Raise Your Dental PR (Professional Respect) Level!
Most folks tend to associate the initials PR with Public Relations—and then on to an image of fakery or self-serving spin.
But a dentist’s PR effort could just as easily stand for Professional Respect—cultivating an understanding of what you do above and beyond your practice of dentistry that truly gives back to the community and enhances your standing as a professional. A good patient who considers leaving your practice may well have second thoughts if the mental image of her dentist is that of a caring, community-minded individual.
Your community efforts are but one layer in an internal (to current patients) and external (to potential patients) marketing program.
It’s a combination of commitment and promotion. Either one won’t work without the other! Suppose you plan to sponsor a Halloween-Candy Buyback campaign:
- Establish a goal ($1 a pound for candy brought to your office for patients’ and non-patients’ children).
- Spread the word long before October 31. Mention it in your Quarterly Newsletter (beginning with the August issue). Send off press releases to local radio stations and newspapers.
- If you can write a newspaper column on this subject, do so! Respond to media requests to explain the connection between candy and tooth decay.
Community involvement (plus promotion) gives you the power to change public perception of you from “just another drill-and-fill” to a thought and opinion leader. Take advantage of every appropriate opportunity:
- Promote a favorite cause (Smiles for Life; Breast Cancer Awareness Month).
- If you’re a good public speaker, be a local dental advocate. Speak to clubs and social groups.
- Sponsor a seasonal charitable event (like a Thanksgiving canned-food drive) within your office.
- Donate some of your time and skills to treating uninsured children, or residents of a women’s shelter.
Admittedly, these efforts will be more “time-intensive” than “cash-intensive”. But they demonstrate a superior degree of professionalism and community involvement.
That’s the kind of practice promotion money just can’t buy.
In these pages you'll discover how to improve on what you're doing right and how to avoid marketing traps—set yourself apart from the competition—target the patients you want most—deal with those inevitable changes outside your control, and affect the positive changes you desire. 