How to Choose a Dental Marketing Company
There are several internal and external factors to consider when choosing a dental marketing company to promote your dental practice on the internet.
Like most important business decisions, one of your first considerations should be your budget. If your dental practice has less than 5 employees, you should find a dental marketing company that allows you to start small (less than $500 per month) and increase your internet marketing and advertising budget as you grow.
And you will grow. New dental patients have the potential of offering your practice a huge return on your marketing investment. Not only do new patients offer one-time and lifetime revenues, but they also bring family, friends and acquaintances to your dental practice. Friends bring more friends, and so on and so forth.
But don't get so caught up in the idea of high returns that you lose sight of your fiscal responsibility. By finding a dental marketing company that allows you to start slow, you have the opportunity to test out their services and see if you're getting your money's worth.
The same is true for larger dental practices. If you're in charge of finding a dental marketing company for a large dental clinic, you likely have more money to work with. But just because you have a larger budget, doesn't mean you need to spend it all at once. Greater spending carries the potential for greater waste.
To avoid wasting your time and your budget with the wrong dental marketing firm, ask them questions like, "Why do you charge recurring monthly fees and what are they used for?" and, "If we decide to discontinue our services a year from now, what are we left with?" Asking tough questions like these will help you determine whether the dental marketing company you're considering is looking out for your best interests.
Finding Reputable Dental Marketing Companies
Unfortunately, not all dental marketing consultants and companies are reputable. Because of the lucrative nature of the dental industry, some internet marketing organizations see dollar signs instead of valued clients and are looking to make a quick buck.
To help separate the good from the bad, ask prospective dental marketing companies if they can provide you with monthly reports that include not only web traffic and conversion statistics, but also information that gives you an idea of where your leads are coming from. Not all successful leads can be traced back to your internet marketing efforts, but reputable dental marketing companies should have some means to track the progress of your campaigns.
When looking at reports, what you don't want to see in the long run is the vast majority of your leads coming from expensive pay-per-click advertising campaigns like Google Adwords. PPC advertising does have its place in an internet marketing campaign, but once your spending stops, so do your leads. A well balanced dental marketing campaign includes a healthy mixture of paid and non-paid marketing strategies that offer both short term and long term results.
Another great way to determine whether the company you're considering is reputable is to look for testimonials and reviews about their services, not only on their website, but also on social media sites and in local search directories. Searching Yahoo! or Google using the company's name in quotes and a keyword like "reviews" is often a good way to do this.
In summary, there are a lot of good and bad dental marketing companies out there. The best way to find a reputable firm that can meet the marketing needs of your dental practice is to do your research, start slow and monitor your results. Begin with an affordable dentist marketing plan and make the dental marketing company you choose earn your trust before investing big money in your campaign.
