ARCHIVE from robertdavidhays.com May 29th, 2012
Driving to my first appointment this morning I heard an incredibly well executed radio ad from Invisalign. It’s an interesting Push-Pull campaign directed at consumers. The desired end result for Invisalign is to sell more cases by driving patient interest, but they rely on their distribution channel, the dental practice, to prescribe the treatment.
How does this avenue impact your practice? If you are an Invisalign provider, there’s a positive impact if more of your existing patients have this treatment option at top of mind. Better still is the likelihood that it will drive new patients to the practice if your dental office is discovered, as the ad campaign directs Mr. Jones to you via the Invisalign website.
Traditionally, dental practices are fragmented as independent businesses, and that is reflected in marketing and advertising efforts created by each individual practice. By rallying around a particular product offering, multiple dental practices are able to leverage a market-wide ad campaign to grow their businesses.
How else might we create public interest and awareness about a particular product or service offering to drive new patients to your practice? Zoom did so effectively a number of years ago with a direct-to-consumer ad campaign (Side note and shameless plug – for a great 20-minute in-office whitening alternative click here for Sinsational Smile). Sonicare aggressively advertises on television. 1-800-Dentist is a paid service designed to accomplish the same end result of added new patient flow.
In a few markets, CEREC owners have effectively collaborated to generate patient interest in single-visit restorative dentistry. In San Diego, the local study club owns an sdCEREC mini-van with patient marketing emblazoned on the vehicle, driving patients to the http://www.sdcerec.com/website, which contains a search function for CEREC owners by zip code.
What do you think? Are there product offerings or a unique positioning around which a number of practices could collectively create a strategic marketing and advertising campaign? How would you identify your colleagues with whom to pool resources? How effective do you feel these efforts would be in driving new patients?
Thanks for the input! I look forward to some great dialogue on this topic.
