if SEO/PPC didn't exist!

I've been focusing quite a lot on SEO/PPC through all of my projects, but I must say that it scares me a bit. As I don't want to relay on those two specific marketing channels, but at the same time marketing can be kind of tricky.

I think there is a lot of marketers that are kind of in the same situation as I'm, so it would be great if we could discuss hands on strategies beside SEO/PPC.

One of my main target market are those who are looking for a dentist, and the difficulties to reach such an audience can be as follow:

1 - They only need to go to your doctor when you need it
2- It's not an "interesting" niche that you can build a community, followers, Viral campaign etc. You only search for a dentist when you really need one.

But this is just an example, and as you know those kind of lead generating niches are a bit tricky.

So it would be great if you would like to share your thought.

As from my own perspective, I think that the most important thing is to try to build a brand asap. Even if you only collect leads, so you have returning clients, and regards marketing channel, I have no idea what I would do if I couldn't use SEO/PPC.

So please share you thoughts.