1. Current Client Efforts: This market includes active patients in your practice….most specifically, the ones that you enjoy working with. Activities include (but are not limited to): improving yourself (behaviorally or clinically), improving your business to better attract & keep the patients, appreciation efforts to current patients & referring specialists, enhancing your website, improving the esthetics and ergonomics of your physical space, enhancing your practice newsletter, thank you cards and referral ladders, rewarding realtors that send you patients, fun & exciting patient appreciation gatherings, taking beautiful patient portraits, random acts of kindness for wonderful patients, before and after care calls, and most importantly…inviting new referrals.
Most practices skip over developing this first category when patient flow slows down and move on to the next two categories. This is an expensive mistake.
2. Prospective Client Efforts: This market includes people who could potentially benefit from your dentistry (directly or indirectly) but just haven’t worked with you yet. Some of this market includes the specific demographic that exists in the highest percentage in your practice. Activities include: search engine optimization, contacts with specialists that don’t send you patients yet, attending/participating in events that patients attend who fit your ideal demographics, networking with spas & health clubs, writing a column in the health section of a publication, meeting with neighboring businesses, participating in local charities, getting involved in organized dentistry, networking with plastic surgeons, MD’s and other health care professionals.
3. Broader Market: This market includes everyone else that is not in the other 2 groups. Activities include: external marketing that includes advertising in a major newspaper or high end publication, mailers, radio interviews & ads, large exposure PR opportunities, press releases, billboards, television ads & interviews, etc. The broader market is a horribly inefficient area to spend resources if the two others haven’t been extremely well developed.
McLaughlin says, “The key is to find just the right balance in marketing to these three groups. The 60/30/10 percentages are rules of thumb, and are not set in concrete. If you're just starting a practice, you'll expend more of your marketing efforts attracting prospective clients. As your practice grows, move toward the 60/30/10 percentages.”
Your game plan has to be well-thought out and then executed appropriately for your practice type, profit level and philosophy. If you have a mature practice and it is struggling with new patients, there is usually an obvious reason for it. You have to find out what it is. If you don’t, you will always be guessing, and chances are you will be focused on spending your cherished & limited marketing resources in the last 2 groups.
Bad move.
If you are looking at the long haul of being effective with your marketing efforts, it is probably best to embrace your team’s ability to think creatively and stick to the 60/30/10 rule. You’ll be glad you did.
See you on the road,
Kirk
