Marketing Implant Dentistry

DESCRIPTION:

A large percentage of skilled dental professionals lack the tools and comfort level required to market themselves and their dental implant practices effectively  As a consequence, these dental professionals miss several opportunities to help patients and grow their business. Even those who recognize the need for marketing often don’t have the experience or training to do so effectively. Marketing Implant Dentistry meets this need by giving dentists the tools to better market and promote their practices and to gain case acceptance.

Marketing Implant Dentistry presents proven approaches for attracting dental implant patients and demonstrates the use of successful communication skills, including verbal and visual aids. This book details multiple examples of patient friendly and professional letters for use in targeting both new implant patients and professional referral sources. Readers will learn the benefits of adopting non-traditional approaches such as hosting patient education seminars, as well as cultivating professional relationships with the medical community (physicians) for the purposes of generating untapped referral relationships. Best practices in internet and social media marketing, specific to implant dentistry, are also demonstrated so practices can make the most out of these low-cost opportunities.

Table of Contents:

1 Visual aids and verbal skills 1

Physicians make great use of visual aids 2

Better to show empathy, not sympathy 2

Implants are worth more than replacing missing teeth 4

Everything begins with asking the right questions 4

The power of visual aids 6

Verbal skills 11

Work out the financials 13

Dental implant models 16

Elevator pitch 18

Could it be that your case presentation just sucks? 19

Implant animations 20

Leveraging your auxiliary staff for animation demos 23

Summary 24

2 Patient education seminars 25

Lasik eye surgery education seminars 26

Using patient education seminars to attract dental implant patients 27

Seminar location 28

The presentation 30

The body of your presentation 34

Presentation conclusion 43

The postpresentation process 45

Advertising your patient education seminars 47

Summary 49

3 Partnering with physicians for dental implants 51

A physician’s endorsement of you could be priceless 52

Speak in a language the physician understands 53

Unconventional methods can lead to extraordinary results 55

Targeting endocrinologists and orthopedic surgeons for patient referrals 56

Targeting the gastroenterologist doctors 58

Targeting otolaryngologists (aka ENT doctors) 61

Targeting plastic surgeons for patient referrals 63

Targeting obstetrician and gynecologists (OB/GYN) 64

Other healthcare providers to target 65

Keep your expectations realistic 67

Physicians need dental implants too 68

Comarketing efforts 69

Summary 70

4 Marketing full]arch implant dentistry in your practice 71

Tissue]borne dentures: The short]term solution 73

Targeting your denture wearers first 75

Face]to]face with the denture patient 77

Immediate load/immediate function 79

Targeting removable partial denture and fixed partial denture patients for immediate load 81

Presenting the treatment plan for immediate load 81

The failing partial]denture: Post]op examination discussion 82

Consultation with the immediate]load candidate 87

Making financial arrangements 95

Establish goals for immediate]load production 96

Summary 97

5 Implant marketing for the surgical specialist 98

Who moved my implant? 99

Meeting the needs of restorative doctor 100

Sharing case reports with restorative doctors 103

Edentulous patient implant study group 105

Target your top two to five referral sources’ patient base 112

Patients and professionals are used to direct]to]consumer advertising 114

You too should go direct to consumer 115

Strategies for going direct to consumer 116

The prosthodontist specialty 118

Role of an implant coordinator 120

Expand your geographical range 122

Reducing clinical limitations is crucial 123

Summary 126

6 Database marketing 128

Automate your data entry as much as possible 130

Querying your removable partial]denture patients for in]depth insight 131

Collecting the right data through patient surveys is crucial 133

How you structure your survey is important 135

SurveyMonkey.com: Use it! 135

Tailor your marketing efforts to match your research findings 136

Automate your marketing correspondence 137

Define your missing teeth demographics 138

The numbers don’t lie 140

Build rapport year]round 141

Target each demographic in your database for implants 142

Reactivate your inactive patients 143

Drop your buckets where you are 144

Summary 145

7 Internet presence 146

Website 147

YouTube 150

Google Adwords 152

Landing page (or squeeze page) 153

Social media 154

Rating sites 163

Summary 164

Works cited 165

Index 167