There is no better time to spring into action on the marketing and patient engagement front than when your competition embodies the laziest days of summer. Furthermore, what better time to reassess marketing and communications initiatives than the present, as we enter the mid-way point of the year? After all, as the motivational luminaries will tell you, regularly revisiting strategies, priorities, and goals can make even the most audacious plans seem more manageable. Plus, as the mid-way mark and the end of the second quarter closes in on us, a “gut check” now presents benefits and opportunities that are as unique as your team and business!
Consider how:
- There remains sufficient time on your practice’s side to minimize any losses or damages related to strategies or plans that are not getting traction or, worse yet, may be costing you time, money, and brain space that you simply do not have.
- With time on your team’s side, adjustments can still be made that make a positive splash in new patient acquisition and retention/loyalty efforts.
- A six-month reconsideration of current marketing strategies and results thus far lights an all-important fire at your valuable staff and associates’ feet. It has often been indicated that procrastination is part of the “human condition.” While we tend to think of this notion of “putting off until tomorrow” as a negative, there are positives associated with resetting the clock on our goals. For one, there creates a renewed sense of urgency. And studies have found this approach to goal setting and resetting aids in redefining and solidifying purpose, remediating stress, and better coping with deadlines and competing obligations. And the nature of modern dental practices demands good stress and time management mechanisms.
- “Borrow” from your approaches to the clinical or technical side of your business to make over the digital “face” of your practice. Think of how accurate diagnostic findings inform the development of treatment plans for your patients. Now, consider the benefit of using what you know thus far about the first half of the year to inform pivots or adjustments to your current marketing strategy. For instance, if you were testing the waters with a specific social platform or new savings plan, you now have sufficient experiential evidence to leverage in developing modified marketing/patient acquisition and retention strategies. Again, these need not be full-fledged pivots (do not throw the baby out with the bath water) but rather mere tweaks based on the feedback you have received from your most loyal patients or the utilization of said membership or savings plans.
Speaking of disappointment, harness the wisdom of visionaries like Dale Carnegie:
- See the potential success in every failure.
- Develop success from those shortfalls.
- Use the discouraging and disappointing as stepping stones to lift your practice up.
This stage of the year also affords opportunities to reassess your goals. So, you can ensure that those priorities align with and account for some of the options identified by analysts as ripe for the picking with the onset of 2023. Vancouver-based Hootsuite leveraged insights from nearly 11,000 marketers as well as researchers ranging from McKinsey to Forrester in their seventh annual Social Trends Report released in November 2022. Their findings present a veritable “to-do” list for the savvy dental practitioner and practice manager.
As inspiration and as a means of validating the relevancy of marketing and communications efforts, see how your initiatives and results thus far tick off the following boxes. The below checklist is a nod to the ways that marketing and social strategies have evolved most recently (as per the above-mentioned report’s findings):
- “Recycled” or reworked content has gone the way of the dinosaur. Now, there is more of an emphasis on quality over quantity. Take your novel ideas and run with them with compelling, timely, one-of-a-kind posts and content. Remember: Social is well into its maturation. Readers, listeners, and viewers are cautious; they scrutinize content like never before and will recognize if you are simply repackaging content that may now be outdated, old-fashioned, or out-of-step. You do not want your practice to be perceived as a dinosaur!
- Invest when others pull back. One key takeaway from this year’s report was that many big organizations are experiencing some “global recession” paralysis. They are not investing in the content, creators, and associated resources as they have in the past. Use this to your advantage. There may now be opportunities for smaller providers and practices to align with partners, creatives, and outlets at discounted rates that may have been cost-prohibitive in the past.
- Just as social is getting a few more grey hairs, the tools and methods to measure the results from your practice’s presence on these platforms are also growing up. There is more of an emphasis on “showing the social receipts.” It may be high time to get the low-down on if you are using the right metrics to quantify the returns on social in terms of investment no less of time. After all, your team is increasingly being stretched with competing time commitments and responsibilities. You do not want your service and responsiveness to patients to suffer due to investing staff energies in initiatives that are simply not working.
- Be sure to understand “why” performance in a given area is lacklustre. Again, do not throw out the whole effort or completely disregard an outlet or channel simply because you are disappointed by the results. Consider factors such as the quality and consistency of your posting, presence, engagement, and overall content. See, for instance, bullet point No. 1. Are you relying too much on outdated content simply out of the ease of slightly changing information and repackaging it as “new” content? Likewise, are you depending too much on “canned” content from industry associations or professional membership organizations? There is no practice like yours. You deserve to have content that stands out, shines, and aligns with your practice’s specific near-term and long-range goals.
So, how has your year-to-date stacked up? If you are falling short, congratulations on seizing this time to change the direction of your practice. During the summer, you and your team may have more brain space to get creative, rise to the occasion, and achieve sweet successes from failures that might sour other practices on their marketing efforts for the rest of the year. And, of course, you can always benefit from the perspective of those who know the intersection of dental practice communications and digital marketing best.
About the Author:
Naren Arulrajah, President and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, has been a leader in medical marketing for over a decade. Ekwa provides comprehensive marketing solutions for busy dentists, with a team of more than 180 full time professionals, providing web design, hosting, content creation, social media, reputation management, SEO, and more. If you’re looking for ways to boost your marketing results, call 855-598-3320 for a free strategy session with Naren. You may also schedule a session at your convenience with the Senior Director of Marketing – Lila, by clicking https://www.ekwa.com/msm/ or simply send a text to 313-777-8494.
