Whole books can and have been written about work-life balance and retirement planning for dentists, it is clear dentists are not immune to these struggles. Owning your own practice can be a real challenge, and may be proving more difficult and time consuming than you imagined when you first opened your doors. You undoubtedly have your own, unique reasons for starting your own practice, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that you wanted to help people. You have a passion for what you do, and you're good at it. What you don't want to do is get mired in the day to day details that pull you away from the practice of dentistry, but that's where it gets tricky. It is those day to day details that cry the loudest for attention, and it is all too easy to get sucked into dealing with them, which leads to longer hours, less time at home, and no time at all for long term strategic planning or retirement planning for dentists.
Without bogging you down in the details, the essence of marketing for dentists is about attracting enough customers to your practice to achieve critical mass and maintain profitability - then attracting even more customers to grow your practice to whatever size you wish it to be (no upper limit here, except the physical limitations imposed by the space you're in and the population of the area you're serving). At a minimum, you need to be thinking about two things, when it comes to marketing for dentists: getting your message out and defining exactly what that message will be.
Let's start with getting the message out. This is the nuts and bolts of the work of marketing. Here, the thing of primary importance is understanding your demographic. Who do you want to attract as a customer? If you're going to focus on attracting retirees, then your marketing approach is going to be markedly different than if you are targeting young professionals. This is a decision you need to make, because you're going to face resource constraints. You simply don't have the money to market effectively to every demographic group in the region you serve, unless you're in an extremely small town, in which case, you're likely to be the only dentist in town, which will change your approach yet again.
Work-Life Balance: Dr. Schuster has devised a mechanism he calls "The Balancing Wheel" which is designed to be a quick, easy, painless way to restore work-life balance to your world. No, it's not a magic cure-all that will make long hours vanish, but it is a practical set of guidelines that will help you get an out of control work life under control and give you some much needed breathing room.
Assessment, however, is only the first step in the process. Assessment without action is a largely meaningless exercise. What impels action are goals. In order for goals to do that, however, they must be both measurable and realistic. In other words, they have to be clearly defined, attainable goals. Spelling those goals out gives you waypoints and markers you can use to gauge and chart the progress of your improvement. Without them, you're essentially flying blind and taking shots in the dark. Some of what you do might lead to an improvement, and other things may not. You need a solid plan if you want to maximize your chances for success.
Think about marketing for dentists from the perspective of your patients. For non-dentists, all dentists are pretty much the same. They're the somewhat unpleasant place you go when you have a problem with your teeth. That's it. You ask ten non-dentists what dentist's offices are all about, and nine of them will give you some variation of that answer. Your brand is your opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition. It's your story, and an accounting of what makes you different. What makes your practice unique. Take a close look at the practices of the ten most successful dentist's offices you know about. In every single case, you'll find a compelling message and brand. They have a story to tell, and they tell it to their potential customers very well. That's what you need to be doing too.
Without bogging you down in the details, the essence of marketing for dentists is about attracting enough customers to your practice to achieve critical mass and maintain profitability - then attracting even more customers to grow your practice to whatever size you wish it to be (no upper limit here, except the physical limitations imposed by the space you're in and the population of the area you're serving). At a minimum, you need to be thinking about two things, when it comes to marketing for dentists: getting your message out and defining exactly what that message will be.
Let's start with getting the message out. This is the nuts and bolts of the work of marketing. Here, the thing of primary importance is understanding your demographic. Who do you want to attract as a customer? If you're going to focus on attracting retirees, then your marketing approach is going to be markedly different than if you are targeting young professionals. This is a decision you need to make, because you're going to face resource constraints. You simply don't have the money to market effectively to every demographic group in the region you serve, unless you're in an extremely small town, in which case, you're likely to be the only dentist in town, which will change your approach yet again.
Work-Life Balance: Dr. Schuster has devised a mechanism he calls "The Balancing Wheel" which is designed to be a quick, easy, painless way to restore work-life balance to your world. No, it's not a magic cure-all that will make long hours vanish, but it is a practical set of guidelines that will help you get an out of control work life under control and give you some much needed breathing room.
Assessment, however, is only the first step in the process. Assessment without action is a largely meaningless exercise. What impels action are goals. In order for goals to do that, however, they must be both measurable and realistic. In other words, they have to be clearly defined, attainable goals. Spelling those goals out gives you waypoints and markers you can use to gauge and chart the progress of your improvement. Without them, you're essentially flying blind and taking shots in the dark. Some of what you do might lead to an improvement, and other things may not. You need a solid plan if you want to maximize your chances for success.
Think about marketing for dentists from the perspective of your patients. For non-dentists, all dentists are pretty much the same. They're the somewhat unpleasant place you go when you have a problem with your teeth. That's it. You ask ten non-dentists what dentist's offices are all about, and nine of them will give you some variation of that answer. Your brand is your opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition. It's your story, and an accounting of what makes you different. What makes your practice unique. Take a close look at the practices of the ten most successful dentist's offices you know about. In every single case, you'll find a compelling message and brand. They have a story to tell, and they tell it to their potential customers very well. That's what you need to be doing too.
About the Author:
Learn about dental marketing to help your office succeed from the Schuster Center.. Unique version for reprint here: Marketing For Dentists.
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