referrers: the bottom third – 1% to 10% of production
Non-referring dentists: at present are not sending ortho cases

To implement a successful referral marketing program, You must understand who is currently referring, at what level, and what potential changes may occur in the near future. Your success depends on knowing the current status of the referral base.

2. Creates multiple strategies

Every referring doctor contributes to your ortho practice success. Adding just one top referring office to your referral base can easily bring you an additional $100,000 or much more over the course of your career.

A successful referral-marketing program consists of multiple marketing strategies, all taking place simultaneously. This approach produces much-needed activity—a combination of everything from lunches to parties to seminars, throughout the year.
Marketing programs typically fail when the ortho practice doesn’t command the attention of its referral sources. One way to get that attention is by implementing multiple simultaneous activities.

Look at your calendar and plan the entire year. Include both your major and minor strategies for the 12-month period and then make a commitment to carry them out. It’s crucial for referring doctors to hear from you on a regular basis. This approach keeps your name in front of them and reminds them of your presence. Most referral sources have the potential to send you far more ortho patients than they currently do.

3. Incorporates a Professional Relations Coordinator (PRC) Position

A successful orthodontic referral marketing program relies on the PRC. This individual conducts marketing activities in your office at least 12 hours a week (or more, depending on the number of doctors and offices involved). Orthodontists don’t have enough time to personally administer a marketing program and carry out all the required tasks. Fortunately, an estimated 85% of the marketing efforts can be managed and carried out by the PRC.

The PRC’s main responsibilities typically include:

• Helping to design the marketing program by establishing and monitoring calendars, timelines and deadlines.
• Supporting your relationship-management activities with key referring doctors by staying on top of your notes, phone calls, letters, social engagements, etc.
• Handling all the details for announcements, public relations, doctor invitations, scheduling, etc.
• Serving as your coach. For example, by determining which lunches need to be scheduled with which referring doctors.

The PRC function has revolutionized referral marketing in ortho practices. Most practices experience peaks and valleys in their marketing efforts, depending on the patient load and time of year. Your PRC will create revenue and add value to your practice by carrying out critical marketing functions and taking pressure off the orthodontist.

4. Brands the Practice as an Ortho Leader

In an era where orthodontics has become somewhat of a commodity in consumers’ eyes, branding matters more than ever. Practices should firmly establish the uniqueness of their own identities within their communities:

• What can set you apart from your competitors?
• Do you think of yourself primarily as a high-quality brand?
• A fun office?
• A flexible office with convenient hours?
• An original office with thematic decorations?

Even though all of these superlative attributes may apply to your practice, it’s important to select only one of these achievements for establishing your brand identity in your community. It’s hard for any business to be thought of as high quality, fun, convenient, original, etc.—all at the same time.

Choose one key quality to emphasize. Let people determine that the image is true, and soon you’ll find that they discover all the other aspects of the practice that you wish to emphasize.

5. Establishes Community Support and Outreach

Seek out opportunities to advertise in area newsletters, school yearbooks and organizational fund-raising books. Also, sponsor sports activities, concerts and other local events. A logo that reflects your brand helps as well.

While these efforts might not immediately attract patients to your orthodontic practice, there is a cumulative effect over time. Before long, neighbors will recall your name from various community-sponsored events and begin to talk about your practice.

The goal of community outreach is to become known as the ortho office in the area. One way to establish yourself as the ortho practice in your area is to make certain your name keeps showing up all over the community.

Conclusion

Effective management and marketing serve as bookends to ortho practice success. Management is all about the great experience patients have when they arrive at your office. Marketing is all about making certain patients get to your practice in the first place.

When you add marketing as a strategy to increase your ortho production, you will have an influx of new patients that will immediately stimulate practice growth. The methods discussed here are an excellent beginning to that growth!

Ortho Cyber Journal readers are entitled to receive a 50% courtesy on a Practice Potential Analysis™, an in-office analysis and report of your unique situation conducted by a Levin Orthodontic Senior Practice Analyst. To schedule the next available appointment, call 888-973-0000 and mention “Ortho Cyber Journal” or email customerservice@levingroup with “Ortho Cyber Journal” in the subject line. For more information, go to: www.levingrouportho.com.