A recent dental survey revealed that the average yearly dental marketing budget for dental practices is $48,000. In this The Wealthy Dentist survey, we learned that for 9 out of 10 dentists, dental practice websites remain the top priority for marketing budget money in 2012.

6 out of 10 dentists also include Internet dental marketing in their annual budget, while 5 out of 10 allot a portion of the budget to internal referral programs.

Email newsletter marketing and Yellow Pages advertising remain in the dental marketing budget for 53% of the survey respondents, while 30% still include radio advertising and direct marketing.

Less than 10% factor TV advertising into their yearly dental marketing budget, reflecting a national trend towards developing a a media plan that does not include TV advertising.

“We hired a dental marketing firm and are getting better results.  We think that marketing is the key to getting the number and type of patients you want. Return on investment is good,” said a Virginia dentist.

“We are very happy. Our marketing has shown consistent growth of over 100 new patients a month for the last 4 years. The newest being the low cost, proprietary CRM that we have implemented that is above and beyond anything I have been shown before,” said a general dentist.

Some dentists feel dental marketing costs are too expensive, with one pediatric dentist saying, “It’s too expensive. Everybody raises prices for dentists because they feel we have more $.”

On average, dentists employ eight different dental marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals.

What dental marketing vectors are the most effective use of your yearly dental marketing budget? Let us know in the comments!

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Survey was conducted by The Wealthy Dentist.