I’m flying home from another meeting this morning having spent the past few days at a 5-star resort in sunny Laguna Niguel. It afforded a great opportunity to spend time with some of my favorite people, see some doctors I hadn’t spent time with in years and make some new friends as well. Today I’m thinking about the middle group – those I hadn’t spent time with in years.
When I first started working with orthodontists, my approach was that of a full-service advertising agency. As a result, the strategies I offered in those early days were tied to ad campaigns. We had some tremendous success stories and a fair share of failures. But things in the world of communications have changed significantly over the past decade and, as a result, so too has my approach to practice development. Traditional advertising has taken a back seat (and in many cases it has been left on the curb) to strategies based on leveraging the great patient and referring doctor relationships every orthodontic practice has.
One of my favorite things about my job is capturing compelling patient/referrer stories that my doctors can use online and in their new patient process, to help them turn patients into a referral machine for their practices and to harness the power of relationships in a way that transforms their future. In the process, our clients’ monthly investment in marketing has gone from an average of $10,000 to around $2,000. The transformation has been great, but I realized today that, for many clients, I’ve been frozen in time – perceived as “the advertising guy” rather than “the practice development guy.”
I agree with many that a business’ most valuable asset is its customers. But one of the great things about the orthodontic profession is the opportunity they have to build real relationships with their patients/patient-families over time. With average treatment times of close to 2 years and treatment intervals every 6 weeks or so, relationships sprout and grow, especially when the practice is intentional about making real connections with their patients. They don’t just have customers – they have fans – making the world of social marketing a very powerful platform for practice development.
The internet combines the power of every medium that preceded it – print, radio, television…even movies. It makes everyone a publisher – and it makes relationships more important than ever. Think about the patients you haven’t been in touch with for a while. Connect with them. Find out what they’re up to – and make sure they know what’s new with you.