ACT Dental Practice Coaching

We all know that nothing brings new patients through the door like word-of-mouth advertising. We also know that finding comfortable ways to ask your patients for referrals can be pretty challenging. This month we look at a unique and innovative way to “package” the power of word-of-mouth, in a fun & easy format that your patients will actually get excited about passing along to their friends!

This month’s marketing tip comes to us courtesy of Dr. Bernie Villadiego of Chatsworth, California. Located in Los Angeles market, Dr. Villadiego has always taken a smart and fairly progressive approach to marketing his practice. With a key focus on attracting cosmetic cases, he tends to choose marketing strategies that are not only highly-targeted, but that also help to portray his practice in a forward-thinking light.

A few months ago, Dr. Villadiego asked me to take a look at a company that he was considering working with on a marketing project. Called CDs-2-GO, the company is the creator of the A Reason to Smile^® (ARTS) program. Since Dr. Villadiego made the request, I’ve gotten to know the president of CDs-2-GO, Cheryl Parrish, and I have to say that I’m really impressed with this company and the innovative products they’ve created specifically for the dental industry.

The A Reason to Smile (ARTS) program is impressively cost-effective, especially given all that’s included. In addition to the core product (which I’ll describe in a moment), the program includes ongoing services that really keep patients involved long after their appointment.

CDs-2-GO calls their product a “CD-brochure,” which is an interactive CD-ROM presentation, customized with content that’s specific to each client’s dental practice. The idea is that your staff gives several copies of your customized CD-brochure to each one of your current, satisfied patients. Why? Because CD-brochures are fun and easy for them to pass along to their friends, and they contain detailed information about your practice. The ARTS CD-brochure is a “packaged word-of-mouth” referral tool – and the very best way to attract the type of new patients you want is through the ones you already have.

Each CD-brochure presentation can feature such things as a description of the practice and philosophy, doctor and staff photos, office photos, video clips, links to the practice website, before and after photos, and other content. Every project is customized to integrate with and complement the branding of the practice.

One of the reasons I really like this product is that the company, CDs-2-GO, is a full-service interactive marketing company. The professionalism of a CD-ROM presentation and the way it’s developed can vary widely. The CDs-2-GO difference is that they’re staffed with marketing professionals who will take a wide-angle look at your practice and help you put together a CD-brochure that really showcases your best assets and positions your practice in the best possible light. When you start your ARTS project, you’ll be assigned a staff Project Coordinator who will guide you through the step-by-step production process. You can have CDs-2-GO put your project together from start to finish, or you can make choices every step of the way, but either way you’ll come out with a presentation that really makes your practice stand out.

Dr. Villadiego says, “I was really impressed with how easy – and how much fun, really – the production process was. I’m pretty particular when it comes to marketing, and I’m really impressed with this product. I think it’s such a great idea because it takes the concept of word-of-mouth advertising to a whole new level. I can’t wait to start passing my CDs out because every time one of my patients gives one to a friend, I know it’ll make a great first impression. I can easily recoup my investment in this product with one decent cosmetic case, and I’ve got a thousand CDs to give out!”

CDs-2-GO developed a proprietary technology called “SmileTracker™” last summer, which enables CDs-2-GO to track and report to the practice the actual number of times that practice’s CD-brochures have been viewed.

Their most recent addition, “AppointmentMaker™,” gives prospective patients an immediate and simple way to request an appointment with your practice, right from your CD-brochure. The technology is set up so the appointment request is automatically sent to two different email addresses at your practice. Upon receipt of the request, someone on your staff then simply contacts that patient to confirm an appointment time.

The CD-brochures also include what CDs-2-GO calls “virtual coupons,” which are time-sensitive special offers or incentives that compel new patients to use AppointmentMaker to request an appointment right away, in order to take advantage of the offer. The virtual coupons appear right in your CD-brochure, but they actually reside on CDs-2-GO’s server, meaning they can be updated or changed without re-printing the CD-brochures. The net result of this is that even if you have hundreds of CD-brochures circulating out in the community, the patient will only see the most up-to-date offer because they are changed “virtually.”

On their website you can request a Sampler Disc from CDs-2-GO, learn more about the product, or see a demo of how AppointmentMaker works, visit their website at www.AReasonToSmile.net. Or, give them a call toll-free at 877-258-3771. They currently sell the ARTS product in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

Getting back to the concept of word-of-mouth advertising is the best possible way to bring new patients through your door, and this is a really innovative way to “package” word of mouth. Now that’s A Reason to Smile!