A simple marketing idea for Dentists
"You have to tell people what is good about your practice if you want them to try you out"
In this article we will talk about what message you want to get across, how to define it, how to get it across in different media, in face to face discussions or in letters/Emails.
As an example think of an accountancy practice called XMT Ltd. It‘s a valid company name but it gives no idea of what service they offer. Change it to XMT Accountants, now the name says what they do, it gives a message. But what if the name became XMT Accountants, the Tax Saving Specialists. Now the name has become a marketing message, everyone is going to want to know how they can reduce their tax bill as soon as they say who they are, and it generates interest, people will want to know more, they will become engaged.
Coca Cola does not need to have this message in their name because they spend billions of £s to get it well known.
For your practice, unless you tell people what you’re good at they will never think to try you out. Adding a strap line to your name can help to get your message across. This message should be something that differentiates you from other dentists in your area, as in the XMT example above. Everyone now knows that they are not just an ordinary accountant who fills in your tax forms.
One of our clients manufactured window blinds. Most window blinds are sold online on price, but we built their business around the slogan “Transform your home with XXXX Blinds.” That created an image of how we could make the whole house look better, not just sell them a blind for the lounge, how their neighbours would envy them.
How about in for your practice? What is special about your company offering that you could make into a sales
slogan, a strap line? What is different about you? Think of three ways that you stand out from the crowd.
The strap line can be expanded into a 30 second sound bite of what is good about your company or your key product. This is then your “Elevator Speech”, so named for the situation where you are in the elevator (or Lift as we would call it) with a key business prospect and you have about 30 seconds to get your message across before the doors open and you lose him. It can figure prominently in your advertising/ signage/ on your web site. This can then be further expanded to give more details. But as we said in the earlier articles in this series, you have only 20 or 30 seconds to grab someone’s attention, if you get them interested they will ask more, they will look at your web site, they may even phone you to ask!
XMT Acountants might say something along the lines of:
We are a very different firm of accountants. Yes we complete company accounts like everyone else, but we focus on where we can help our clients to save tax. One client last year saved £9,200 in tax. Our fee for doing this was only £1,200, she is very happy with our work. We have lots of different ways to help our clients, I’m sure we could help you to save tax.
What could a dentist say that would be attention grabbing?
- Something about giving you the perfect smile?
- No need to be embarrassed when you open your mouth if you come to us.
- Our clients love coming to see us, we can’t keep them away
The key point is that the message has to be compelling, it has to be attention grabbing. You may have several different messages like these, but the most important one is that which talks about your practice and how it is different, the one that will make everyone want to know more about what you are offering.
Once you develop a compelling strap line to tell people what is special about your company it can be prominently featured every time you use the company name and Logo, on your adverts, signs, brochures, Letterheads, web site. In this way people will see your message and want to see what you could do for them.