The results of a recent The Wealthy Dentist survey revealed that dentists find doctor-to-patient interactions to be their most effective form of dental marketing above all other marketing activities.
Direct mail marketing was their second most successful marketing activity, followed by dental patient referrals.
Dental website marketing was dentists top online marketing activity, with email marketing, social media marketing, and radio advertising being listed as their least effective dental marketing, in part, because many dentists didn’t regulatory participate in these marketing activities.
Here are the details from the dental marketing survey:
- 28.6% – Doctor-to-patient interactions
- 23.8% – Direct mail marketing
- 19.0% – Patient referrals
- 9.50% – Website marketing
- 4.80% – Social media marketing
- 4.80% – Email marketing
- 4.80% – Radio advertising
- 0.00% – Local community involvement
- 0.00% – Yellow Pages
Possibly the biggest surprise in these survey results is the fact that none of the dentists thought community involvement was an effective form of dental marketing.
When asked what marketing activities that they were not utilizing that could help their dental practice, many of the dentists responded that they needed to do more with social media and internal marketing.
“We need to have a plan for Facebook,” commented a general dentist.
Here’s what other dentists had to say about their dental marketing activities:
“Word-of-mouth is our best form of marketing.” (California dentist)
“Direct mail advertising has always worked best for me.” (Colorado dentist)
“We are currently working on greatly increasing our internal marketing via patient referrals.” (Ohio prosthodontist)
“Our dental practice website and patient referrals are still the best practice marketing methods.” (Texas dentist)
“I think patient workshops, info sessions, and open houses could be good marketing activities.” (Dental office worker)
“Dental insurance brings in the majority of our patients.” (General dentist)
Dentists who use any combination of these dental marketing activities will increase their ability to reach more new dental patients within their target market.
What dental marketing activity is most effective for your dental practice? Let us know in the comments!
