How to Develop Contrast with Organic Marketing
Automation, Automation, Automation
In today’s world, services are trending toward automation. Computers are fast replacing tasks done by people. From voice recognition answering services to robot warehouse workers, the modern world is embracing the obvious cost savings and efficiency of a workforce that never sleeps or eats or asks for a raise. Even in marketing, many small businesses (like dental practices) rely on software and external marketing agencies to promote their brands. Managing a business is stressful, so these marketing automation packages are attractive because they offer a quick and affordable way to check marketing off the company’s to-do list. But is automation the best way to brand your dental practice and dominate your local area?
How Does Marketing Automation Feel?
So much of marketing is about creating a positive emotion and correlating that emotion with a brand. Consider how automated marketing makes us feel. Think about receiving a form letter in the mail. Sometimes it’s even written with a clever script font to appear handwritten, but upon closer inspection, you realize that it’s just another mass mailing disguised as a personal note. And what about robocalls that try to sell an extended car warranty or artificial intelligence phone systems that leave customers yelling “Representative! representative! representative!” How does it feel to know that you’re interacting with something generic and automated? I think for many people, it feels like looking at a wad of junk mail stuffed in your mailbox at the end of the day, postcards plastered with stock images, poll-tested generic phrases, and in the infamous ninety-nine-cent pricing structure. Basically, such attempts at reaching the masses with automation leave people feeling empty, void of any emotion. But what if that mailbox had a single hand-written letter? How would a person feel?
Organic Marketing Creates Contrast
With today’s push toward marketing automation, there’s a unique opportunity for dentists willing to invest their time in creative branding and extraordinary content. People are naturally drawn to contrast. We immediately see an orange fish in a school of blue fish. We notice when a company makes customer service a priority. And we know when marketing campaigns are standing out from the crowd. For dentists, this means avoiding push-button marketing companies that offer generic, static content that’s shared on dental practice accounts across the internet. It means investing in media and talent and thinking of your dental practice as a creative media company that also does dentistry.
Different Dentists Attract New Patients and Build Successful Practices
Why Your Dental Team Must Stand Apart from the Crowd “Different Is Better Than Better” — Sally Hogshead I’ve always believed it is good practice to reduce complex ideas into concentrated, general truths. In this way, it becomes easier to apply grand concepts to everyday scenarios, which are always unpredictable
What Delivers Results?
Dentists who dominate their local areas are dentists who understand the power of visual media. Images and video dominate today’s digital marketplace. To succeed, dentists must consistently produce scroll-stopping content, mainly video content that grabs the reader’s attention and wows with both substance and delivery. Successful dental practices lean into their social media and online advertising campaigns. Instead of looking at marketing as another task to be checked off a list, these dental teams embrace the opportunity to share their brand with so many people. Today’s world is digital and mobile. People today are constantly scanning their phones, and a creative, scroll-stopping advertisement can easily and affordably create powerful brand awareness, traffic, and new patient calls.
The Future of Dental Marketing
Many companies are now offering automated marketing services. In addition to the large dental marketing companies and corporate dental marketing departments, web hosting platforms, dental supply companies, and other online services now offer an automated marketing plan. The packages range from $500-$1,500 per month, depending on the number and type of posts and whether they include, for example, custom videos and blog posts. It’s also popular now to bundle services, so a dental supply company might offer a “discounted” rate if you sign up for marketing services. The sale is pitched as a great value: “Save by combining all your services.” And many dentists with little interest or experience with marketing enter their credit card information and forget about marketing. If you plan to purchase a marketing automation package, be sure to ask the following questions:
- Is your content posted to other dental practice sites/social accounts?
- Are your blog entries original or recycled work?
- How many times a week will you post to our dental practice social accounts?
- Will you monitor the social accounts and engage with followers?
- What are your techniques for growing social media accounts?
- Does your company run targeted ads that direct traffic back to our website?
- How does your service improve our local SEO?
- Do you offer any custom video/motion graphic work?
- Do you present progress reports that detail follower growth and engagement?
Time to Gear Up
Dentists eager to grow a successful practice need to understand two things: 1) The world is digital and mobile now, and prospective patients are increasingly bound to their phones. 2) Competition for attention online is growing, and it’s getting more and more difficult to stop scrollers long enough to appreciate and remember your practice brand.
The answer is to invest in your media. There are many great tutorial videos online that provide advice on buying gear. Purchase a high-quality camera that also shoots video. Get some lights, a microphone, and a green screen. Put a staff member in charge of pictures and videos, or at least hire a part-time media professional who can produce creative, engaging visuals. Forward-thinking dentists understand that the future is all about visual media, specifically video, and they invest in the tools and talent to fully exploit this opportunity.
