Dentists ARE Not Allow To Advertise "How True?"

In all fairness your new client didnt say dentists arent allowed to advertise. He said, "dentists dont advertise."

And he is right that if he does a good job people will tell their friends and family. But you know how you overcome the "We rely on word of mouth referrals" objection?

Like this... Well actually before i tell you how iovercome it, i want to let you know that if a dentist says to me,, "Dentists dont advertise." The FIRST thing I would say would be, "The succesful ones do!"

Anyways... Here is how you overcome the word of mouth objection...

"Not a problem doctor. I agree completely that word of mouth is the best advertising you can get. That is why we don't try to compete with word of mouth, we just make it better. Because if word of mouth has any disadvantages at all, it is that it has limited reach and isn't always timely. Consider this, how many people can John really go out and tell about you? And even if John tells everyone he knows, what good does that do those people if they aren't looking for a dentist right now? See that's where this is a good partnership between internet marketing and word of mouth. If John tells his sister he should come here, but she doesn't need a dentist you probably wont be hearing from her. But what about later when she gets online looking for a dentist and she sees your ad? Now she is going to be reminded John told her to call you."

"Now you can see where word of mouth and advertising are a good marriage can't you?"

Yes.

"And you can see where that would benefit you right?"

Yes.

"Great! Sign here and lets get started."

Well, To say DENTISTS don't advertise it too general, Any business have the REFERRAL side to get new clients, (not only dentists). In any case, BUSINESSES in general ADVERTISE for 2 reasons,
1. To Get New Clients
2. Institutional

#2 applies for companies or businesses that are well known so they are not relying on advertising to get new clients. but even this part is debatable. Who doesn't need new clients????????

Don't try to argue with the doctor about this belief about advertising , Agree with him but make also your point that HE and EVERY SINGLE business out there need advertising, For different reasons maybe but they need it at the end of the day

Hope that helps

It is the same in every industry. When I first started my dog training business I was told if you are good, they will come. You don't need to do marketing.

Now I just nod my head and cash the checks.

That is outdated thinking shared by some dentists and those are the ones that are going to be left behind. Referrals are still important but not the only way.

Dentists are becoming aware of the need to use social media and some are already doing it.

Arm yourself with some data before you do any work, search these terms without quotes, "social media dentists marketing" and "american dental association social media".

This will give you some ideas (to start) on how to communicate the changing environment to your customer and you be the expert.

You are the expert....not the dentist.

I don't have the exact figures in front of me right now but.....approx 90% of people looking for a new dentists will do research on the web first. They will search for example, "Cosmetic Dentist", in research mode then "Cosmetic Dentist <insert city>" when ready with the credit card.

Your customer needs to know if there is no presence he/she will not be found.

Those key terms I gave you should get you started and continue your research from there.

That's a little ridiculous. If he said that to me, I'd probably just walk away because he doesn't deserve my services.

GOOD dentists need marketing and advertising in order to be known as a good dentist.

Offer Customer Retention Management, new patient is just a bonus.

Offer Reputation Management, manage his online reputation.

If he's truly fully booked until next century, he won't talking to you right now.

A dentist here in Wilmington has branded himself the Pain-Free Dentist through radio ads. He tells the listener it's OK, they'll be knocked out for the experience. Ad's been running for maybe 2 years now...maybe longer.

He advertises just fine, thank you very much.

I don't know...MY dentist has commercials on all the time, advertising and giving away iPods and whatnot...

So maybe just some don't. That sounds old-school to me though. I mean, I get that if you are good you get referrals and all that, but your client sort of makes it sound like advertising is for commoners, and dentists wouldn't stoop so low.


For someone like that though, I would do the social thing (FB page) and really get his patients engaged and find some ways to get referrals through FB sharing.


There's a billion products/WSO's on how to do that, but at the end of the day it's all about not being the most boring guy in town and he'll succeed just fine.


I'm rambling.

Doesn't that vary by state?

If he accepts specific insurances, and gets a lot of business from those referrals, he probably has limitations in how he can advertise and what he can offer to patients... but that doesn't mean he can't/shouldn't advertise at all...

He probably just thinks he doesn't NEED to.

Also, I ran into this the other day with a certain provider... I got the company name and number from a friend... cool... but what do you think the first thing I did was? Yep, went to the internet to see what I could find.

There was nothing... so I called them up... and asked if they had a website (no) and why didn't they (because they get referrals) I told her that, it's true... but most of those referrals would probably like to research you before coming in like I did... she didn't get it and was all like "I can answer your questions..."

Turns out she is one of the few providers in the area with expertise in a very specific thing that I was looking into, which my friend had no clue about... but if I were a "regular" internet searcher... who didn't call places randomly that I was unsure about...

I would never have known that, and probably would have found someone else who had a website and reviews, and etc.

Dentists will aggressively advertise their specialties like teeth whitening and cosmetic dentistry. I have a couple dentists as clients and have never heard of a law saying they can't advertise. Even with general dentistry there are new patient offers and coupons.

I was told that NHS dentists are not allowed to advertise when I tried to pitch to one back in 11.

Dentists tend to get most of their clients by referral, although non (that I've met) have a systematized referral program in place, so they're leaving huge profits on the table.

I no this because dentist (cosmetic) are one of the two niches I work with.